Ethiopia Accused Of Bloody Crackdown On Protesters

 

Ethiopian security forces are carrying out a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests in the country's Oromia region.

The demonstrations began in November due to a government plan to expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa into Oromia, which surrounds the capital, raising fears among Oromo people that their farms would be expropriated.

Addis Ababa, which has accused the protesters of having links with "terror groups", dropped the plan on January 12 and announced the situation in Oromia was largely under control.

Ethiopia's information minister, Getachew Reda, told Al Jazeera that he had not yet read the report and so could not comment on it.

HRW noted that researchers were unable to determine how many people have been killed or arrested because access to Oromia is restricted. 
     
Ethiopian activists allege that more than 200 people have been killed since November 12, 2015," the rights group said.

In a previous document at the beginning of January, HRW reported at least 140 killings.

"Flooding Oromia with federal security forces shows the authorities’ broad disregard for peaceful protest by students, farmers, and other dissenters," Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said on Monday.

"The government needs to rein in the security forces, free anyone being held wrongfully, and hold accountable soldiers and police who used excessive force," Lefkow added.

The rights group called on the Ethiopian government to end excessive use of force by its security forces, free everyone detained arbitrarily, and conduct an independent investigation into killings and other security force abuses. The Oromos are the largest ethnic group in the horn of Africa country.

US Mayor Advocates For Space For Heroin Addicts

                                                                       Mayor Svante Myrick

The mayor of Ithaca wants his city in upstate New York to host the nation's first supervised injection facility, enabling heroin users to shoot illegal drugs into their bodies under the care of a nurse without getting arrested by police.

Canada, Europe and Australia are working to reduce overdose deaths with these facilities, but in the United States, even the idea of creating a supervised injection site faces significant legal and political challenges.

That has to change and quickly, said Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick.

"My father was a drug addict. He split from the family when I was 5, 6 years old," the mayor, now 28, explained in an Associated Press interview. "I have watched for 20 years this system that just doesn't work. We can't wait anymore for the federal government. We have people shooting up in alleys. In bathroom stalls. And too many of them are dying."

Myrick said he will ask New York's Health Department to declare the heroin epidemic a state health crisis, which he said would enable his city to proceed without involving the state legislature. The mayor described his proposal to the AP ahead of a formal announcement planned for Wednesday.

Once dismissed as a radical idea, injection sites are increasingly being discussed in response to huge increases in overdose deaths nationwide. In New York state, overdose deaths involving heroin and other opiates shot from 186 in 2003 to 914 in 2012.

Ithaca alone had three fatal overdoses and 13 non-fatal overdoses in a three-week span in 2014, prompting city officials to begin looking at alternatives to simply jailing addicts. The city of 30,000, which hosts Cornell University and Ithaca College, is one of New York's most liberal communities and is a prime candidate for new approaches, Myrick said.

Nurses or physicians could quickly administer an antidote if and when a user overdoses, and addicts also could get clean syringes and be directed to treatment and recovery programs, according to the mayor, who envisions a holistic approach that deals with addiction more like a public health issue than a criminal justice problem.

Myrick crafted his plan in collaboration with police and prosecutors, overcoming initially strong opposition from the elected district attorney, Gwen Wilkinson.

"What brought me around was the realization that this wouldn't make it more likely that people will use drugs," Wilkinson said. "What it would do is make it less likely that people will die in restaurant bathrooms."

Police Chief John Barber is not totally convinced. He "firmly" supports other parts of the plan, but said "I am wary of supervised injection sites."

Tension Is Rising On The DMZ, North Korean Officer Tells AP

                                                                                North Korean Soldiers

Tensions have increased significantly along the Demilitarized Zone since North Korea's recent nuclear test and rocket launch, a North Korean military official told The Associated Press on Monday, adding that while he could not comment on operational details, "the reality is that it is touch and go."

Though parts of the world's most fortified border can seem like a tourist trap, drawing throngs of camera-happy visitors on both sides every year, to the military-trained eye the Cold War-style standoff along the 257-kilometer (160-mile) DMZ — established when the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty — is an incident waiting to happen.

That's now truer than ever, the North Korean officer said, as tensions are escalating between Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington. Thousands of U.S. troops are deployed in South Korea and units based around the DMZ have the motto "Be Ready to Fight Tonight."

"People come here and they think it's like a resort. But if you know it better, you know how dangerous it is," Lt. Col. Nam Dong Ho of the North Korean People's Army said in Panmunjom, the truce village where the armistice was signed.

Nam said tensions have increased significantly since the nuclear test in January and rocket launch earlier this month. "Something could happen at any time," he said.

To stand on the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone is almost otherworldly.

Russia Interested In Flying Over The US With Her Advanced Digital Camera

 Russia will ask permission on Monday to start flying surveillance planes equipped with high-powered digital cameras amid warnings from U.S. intelligence and military officials that such overflights help Moscow collect intelligence on the United States.

Russia and the United States are signatories to the Open Skies Treaty, which allows unarmed observation flights over the entire territory of all 34 member nations to foster transparency about military activity and help monitor arms control and other agreements. Senior intelligence and military officials, however, worry that Russia is taking advantage of technological advances to violate the spirit of the treaty.

Russia will formally ask the Open Skies Consultative Commission, based in Vienna, to be allowed to fly an aircraft equipped with high-tech sensors over the United States, according to a senior congressional staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the staff member wasn't authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

The request will put the Obama administration in the position of having to decide whether to let Russia use the high-powered equipment on its surveillance planes at a time when Moscow, according to the latest State Department compliance report, is failing to meet all its obligations under the treaty. And it comes at one of the most tension-filled times in U.S.-Russia relations since the end of the Cold War, with the two countries at odds over Russian activity in Ukraine and Syria.

