Month: August 2019

 Suzanne Sataline contributed to this report from Hong Kong

Riot police clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators at the Hong Kong’s international airport Tuesday evening, with all departing flights cancelled for a second straight day.

The protestors once again took over the facility’s main terminal, with periodic skirmishes with helmeted police wielding batons.

Scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators as medics took an injured person out of the terminal. A contingent of riot police used pepper spray to disperse protesters as they tried to block an ambulance taking the man away. Police detained at least two people.

Hong Kong’s airport authority said operations had been “seriously disrupted.”

The airport protests over the past two days are part of 10 weeks of demonstrations by Hong Kong residents against their perceived erosion of freedom and lack of autonomy under Chinese control of the territory.

China’s United Nations mission said the protesters had smashed public facilities, paralyzed the airport, blocked public transport and used lethal weapons, “showing a tendency of resorting to terrorism.”

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged Hong Kong authorities to exercise restraint and investigate whether their forces fired tear gas at protesters in ways that are banned under international law.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who last week took a hands-off stance on the protests, told reporters the Hong Kong situation “is a very tough situation, very tough. We’ll see what happens, but I’m sure it will work out….” He expressed the hope that no one would get hurt and “for liberty.”

“I hope it works out for everybody, including China, by the way,” Trump said.

The protests present the biggest challenge to Chinese rule of the semi-autonomous territory since its 1997 handover from Britain. State-run media showed videos of security forces gathering across the border in Mainland China.

The decision by the airport authority to cancel Tuesday’s out-bound flights came just minutes after it suspended all passenger check-in services when protesters blocked passengers from entering their departure gates, and advised the general public not to come to the airport.  

The airport was already struggling to return to normal after reopening a day after hundreds of flights in and out of the airport were cancelled by a similar sit-in demonstration.  Some angry travelers anxious to leave Hong Kong got into heated arguments with protesters as Tuesday’s demonstrations escalated, with some managing to push their way through the protest lines.  

The unprecedented shutdown of one of the world’s busiest airports was an extension of the street protests that have gripped the Chinese territory for more than two months. Dozens of protesters were injured Monday after riot police fired tear gas and non-lethal ammunition after the protesters blocked roads and defied police orders to disperse.

The government counted 54 people injured Monday, including two who were hospitalized in serious condition, and 28 who were listed as stable, according to the Hospital Authority.

The protests began as a quest to stop a bill that would have allowed Hong Kong to send criminal suspects elsewhere, including mainland China. Demonstrators are now demanding the the right to directly vote for their next leader in a free and fair election, and an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled leader, defended police during a press conference Tuesday, saying they had to make “on-the-spot decisions” under “extremely difficult circumstances.”  Lam said she would address the protesters’ demands “after the violence has been stopped and the chaotic situation that now we are seeing could subside.”

…

Cameroon has threatened all journalists who it says are refusing to be patriotic, after TV reporter Samuel Wazizi was arrested for allegedly supporting separatist fighters in Cameroon’s English-speaking north, west, and southwest regions. The journalists say it is becoming impossible for them to practice their profession, as they face pressure from both separatist fighters and the government.

Paul Atanga Nji, territorial administration minister, says Cameroon’s journalists are becoming highly unpatriotic.

“They have one main objective, just to sabotage government action, to promote secessionist tendencies,” said Nji. “I urge them to be responsible. Those who do not want to respect the laws will be booked as being recalcitrant and will be treated as such.”

Atanga Nji also says most journalists support the opposition and believe that President Paul Biya was not the true winner of the October 2018 presidential election.

Macmillan Ambe, president of the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ, says the threat from the government is one of many that journalists have faced since the separatist crisis began in 2016.

He says journalists should be given the freedom they need to do their work.

“When you get the minister of territorial administration giving lessons to journalists on how to report, it just adds to some of the difficulties we are already facing,” said Ambe. “We are subjected to torture, be it physical or psychological. We have also had cases of several journalists who are being called up for questioning, so it becomes very difficult for us to operate.”

Ambe was abducted by separatist fighters in the city of Bamenda last February after he criticized their call for families not to send their children to school.

