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Iraq is celebrating the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s decision to name the historic city of Babylon a World Heritage Site in a vote in Azerbaijan.
Friday’s vote comes after Iraq bid for years for Babylon to be added to the list of World Heritage Sites.
The city on the Euphrates River is about 85 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad.
The 4,300-year-old Babylon, now mainly an archaeological ruin and two important museums, is where dynasties have risen and have fallen since the earliest days of settled human civilization.
Parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi and Minister of Culture Abdul-Amir al-Hamadani congratulated the Iraqi people on the announcement.
The vote comes years after the Islamic State group damaged another Iraq World Heritage site in the country’s north, the ancient city of Hatra.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang recently announced a major economic reform move, saying China would scrap ownership controls on foreign companies investing in the financial sector next year, ahead of schedule.
“We will achieve the goal of abolishing ownership limits in securities, futures, life insurance for foreign investors by 2020, a year earlier than the original schedule of 2021,” Li said while speaking at the Summer Davos in the Chinese seaside city of Dalian.
His government also will reduce restrictions next year on market access for foreign investors in the value-added telecoms services and transport sectors, according to the premier.
The announcements appear to be a response to a much discussed need for widening economic reforms and aligning the Chinese financial industry more closely with the international market. Some analysts contend, though, this may be part of Beijing’s effort to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of China’s opaque markets and move toward a settlement to end a trade war.
“The timing of the announcement suggests that it has more to do with the trade negotiations than anything else,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at consulting firm Capital Economics. “China is expecting some kind of concessions in tariffs.”
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019.
Li was speaking soon after talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G-20 meeting last month in Japan, which revived hopes of an early settlement in the trade dispute.
Lourdes Casanova, director at Cornell University’s Emerging Markets Institute, attended the Summer Davos where Li made the announcement. She has taken a somewhat different view.
“China is coherent with their plan to be an open economy and its belief in the power of globalization, as Premier Li said at the Summer Davos in Dalian,” she said.
She also pointed out that Li appeared to be equally tough as he indicated that China is going to blacklist certain foreign companies. “This seems to be in retaliation to possible blacklisting by the U.S.,” she said.
Casanova warned it would be wrong to assume the year-long trade war has proven to be devastating to the Chinese economy, giving the U.S. an additional lever in trade negotiations.
“The Chinese economy is still growing at 6.2% and the forecasts are between 6 and 6.5%. This is very high growth for an economy of that size. So far, there is no sign of the weakening yet,” she pointed out.
Crucial question
There also is the question about how international players in financial and other sectors would respond in terms of making preparations for what may be a game-changing move for many companies seeking to enter the world’s second-biggest economy.
Evans-Pritchard is skeptical. “Being able to enter a sector is one thing and being able to compete with the existing players is another thing. This is going to be an area of contention.”
He noted that foreign companies have eagerly entered other industry sectors once officials allowed it, though they later learned it is very difficult to survive and compete with local players receiving government support either directly or indirectly.
Regardless, it would be difficult for Beijing to show it was providing a level playing field to foreign investors. A recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China showed that a majority of their members found themselves less welcome in the Chinese market in recent months than they had been in the past.
“At the moment, it is easier for Chinese companies to sell in the U.S. than it is for the U.S. companies to sell in China. It is still quite difficult for the Chinese to argue the U.S. needs to reduce its market barriers as compared to China,” said Evans-Pritchard.
Changing relations
China recently cut the number of sectors subject to foreign investment restrictions, a widely expected move, to 40 from 48 in June 2018. This is seen as another move by Beijing, which is acting under U.S. pressure in the midst of the trade war.
Different views are being expressed about the possible outcome of the trade talks, which now are back on track after the recent Trump-Xi meeting.
“More generally, with talks now back on track, we’re still hoping that a strong enforceable deal can be reached that addresses the structural issues that our members have long raised,” said Tim Stratford, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, before making a significant observation.
“Both sides now realize that U.S.-China economic ties are not going to be the same as they were in the past; however, we have confidence that it can still be a very robust relationship,” he said.
Protesters in Malawi have wrapped up two days of demonstrations aimed at forcing the head of the country’s electoral commission to resign.
The protests followed other nationwide demonstrations on June 20 calling for the resignation of Jane Ansah as well as the rest of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC). Ansah is accused of mismanaging the recent election in which President Peter Mutharika won a second term.
The protests turned violent in three cities, and demonstrators said they would hold vigils outside Ansah’s house unless she stepped down.
In Lilongwe this week, former President Saulos Chilima, leader of the United Transformation Movement, joined the protests.
“We are continuing from where we stopped last time,” Chilima said. “I am here as a Malawian to join fellow Malawians in seeking justice. We would like Justice Jane Ansah to leave office because as everybody is aware, the elections didn’t go well and we are not happy at all.”
Lazarus Chakwera, leader of the opposition Malawi Congress Party, also took part in the demonstrations.
The MEC declared that Mutharika won re-election with 39 percent of the vote. Chakwera was second with 35 percent, followed by Chilima with 20 percent.
Chakwera and Chilima are challenging the election results in court, alleging ballot box stuffing and the use of correction fluid to change votes.
