2018, Social Media’s Year of Falling From Grace

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - Silicon Valley has enjoyed years of popularity and growing markets. But 2018 has been rocky for the industry.

Data breaches, controversies over offensive speech and misinformation — as well as reports of foreign operatives’ use of their services — have left many people skeptical about the benefits of social media, experts say.

Worries about social media in Congress meant tech executives had to testify before committees several times this year.

“2018 has been a challenging year for tech companies and consumers alike,” said Pantas Sutardja, chief executive of LatticeWork Inc., a data storage firm. “Company CEOs being called to Congress for hearings and promising profusely to fix the problems of data breach but still cannot do it.”

An apology tour

Facebook drew the most scrutiny. The social networking giant endured criticism after revelations that its lax oversight allowed a political consulting firm to exploit millions of its users’ data.

In the spring, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, went on what was dubbed “an apology tour” to tell users that the company would do a better job of protecting their data.

The California firm faced other problems when data breaches at the site compromised user information. Other sharp criticism hit Facebook when false reports on its site sparked violence in places like Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Using social media to sow division

“Are America’s technology companies serving as instruments of freedom?” asked Kevin McCarthy, R-California and the House Majority Leader during a congressional hearing. “Or are they serving as instruments of manipulation used by powerful interests and foreign governments to rob the people of their power, agency, and dignity?”

Adding to concerns, the year saw new revelations of foreign operatives using social media to secretly spread divisive and often bogus messages in the U.S. and worldwide.

“It doesn’t matter to whose benefit they were operating,” said Walt Mossberg, a former tech columnist with the Wall Street Journal. “What bothers people here is that a foreign country, using our social networks, digital products and services that we have come to feel comfortable in … has come in and used that against us.”

Tech workers stand up

In addition to data privacy and misinformation, online speech became a big issue this year. Under pressure, social media companies like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook’s Instagram tightened restrictions on the kinds of speech they tolerate on their sites.

Tech workers pressed managers about their company’s government contracts, and Google workers staged a worldwide walkout over the treatment of female colleagues.

The issue of user data has led some companies such as LatticeWork, a data storage firm, to create new ways for users to protect their data and themselves. Playing off people’s concerns about data, LatticeWorks markets its products as a way to “bring your data home.”

#DeleteFacebook?

What’s unclear however is whether concerns about personal data and tech company decisions will spur users to leave these services. Facebook revelations prompted some like Mossberg to give up Facebook and its other services such as Instagram. He wants federal law to limit U.S. internet firms collection and use of user data.

“Governments and citizens of countries around the world need the right to regulate them without closing down free speech,” he said. “And that’s tricky.”

Some congressional members have vowed to pass a federal data privacy bill in the coming year, something that tech firms say they support.

But whether new regulations build trust in digital services remains to be seen. (VOA)

Transmongolian: The Beauty Queen Breaking Barriers

ULAN BATOR, LELEMUKU.COM - Make-up artist Solongo Batsukh braves Mongolia's below-freezing temperatures in just a skimpy black dress and light pastel pink coat -- the country's trailblazing transgender beauty queen wants to look good in any weather.

"I don't like to look puffy," the 25-year-old said as she drove to a beauty salon that hired her to promote its products and services via Facebook live videos.

It's with this typical bluntness, confidence and attitude that taboo-breaking Batsukh strutted into the country's first ever Miss Universe Mongolia competition in October.

Though she fell short of representing her country at the Miss Universe contest in Thailand on December 17, her participation shed another light onto a group living on the edges of a deeply patriarchal country with conservative views about sexual orientation.

Had she won, she would have joined Miss Spain's Angela Ponce as the first transgender contestants in Miss Universe's 66-year history.

"I wanted to inspire as many women as possible," Batsukh told AFP.

"But I'm still proud that I got the chance to compete in this contest, and the 'Solongo' I created was a true winner in my heart," she said.

Her participation didn't please everyone, dredging up negative reactions on social media.

"The world would have a negative image of our country if a man represents us while there are thousands of beautiful and real women in our country," one person wrote on the Facebook page of Miss Universe Mongolia.

