Month: October 2018

Western nations are warning Russia to stop aggressive behavior, including a violation of an arms control treaty, widespread cyberattacks and attempts to kill citizens in other countries. At a NATO meeting in Belgium Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Russia is violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The Netherlands said it prevented a Russian cyberattack on an organization investigating chemical weapons use. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports on coordinated response.
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A California man who says he was sexually abused by a priest over decades ago is suing the Vatican, seeking the release of the names of all offenders within the church worldwide.

Manny Vega, a 52-year-old former police officer and Marine, said Thursday that he’s seeking the truth for himself and other victims of sex abuse by Catholic priests.

“We were raped,” Vega said. “It happened to me, it happened to my friends, and it happens to children all across the world, and it continues to happen at the hands of the Catholic church, whose inaction continues to damage children.”

Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican’s U.S. lawyer, declined to comment but has previously said similar lawsuits are attempts by some lawyers “to use the judicial process as a tool of media relations.”

Vega’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in California, accuses the Vatican of placing the Rev. Fidencio Silva-Flores in a position of power at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Oxnard, west of Los Angeles, and says it should have known he posed a danger to children.

The lawsuit alleges that Silva-Flores sexually abused Vega between 1979 and 1984. Silva-Flores was charged with 25 counts of molestation in 2003, but the case was dismissed because of the amount of time that had passed. 

 Although Vega reached a settlement with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2007, that doesn’t release the Vatican from responsibility, the lawsuit says.

“We’ve come to the sorrowful realization that the problem is at the top and with the Vatican, and thus has to be addressed at the top for children across the globe to truly be safe,” said Jeff Anderson, the attorney representing Vega who has represented victims of priest sex abuse for 35 years.

The lawsuit doesn’t seek monetary damages, but rather an order for the Vatican to release the names of abusers in what Anderson said is more than 3,400 credible cases. It also seeks the names of anyone found guilty of sexual misconduct to be turned over to law enforcement.

For years, advocates for victims have been demanding the Vatican release files about abusive priests. The Vatican in 2001 ordered dioceses around the world to send all their cases to Rome to be reviewed. The Vatican has refused to release the documents.

The lawsuit comes amid renewed outrage in the U.S. over sex abuse and decades of cover-up by the Catholic hierarchy. A Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of abuse, as well as allegations that a prominent U.S. ex-cardinal was himself an abuser, have renewed a crisis of confidence in the U.S. and Vatican leadership.

Priest sex abuse scandals first erupted in the United States and elsewhere more than 15 years ago.

Anderson and other lawyers have tried to sue the Holy See — the government of the Catholic Church — in U.S. courts before. But the Vatican has successfully prevented the litigation from reaching a verdict in part by arguing that it’s immune as a foreign sovereign and that priests aren’t employees of the Vatican.

Anderson’s last major effort alleging Vatican liability for the abuse of a priest was eventually dismissed in federal court in Oregon in 2013. 

Anderson said the California lawsuit differs in several ways, including arguments that the Holy See is not immune from the litigation because of two exceptions in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

Still, he acknowledged there are hurdles.

“You’re taking on a sovereign state, you’re taking on the most powerful institution in western civilization … You’re taking on an institution that has never been successfully sued,” Anderson said. “Because there’s no precedent, anybody would look at this and say, ‘It can’t be done.’ We look at it and say, ‘It must be done.’”
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again suggested that Turkey could decide in a referendum whether to continue pursuing membership in the European Union.

Speaking at an international forum on Thursday, Erdogan said Turkey and the EU had a lot to contribute to each other. But he criticized the 28-nation bloc for keeping Turkey waiting at its gates.

Erdogan said: “But if this goes on like this, with this mentality — this is a headline for tomorrow’s papers — our duty is probably to go to the 81 million (people in Turkey) and see what the 81 million decide.” 

Turkey began membership negotiations in 2005 but talks have made little progress due to, among other things, Turkish shortfalls in human rights and the rule of law. 
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The Netherlands is accusing Russia of carrying out multiple cyberattacks, including one against the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Dutch officials said Thursday they caught four members of Russia’s military intelligence service with spy equipment next to the OPCW headquarters in April and expelled them.

