At the hands of Mother Nature, 2017 was a deadly, devastating year. Wildfires in the US, volcanos in Indonesia, and mudslides and hurricanes across the world. Natural disasters took homes, power, water and lives. Arash Arabasadi looks back at some of the stories that made headlines.
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Month: December 2017
Gun Violence Surges to Record in 2017
Gun violence in the US reached record heights in 2017 — more than 60,000 incidents, killing more than 15,000 people, according to a nonprofit organization that tracks gun violence. VOA’s Mariama Diallo looks back at some of the year’s deadliest US mass shootings.
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The Biggest Consumer Electronics Show Opens in Two Weeks
January is almost here, and the world is bracing for the unofficial opening of this year’s race for the hearts, minds and pockets of tech enthusiasts. The international Consumer Electronics Show, CES for short, is the venue where technology manufacturers, from giants to startups, show their products, hoping they will become among the next must-haves worldwide. VOA’s George Putic looks at what may be expected.
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A Crystal Ball of Serenity for the New Year
It’s called the Crossroads of the World. New York City’s Times Square is the location for one of the biggest parties of the year, marked by the dramatic descent of a crystal ball on a huge pole, from high above a crowd of about a million people celebrating New Year’s in New York. Bob Leverone narrates this report by VOA’s Evgeny Maslov.
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U.S. Urging Kosovo Leaders Not to Abolish War Crimes Court
The U.S. is urging Kosovo leaders to leave unchanged a war crimes court established to hear serious cases arising from the country’s war for independence.
“The United States is deeply concerned by recent attempts of Kosovo lawmakers to abrogate the law on the Specialist Chambers,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Friday. “We call on political leaders in the Republic of Kosovo to maintain their commitment to the work of the Chambers and to leave the authorities and jurisdiction of the court unchanged.”
The U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on December 21 that “the pursuit of justice in the Balkans is not over,” and the U.S. “remains committed to supporting justice for the victims,” the statement said.
The Kosovo political leaders enacted the law and constitutional amendment in 2015 to establish the Specialist Chambers, a court that would hear cases of alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other serious crimes committed during the 1998-2000 conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Last week, however, lawmakers from the governing coalition, who hold a majority, pressed for a vote to abolish the court, but they failed twice because of opposition from other parties.
The U.S. and other Western countries swiftly condemned the move, warning that if successful, it would hamper efforts for Euro-Atlantic integration.
The U.S. has been a key ally and financial backer of Kosovo since it broke away from Serbia and declared independence in 2008.
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Militants Say IS-linked Group Carried Out Russian Market Attack
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack earlier this week in a Russian supermarket in St. Petersburg.
The militants said the explosion was carried out by an Islamic State-linked group, according to a statement made Friday by its Amaq news agency.
The group did not provide any evidence for its claim.
At least 13 people were injured when a homemade bomb detonated in a branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain on Wednesday.
Health officials said none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries.
Russian investigators initially said they were treating the case as an act of attempted murder.
However, on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the explosion was an act of terrorism. He made the assertion at the Kremlin during an awards ceremony for Russian servicemen who had served in Syria.
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Russia Reports Virulent H5N2 Bird Flu at 660,000-bird Farm
Russia has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu on a farm in the central region of Kostromskaya Oblast that led to the deaths of more than 660,000 birds, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Friday.
The virus killed more than 44,000 birds in an outbreak first detected on December 17, the OIE said, citing a report from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture.
The rest of the 663,500 birds on the farm were slaughtered, it said in the report. It did not specify the type of birds that were infected.
It is the first outbreak of the H5N2 strain in Russia this year, but the country has been facing regular outbreaks of H5N8 since early December last year, with the last one reported to the OIE detected late November.
Bird flu has led to the deaths or culling of more than 2.6 million birds on farms between December last year and November this year, a report posted on the OIE website showed.
Neither the H5N2 or H5N8 strains has been found in humans.
The virulence of highly pathogenic bird flu viruses has prompted countries to bar poultry imports from infected countries in earlier outbreaks.
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Ukraine Kidnappers Free Bitcoin Analyst After $1 Million Ransom Paid
Kidnappers in Ukraine have released an employee at a United Kingdom-registered cryptocurrency exchange after getting more than $1 million in bitcoins as ransom, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister told Reuters on Friday.