'Correct misunderstandings'

But Batsukh isn't deterred by such abuse.

Born Bilguun Batsukh, she grew up as a boy in the semi-arid central province of Dundgovi.

She couldn't pinpoint her gender identity until she learned about different gender orientations as a university student in her early 20s.

It was when she started working as a program officer at Youth for Health, a non-governmental organization that provides safe-sex education for LGBT people, that she realized she was a woman born in a man's body.

She started wearing wigs, putting on dresses and taking hormone therapy.

Batsukh is among the few LGBT people who have dared to come out in Mongolia, where some 80 percent of the community remain in the closet, according to a UN survey.

"It is extremely difficult for transgender people to be employed," said Baldangombo Altangerel, legal program manager at the LGBT Centre.

A video of a young transgender woman who had repeatedly been beaten in the streets went viral in Mongolia last year, highlighting the prejudices LGBT people face.

Batsukh wants to dispel the image that transgender women can only be sex workers or strippers living on the fringes of society.

She flaunts her wealth, regularly travels abroad and is a celebrity in her country of three million people.

Batsukh found fame in 2014, when she represented Mongolia in Miss International Queen, finishing in the top 10 of the international transgender beauty pageant organized in Thailand.

She pursued a modelling career and became a make-up artist.

"I had to reveal myself (as transgender) so I could correct the misunderstandings in society. If we keep hidden, society will keep on hating us. They don't know us," she said.

Batsukh has used her public image to speak up on television and social media, fighting against perceptions that transgender people are suffering from mental illness.

But she has tough words for Mongolia's transgender community, too, complaining that they should focus on working rather than talking about human rights.

"Instead of saying 'we're human like everyone else', we need to prove ourselves through our actions. Just show others that we're making a living like ordinary people," she said.

'Her goals inspire me'

Batsukh is seizing on the popularity of her Facebook page, which has more than 120,000 "likes", to create a reality show featuring women seeking a makeover.

The beauty queen will help the women lose weight, change hairstyles and apply make-up.

Sarangoo Sukhbaatar, 25, who works in a cashmere company and was among 25 women competing to be among the five participants, said she trusted in Batsukh's ability and skills to transform her looks.

"Solongo truly understands what women feel," said Sukhbaatar, who started following Batsukh on social media two years ago.

"Her goals and patience inspire me," she said. "If a man can be beautiful like her, women can be much more beautiful than we are today." (VOA)

UK Finds Another 9 Migrants Trying to Enter by Boat

LONDON, LELEMUKU.COM - British officials say nine migrants have been detained on a beach in southeastern England after crossing the English Channel in a small inflatable boat.

The Home Office said Thursday the group comprises five men, one woman, two boys and a girl.

They were intercepted in the English coastal county of Kent by the local lifeboat station.

Manager Matt Crittenden says the inflatable had a very small 10-horsepower engine.

A further rescue operation was also underway after up to eight people were believed to have been spotted on an inflatable vessel near another English coast.

This latest attempt to enter England comes after at least 43 migrants, tried to cross the English Channel on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

There has been a surge in small boat crossings recently. (VOA)

Alexander Lukashenko's Remarks Upstage Sensitive Kremlin Talks

MOSCOW, LELEMUKU.COM - Less than a day before arriving in Moscow to salvage frayed ties with his Russian counterpart, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he no longer considers Russia a "brotherly nation."

According to a television broadcast by Belsat, a Belarus-focused satellite channel headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, Lukashenko told a Monday Cabinet session that he no longer considered Minsk's longtime regional ally a fraternal state "because I was informed that Russia is not receptive to it."

News of Lukashenko's comments, which were prompted by Russia's refusal to provide financial compensation for changes to recently implemented export fees, filtered into the Kremlin midday Tuesday, just hours before he was set to head into a closed door meeting with President Vladimir Putin to discuss a range of topics aimed at improving bilateral cooperation.

Less than an hour before the high-level talks kicked off - their 12th face-to-face meeting this year - Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov countered Lukashenko's comments by declaring a "loss of trust lately" with Moscow's closest historical ally.