More recent threats came after Samuel Waziz, an announcer at Chillen Music Television who has hosted shows critical of the government, was arrested by the military. His lawyers said he was accused of hosting separatist fighters in his farm, an allegation he dismissed.

Journalist Promise Akanteh of Royal FM, a radio station in Yaounde who also hosts critical programs, says she has been threatened several times within the past two weeks.

“I have had several phone calls threatening me. Do you know that your daughter still needs you? I said, ‘yes, sir.'” So be careful with what you say on air.  I do not know who was calling,” said Akanteh. “The person threatens me and says be careful with what you say on air. I am telling you this, another person will not be this nice to you.”

The separatists launched their fight in 2017, after English-speakers protested political and economic discrimination in the majority French-speaking country. The government reacted with a crackdown in November 2017 and since then, 2,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations.

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Uganda is ramping up efforts to curtail online content deemed immoral or hateful, a move critics say will silence dissent.

Since March 2018, the Uganda Communications Commission,  a state regulator, has required certain online publishers to register and pay a fee of $20 per year.

Now, the government is expanding its enforcement of the regulation, levying the fee on news organizations and social media influencers with large followings, including some journalists, celebrities, musicians and athletes.

The UCC calls these people “data communicators” and will be looking at media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to determine which users will be affected.

Catherine Anite, executive director of the Freedom of Expression Media Hub, told VOA’s Nightline Africa  that the registration requirement curbs free speech.

“It’s a very restrictive regulation,” she said. “The freedom of expression is an essential right, and it is the cornerstone of any democratic society, which I believe Uganda is, because we have ascribed to these national, regional and international freedom of expression laws.”

Anite pointed to Article 29 of Uganda’s constitution, which protects freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of belief. She said this should give Ugandans wide latitude to express themselves in any media.

“Uganda is a free society. Uganda is [a] democratic society,” she said. “So, if the constitution gives the right to enjoy freedom of expression, there shouldn’t be the clawback clauses that come in the form of policies and other restrictive laws.”

The expansion of the law comes one week after political activist Stella Nyanzi was sentenced to 18 months in prison for writing a crude poem about Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s deceased mother.

The group Unwanted Witness, which monitors digital rights, reported that 33 Ugandans have been interrogated by police or charged with making impermissible online communications between 2016 and 2018, according to Reuters.

Last year, the government introduced a tax on social media usage, charging 200 shillings — about $0.05 cents per user per day, Reuters reported.

UCC head of public relations Ibrahim Bbossa said the regulatory body hopes to make publishers and individuals with large online followings mindful of the need to uphold public morality and peace.

He said registering users is the first step to responding in the event of a problem.

“As UCC, it is upon us to put into implementation these laws so that, just in case of any problems that arise, we are able to come up with resolutions,” Bbossa told Uganda’s Daily Vision  “Online publication can lead to circumstances like inciting the public, misinformation, and at times, theft.”

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This story originated in VOA’s Albanian Service. 

Nearly a month after a memorial to victims of the failed military coup in Turkey appeared at the edge of a lake in a public park in the Albanian capital of Tirana, questions remain over who granted Turkish officials the right to put it there.

The engraved dark-granite monument, which lists the names of 251 people killed in Turkey on July 15, 2016 — mostly unarmed civilians who resisted the takeover — was unveiled last month by the Turkish Embassy in Tirana to mark the third anniversary of the event.

Tirana Deputy Mayor Arbjan Mazniku attended the ceremony that started with a march from downtown to the Grand Park of Tirana where the memorial was unveiled. 

The ceremony also revealed that a small area within Grand Park where 251 trees were planted would be named “15th of July Democracy Park,” and that a nearby street would be renamed “15th of July Street of Martyrs.”

The city of Tirana’s official website, however, made no mention of the event, nor were city hall officials able to provide any records of discussion or documentation about placing the monument on public property, let alone the renaming of public parks and streets.

Few answers

Asked about who granted permission to place the memorial, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj appeared to dodge the question.

“There are over 50 locations in the territory where various events are remembered, and each one has an opportunity to be honored,” he said.

He refused to answer when asked whether any of those other monuments commemorate deadly events on foreign soil, saying only that discussing the matter any further was disrespectful to the deceased.