Pavel Lerner, a leading analyst and expert in blockchains, or decentralized public ledgers, was abducted by unknown masked people on December 26, according to a statement by his company, EXMO Finance, on its website.
“This is the first such case in Ukraine linked to bitcoins,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said in a phone text message.
It was unclear who paid the ransom. Lerner’s work at EXMO did not involve access to the financial assets of its users, the company said, adding that the platform was operating normally.
“At the moment, he is safe, and there was no physical harm inflicted on him,” the statement said. “Nevertheless, Pavel is currently in a state of major stress. Therefore, he will not provide any official comments in the coming days.”
News of the release came as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rebounded after two days of losses partly related to regulators toughening rules on digital currencies in an effort to curb excessive speculation. Many digital currencies surged in value this year.
Balaclavas
Strana.ua, a local news website, had earlier reported that six gun-toting men in dark clothing and balaclavas had snatched Lerner and pushed him into a minibus with stolen number plates.
Police have begun a criminal investigation after a man was kidnapped in the Obolon district of Kyiv, Oksana Blyshchyk, the Kyiv police spokeswoman, said by phone without revealing the name of the victim.
EXMO has 900,000 users as of December 2017, according to its website.
“We would like to note that the story of Pavel’s abduction has overgrown with rumors that might tamper with the official investigation,” EXMO said in its statement. “That said, EXMO currently refrains from any comments or suggestions of own versions of the possible scenario, in the nearest future.”
Separately, the company announced Thursday that it had been hit by a denial-of-service attack.
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Putin Signs Law Allowing Expansion of Russian Naval Facility in Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying an agreement enabling Russia to expand operations at its naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus.
The document was posted on the official website for Russian legislation after Putin signed it Friday.
It could help cement what Putin has said would be a “permanent” Russian presence at the Tartus facility and the Hmeimim air base, key platforms for Russia’s campaign backing Syria’s government in the nearly seven-year war in the Middle Eastern country.
The agreement, signed in Damascus in January 2017, allows for the Russian navy to expand the technical support and logistics facility at Tartus, which is Moscow’s only naval foothold in the Mediterranean.
It allows Russia to keep up to 11 warships, including nuclear-powered vessels, at Tartus at any time for the next 49 years. The deal is to be prolonged automatically for 25-year periods upon its expiration.
It also allows Russian ships to enter Syria’s territorial waters, internal waters and ports, to use the Tartus facility free of charge.
The agreement also provides Russian military personnel at the facility with immunity and regulates the status of the military personnel and members of their families there.
Critical Russian support
Russia has given President Bashar al-Assad’s government crucial support throughout the war, which began with a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 and has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people killed and millions driven from their homes.
Moscow helped Assad avoid possible defeat by starting a campaign of airstrikes in September 2015, in many cases using Hmeimim as a base. It has also launched strikes from warships in the Mediterranean.
During a visit to the air base on December 11, Putin declared victory over “the most combat-capable international terrorist group” — a reference to the extremist group Islamic State — and announced a partial withdrawal of Russian troops.
Western officials say that the Russian campaign, particularly in its earlier stages, has focused heavily on targeting rebels seeking Assad’s ouster rather than IS militants.
Putin said on Thursday that more than 48,000 Russian military personnel have served in the operation in Syria, and that the facilities at Hmeimim and Tartus would continue to operate “on a permanent basis.”
With IS in retreat and diplomats pressing ahead with efforts to forge a political solution, analysts say Russia is eager to make its position in Syria as strong as possible in order to wield influence on future developments.
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Zimbabwe’s Capital City Mayor Faces Calls to Resign Over Bad Tap Water
In Zimbabwe, some residents in the capital, Harare, want the mayor to step down because of chronic bad tap water. He had urged citizens to use “caution” as water in Zimbabwe’s capital was not safe to drink.
Residents directed their anger at Mayor Benard Manyenyeni during a public meeting, where they complained about muddy, colored and smelly drinking water. Some parts of the capital city have gone for weeks or months with dry taps, despite above normal rain in Zimbabwe last season.
“Water is a basic fundamental right. Water is life. When we have no water, people die and people are dying,” said Linda Masarira, a resident who attended the meeting, which lasted close to two hours, said
“Our health department is in shambles,” she continued. “A lot of people are suffering from diseases that they do not understand because of consuming this dirt water. Everyone should get clean, safe water coming out of their taps.”
Masarira added that from here on, residents will “make an appointment with the local government minister since the mayor said his hands are tied.”