The OPCW was investigating the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Russia has denied any links to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and Dutch officials said it was not clear if the cyberattack was linked to the investigation.

Russia’s foreign ministry denied the accusations, dismissing them as “fantasies.”

Britain and Australia are also accusing Russia of malicious cyber activity, saying its agents targeted the World Anti-Doping Agency and the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
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British officials say the Russian military intelligence unit GRU is behind a fresh wave of global cyberattacks.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Thursday the GRU is responsible for “indiscriminate and reckless” attacks against political institutions, businesses, media and sports.

Britain’s National Cyber Security Center has concluded that hackers behind numerous attacks have been identified as GRU personnel. The agency says four new attacks are associated with GRU as well as earlier cyberattacks.

It cites attacks on the World Anti-Doping agency, Ukrainian transport systems, the 2016 U.S. presidential race and others as very likely the work of the GRU.

British officials earlier blamed the GRU for the March nerve agent attack on Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury.

Russia denies any involvement.
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U.S. and Georgian defense ministers met in Brussels Wednesday to reaffirm the long-standing defense relationship between the countries.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was in Brussels to reassure European allies of America’s “iron-clad” commitment to NATO, as the trans-Atlantic alliance prepares for its biggest military exercises since the Cold War.

Meeting with Georgian Defense Minister Levan Izoria, Mattis remarked on the South Caucasus nation’s exemplary defense reforms and contributions to the NATO Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, where Tbilisi’s 870 uniformed troops represent the world’s largest per capita contributor to the mission. 

A Pentagon readout of the meeting said the ministers agreed to continue deterring Russian aggression through U.S. security assistance, and support defense initiatives to develop long-term readiness and NATO interoperability.

Mattis also reinforced long-term U.S. commitment to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Calls for increased support

Outgoing Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili recently told VOA’s Georgian Service that despite a quarter century of solid ties with the United States, he’s pledging to make increased demands for U.S. military support and development aid, and that he hopes to see the current administration re-engage the world community as a guarantor of global security.

Touting what he called a decades-long “dynamic and close bipartisan relationship” with Washington, Margvelashvili pointed to the U.S. refusal to acknowledge Georgia’s Russian-occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He added that with the Trump administration, Tbilisi also continues to have continued monetary defense aid and expanded weapons sales.

“Even with the current administration, let me just register that our record has been pretty impressive,” he said, citing budget procurements and expanded weapons sales. 

In September 2017, the Senate Appropriations Committee spending bill increased Georgia’s foreign military aid to $35 million for FY 2018, up from $30 million in 2016.

He also said he’d like to see Tbilisi’s NATO membership process expedited.

“I’m a very strong believer that we have to be more resilient and more equipped and more organized with a growing threat of the Russian Federation in the region, and maybe even globally,” he said.

With U.S.-European ties at a low point, exacerbated by President Donald Trump’s recent United Nations General Assembly screed against a “globalist ideology” in which he called an isolated U.S. a “stronger, safer, and richer country,” Margvelashvili argued that history tells a different story.

“We saw Ronald Reagan bring down the Berlin Wall. We saw a strong U.S. stance on stability and global security. And those were the impulses that determined the (outcome and aftermath) of the Cold War,” he said.

The result of a strong U.S. stance on global security, he added, was the creation of a “more secure and more prosperous” U.S. and Europe.

Like “other countries … we are waiting for a more resilient and organized and strong (U.S.) stand that will … be accepted by Europe and will solve issues like Georgia and Ukraine,” Margvelashvili said.

According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the Trident Juncture 18 exercise, which will be conducted in Norway in October and November, will draw in 45,000 troops and represent the biggest movement of NATO personnel and vehicles since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

While huge in scale, the Juncture 18 operation will be far smaller than the Vostok-18 exercise staged by Russia and China last month, which involved 300,000 troops and 1,000 aircraft.

NATO’s effort will involve troops from Britain, North America and continental Europe, equipped with 150 aircraft, 70 vessels and around 10,000 land vehicles.

This story originated in VOA’s Georgian Service. 
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State police say a security guard at the Pennsylania compound of a Turkish-born Muslim cleric fired a shot at an “unwanted person” outside the gate.