"We don't trust the work of your customs," Siluanov was quoted as telling an informal press gaggle in the Kremlin.

Bilateral ties faltered after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, which Lukashenko called "a bad precedent," likely because the small former Soviet republic, which does not being to the European Union or NATO, is economically dependent on Moscow for trade, natural gas and other natural resources.

Diplomatic relations have been further strained by accusations of what Belarus calls artificially inflated taxes on oil and gas, while Russia has repeatedly expressed concerns about customs violations.

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have a duty-free arrangement under which Moscow sends crude and oil products to Minsk with no export fee. Belarus then re-exports some of those goods, pocketing the associated charges.

Russia has used cheap energy exports and loans to Belarus as a way of keeping its former Soviet neighbor in Moscow's geopolitical orbit, but the arrangement has become harder to sustain as Russia's budget tightens, partially as a result of Western sanctions.

Russia also has accused Belarus of skimming payments on Russian duties by exporting gasoline and other oil products under the guise of aftermarket oil-based products, such as solvents and commercial chemicals.

Russia unexpectedly refused a request from Belarus for $310 million in compensation from a 2018 change in Russian oil taxes, Belarus's deputy prime minister, Igor Lyashenko, told Reuters last week.

The Russian government in June approved changes in oil taxes that will see oil export duties being gradually cut over the next six years; but, as a result, Belarus believes it could lose $10.8 billion by 2024.

Finance Minister Siluanov said Russia never promised any compensation to Belarus over the tax changes.

"We consider such changes, including the tax maneuver in the oil and gas sector, as an internal matter of the Russian Federation," he said.

According to The Moscow Times, the ongoing tensions didn't stop the men from shaking hands before Tuesday's meeting, where Lukashenko called on Putin to "not to drag old disputes into the new year."

"Overall, I believe our relations have been developing quite well," Putin said upon opening the meeting, according to an official Kremlin press statement.

"Of course there are some problems, which is natural given the scope of our interaction," Putin added, saying that both sides had come well prepared to address the most pressing issue - energy relations. "I suggest we listen to both sides even if we fail to reach any agreement," he said. (VOA/Reuters)

Christmas Revived in an Assyrian Village Devastated by Islamic State Group

DAMASCUS, LELEMUKU.COM - The one family still living in a Christian village devastated by Islamic State is working to revive Christmas traditions that have brought at least a few of its people home for the holiday.

Tel Nasri was one of dozens of Assyrian Christian villages in northern Syria targeted by the jihadist group when it was near the peak of its power. They blew up its 80-year-old church on an Easter Sunday and abducted hundreds of people.

Kurdish forces and local fighters seized the village a few months later, in May 2015, but nobody has returned.

“I was born and raised in Tel Nasri, I’m still here and I’m staying,” said Sargon Slio, 51, a farmer who stayed on with only his brother and two cousins. Before the fighting, the village was home to nearly 1,000 people, he said.

Some 265 Assyrians were kidnapped from Tel Nasri, Slio said, and on their release, like the rest of the villagers, they fled.

“There used to be hundreds of people celebrating. You’d see dancing and hear singing. Everyone decorated the houses and Christmas trees,” Slio said. “Now we are four people.”

His mother, Zekta Benjamin, 73, has returned from Belgium for Christmas - the second time since she left in 2015. Another relative has come from Australia.

“I miss a lot the life of the village and my neighbors and relatives and everything in this place,” said the mother of 11, most of whom now are in Europe and the United States.

Along with his relatives, Slio tends to farms and makes repairs to a small church. He runs the abandoned village as part of a committee to protect the properties of minorities, which the Kurdish-led authority in the north set up.

“Being here in the village ... it’s my moral duty to protect these homes as much as I can,” he said.

He hopes to get funding from Syria’s Assyrian Church and aid agencies to rebuild the big 80-year-old church of the Virgin Mary which the militants leveled.

He is also trying to encourage others to come home.