If that effort is unsuccessful, she said they will go “to the president’s office. We will go all the way until clean water is coming out of Harare taps.”
Most parts of Zimbabwe do not have access to clean water, forcing residents to rely on open sources that expose them to waterborne disease.
A cholera outbreak in 2008 and 2009 claimed close to 5,000 lives, according to U.N. statistics. The situation could have been worse had international organizations such as USAID not helped, providing water treatment chemicals, among other interventions to ensure proper sanitation in Zimbabwe.
Sharon Mumbula fears the situation in Harare might escalate to 2008 and 2009 levels unless Mayor Manyenyeni steps down.
“I am wondering why he is even sitting there; why he was hired,” she said. “Clearly he can’t execute his duties. Some of the answers he gave us are not even relevant to the problem. Clearly he can’t say he does not know where the unclean water is coming from. Yet it is the whole of Harare which is affected. So it is time for him to go.”
At the meeting Friday, the mayor said he would not step down but would not seek re-election in 2018. After the meeting, Manyenyeni told VOA he was hopeful Harare’s water problems would end one day.
“We think we are providing you with water that is good for you and your family to drink,” he said. “We have seen experiences of water that does not look good, water that looks greenish and brownish, water that froths or foams. Let’s share the responsibility. While we assume and claim that our water is clean and safe to drink; we ask you to exercise caution wherever you are and make your own personal decisions about what you see, what you smell. Is it good enough for you to drink?
The mayor added that if residents are not satisfied while authorities fix the problem, then “please avoid drinking water which you consider suspect.”
He said the time frame to fix the problem depends on the availability of funds. That, he noted, “is not a council problem. It is a national problem.”
Zimbabwe’s critical shortage of foreign currency is forcing businesses to source it on the black market. This has led to price increases on most commodities. The mayor ruled out getting foreign currency on the black market so that Harare can import water treatment chemicals.
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Zimbabwe’s Capital City Mayor Faces Calls to Resign Over Bad Tap Water
In Zimbabwe, some residents in the capital, Harare, want the mayor to step down because of chronic bad tap water. He had urged citizens to use “caution” as water in Zimbabwe’s capital was not safe to drink.
Residents directed their anger at Mayor Benard Manyenyeni during a public meeting, where they complained about muddy, colored and smelly drinking water. Some parts of the capital city have gone for weeks or months with dry taps, despite above normal rain in Zimbabwe last season.
“Water is a basic fundamental right. Water is life. When we have no water, people die and people are dying,” said Linda Masarira, a resident who attended the meeting, which lasted close to two hours, said
“Our health department is in shambles,” she continued. “A lot of people are suffering from diseases that they do not understand because of consuming this dirt water. Everyone should get clean, safe water coming out of their taps.”
Masarira added that from here on, residents will “make an appointment with the local government minister since the mayor said his hands are tied.”
If that effort is unsuccessful, she said they will go “to the president’s office. We will go all the way until clean water is coming out of Harare taps.”
Most parts of Zimbabwe do not have access to clean water, forcing residents to rely on open sources that expose them to waterborne disease.
A cholera outbreak in 2008 and 2009 claimed close to 5,000 lives, according to U.N. statistics. The situation could have been worse had international organizations such as USAID not helped, providing water treatment chemicals, among other interventions to ensure proper sanitation in Zimbabwe.
Sharon Mumbula fears the situation in Harare might escalate to 2008 and 2009 levels unless Mayor Manyenyeni steps down.
“I am wondering why he is even sitting there; why he was hired,” she said. “Clearly he can’t execute his duties. Some of the answers he gave us are not even relevant to the problem. Clearly he can’t say he does not know where the unclean water is coming from. Yet it is the whole of Harare which is affected. So it is time for him to go.”
At the meeting Friday, the mayor said he would not step down but would not seek re-election in 2018. After the meeting, Manyenyeni told VOA he was hopeful Harare’s water problems would end one day.
“We think we are providing you with water that is good for you and your family to drink,” he said. “We have seen experiences of water that does not look good, water that looks greenish and brownish, water that froths or foams. Let’s share the responsibility. While we assume and claim that our water is clean and safe to drink; we ask you to exercise caution wherever you are and make your own personal decisions about what you see, what you smell. Is it good enough for you to drink?
The mayor added that if residents are not satisfied while authorities fix the problem, then “please avoid drinking water which you consider suspect.”
