Federal prosecutors say a Pennsylvania man sexually molested four teenage girls at a Kenyan orphanage he founded with a church’s help.

U.S. Attorney William McSwain announced charges Friday against 60-year-old Gregory Dow of Lancaster, hours after Dow was taken into custody.

McSwain says Dow fled Kenya in September 2017 after being accused in that country of sexual abuse of girls at the Dow Family Children’s Home in Boito, Kenya.

A tipster contacted the Lancaster County prosecutors’ office last year. That started an investigation that produced the new charges that he violated a U.S. law against sexual contact with minors in foreign countries.

Dow told the LNP newspaper this year that he had not done anything wrong.

He is expected to appear in federal court in Philadelphia on Friday.

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Egypt’s legendary movie critic and film historian Youssef Cherif Rizkallah, the man who helped popularize Hollywood movie reviews on Egyptian and Middle East televisions, died Friday.

His death comes two days after revealing he had kidney problems. He was 76.

The famed broadcast journalist, best known as Egypt’s mobile movie encyclopedia, was an invaluable film resource for Arab media. He wrote thousands of movie reviews for Egyptian and Arab newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows.

Rizkallah, who prepared and co-hosted three iconic and popular movie review shows on Egyptian television, including, Oscar, Telecinema, and The Magic Lantern, started his career as a news editor with the Egyptian TV News in the 1960s after graduating with a political science degree at Cairo University. In the 1980s, he hosted a show that introduced Hollywood stars to Egyptian and Arab audiences.

The Jesuit-educated movie critic, Rizkallah, was drawn most in his early career to romance and classical storytelling of Hollywood greats like Michael Curtiz, David Lean, Blake Edwards, Richard Attenborough, Garry Marshall, and Rob Reiner.  

He introduced several Hollywood stars via satellite on Egyptian televisions, including actress Meryl Streep and American film actor and director Peter Bogdanovich. 
 

“It is a sheer joy for me to invite Hollywood stars to Egypt, watch their movies and write about them,” he once said. He helped establish more than 40 years ago the Cairo International Film Festival, where many colleagues describe him as a perceptive and world movie guide.

Multi-lingual Rizkallah won several awards for film criticism over the past 20 years, during which he travelled the world to cover film festivals, including Cannes in France, where he was a frequent guest critic. He was also granted The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an Order of France.

Rizkallah was buried Friday in Cairo. He is survived by his wife Mervat el-Ebiary, the daughter of a famed screenplay writer, and their two sons – Ahmed and Karim.

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Midwest farmers and their Republican elected officials rarely miss a chance to shower President Donald Trump with praise when he takes actions they believe help agriculture, but they’re now parsing their words over the administration’s policies dealing with ethanol.

While they have offered their effusive thanks to Trump for his support for the Environmental Protection Agency to allow year-round sales of E15, a higher blend of ethanol, they have criticized that same agency but not the president over an EPA recommendation last week that could limit growth of the biofuels industry.

Tom Vilsack, a former U.S. agriculture secretary and Iowa governor, said the mixed policies have caused confusion.

“What we need is a clear indication from the Trump administration consistent with the president’s promises that it is in support of the ethanol industry and biofuels industry,” said Vilsack, a Democrat. “You’re either with the industry or you’re not.”
 
It’s hard to overstate the importance in the Midwest of the ethanol industry, which consumes roughly 40% of the nation’s corn crop. Corn production has nearly doubled in the past 30 years, and without an ever-larger ethanol market farmers fear demand for the grain could plunge.
 
With that in mind, Trump has repeatedly told farmers he supported the ethanol industry, and in his push to have the EPA allow more sales of the higher ethanol blend, he’s kept his promise. But it’s been a different story when it comes to another EPA recommendation.

Last week, the EPA released its annual rule for the level of ethanol that must be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. The 15 billion gallon (56.78 billion liter) target for corn-based ethanol disappointed the industry because many expected the EPA to expand the requirement to offset exemptions given to many fuel refineries that have reduced demand by an estimated 2.6 billion gallons (9.84 billion liters) since Trump took office.

The EPA also ignored a 2017 order from a federal appeals court to restore 500 million gallons (1892.65 million liters) exempted by the EPA from 2016.

For this rule, Republicans chided EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler but not Trump, who appointed the former coal industry lobbyist to head the agency.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, for example, didn’t blame Trump but instead stated, “I urge Administrator Wheeler to reallocate waived gallons and ensure that the agency is giving our farmers and ethanol producers the predictability they need, especially during tough times for agriculture.”

U.S. Representative Cindy Axne, a Democrat whose southwest Iowa district includes thousands of farmers and six ethanol refineries, said Trump isn’t taking responsibility for policies that hurt farmers already reeling from trade disputes.