Police said in a news release Wednesday that the suspected intruder fled the scene.

Troopers were called to Fethullah Gulen’s compound for a report of shots fired. Police searched the area but could not find the man. The investigation is continuing.

Gulen’s spokesman says the guard thought the man was armed and fired a “warning shot.” He says nobody was hurt.

Turkey accuses Gulen of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016 and has demanded his extradition. Gulen has denied involvement.

 
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Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira has been credited with setting a world record for the largest-ever wave surfed by a female earlier this year.

The 31-year-old Gabeira caught the 20.72 meter wave in January off the coast of Nazare, Portugal.

The record was confirmed this week, and Gabeira was recognized for her achievement at a ceremony in Portugal.

It is the first time a woman was recognized for a biggest wave award in a separate category, something Gabeira herself had lobbied for since 2013.

That year she was knocked off her board and nearly drowned attempting to catch a giant wave in Nazare.

Some of the largest surfable waves in the world routinely form off the coast of Nazare each year.  Scientists say a combination of weather conditions and underwater geological formations contribute to the phenomenon.

 
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Cristiano Ronaldo has denied “accusations being issued against” him and called rape an “abominable crime.”

The 33-year-old Ronaldo has been accused of rape by Kathryn Mayorga. She has said the soccer great raped her in Las Vegas in 2009.

Ronaldo posted a video on Instagram shortly after a civil lawsuit was filed in Nevada last week, calling it “Fake. Fake news.”

On Wednesday, Ronaldo tweeted in both Portuguese and English.

Ronaldo wrote: “I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense.”

In a second tweet, he added: “My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquility the results of any and all investigations.”

 
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Russia has delivered an S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria, it said Tuesday, in defiance of Israeli and U.S. concerns that the arms sale would embolden Iran and escalate the Syrian war.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin during a meeting broadcast by Rossiya 24 TV: “The work was finished a day ago,” adding that the system would improve the security of Russian military personal in Syria.

Russia decided to supply the system after Moscow accused Israel of indirectly causing the downing of a Russian military jet near Syria in September.

Israel voiced regret at the death of 15 Russian air crew while saying Syrian incompetence was at fault and that it was compelled to continue taking action against suspected deployments of Iranian-backed forces across its northern border.

“We have not changed our strategic line on Iran,” Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said Tuesday.

“We will not allow Iran to open up a third front against us. We will take actions as required,” he told Israel Radio.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert could not confirm reports that the S-300 had been delivered.

“I cannot confirm that that is accurate. I hope that they did not,” she told a press briefing. “That would be, I think, sort of a serious escalation in concerns and issues going on in Syria, but I just can’t confirm it.”
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Following are some of the many possible contenders to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as EU chief executive after elections to the European Parliament in May.

Apart from electoral uncertainty, it is unclear that national leaders will follow Parliament’s call for them to pick a European Commission president from among the lead candidates of parties contesting the ballot.

Conservatives

Manfred Weber — An MEP for 14 years, the 46-year-old German has led the biggest EU parliamentary group since 2014. He has declared he will run and he can be confident of support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel despite his youthful years and lack of the government experience that is usual for commission presidents. Diplomats in Brussels say, however, Merkel could still drop Weber to secure another prominent job for Germany, like the head of the European Central Bank, which also comes vacant next autumn.

Michel Barnier — The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator ruled himself

out of the race on Friday.

Alexander Stubb — The former Finnish prime minister announced he would challenge Weber at an EPP nominating convention in Helsinki on Nov. 8. Stubb, 50, competes in “Iron Man” triathlons and is multilingual, unlike Weber, who does not speak French, or Barnier, who rarely seems comfortable in English.

Other names cited have included Merkel allies Peter Altmaier and Ursula von der Leyen and French IMF managing director Christine Lagarde — not to mention the wild card of Merkel herself, who is now in her fourth term.

Socialists

Marcos Sefcovic — The Moscow-educated Slovak diplomat who has worked in Brussels since 2004 and is Juncker’s vice president for energy, said in June he would run. He is 52. Sources in Brussels say he stands no chance in the top job race but will be Bratislava’s pick for a portfolio in the next commission.