Offices of the opposition Malawi Congress Party were looted in Blantyre during this week’s election-related protests, July 5, 2019. (L. Masina/VOA)
Violence
In this week’s demonstrations in Lilongwe and the northern city of Mzuzu, the protesters looted shops and burned government offices.
In the commercial capital, Blantyre, there were clashes between the protesters and members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party trying to protect the party’s offices.
The confrontations forced the government to deploy the military to bring order.
“It is really unfortunate that [protesters] are disturbing the business of people, lives of people,” government spokesman Mark Botoman said. “And this cannot go unchecked. Obviously, anyone who is found torching offices, breaking shops and the like, they will be apprehended.”
Timothy Mtambo, chairman of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, which organized the protests, said those who perpetrated violence were not the demonstrators, but were hooligans who took advantage of the peaceful protests.
“We condemn that in the strongest terms possible, and we disown those people because the demonstrations that we have are peaceful demonstrations,” he said. “We called for peaceful demonstrations.”
Ansah, who maintains her innocence, told local radio last week that she would resign only if the court ruled that the elections were fraudulent.
A hearing on the election dispute is expected to begin July 29.
VOA Connect Episode 77 – Stories about people who are on a path they didn’t foresee, the career of a successful musician and the benefits of vinyl records
The average monthly student loan payment is about $400 a month in the United States. Eddy Encinales, who used student loans to pay for college, talks to us about the effects of the debt and toll it takes trying to make her monthly payments and plan for her future.
America’s annual Independence Day is celebrated a bit differently in Washington, D.C., this year, with a display of military might and a speech about patriotism by U.S. President Donald Trump. The event draws Trump supporters, as well as protesters who accuse the president of politicizing a nonpartisan holiday and wasting taxpayer money. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
Sudan’s ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups reached an agreement to share power during a transition period leading to elections, setting off street celebrations by thousands of people.
The two sides, which have held talks in Khartoum for the past two days, agreed to “establish a sovereign council by rotation between the military and civilians for a period of three years or slightly more,” African Union mediator Mohamed Hassan Lebatt said at a news conference.
They also agreed to form an independent technocratic government and to launch a transparent, independent investigation into violent events in recent weeks.
The two sides agreed to postpone the establishment of a legislative council. They had previously agreed that the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition would take two-thirds of a legislative council’s seats before security forces crushed a sit-in protest June 3, killing dozens, and talks collapsed.
Joy in the streets
The streets of Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city across the Nile River, erupted in celebration when the news broke, a Reuters witness said. Thousands of people of all ages took to the streets, chanting “Civilian! Civilian! Civilian!”
Young men banged drums, people honked their car horns, and women carrying Sudanese flags ululated in jubilation.
“This agreement opens the way for the formation of the institutions of the transitional authority, and we hope that this is the beginning of a new era,” said Omar al-Degair, a leader of the FFC.
Sudanese Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, speaks during a rally to support the new military council that assumed power in Sudan after the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir, in Khartoum, Sudan, June 16, 2019.
“We would like to reassure all political forces, armed movements and all those who participated in the change from young men and women — that this agreement will be comprehensive and will not exclude anyone,” said General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of the Transitional Military Council.
“We thank the African and Ethiopian mediators for their efforts and patience. We also thank our brothers in the Forces for Freedom and Change for the good spirit,” said Dagalo, who heads the Rapid Support Forces accused by the FFC of crushing the sit-in.
Opposition medics say more than 100 people were killed in the dispersal and subsequent violence. The government put the death toll at 62.
Australia’s government warned a student on Friday not to return to North Korea a day after he was released from detention by Pyongyang under mysterious circumstances.
Alek Sigley, who flew to Tokyo on Thursday to join his Japanese wife, had been studying in the North Korean capital and had been missing since June 25.
“My advice would be pretty clear, I would stay in Japan. I would go back to South Korea … I would come back to Australia,” Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told the Nine network.
“All of those would have to be better options before he returns to North Korea,” Dutton said. “I don’t think he will put himself back in that situation … it could have ended up very differently.”
Sigley left North Korea on Thursday and flew to Beijing, where he was met by Australian officials for the flight to Tokyo. He declined to comment to a throng of reporters at Haneda Airport, only making a peace sign before being taken away.
It is still not clear why he was detained by the secretive North. The details of his release were also not known.
Swedish authorities helped secure Sigley’s release because Australia has no diplomatic presence in North Korea and relies on other countries to act on its behalf.
More than two dozen countries Thursday formally called for a United Nations investigation into thousands of killings in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, activists said.
Iceland submitted the draft resolution backed by mainly European states, they said. The text urges the government to prevent extrajudicial executions and marks the first time that the Human Rights Council is being asked to address the crisis.
The Duterte government has insisted the more than 5,000 suspected drug dealers killed by police in anti-narcotics operations all put up a fight.
At least 27,000 killed
But activists say that at least 27,000 have been killed since Duterte was elected in 2016 on a platform of crushing crime and that Myka, a 3-year-old shot during a police raid last weekend, is among the latest victims.