“I think that this administration definitely has an ability to hold the president away from the decisions that the EPA is making and not show them as part of the administration’s decision,” she said. “It is the administration’s decision to allow one of its departments to create policy that does this.”

Perhaps the most direct criticism of Trump by a Republican has been by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, who said some farmers think the EPA is breaking the president’s commitments to farmers to uphold the ethanol laws.

“I urge President Trump to compel EPA to reverse course and keep his word to the forgotten Americans who have faithfully stood with him,” Grassley said.

Asked whether the president was ultimately accountable, Grassley referenced a phrase displayed on the desk of President Harry Truman.

“I can’t help but answer yes to your question because Truman made it very clear the buck stops here,” he said.

Harold Wolle, a farmer near St. James in southern Minnesota, said people are disappointed the EPA is letting some refineries reduce their ethanol use.
 
“The news that I’m reading and hearing is that the president is pushing the EPA to change how it grants these waivers but the proof will be in the pudding. We’ll see,” said Wolle, a member of the National Corn Growers Association board.

Northwest Iowa farmer Kelly Nieuwenhuis said blame is focusing on the EPA but farmers realize Trump appointed former administrator Scott Pruitt and then named Wheeler.

“There’s always politics involved and that’s the frustrating part,” he said. “It seems definitely that the oil industry has some control over the EPA in our view. It comes down to money, campaign contributions basically.”
 
Nieuwenhuis, 60, who farms 2,100 acres with two brothers growing corn and soybeans, said the EPA doesn’t seem to answer to anyone.

The EPA has argued in court that the Clean Air Act gives the agency substantial discretion to decide small refinery exemptions.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said she’s talked with Trump, Wheeler and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue recently about the refinery waivers and the renewable fuel standard, which sets the ethanol limits. She said they understand the concerns of Iowa, the nation’s largest ethanol producer and biggest corn grower. She blames the EPA, not Trump.

“I urge EPA Secretary Wheeler to reverse course and uphold President Trump’s commitment to rural America by strengthening the RFS and putting an end to the abusive practice of granting waivers to profitable oil refineries,” Reynolds said.

Release of the draft rule last week begins a public comment process during which the pressure is sure to increase on the administration to revise the final rule with higher ethanol targets for 2020.

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Sudanese troops were deployed in the streets of Khartoum following the Transitional Military Council’s announcement Thursday that it had stopped a coup attempt by military officers.

“After an accurate monitoring, the security forces have arrested [a] number of senior and junior officers who plotted for this failed coup attempt,” the head of the TMC’s security and defense committee, Lieutenant General Jamal Omar, said on state television. “Their number is 12 and now they are under arrest and we will hunt down the others who were involved in the failed attempt, including the head of the coup attempt.” 

Omar said the alleged coup attempt was aimed at halting the power-sharing agreement between the TMC and the opposition Forces for Freedom and Change. 

A leading member of the FFC, Faisal Babikir, said the coup attempt was led by soldiers still allied with ousted president Omar al-Bashir, who the military overthrew in April after months of mass anti-government protests. 

“I believe that these are serious attempts to foil the power sharing deal we agreed upon as TMC and FFC, so I also believe that this attempt may not be the last one,” Babikir said.

The TMC and FFC have said they are putting the last technical touches on the power-sharing deal. 

African Union mediators have said the sides will sign the final agreement very soon. 

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Women in the Syrian city of Raqqa say their lives have changed dramatically after U.S.-backed forces freed their city from the Islamic State terror group.
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Women in the Syrian city of Raqqa say their lifestyle drastically changed after U.S.-backed forces freed their city from the Islamic State terror group.

The Syrian Democratic Forces liberated the city in October 2017. Since then, Raqqa residents have been determined to bring a sense of normalcy back to their city, which was once the de facto capital of IS’s self-proclaimed caliphate. 

Throughout the partially restored market in downtown Raqqa, shops selling women’s clothing and cosmetics now openly showcase their merchandise, something unthinkable during IS rule.

“Now, I can exhibit anything I want in front of my store,” said a 37-year-old man who owns a women’s boutique.  

“When Daesh was here, we had to hide things like revealing clothes and lingerie in the back of the store. Men couldn’t sell these things to women, so we had to hire women to sell to other women,” he told VOA, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. 

Under IS rule, strict social codes were imposed on the local population. Men and women who were not related weren’t allowed to interact. 

Women, in particular, were required to wear black dresses covering their entire bodies and faces. Those who disobeyed received harsh punishments, including imprisonment and flogging.

“I remember how my friend’s older sister was humiliated on the street by two female IS members because they thought her face wasn’t covered properly,” said a 21-year-old woman who was a teenager when IS ruled Raqqa. She declined to be identified for security reasons. 

The terror group had established a vice police force, locally known as al-Hisbah, whose sole mission was to implement Islamic laws and persecute those who did not adhere to them. 