Christian Kern — Austria’s former chancellor, Kern is known for his strongly pro-European stance. He said earlier this month he would seek to win a seat in the European Parliament next May.

​Federica Mogherini — The 45-year-old was catapulted into the high-ranked commission post of EU foreign policy chief in 2014. She could benefit from efforts to promote female candidates and a better left-right balance in Brussels but may struggle to get the necessary support from the new populist coalition in Rome.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt — Danish prime minister until 2015, at 51 she is perennially cited as a center-left hope for senior EU roles but lacks backing from the ruling right in Copenhagen.

Frans Timmermans — Juncker’s Dutch deputy, 57, is a former foreign minister and passionate, multilingual advocate for the EU but his party’s national eclipse counts against him.

Pierre Moscovici — Former French finance minister, 60, now EU economics commissioner, his party’s national disarray is also a disadvantage, as is German wariness over his commitment to Berlin’s vision of a eurozone of tight public finances.

Nadia Calvino — Long a senior commission civil servant, at 50 she has the rare distinction for EU Socialists of being in government, having been named Madrid’s economy minister in June.

Liberals

Guy Verhofstadt — Former Belgian prime minister who leads the liberals in the EU parliament, his age (65) and outspoken advocacy of much more powers for Brussels may limit his appeal. 

Margrethe Vestager — As a woman, age 50 and with a star profile in Brussels from attacking tax avoidance and monopoly powers among U.S. multinationals like Google and Apple as the EU competition commissioner, the Danish former economy minister is widely talked about as a liberal who could win support beyond her party — even if Denmark’s ruling conservatives oppose her.

​Cecilia Malmstrom — Another straight-talking, 50-year-old Scandinavian woman who has had a big role in Brussels’ tussles with Washington, the EU trade commissioner and former Swedish Europe minister could tick similar boxes to Vestager.

Mark Rutte — Dutch prime minister for eight years, the 51-year-old may be tempted by a new job. He is solidly pro-EU but appeals to those who want its budgets and powers kept in check.

Xavier Bettel — In five years as Luxembourg prime minister, during which he married his male partner, the 45-year-old has built good relations with fellow national leaders. They might balk at choosing another Luxemburger after Juncker, but his friendship with the even younger Macron could be an asset.
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Greenland Prime Minister Kim Kielsen presented a new minority government on Tuesday, ending a political crisis that started when he lost his majority last month with the withdrawal of a pro-independence party.

Kielsen of the social democrat Siumut party told a press conference in the capital Nuuk that he had agreed with the liberal-conservative party Atassut and the separatist, center-left party Nunatta Qitornai to form a minority government with the support of The Democrats, state broadcaster KNR reported.

A political stalemate on the Arctic island has delayed expansion of major airport projects of strategic interest to both Washington and Beijing and created uncertainty over an ambition to attract foreign investments into its vast hydrocarbon and mineral resources.

Greenland, eager to benefit from growing activity in the Arctic, plans to expand airports in the capital Nuuk, the tourist hub in Ilulissat and at Qaqortoq in southern Greenland to cater for direct flights from Europe and North America.

The Arctic island is a self-ruling part of Denmark, which is concerned that Chinese investment — on the agenda since Greenland’s Prime Minister Kim Kielsen visited Beijing last year — could upset the United States.

Pro-independence party Partii Naleraq on Sept. 10 withdrew from a coalition formed in May over Denmark’s plan to part-fund the upgrade of two airports.

Kielsen’s Siumut, the two other parties in the coalition, Atassut and Nunatta Qitornai, and the supporting Democrats all back a proposed Danish contribution to the airports.

“I think the new government can survive at least a year,” Mikaa Mered, an Arctic expert and professor at the Ileri institute in Paris.

“Siumut and Kim Kielsen are trying to signal investors that they are really committed to their pro-business, pro-mining and pro-uranium platform,” Mered said.

The three parties will hold 13 seats in the 31 seats in parliament.

Kielsen’s Siumut party is the largest party in Greenland.

The second biggest party Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) was left out of the coalition.

Greenland relies on fishing and annual grants from Denmark.
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