“These are our families, our loved ones ... They say when the region becomes stable, we will all return.” (VOA)

Sudanese Protesters Dispersed After Week of Rallies

KHARTOUM, LELEMUKU.COM - At least three Sudanese protesters were wounded by gunshots Tuesday when security forces dispersed rallies in the capital, witnesses said, after a week of demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir's three-decade rule.

A witness said security forces barred protesters at one location in Khartoum from marching on the presidential palace by firing tear gas and shots in the air.

Three witnesses told Reuters that three protesters had been wounded by gunshots, one of them in the head.

A police spokesman was not available to comment.

Officials have previously said the security forces exercised restraint and dealt with the protesters in a "civilized manner."

Officials and witnesses previously said at least 12 people hadbeen killed in the unrest so far. Amnesty International said Tuesday that at least 37 people had died.

Economic bind

Rising prices, shortages of basic commodities and a cash crisis have driven protesters to the streets across Sudan to demonstrate against al-Bashir, who took power in a military coup backed by Islamists in 1989.

Protesters, whogathered at several locations across Khartoum on Tuesday to march on the palace, have previously targeted offices of the ruling party, torching several of them.

Al-Bashir, one of the longest-serving rulers in Africa and the Middle East, told a rally in central Jazeera state on Tuesday that people who had destroyed institutions and burned public property were "traitors" and "mercenaries."

Three witnesses, one of them a doctor who has been offering medical support to the protesters, said three people were wounded by bullets.

"Three guys were shot next to me — one in the neck, one in the chestand one in the head," one of the witnesses said by telephone, asking not to identified.

Since the demonstrations started spreading on Dec. 19, police have dispersed protesters with tear gas and sometimes used live ammunition, residents say.

The authorities have shuttered schools and declared curfews and a state of emergency in several regions.

Journalists at the daily Al-Sudanisaid one of their colleagues was beaten by security forces after protesters passed next to the independent newspaper's offices. (VOA)

Scandal-Plagued Facebook Goes on Charm Offensive in Vietnam

HANOI, LELEMUKU.COM - Before Facebook, Vu Kim Chi thought something was lacking in her job, which is to promote the economy in and around Vietnam's famed Ha Long Bay. Posting updates to her department's website, or photocopying missives to send to constituents, she said, was mostly one-sided.

But after she set up an official Facebook page for Quang Ninh province, the conversations started to flow in both directions, between Chi and the local residents or businesses. That's why, when it comes to social media, she thinks more civil servants need to catch up with the rest of the country.

"Social media, especially the Facebook application, is really used a lot in Vietnam," said Chi, who is deputy head of the province's investment promotion and support office. "But for public agencies that use it as a tool to interact with people and businesses, it's still not necessarily used a lot."

Facebook on charm offensive

Even as governments around the world are demanding more accountability and transparency from Facebook, public officials in Vietnam are looking for more ways to use the website. And Facebook is happy to oblige.

The company is on something of a charm offensive in Vietnam, where it has roughly 42 million members, nearly half the country. Besides sending top officials to visit Vietnam last year, Facebook has been instructing small businesses on how to sell their products on the site, and now it is giving civil servants like Chi advice for engaging with the public.

The chance to win some good will in Vietnam comes at a time when pressures are piling up on Facebook both inside the country and abroad. Globally, it has been accused of complicity in plots to convince voters to vote for Brexit or for candidate Donald Trump, as well as in what the United Nations calls ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. The company reportedly paid for research that could damage its critics' and competitors' reputations, as well as gave users' data to dozens of other firms without consent.

New cyber law

In Vietnam, the government told advertisers to boycott Facebook and other sites in response to users' postings that criticized the one-party state. Next month, the country will enact a cyber law requiring firms to store data domestically, which Facebook opposes.

But those troubles were not front and center at a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City this month where a company representative gave bureaucrats tips on making a Facebook page.

"We have to understand and put more attention to the social aspect of the platform," said Noudhy Valdryno, who handles government outreach for Facebook. "That means you have to understand your followers, who are they, where do they live, what are their interests? Then you can formulate an accurate strategy to engage with your followers."