He said the time frame to fix the problem depends on the availability of funds. That, he noted, “is not a council problem. It is a national problem.”
Zimbabwe’s critical shortage of foreign currency is forcing businesses to source it on the black market. This has led to price increases on most commodities. The mayor ruled out getting foreign currency on the black market so that Harare can import water treatment chemicals.
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Kenyan Opposition: If No Dialogue, We’ll Inaugurate Odinga
Kenya’s opposition says it will proceed with its planned inauguration of opposition leader Raila Odinga as president if Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta does not convene a national dialogue. Kenyatta won October’s election after Odinga boycotted the vote, and experts warn that an opposition inauguration could create even more division in the country.
Deputy opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka, who has been out of the country for three months caring for his sick wife, said the only thing that can stop the opposition inauguration is dialogue.
“I am telling my brother Uhuru Kenyatta if he is going to abdicate the responsibility of uniting this nation, he should not blame Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka when we will be sworn in,” Musyoka said.
The opposition boycotted the repeat October poll after the electoral commission failed to meet demands for reform. The Odinga and Musyoka team insists they won the earlier election in August, in which Kenyatta was declared the winner. That vote was nullified and the Supreme Court said the electoral commission did not follow the constitution and the law.
Kenyatta won the October election with 98 percent of the vote.
Political commentator Martin Andati says the opposition is trying to pressure the government to enter a dialogue.
“If they are sworn in, that’s bound to create a bigger crisis than they are in,” Andati said. “Basically, they are trying to up the pressure, and they are hoping Uhuru and his team will be able to sit down so that, ultimately, they go sit on the table and address some of the issues that they are trying to raise.”
Kenyatta has repeatedly said the elections are over and he is willing to discuss the development agenda of the country, but nothing else.
Andati says elections may be over, but the issues that divide the country have not gone away.
“The rest of Kenyans who feel excluded from governance, from the position of power, from the allocation of business opportunities and jobs — they are out there, and they are quite a number — those are some of the issues they need to look at,” Andati said. “Uhuru has been the president of [the ruling Jubilee party], not the president of Kenya. Now he must reach to the rest of the people.”
The Attorney General Githu Muigai warned opposition leaders against swearing themselves in, saying that will amount to treason.
A showdown looms between the Kenyatta administration and the opposition. Many fear the political confrontation will further divide the east African nation.
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Ex-soccer Star Weah Elected Liberia President by Wide Margin
Former FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah has been elected Liberia’s new president by a wide margin as the West African nation faces its first democratic transfer of power in more than 70 years.
Vice President Joseph Boakai conceded on Friday, congratulating the ex-soccer star. With more than 98 percent of votes counted, Weah received 61.5 percent of the ballots while Boakai received 38.5 percent.
Africa’s first female president, Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is stepping aside after two terms at the head of the nation founded by freed American slaves. She led the country from back-to-back civil wars and saw it through a deadly Ebola outbreak that killed nearly 5,000 Liberians, but she was criticized for not better tackling corruption.
The 51-year-old Weah, a senator who entered politics after retirement from soccer more than a decade ago, led the first-round vote in October but didn’t receive enough ballots to win outright over the 73-year-old Boakai, who has been vice president for 12 years. Sirleaf didn’t publicly support either candidate.
Weah is expected to take office in January.
Though voter turnout for Tuesday’s runoff was low, he drew support from the younger generation, which makes up a majority of Liberia’s population of 4.6 million people.
“We are young people and have suffered in this country for so long,” said one supporter, Love Norrision.
The commission said 56 percent of the country’s 2.2 million registered voters cast ballots in the runoff, which was contested twice in court amid claims of irregularities, with its original Nov. 7 date delayed.
Weah led the ticket for a coalition party, the Congress for Democratic Change, with Jewel Howard-Taylor as his vice-presidential running mate. She is a senator and the ex-wife of imprisoned former warlord and President Charles Taylor, which raised concerns among some Liberians.
The Washington-based National Democratic Institute, which observed Tuesday’s runoff, called it peaceful and commended the elections commission for “notable improvements since the Oct. 10 polls.”
This was Liberia’s first independently run election since the end of its civil wars. The United Nations has helped to oversee past votes.
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Reports: Turkey, Russia Sign Deal on Supply of S-400 Missiles
Turkey and Russia have signed an accord for Moscow to supply Ankara with S-400 surface-to-air missiles, CNN Turk and other media reported on Friday, finalizing a deal the two countries have been working on for more than a year.