“There is no comparison between now and then,” said Khitam al-Musa, 30, of Raqqa.

“At least now, I can walk on the street freely. I can buy what I want. In the past, I could have been arrested for the silliest reason,” she told VOA. “I was taken to interrogation a few times because I painted my fingernails and wore open-toe sandals. It was unbearable to be a woman under [IS] rule.” 

The SDF, a Kurdish-led military alliance that has been an effective partner of the United States in the fight against IS, has established a progressive governing system in areas under its control in northeast Syria. 

Women’s rights and gender equality are the basis of SDF’s newly formed entity, SDF officials claim. 

“What the SDF has offered is a very unique alternative form of governance not only compared to IS’s style, but also compared to the Syrian regime,” said Sadradeen Kinno, a Syrian researcher who closely follows Islamic militancy in the war-torn country. 

Kinno told VOA that while residents in Raqqa and other areas recently liberated from IS enjoy the liberty the SDF offers, it would take a long time before the group could enforce its progressive ideas among a largely conservative population.

“Individual freedoms are important for women and people in general, especially if you’ve just experienced life under one of the most oppressive groups in the world,” he said. “But it will certainly be a major challenge for the SDF to find a receptive population for its broader gender democracy.”  

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could be facing his biggest political challenge, with the resignation of his former economic czar Ali Babacan threatening to split his ruling AKP Party. Party discontent is escalating amidst economic malaise and deteriorating human rights.

“Under the current conditions, Turkey needs a brand-new vision for its future,” Babacan said Monday upon resigning. “It has become inevitable to start a new effort for Turkey’s present and future. Many of my colleagues and I feel a great and historic responsibility toward this effort.”

New political party

Babacan is expected to launch a new political party as early as September. A founding member of AKP, Babacan served as foreign and economy minister in the early years of the party’s rule. He is widely credited with presiding over Turkey’s economic transformation with unparalleled record growth.

“We can normalize the society, end the polarization within society,” said Osman Can, a former national AKP board member, who now supports Babacan’s movement. “We can normalize relations with the United States and Europe. We can also be a hope for the region. This is why I am hopeful, for Babacan lives as a conservative but his thinking is liberal.”

The AKP originally was a coalition of liberals and religious conservatives, ushering in wide-ranging democratic reforms in its early years of rule. However, criticism of Erdogan’s leadership within the party has been building, with his centralizing of power and accusations of increasing authoritarianism. Following the 2016 failed coup, hundreds of thousands have been purged from their jobs or jailed, in a crackdown that continues.

“After the coup attempt, Mr. Erdogan came to the decision [that] he is under attack and only needs loyal people and family advising and working for him,” said Can. “In the AKP, there is only one will, the will of Mr. Erdogan. There is no person able to criticize or willing to criticize.”

Analysts suggest the tipping point for an AKP split and whether a new party succeeds is the economy. For the last year, Turkey has fallen into an economic malaise of recession, near-record unemployment and double-digit inflation.

“According to a recent poll, 30% of AKP voters are extremely unhappy with the economic management,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, a business management consultancy. “The message is simple, if Erdogan improves the economy they [the new party] will have less of a chance. If he screws up once again, then Mr. Babacan, with proven crisis management skills, will be well-placed.”

Gul to support Babacan

According to sources linked to the new movement, Babacan is receiving financial support from conservative businesses, who traditionally back the AKP. Such support is likely facilitated by former President Abdullah Gul. He is another AKP founder, who is backing Babacan and has close links to  conservative companies.

However, analysts warn Babacan has to look for support beyond the AKP. “If it becomes a movement or party built and run by former AKP party members, then forget it. It will be a huge failure,” said sociology professor Mesut Yegen of Istanbul’s Sehir University.

“I think Turkish people are really demanding a new style of politics,” he added, “and you can see this in other parties as well.  This is why they [Babacan’s party] need to find some new faces to introduce to the Turkish public.”

“There should be new faces,” agreed Can, “from the center-right and center-left, not just conservatives. It should be people who are rational, not rigid, and Babacan and others are in talks with such people.”

There could be risks

However, openly challenging Erdogan has risks. Observers say some AKP dissidents who’ve sought to set up a new party or break ranks have run into legal troubles on trumped-up charges from a compliant judiciary.

“There are strong voices in Ankara to make pressure, to make accusations and investigations,” said Can, a law professor at Istanbul’s Marmara University and a former judge-rapporteur at Turkey’s Constitutional Court.

“Their [AKP’s] power in Ankara is dissolving. They are losing support within the state, within the bureaucracy, the judiciary,” he added. “These people see things are changing. They are changing their minds, and they are starting not to work with the government. They know change is coming and they are protecting themselves.”