The workshop included suggestions for government officials, such as posting updates on Facebook at regular intervals, shooting videos vertically to retain the attention of mobile users, and encouraging conversations among followers on the page.

Tech companies welcome

The event was an example of how Vietnamese officials are open to working with the tech company. It is so ubiquitous in the Southeast Asian country that when Vietnamese people say "social media" they mean Facebook, and when asked what newspapers they read, they give the answer: Facebook.

"What we're talking about is effective use of technology in this day and age to achieve our goals," said Le Quoc Cuong, vice director of the Ho Chi Minh City department of information and communications. "What we're looking for is being effective, being engaging and enhancing cooperation between the government and the people."

Chi says more Facebook data would help her better engage with residents around Quang Ninh, a northeastern province that hugs the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Chinese border on another. She would like regular reports, perhaps every month, with information to help analyze the province's fan page, from key words to number of "likes." So as many people worldwide have begun to decry tech companies for abusing and cashing in on users' data, there are those who still continue to see untapped potential in gathering further data. (VOA)

Iraqi Christians Celebrate Christmas One Year after Islamic State Defeat

BAGHDAD, LELEMUKU.COM - Iraqi Christians quietly celebrated Christmas on Tuesday amid improved security, more than a year after the country declared victory over Islamic State militants who threatened to end their 2,000-year history in Iraq.

Christianity in Iraq dates back to the first century of the Christian era, when the apostles Thomas and Thaddeus are believed to have preached the Gospel on the fertile flood plains of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

Iraq is home to many different eastern rite churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, traditionally a sign of the country's ethnic and religious diversity.
But war and sectarian conflict shrank Iraq's Christian population from 1.5 million to about 400,000 after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Following the onslaught of Islamic State in 2014 and the brutal three-year war that followed their numbers have fallen further, though it is not known exactly by how much.

In Baghdad, Christians celebrated mass on Tuesday morning – declared a national holiday by government -- in churches decorated for Christmas. Once fearful, they said they were now hopeful, since conditions had improved.

"Of course we can say the security situation is better than in previous years," said Father Basilius, leader of the St. George Chaldean Church in Baghdad where more than a hundred congregants attended Christmas mass.

"We enjoy security and stability mainly in Baghdad. In addition, Daesh was beaten," he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Iraq declared victory over the militants more than a year ago, but the damage done to Christian enclaves on the Nineveh Plains has been extensive.
In Qaraqosh, a town also known as Hamdaniya which lies 15 km(10 miles) west of Mosul, the damage is still visible.

At the city's Immaculate Church, which belongs to the Syrian Catholic denomination and has not yet been rebuilt since the militants set it on fire in 2014, Christians gathered for midnight mass on Monday, surrounded by blackened walls still tagged with Islamic State graffiti.

Dozens of worshipers prayed and received communion, and then gathered around the traditional bonfire in the church's courtyard.

Before the militant onslaught, Qaraqosh was the largest Christian settlement in Iraq, with a population of more than 50,000. But today only a few hundred families have returned.

Faced with a choice to convert, pay a tax or die, many Christians in the Nineveh Plains fled to nearby towns and cities and some eventually moved abroad.

Some have since returned, Father Butros said, adding: "We hope that all displaced families will return." (VOA)

Prayers for Sunda Strait Tsunami Victims Replace Christmas Celebrations

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - Christmas celebrations traditionally filled with laughter and uplifting music were replaced by somber prayers for tsunami victims in an area hit without warning following a volcanic eruption, leaving more than 420 people dead and thousands homeless in disaster-prone Indonesia.

Pastor Markus Taekz said Tuesday that his Rahmat Pentecostal Church in the hard-hit area of Carita did not celebrate with joyous songs this year. Instead, only about 100 people showed up for the Christmas Eve service, which usually brings in double that number. Many congregation members had already left the area for the capital, Jakarta, or other locations away from the disaster zone.

"This is an unusual situation because we have a very bad disaster that killed hundreds of our sisters and brothers in Banten," Taekz said, referring to the province on Java island. "So our celebration is full of grief."

Church leaders called on Christians across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, to pray for victims of the tsunami.