“I would say leave the dead alone, and whoever wants to honor them with a candle, a flower or a prayer, leave them alone, as well,” he told VOA’s Albanian Service on Sunday. “Gracious Tirana has room for everyone. … It does no harm to anyone.”

Late last week, a Tirana city hall official said they had no information to share about the memorial, and instead directed VOA inquiries to Albania’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, which also denied having had any foreknowledge of the monument.

Fethullah Gulen

Fallout from the failed 2016 coup, which claimed nearly 300 lives before troops loyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prevailed, has deepened political divisions within Turkey and continues to strain ties with Erdogan’s Western allies over the severity and duration of the ensuing crackdown, in which an estimated 150,000 people have been purged from their jobs and some 70,000 others jailed.

Two-hundred media outlets have been closed, and dozens of reporters jailed.

Observers say Erdogan has been using commemorations of the attempted coup, which he blames on his political nemesis, exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, to consolidate his base amid growing voices of discontent and recent electoral setbacks.

The 77-year-old Gulen, a one-time ally of Erdogan, has lived in self-imposed exile in the eastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania for nearly two decades, but Washington has resisted Erdogan’s demand he be returned to his homeland to face charges that he directed the takeover attempt from across the Atlantic.

Albania, whose Prime Minister Edi Rama is close with Erdogan, also blames Gulen for the 2016 coup.

Just days after last month’s ceremony to unveil the monument, the Turkish Embassy in Tirana posted a statement on its official Facebook page, saying, “With the participation of our Albanian brothers and sisters, we successfully and proudly inaugurated the “15th of July Street of Martyrs” and the “15th of July Democracy Park.”

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Rescue operations continued in four Indian states where monsoon floods have killed nearly 200 people and forced more than 1 million from their homes. 

The western and southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra have been inundated by heavy rains and flooded rivers. 

The southern state of Kerala, a tourist haven known for its beaches, hill resorts and backwaters, has been the worst-hit region. The death toll there reached 76 Monday, while 116 were reported killed in the other three states. 

Authorities warn the death toll will rise as crews search flooding debris and collapsed buildings. 

Nearly 125 people stranded on a road washed away by floods were airlifted to safety by the Indian Air Force. 

Rains subsided in many parts of the flood-hit states and waters have begun receding, lending a much-needed hand to search and rescue crews, officials said. 

While the monsoon rains are a vital lifeline in drought-stricken India, they are also responsible for killing hundreds of people across the country every year.

Last year, Kerala was hit by its worst floods in almost a century, in which an estimated 450 people were killed.

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After Alejandro Giammattei overwhelmingly won election as Guatemala’s next president there was little celebration Monday amid questions about how he will tackle the corruption, violence and lack of opportunity that has driven tens of thousands to flee the Central American nation. 
 
Giammattei, who takes office Jan. 14 for a four-year term, received nearly 58% of the votes compared with 42% for former first lady Sandra Torres in Sunday’s runoff. But more than half of eligible voters abstained, suggesting a fed-up electorate where many found neither candidate inspiring.

“I think it is going to be the same as this government,” said Guillermo Cacao, a businessman, referring to the outgoing administration of Jimmy Morales, who has been the subject of suspected graft allegations though he denies guilt and has been shielded from prosecution as sitting president. 

But enough voters in the runoff were swayed by the president-elect’s promises to crack down on crime, with homicide rates among the worst in the world at about 35 per 100,000 inhabitants, as well as his staunch socially conservative stances against abortion and same-sex marriage. 

The 63-year-old doctor succeeded on his fourth run for the presidency after several more popular candidates were barred from the race, including a former prosecutor who was instrumental in the anti-corruption drive of recent years. 
 
Analysts also saw in his victory a likely continuation of the political status quo. 
 
“During his 20 years of running for the presidency, Giammattei has been surrounded by people linked to corruption and organized crime,” said Mike Allison, a political scientist specializing in Central America at the University of Scranton. “Like Morales, Giammattei will be more interested in protecting his friends and allies from criminal judgment than in strengthening the rule of law.”Morales last year ended the mandate of a U.N. commission that helped jail dozens of powerful politicians, officials and businesspeople. The commission known as CICIG is set to wrap up operations and decamp from the country next month.  