Turkish Husband Sues Wife For Allegedly Insulting Turkey's President Erdogan

                                                                         Turkey's President Erdogan

A Turkish truck driver has lodged a legal complaint against his own wife for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pro-government media reported today.

Ali D, 40, who married GD three years ago, warned his wife repeatedly not to curse at the president when he appeared on television, Yeni Safak newspaper reported on its website.

But her wife defied his warning and challenged her husband, saying: "Record and lodge a complaint."

The man duly recorded his wife's "insults" as evidence for the case and lodged a complaint with Izmir prosecutors. It was not immediately clear if and when the case would go to trial.

"I kept on warning her, saying why are you doing this? Our president is a good person and did good things for Turkey," Ali D was quoted as saying by Yeni Safak.

But he said his wife kept on insulting Erdogan or just changed the channel whenever the president appeared on television.

"Even if it is my father who swears against or insults the president, I would not forgive and I would complain," the husband said.

In return, the 38-year-old woman opened a case against her husband for divorce, according to the report.

The case comes amid growing concern over the spiralling numbers of journalists, bloggers and ordinary people -- even schoolchildren -- who are being taken to court on charges of insulting Erdogan and other top officials.

Opponents say Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian since becoming president in August 2014 with criticism increasingly intolerated in the media, on social networks and even on the streets.

Julian Assange Lawyers Request For An Overturn Of His Arrest Warrant

                                                                                       Julian Assange

A Swedish court says Julian Assange's lawyers have requested an overturn of his arrest warrant, in light of a UN panel finding that the WikiLeaks founder should be freed.

Stockholm District Court spokeswoman Camilla Murray says the court won't consider the request - made in a letter by Assange's two Swedish lawyers - because it was not made in the correct manner.

Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012, is wanted for questioning by Swedish police over rape allegations when he visited the country in 2010.

Earlier this month, a UN panel said Assange's stay at the embassy constitutes arbitrary detention and that he should be set free and compensated for lost time. The British and Swedish governments have rejected the non-binding findings.

Why Donald Trump Could Win The Republican Presidential Nomination

                                                    Republican Presidential hopeful, Donald Trump

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has in the past eight months defied his critics and proven his White House bid is not simply a surreal stunt.

To the shock of the political world, the 69-year-old onetime reality TV star's nomination to be the Republican presidential candidate is now a genuine possibility.

His populist campaign has morphed into a national protest movement against Washington elites and establishment "politicians."

He has rallied fiscal and social conservatives as well as moderate Republicans who could propel him to the nomination -- but the GOP trophy will depend on the behavior of other party rivals still in the race.

The crowded field shrank by one after Saturday's South Carolina primary slugfest, leaving five: Trump, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and two underdogs -- Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Trump has a solid support base of about 30-35 per cent of the Republican vote: He won New Hampshire with 35 per cent and South Carolina with 32.5 per cent. In national polls, he is averaging about 34 per cent support.

So long as the remaining votes are divided between other candidates, as occurred in the first three nomination contests, Trump appears unbeatable.

And from March 15, most states will award their delegates via the winner-take-all method, which would help Trump clinch the nomination before the Republican convention in July in Cleveland.

But if several others withdraw -- as Jeb Bush, the son of one president and brother of another, did Saturday after faring poorly in South Carolina -- voters could in theory elevate a challenger capable of uniting the Republican electorate against Trump.

"I do think Trump has a ceiling, probably around 40 per cent, and that he's not going to do much better than that," explained University of Massachusetts political science professor Brian Schaffner, who also directs the UMass Poll.

Trump might snag some voters from Carson, who is popular with evangelicals, should the doctor drop out, and he is likely to earn trickles of support from Bush and others who suspend their campaigns.

But Schaffner has studied surveys about voters' second, third and fourth choices, and has concluded that it's pretty black or white on Trump.

"Most of the people who don't support him really have no interest in supporting him," and the majority of those who had backed Bush or Kasich -- symbols of the establishment -- would switch allegiance to either Cruz or Rubio, he explained.

'A three-person race'

Trump has no patience or use for the calculations of such "geniuses," and who can blame him? He has defied expectations daily since last summer.

"They don't understand that as people drop out," Trump said on Saturday night, "I'm going to get a lot of those votes also."

Indeed, voters are hardly beholden to the prognostications of political experts. They may be more sensitive to personality traits than political platforms.

Trump's undisputable talent "is to keep the focus on him" and not necessarily his policies, generic as they are, said Timothy Hagle, a professor of political science at the University of Iowa.

America's political left has essentially anointed Trump a bona fide frontrunner.

"Nothing is certain in politics," wrote Josh Marshall, editor of web-based Talking Points Memo.

"But it's time to dispense with any faith-based logic that disputes the fact that Donald Trump is now the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination."

Cruz, a champion of the religious right, is struggling to reach voters beyond his arch-conservative core, but he is determined to hang on.

Rubio nipped Cruz for second place on Saturday in South Carolina, consolidating his position as the mainstream darling.

"After tonight, this has become a three-person race, and we will win the nomination!" Rubio told cheering supporters.

There are indeed some obstacles in Trump's path, notably involving his campaign organization.

"Can he expand his campaign to more than one state at a time?" Hagle asked.

Eleven states across the country will cast ballots in Republican nominating contests on "Super Tuesday" (March 1), and Trump's campaign team has fewer staff and volunteers -- and less ground experience -- than his well-stocked rivals.

There is also the scenario in which Trump, Cruz and Rubio remain in the race until the July convention, with none having managed to secure an absolute majority of delegates -- 1,237 out of the 2,472 available.

Should that unfold, after a first round of voting, delegates would be released from their initial commitments and could vote for the candidate of their choosing in the second round.