“Here we are three years later with 27,000 killed, among the most impoverished, in a massive crackdown. That is a conservative estimate,” Ellecer “Budit” Carlos of the Manila-based group iDefend told Reuters.
“In a non-armed conflict context, this is the worst case of extrajudicial killings globally,” he said after urging the council to act.
The Geneva forum is to vote on the resolution before ending its three-week session July 12. The Philippines is among its current 47 members.
‘There are worse things’
Carlos conceded that Asian countries are unlikely to vote in favor of the text, adding: “I think it will be a close shave.”
One Asian ambassador, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated that his country would not support it, telling Reuters: “There are worse things happening in the world.”
But activists say the Council and the office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet must shine a light on the situation.
“For us a primary priority for this session is the situation in the Philippines,” said Laila Matar of Human Rights Watch.
“Bodies continue to pile up in Manila and other urban areas, again in the context of the war on drugs which we have seen is very much a war against the poor, impoverished and marginalized communities, which are the biggest victims,” she said.
It occurs in a wider context of “attacks on human rights defenders, media activists, journalists, anyone who really dares to speak up against the killings,” she added.
“Police accounts of drug raids are not reliable — the officers enforcing the ‘drug war’ have been shown to plant weapons and drugs to justify the killings,” Matar told the Council this week.
Government ministers from some European Union nations sought Thursday to reassure their partners in the Western Balkans during a meeting in Poland that their aspirations to join the EU have full backing in the club, despite symptoms of a loss of momentum.
German Minister of State for Europe, Michael Roth, said Berlin stands firmly by the accession process of all Western Balkans nations “because for us the Western Balkans is not the backyard of the European Union, but the inner courtyard. We are all responsible for ensuring that the prospect of EU accession remains concrete.”
Speaking in the Polish city of Poznan, which is hosting the meeting, Roth urged much more effort in that direction and the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.
FILE – German Minister of State for European Affairs Michael Roth, right, speaks with the media as he arrives at the Europa building in Brussels, Dec. 11, 2018.
Foreign, interior and economy ministers from membership candidates Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, as well as potential candidates Bosnia and Kosovo, are seeking such reassurance after some European leaders raised doubts about the EU’s openness to expanding.
French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated Monday that he thinks the EU has internal work to do that takes priority over taking in new members. He said he would “refuse any kind of enlargement before a deep reform of our institutional functioning.”
Speaking Thursday in Poland, Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic reacted to Macron’s comments by questioning the purpose of holding such meetings “especially when some of the top European leaders are saying there’s no chance of any enlargement.”
FILE – Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic attends a rally in Novi Sad, Serbia, March 18, 2017.
Roth said Thursday that “only a concrete perspective that is credible and that motivates the people locally, that involves civil society, will ultimately make the necessary reforms possible” and will pave the accession road.
He said the process will stimulate development in various walks of life in the region, but that above all “it is also about regional cooperation and reconciliation,” like in the case of difficult dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, whose relations are marked by bloodshed.
“There is still a great deal to be done,” Roth said.
Arguments for enlargement
Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Ekaterina Sachariewa pointed to huge improvement in the strained relations her EU member country achieved with North Macedonia thanks to the accession efforts. That should serve as an inspiration and an example for overcoming other problems among Western Balkan nations.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said that including Western Balkans nations in the EU would increase regional stability and development and spread the EU’s values to more of Europe.
He pledged 500,000 euros from Poland for a fund developing investment in the region.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki plan to join the gathering Friday.
Poland is hosting the summit in Poznan because it currently presides over the so-called Berlin Process that brings the Western Balkan nations together with EU member states. Initiated by Germany, the process is meant to promote EU membership for the Western Balkans although there is no set time frame.
Vietnamese manufacturers should use domestically-sourced raw materials to avoid incurring U.S. tariffs, Vietnam’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, days after Washington said it would impose large duties on some steel products shipped through the Southeast Asian country.
The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it would slap tariffs of up to 456% on certain steel produced in South Korea or Taiwan which are then shipped to Vietnam for minor processing and finally exported to the United States.
“The Ministry of Industry and Trade has warned local companies about possible moves by importing countries, including the United States, to apply stricter requirements in trade protection cases,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said at a routine news conference in Hanoi.
Vietnamese companies should consider business strategies that include switching to domestic materials, she said.
Hang said Vietnam will continue to work with the United States in its efforts to crack down on goods of foreign origin illegally relabeled “Made in Vietnam” by exporters seeking to dodge tariffs.
Vietnam has been touted as one of the largest beneficiaries of the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, but recent comments from U.S. President Donald Trump have led some to believe that Vietnam may be the next target of U.S. tariffs.
Last month, Trump said Hanoi treated the United States “even worse” than China, amid the ongoing trade spat between Washington and Beijing.
Vietnam responded by saying it was committed to free and fair trade with the United States.
Vietnam’s largest export market is the United States, with which it has a rapidly growing trade surplus, which widened to $17 billion in the first five months of this year from $12.9
billion in the same period last year.
The United Nations says at least 55 people were killed and more than 130 injured in the Tuesday night airstrike on a detention center holding illegal migrants in Libya’s capital. VOA’s Heather Murdock is on the scene in Tripoli and files this report.