Giammattei “will not support the continuation of CICIG, which has achieved important advances in that fight in recent years,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, noting that he has not seen positive signals from the next president regarding the issue. 
 
Nonetheless he expressed hope that the new government may surprise by committing to serious reforms on other matters of public importance. 

Migrant issue
 
One of Giammattei’s most crucial and difficult tasks will be trying to stem the large flow of migrants heading toward the United States, with at least 1% of Guatemala’s population of some 16 million having left this year alone. 
 
He will also have to figure out whether to abide by or scrap an agreement Morales signed last month with Washington that would require Hondurans and Salvadorans crossing through his country to apply for asylum there instead of on U.S. soil. 

The agreement, which came amid pressure from the Trump administration, has been criticized at home by opponents who note that Guatemala, not only a transit country but a sending country for many migrants and asylum-seekers, suffers the same violence, poverty and lack of opportunity that people are fleeing in Honduras and El Salvador. It has also been challenged in the courts. 
 
Neither Giammattei nor Torres talked much about the agreement in their final pitches to voters in recent weeks, beyond saying the issue should have been left to the winner of the election rather than negotiated under Morales. The president-elect has not said whether he will implement the deal, though he has allowed that Guatemala has scant resources to apply to the issue. 

Allison said it appears that Giammattei “would seem to be aligning with those who believe the consequences of rejecting a ‘safe third country’ agreement with the United States would be worse than accepting it.” 

’12 years of struggle’
 
Giammattei spent several months behind bars in 2008 when he was director of the country’s prison system, after some prisoners were killed in a raid on his watch. He was eventually acquitted of wrongdoing.

Late Sunday, leaning on the crutches he uses because of his multiple sclerosis, Giammattei acknowledged in his emotional victory speech that it had been a long road.

“We won. We are very excited, it is logical, it has been 12 years of struggle,” Giammattei said. “Twelve years waiting to serve my country.”

Kesia Fonseca, a small-business owner, said she fears possible restrictions of some rights due to Giammattei’s strong ideological positions. 
 
“I am afraid for the future of my children, that it could become like Venezuela where people are fleeing the country,” Fonseca said. 
 
Human Rights Prosecutor Jordan Rodas said Sunday he hopes the new government will respect liberties and that he was prepared to hold talks on protecting rights. 
 
More than 8 million Guatemalans are registered to vote, and absenteeism Sunday was reported at 57%.

“The most telling thing about the election,” Shifter said, “was the lack of enthusiasm and low participation.” 

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In one of her first moves as Puerto Rico’s new governor, Wanda Vazquez announced late Sunday that she is suspending a pending $450,000 contract that is part of the program to rebuild and strengthen the island’s power grid, which was destroyed by Hurricane Maria.

Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, which is more than $9 billion in debt, had been expected to sign the contract with Stantec, a consulting firm based in Canada. Vazquez did not explain why she was suspending the deal, saying only that transparency is a priority for her administration. 

“We are evaluating all government contracts, no exceptions,” said Vazquez, who on Wednesday became Puerto Rico’s third governor in a week following popular protests over government corruption and mismanagement. “There is no room in this administration for unreasonable expenses.”

A Stantec official based in Puerto Rico did not respond to a request for comment.

However, a power company spokesman emailed a statement to The Associated Press saying that PREPA executive director Jose Ortiz planned to meet with Vazquez on Monday to explain why it was important to sign the contract. Ortiz said the contract has to be submitted before Oct. 6 so the U.S. territory can obtain federal hurricane recovery funds.

It is unclear whether Vazquez’s move will delay efforts to rebuild and bolster the power grid, which remains fragile and is prone to outages that have exasperated many of the island’s 3.2 million people. Power company spokesman Jorge Burgos said that he had no further details and that more information would be released after Monday’s meeting.

Puerto Rico’s power company has awarded several multimillion-dollar contracts since the Category 4 storm hit on Sept. 20, 2017, and many of those deals have come under intense scrutiny, with some being cancelled. Currently, Mammoth Energy Services’ subsidiary Cobra Acquisitions, which has some $1.8 billion in contracts with the power company, is facing a federal investigation.