The S-400 deal, reportedly worth about $2.5 billion, has caused concern in the West because Turkey is a member of NATO and the system cannot be integrated into NATO’s military architecture.
It is the latest in a series of moves by Ankara to boost its defense capabilities as it faces threats from Kurdish and Islamist militants at home and conflicts across its borders in Syria and Iraq.
No details of the accord were available and officials were not immediately available to comment. But Sergei Chemezov, head of the Russian state conglomerate Rostec, told the Kommersant daily on Wednesday Russia would supply Turkey with four batteries of S-400s under the deal.
He said Moscow was expected to begin the first deliveries in March 2020 and that Turkey was the first NATO member state to acquire the advanced S-400 missile system.
Borrowing ‘in rubles’
Earlier on Friday, Turkish newspapers cited President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying Turkey would borrow in the Russian currency in a loan deal under the accord.
“We will not borrow in dollars in this loan, we will borrow in rubles,” Hurriyet newspaper quoted Erdogan as telling reporters on his plane, returning from a trip to Africa.
According to Chemezov, Turkey would pay 45 percent of the cost of the agreement up front, with Russia providing loans to cover the remaining 55 percent.
The Russian Finance Ministry will finance a deal from the state treasury, while Russian banks will take part solely in the transfer of funds in the deal, a Russian banking source said.
Relations between Moscow and Ankara deteriorated sharply in 2015 after Turkey shot down a Russian air force jet that it said had crossed into Turkish airspace, but they have since repaired ties despite having backed different sides in the Syrian war. They are now cooperating on Syrian peace efforts as well as projects in the defense industry and energy sectors.
While pushing ahead with the S-400 project, Ankara has sought to secure defense deals with other countries as well.
In November, Turkey signed a letter of intent with France and Italy to strengthen cooperation on joint defense projects.
As a first step, the Franco-Italian EUROSAM consortium and Turkish companies will look into a system based on the SAMP-T missile systems.
Turkey has also invested heavily in the development of its domestic defense industry, with projects encompassing areas including combat helicopters, tanks, drones and warships.
your ad hereUnknown Assailants Brutally Beat Russian Environmentalist
Members of a Russian environmental group say masked men attacked their leader in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar late Thursday.
Andrei Rudomakha, head of Environmental Watch of the North Caucasus, was hospitalized with multiple injuries including a fractured skull and broken nose.
Rudomakha and several other activists were returning from a trip to Russia’s Black Sea region, where they had documented the illegal construction of a luxury mansion.
Local authorities said they are investigating the incident.
For more than 20 years, Environmental Watch has exposed illegal landfills, the destruction of landscapes and the contamination of waterways in Russia’s south – the Krasnodar, Stavropol, Rostov, Adygea, Karachayevo-Cherkesia, and Kabardino-Balkaria.
Some of the group’s investigations have exposed land grabs by Russian local officials.
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At Least 9 Killed in Egyptian Church Attack
A gunman opened fire Friday outside a church south of Cairo and at a nearby Christian-owned store, killing at least nine people, including a policeman.
Egyptian authorities said the attacker was shot in an exchange of fire at the Mary Mina Church, a Coptic church in the Helwan district.
Five other people were wounded, including another police officer, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said.
The Health Ministry said the shooter had died in the gunfire, while the Interior Ministry said the shooter had been wounded and arrested.
Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement carried by the group’s Amaq news agency.
Investigators said they had identified the gunman and that he had carried out several attacks in the past year. Earlier, Egyptian officials said they were searching for a possible second gunman.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi offered his condolences to the families of the victims and ordered security forces to increase safety measures around the country.
Police had already increased security around churches ahead of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas on January 7.
In Washington, the White House said U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone Friday with Sissi and condemned the attack. It said Trump “reiterated that the United States will continue to stand with Egypt in the face of terrorism.”
Past attacks
IS has killed dozens of Christians in church shootings and bombings in the past year.
In May, 28 people were killed when militants opened fire on a bus that carried Coptic Christians who were making their way to the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in the southern town of Maghagha.
In April, two churches were hit by suicide bombers in Alexandria and Tanta. The attack, during Palm Sunday services, killed at least 43 people, and dozens were wounded.
A bombing at a chapel next to Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo killed 30 people in December 2016.
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