The death toll climbed to 429 on Tuesday, with more than 1,400 people injured and at least 128 missing after the tsunami in the Sunda Strait slammed into parts of western Java and southern Sumatra islands on Saturday night, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia's Disaster Mitigation Agency.

He said more than 16,000 people were displaced and that there was an urgent need for heavy equipment in the Sumur subdistrict, a remote area near Ujung Kulon National Park that experienced heavy damage. Some villages there have been cut off due to damaged roads and bridges, making it difficult to supply aid and reach people who may be injured or trapped.

Unlike most tsunamis, this time there was no large earthquake to warn people to run to higher ground before the waves arrived. Instead, an eruption of the infamous volcanic island Anak Krakatau appears to have triggered a landslide on its slope, which then sent displaced seawater racing.

Residents remained jittery and fearful of lingering near the coast. In at least two separate areas Tuesday, panicked residents ran toward higher ground because they believed another tsunami was coming.

People in Sumur remained stunned by how quickly the tsunami hit without warning. Sumur beach, located just a few kilometers (miles) from the tourist island of Umang near Java's western tip, is popular for snorkeling and other water activities. The tsunami clobbered the area, ripping houses from their foundations and bulldozing concrete buildings.

Scientists have said the tsunami's waves were recorded in several places at about 1 meter (3.3 feet) high, but villagers in Sumur insisted they were more than 3 meters (10 feet) high there. They said a soaring white wall of water roared forward at high speeds, ripping trees out of the ground by their roots.
Tati Hayati, a housewife, said she was enjoying the full moon near the beach with 10 other people when the disaster hit.

"There was no sign of a tsunami when we were at the beach. The sea didn't recede," she recalled. "It was calm and bright with the full moon."

When she spotted high, fast-moving waves launching toward the shore, she ran to her car and managed to get inside. But she couldn't outrun it. The car was struck by three waves, breaking out the back window and filling the vehicle with gushing water.

"We were locked inside. The car was swaying in the waves and we thought we would all die," she said. "We almost could not breathe and I almost gave up when I groped the key in the water and managed to open the door, and the water began to recede. We got out of the car and ran to safety."

Military troops, government personnel and volunteers continued searching along debris-strewn beaches. Yellow, orange and black body bags were laid out where victims were found, and weeping relatives identified the dead. Many searched for missing loved ones at hospital morgues.

The lead singer of the Indonesian pop band Seventeen located the body of his dead wife after posting emotional posts on social media, vowing that he would not leave her. The group was performing at a beach hotel when the tsunami was captured on video smashing into their stage, killing several band members and crew.

The waves followed an eruption and apparent landslide on Anak Krakatau, or "Child of Krakatoa," a volcanic island that formed in the early part of the 20th century near the site of the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who faces what promises to be a tough re-election campaign next year, vowed to have all tsunami-detection equipment replaced or repaired.

Nugroho, the disaster agency spokesman, acknowledged on Twitter that the country's network of detection buoys had been out of order since 2012 because of vandalism and budget shortfalls.

But the head of Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, Dwikorita Karnawati, said the tsunami was likely caused by Krakatau's volcanic activity and so could not have been picked up by the agency's sensors, which monitor conventional earthquakes responsible for more than 90 percent of Indonesia's tsunamis.

Karnawati said the tsunami was probably caused by the collapse of a big section of the volcano's slope. Anak Krakatau has been erupting since June and did so again 24 minutes before the tsunami, the geophysics agency said. Other scientists have said an underwater landslide may also have contributed to the disaster.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and home to 260 million people, lies along the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

The massive eruption of Krakatoa killed more than 30,000 people and hurled so much ash that it turned day to night in the area and reduced global temperatures.

Just this past September, thousands were believed killed by a quake and tsunami that hit Indonesia's Sulawesi island. A quake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people in August.

Saturday's disaster came ahead of the anniversary of the massive Asian tsunami that hit Dec. 26, 2004, after a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island spawned huge waves. The giant wall of water killed some 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia. (VOA)

Caracas AM Danza, Disabled Venezuelans Reach New Heights Through Dance

CARACAS, LELEMUKU.COM - A stray bullet crushed Iraly Yanez’s aspirations of becoming a professional dancer eight years ago as it ruptured two of her vertebrae and left her paraplegic.