Economist Jose Caraballo said he hopes Vazquez’s announcement is the first of more changes to come.

“I hope this isn’t a smoke screen and that there’s a real audit,” he said in a phone interview. “That’s what all these people who have lost trust in the government expect.”

Puerto Rico has been mired in political turmoil, with then-Gov. Ricardo Rossello resigning Aug. 2 following large protests. The island’s Supreme Court then ruled that his replacement was illegally sworn in, which left Vazquez, the justice secretary, next in line to become governor. The U.S. territory also is struggling to emerge from a 13-year recession and trying to restructure some of its more than $70 billion public debt load. 

…

Conservative candidate Alejandro Giammattei has won the presidential runoff election in Guatemala. 

The election commission said late Sunday that with more than 90% of the polling places counted, Giammattei had won nearly 60% of the vote.  His opponent, former first lady Sandra Torres garnered 40%. 

Just moments after declaring victory, Giammattei said he would seek to revise a deal that current president Jimmy Morales made with U.S. President Donald Trump, requiring Hondurans and Salvadorans to seek asylum in Guatemala when crossing through the country to reach the U.S.  It will be up to Guatemala’s new president, who takes office in January, to sign or nullify the agreement.

The controversial migration pact is highly unpopular in Guatemala.  

Giammattei is a 63-year-old doctor.  He has campaigned for the presidency three times before this year, finally winning it on his fourth run. 

His opponent Torres is a business woman who has operated a textile and apparel company.  She married and divorced former President Alvaro Colom who was Guatemala’s president from 2008 to 2012.  

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As America’s opioid crisis spiraled into a fentanyl epidemic, prosecutors say one young Utah man made himself a drug kingpin by creating counterfeit prescription painkillers laced with the deadly drug and mailing them to homes across the United States. 

Former Eagle Scout Aaron Shamo, 29, will stand trial beginning Monday on allegations that he and a small group of fellow millennials ran a multimillion-dollar empire from the basement of his suburban Salt Lake City home by trafficking hundreds of thousands of pills containing fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid that has exacerbated the country’s overdose epidemic in recent years. 

The federal government’s case is expected to offer a glimpse at how the drug, which has killed tens of thousands of Americans, can be imported from China, pressed into fake pills and sold through online black markets to people in every state.

Prosecutors have alleged that dozens of the ring’s customers died in overdoses, though the defense disputes that and Shamo is charged only in connection to one: a 21-year-old identified as R.K., who died in June 2016 after snorting fentanyl allegedly passed off as prescription oxycodone.

Shamo’s family, though, said he’s been singled out even as deeply involved friends are offered more lenient plea deals. His father, Mike Shamo, said his son was a chess whiz as a kid who experimented with marijuana in his teen years, but later earned his Eagle Scout badge crocheting blankets for a hospital. 

Aaron Shamo became an internet-savvy aspiring entrepreneur and health-conscious workout buff who loved self-improvement books like “The Secret” and had dreams of starting his own tech-support business, Mike Shamo told The Associated Press. 

“He was brought in and saw the opportunity for making money, and he didn’t truly understand the danger behind what he was doing, how dangerous the drugs were,” he said. “I think he was able to separate what he was doing because he never saw the customer. To him, it was just numbers on a screen.”

At the time of Aaron Shamo’s 2016 arrest, authorities said the bust ranked among the largest in the country. 

The drug operation

In a raid on his home in the upscale suburb of Cottonwood Heights, agents found a still-running pill press in the basement, thousands of pills and more than $1 million in cash stuffed in garbage bags, according to court documents. 

The group had started two years before, and grew to include more than a dozen people, some of whom Aaron Shamo met working at an eBay call center, court documents allege. Prosecutors say it started with a partnership between Aaron Shamo and Drew Crandall, a shy friend he had bonded with over skateboarding and tips for talking to girls. The pair eventually began importing and reselling steroids to gym buddies, and the operation grew from there, according to court documents. 

Another man, Jonathan “Luke” Paz, has also pleaded guilty to helping develop the recipe and press the fentanyl-laced pills after Crandall left on an extended international trip. 