For now, Erdogan is dismissing Babacan, saying he “will not reach anything by doing this.” Setting up a new party infrastructure in Turkey is challenging and time-consuming, given the country’s size and population of 80 million.

Erdogan plans tour

However, in a move widely interpreted as shoring up support and containing any defections to Babacan’s movement, Erdogan is set to tour Turkey, visiting party branches.

The president is already reeling from last month’s loss of the Istanbul mayorship in a shock opposition landslide victory.  Yegen suggested Babacan’s move against Erdogan could benefit from a new mood in Turkey.

“There are signs that Turkey is thirsty for new forms of leadership, and this can be translated into new programs and new styles of politics. But on the other hand, we cannot be sure this change will take place in a gradual manner or suddenly,” said Yegen.

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Sudan’s ruling military council has foiled a coup attempt, a top general announced on state television Thursday, saying that 12 officers and four soldiers had been arrested.

The announcement came as the ruling military and civilian protesters agreed last week to end a political impasse after the army in April ousted longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir on the back of a popular uprising.

“Officers and soldiers from the army and National Intelligence and Security Service, some of them retired, were trying to carry out a coup,” General Jamal Omar of the ruling military council said in a statement broadcast live on state television.

“The regular forces were able to foil the attempt,” he said, but did not say when the attempt was made.

Omar said of the 12 officers arrested, five of them were retired, and that security forces were looking for the mastermind of the attempted coup.

“This is an attempt to block the agreement which has been reached by the Transitional Military Council and the Alliance for Freedom and Change that aims to open the road for Sudanese people to achieve their demands,” Omar said.

The announcement late Thursday came as legal advisers of the ruling military council and protest leaders were going through the details of the agreement at a luxury hotel in Khartoum.

The landmark agreement that aims to form a new joint transitional civilian-military ruling body was reached last week after mediation by African Union and Ethiopian envoys.

The forming of the new governing body is the first step toward installing an overall transitional civilian administration in Sudan as demanded by demonstrators.

Demonstrators’ demands

Sudan has been rocked by a political crisis since protests first erupted against Bashir’s rule in December.

The protests finally led to the army ousting him on April 11, but the generals who seized power have so far resisted demonstrators’ demands to hand it over to a civilian administration.

Tension had further soared between the two sides after a brutal raid on a longstanding protest camp outside army headquarters in the capital Khartoum that killed dozens of demonstrators and wounded hundreds on June 3.

The raid came after talks between the generals and protest leaders collapsed in May over who should lead the new governing body — a civilian or soldier.

Intense mediation by African Union and Ethiopian mediators finally led to the agreement reached on the new joint governing body on July 5.

The agreement proposes a little more than a three-year transition period, with the president of the new ruling body to be held by the military for the first 21 months and a civilian for the remaining 18 months.

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Two senior human rights officials say they want the 5,600 refugees and migrants in Libyan detention centers freed and their protection guaranteed.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and International Organization for Migration Director Antonio Vitorino issued a joint statement Thursday. They said if Libya cannot guarantee safety for the migrants, they need to be evacuated to other countries “where accelerated settlement is needed.”

The two officials described Libya as a place where “suffering and risk of human rights abuses continue” for refugees. “A safe, managed process of release with proper information on available assistance is essential for all.”

Grandi and Vitorino also said migrants picked up in the Mediterranean Sea must no longer be sent back to Libya, as it cannot be considered a safe port.

They pointed to last week’s airstrike on a detention center near Tripoli, which killed more than 50, as one of the perils faced by refugees returned to Libya.

They called on European Union nations to resume search-and-rescue operations in the dangerous waters and said all member states should share this responsibility, along with halting penalties for charity-run rescue ships.

The two said more help was needed for the 800,000 migrants in Libya so that “living conditions are improved, human rights are better protected, and fewer people end up being driven into the hands of smugglers and human traffickers.”

Refugees from North Africa and elsewhere trying to escape poverty, war and terrorism usually depart from Libyan shores to try to reach European ports.

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Ride-hailing application Uber, after successful launches in Ghana and Nigeria, is looking to expand in West Africa to Senegal’s capital, Dakar.  But in a city full of taxis, and drivers without smartphones, the Silicon Valley company will have to overcome a lot of challenges to make a profit.  From Dakar, VOA’s Esha Sarai reports.

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The world is dealing with climate refugees, people whose homes have been inundated by rising sea levels. But in Wales, residents of one seaside town are confused and angry because of a political decision to let nature have its way and let the town sink back into the sea. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.

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U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta has defended a plea deal he helped broker with Jeffrey Epstein in 2008 in Florida. The billionaire financier, who socialized with U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton, is detained in New York where federal prosecutors have charged him with sex trafficking of minors between 2002 and 2005. Acosta is under pressure to step down because as U.S. attorney in Florida, he agreed to a mild sentence for Epstein. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
 

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