But now the young Venezuelan dancer is pursuing her lifelong passion in a wheelchair — and hoping to put her career back on track — thanks to a contemporary dance company that is helping disabled people perform.

Caracas based AM Danza works with 50 young Venezuelans who are pursuing their passion for dance despite limitations like broken spines, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome or blindness.

Yanez, 34, joined the group three months ago and recently performed in her wheelchair in an emotional hour-long show that the dance troupe put together for its followers.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime” Yanez said after the contemporary dance review, “Ubuntu,” was held in one of the Venezuelan capital’s most prestigious theatres. “I can’t allow external issues to affect me any longer.”

During the show, disabled dancers performed alongside fully abled professional dancers to demonstrate that art knows no barriers. Some members of the audience shed tears.

Dancers with limited mobility in their legs lifted their crutches in the air in unison. A dancer hoisted Yanez from her wheelchair and lifted her above her shoulders to perform complex moves.

“Dancing is all about passion” said AM Danza’s director, Alexander Madriz. “You have to enjoy your possibilities and use your body to express emotions.”

Madriz has worked for two decades with dancers who have disabilities and says that thanks to them he has learned that corporal expression has no limits.

“Not everything has to be the perfect lines and symmetry that you see in contemporary classical dance” he said.

Madriz, 47, said that the students’ love for dance has helped them overcome the numerous obstacles faced by disabled people in Venezuela, where public transport is still mostly inaccessible to people on wheelchairs and ramps on sidewalks and public buildings are few and far between.

In addition, like everyone else in Venezuela, they have to cope with rampant medical shortages and hyperinflation that has devastated their incomes.

Yanez says that on weekdays she can spend up to three hours waiting for one of the few wheelchair-friendly buses that pass through her humble neighborhood in the suburbs of Caracas to take her to AM’s dance studio.

But that doesn’t seem to diminish her will to train.

She said that the dance company has allowed her to come to terms with the accident that changed her life and make feel like she can now “fly through the sky.”

The ballerina was hit by a stray bullet on New Year’s eve in 2010 as she entered her home in a crime-ridden slum. That was the end of her dancing until she joined AM Danza in September.

As 2018 comes to a close, Yanez says she is looking forward to participating in more performances.

In the kitchen of her small apartment, she glanced at a drawing of dancers posted on the refrigerator by her 10-year-old niece, who also now practices ballet.

“She’s one of the reasons that I am keeping up my struggle” Yanez said. “I see her, and I also see myself.” (VOA)

Clashes Erupt in Khartoum as Sudanese March on Presidential Palace

KHARTOUM, LELEMUKU.COM - Clashes erupted Tuesday in the Sudanese capital between police and thousands of protesters attempting to march on the presidential palace to demand that President Omar Bashir step down, according to activists and video clips posted online.

The clips purported to show crowds of several hundred each gathering on side roads and headed toward the palace on the bank of the Blue Nile in the heart of Khartoum. They sang patriotic songs and chanted "Peaceful, peaceful against the thieves" and "The people want to bring down the regime." The latter was the most popular slogan of the 2010 and 2011 Arab Spring revolts.

Large numbers of security forces were deployed across much of Khartoum Tuesday in anticipation of the march, with soldiers riding in all-terrain vehicles. Police used tear gas to disperse some of the protesters.

The protest was called by an umbrella of independent professional unions and supported by the country's largest political parties, the Umma and Democratic Nationalist. The organizers want to submit a petition demanding that Bashir, in power for 29 years, step down.

Tuesday's march follows nearly a week of protests initially sparked by rising prices and shortages of food and fuel, but which later escalated into calls for Bashir to go. The Sudanese leader was in the al-Jazeera region south of Khartoum on a previously scheduled visit Tuesday. Live TV coverage showed him addressing supporters there.