Attorneys for Crandall and Paz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Aaron Shamo ordered the fentanyl from China and paid a number of people to receive it at their homes and turn it over to him, according to authorities. He and Paz allegedly cut the powder, added other fillers and pressed it into pills, using dyes and stamps to mimic the appearance of legitimate pharmaceuticals, prosecutors said. 

Public health experts warn that such mom-and-pop drug trafficking networks can be especially dangerous: They cut and mix fentanyl — a few flakes of which can be deadly — without sophisticated equipment, meaning in a single batch, one counterfeit pill might contain little fentanyl and another enough to kill instantly. 

They were shipping “disguised poison,” prosecutor Michael Gadd said at one hearing. “If you think for a moment about what type of people abuse prescription oxycodone, it’s your neighbor, it’s my neighbor. It’s people who had a knee surgery and got hooked.”

The pills were sold online, through a dark-web marketplace store called Pharma-Master. The dark web is a second layer of the internet reached by a special browser and often used for illegal activity, but it still has sites with user-friendly interfaces and customer reviews, similar to platforms like Amazon and eBay. 

Pharma-Master allegedly grew to become one of the most prominent darknet dealers, sometimes processing 20 to 50 orders a day, according to court documents. 

When orders came in, packagers counted pills, sealed them with a vacuum sealer and slipped them into envelopes or boxes addressed to homes across the U.S., prosecutors said. They put pills into Mylar bags to mask the contents, wrote fake return addresses like “Jamaica Green Coffee,” and even included phony invoices. The packages were dropped in mailboxes all over the Salt Lake area to hide from police, authorities said. 

Some were small orders from people buying for themselves, but in other cases, the group shipped thousands of pills in bulk to gang members and drug dealers who then resold them on the street, prosecutors allege. 

Each pill cost less than a penny to make, and could be sold on the street as a legitimate pharmaceutical for $20 or more, prosecutors said. 

In June 2016, though, U.S. customs agents seized a package of fentanyl addressed to someone receiving it for Aaron Shamo, and things unraveled from there, according to court documents. 

Five months later, investigators had found an incoming shipment from a Chinese company known as “Express,” which is also under investigation. They also scooped up outgoing shipments: A single day’s worth included 35,000 fentanyl-laced pills in 52 packages addressed to homes in 26 states, prosecutors said. One box alone had a wholesale value estimated at more than $400,000, according to court documents. 

Aaron Shamo’s house was also raided in late 2016, and the following spring Crandall was arrested in Hawaii when he returned from the globe-trotting trip through Australia, New Zealand and southeast Asia to marry his girlfriend.

In the years since his arrest, Aaron Shamo has become something of an advocate for other jail inmates, starting a letter-writing campaign calling on local churches to write to people behind bars to give them hope for life after incarceration, said his father, Mike Shamo. He’s also written to the governor, calling for more rehabilitation programs for jail inmates. 

Meanwhile, Paz and Crandall have already agreed to plea deals and could testify against their onetime friend, along with a potential parade of other alleged co-conspirators.

His family will be watching the trial, too. 

“We just want equity. We want equality for everyone in this, so those that were equally guilty are held accountable for their actions,” Mike Shamo said.

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Syrian government forces captured an important village in the northwestern province of Idlib on Sunday, drawing close to a major town in the last rebel stronghold in the country, state media and opposition activists said.

 The capture of Habeet opens up an approach to southern regions of Idlib, which is home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced by fighting in other parts of the country. Habeet is also close to the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which has been held by rebels since 2012, and to parts of the highway linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.
 
Syrian troops have been trying to secure the M5 highway, which has been closed since 2012. Idlib is a stronghold for al-Qaida-linked militants and other armed groups.
 
Syrian troops have been attacking Idlib and a stretch of land around it since April 30. The three-month campaign of airstrikes and shelling has killed more than 2,000 people on both sides and displaced some 400,000.
 
The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said the Syrian army captured the village after fierce fighting with al-Qaida-linked militants.
 
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked war monitor, described the capture of Habeet as “the most important advance” by government forces since April 30. It said the overnight fighting left 18 insurgents and nine pro-government gunmen dead.
 
Syrian troops have been pushing their way into Idlib and rebel-held northern parts of Hama province in recent weeks under the cover of intense airstrikes and shelling.
 
In Damascus, meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad attended Eid al-Adha prayers in a mosque.
 
State news agency SANA showed Assad attending the Muslim prayers early Sunday at Afram Mosque along with top officials, including the prime minister and the country’s grand mufti.
 
Over the past few years, Assad’s forces have been able to capture most areas controlled by rebels in other parts of the country, including the eastern suburbs of Damascus.
 
Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, marks the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham to Christians and Jews) to sacrifice his son.

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Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir said that they eased restrictions Sunday in most parts of Srinagar, the main city, ahead of an Islamic festival following India’s decision to strip the region of its constitutional autonomy.

Magistrate Shahid Choudhary in a tweet said that more than 250 ATMs have been made functional and bank branches opened for people to withdraw money ahead of Monday’s Eid al-Adha festival.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of reports by authorities that people were visiting shopping areas for festival purchases because all communications and the internet remain cut off for a seventh day.

Authorities appear to be acting with utmost caution because of a fear of a backlash from residents who have been forced to stay indoors since last Monday.

India’s main opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said there are reports of violence and “people dying” in the region. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Gandhi said “things are going very wrong there,” and called for the Indian government to make clear what is happening.

Authorities in Srinagar said there have been instances of stone pelting by protesters but no gun firing by security forces in the past six days. Television images showed movement of cars and people in some parts of Kashmir.

State-run All India Radio quoted the region’s top bureaucrat, Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, as saying that people were coming out of their homes for Eid shopping. He also said that Srinagar and other towns witnessed good road traffic Saturday.

Modi promises normalcy

On Thursday, Modi assured the people of Jammu and Kashmir that normalcy would gradually return and that the government was ensuring that the current restrictions do not dampen the Islamic festival.

New Delhi rushed tens of thousands of additional soldiers to one of the world’s most militarized regions to prevent unrest and protests after Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government revoked Kashmir’s special constitutional status and downgrading its statehood. Modi said the move was necessary to free the region of “terrorism and separatism.”

On Saturday, Pakistan said that with the support of China, it will take up India’s unilateral actions in Kashmir with the U.N. Security Council and may approach the U.N. Human Rights Commission over what it says is the “genocide” of the Kashmiri people.

Kashmir is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan and is divided between the archrivals. Rebels have been fighting New Delhi’s rule for decades in the Indian-controlled portion, and most Kashmiri residents want either independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Pakistan: Move toward genocide

“When a demographic change is made through force, it’s called genocide, and you are moving toward genocide,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters in Islamabad after returning from Beijing.

With India moving to erase the constitutional provision that prohibited outsiders from buying property in Jammu and Kashmir state, Indians from the rest of the country can now purchase real estate and apply for government jobs there. Some fear this may lead to a demographic and cultural change in the Muslim-majority region.

Qureshi also said that while Pakistan is not planning to take any military action, it is ready to counter any potential aggression by India.

The Indian ambassador to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, left Islamabad on Saturday night after Pakistan retaliated against India by lowering diplomatic ties. Fourteen other Indian mission officials and their families also left Islamabad, airport official Mohammad Wasim Ahmed said.

A regional political party from Kashmir petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the government’s move to scrap the region’s special status and divide the state into two federal territories. An opposition Congress party activist has already filed a petition challenging the communications blockade and the detentions of Kashmiri leaders.

…

Pilgrims on the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia threw stones Sunday at pillars representing the devil, a symbolic casting away of evil.

More than 2 million Muslims have gathered in Saudi Arabia for the annual, five-day-long pilgrimage.

Worshippers spent the night Saturday at a large encampment around the hill where Islam holds that God tested Abraham’s faith by commanding him to sacrifice his son Ismail. It is also where Prophet Muhammad gave his last sermon.

The end of the Hajj coincides with Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, celebrated by Muslims around the world.

Riyadh is using tens of thousands of stewards, who help marshal the crowds to prevent stampedes that have occurred in previous years’ events, such as in 2015 when about 2,300 pilgrims were killed.

The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is required of every Muslim at least once in their lifetime, as long as they are healthy enough and have the means to do so.

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