The petition presented by the protesters demands that he hand over power to a "transitional government of technocrats with a defined mandate agreed upon by all segments of the Sudanese society."

"We are asserting that we will continue to exercise all popular and peaceful options, including general strike and civil disobedience, to bring down the regime," it said.

The march followed a joint statement Monday night by the United States, Britain, Norway and Canada, which said they were concerned by "credible reports" that Sudan's security forces have used live ammunition against demonstrators.

They urged all parties to avoid violence or the destruction of property while affirming the right of the Sudanese people to peacefully protest to express their "legitimate grievances."

The London-based rights group Amnesty International meanwhile said it had "credible reports" that Sudanese police have killed 37 protesters in clashes during the anti-government demonstrations.

An opposition leader said over the weekend that 22 protesters were killed. The government has acknowledged fatalities without providing any figures.

The military vowed Sunday to rally behind Bashir and emphasized in a statement that it was operating in harmony with the police and Sudan's feared security agencies.

Bashir on Monday said his government would introduce measures to remedy the economy and ``provide citizens with a dignified life.'' He also warned citizens against what he called "rumor mongers."

The protests over the past week have been met with a heavy security crackdown, with authorities arresting more than a dozen opposition leaders, suspending school and university classes, and imposing emergency rule or nighttime curfews in several cities. There has also been a near-total news blackout on the protests.

Bashir, in his mid-70s, seized power in a 1989 military coup that overthrew an elected but ineffective government. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for committing crimes against humanity and genocide in the western Darfur region.

Bashir has ordered the use of force against protesters in the past— including in the last round of unrest in January— successfully crushing them to remain one of the longest-serving leaders in the region. Although his time in power has seen one crisis after another, he is seeking a new term in office, with loyal lawmakers campaigning for constitutional amendments that would allow him to run in the 2020 election.

Sudan lost three quarters of its oil wealth when the mainly animist and Christian south seceded in 2011 after a long and ruinous civil war against the mainly Muslim and Arabized north. More recently, a currency devaluation caused prices to surge and a liquidity crunch forced the government to limit bank withdrawals, leading to long lines outside ATMs. (VOA)

Thailand's Legislature Legalizes Medical Use of Marijuana

BANGKOK, LELEMUKU.COM - Thailand’s legislature on Tuesday agreed to amend the country’s drug law to allow the licensed medical use of marijuana, as well as kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller.

Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to take such action, which is also under consideration in neighboring Malaysia. New Zealand’s government earlier this month enacted a law liberalizing the medical use of marijuana, which had previously been tightly restricted.

The Thai legislation passed its final reading at the National Legislative Assembly by a vote of 166-0 with 13 abstentions.

The changes, which become law when published in the Royal Gazette, legalize the production, import, export, possession and use of marijuana and kratom products for medical purposes.

Purveyors, producers and researchers will need licenses to handle the drugs, while end-users will need prescriptions.

Recreational use of the drugs remains illegal and subject to prison terms and fines commensurate with the quantities involved.

Public hearings showed overwhelming support for the measure.

The bill introducing the legislative changes had noted that recent studies have shown that marijuana extract has medicinal benefits, which has prompted “many countries around the world to ease their laws by enacting legal amendments to allow their citizens to legally use kratom and marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes.”

It added that despite being classified as an illegal drug, many patients have used marijuana to treat their diseases. (VOA)

Martha Erika Alonso and Rafael Moreno Killed in Helicopter Crash Near Puebla

MEXICO CITY, LELEMUKU.COM - A Mexican governor and her senator husband were killed on Monday in a helicopter crash near the city of Puebla in central Mexico, the government said, just days after she had taken office following a bitterly contested election.

Martha Erika Alonso, a senior opposition figure and governor of the state of Puebla, died with Rafael Moreno, a senator and former Puebla governor, when their Agusta helicopter came down on Monday afternoon shortly after take-off, the government said.

Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said the privately owned helicopter was bound for Mexico City and crashed after suffering an unspecified failure in the town of Santa Maria Coronango, about three nautical miles from Puebla airport.

"At this point, there's no evidence that could lead us to conclude that the cause was not related to how the [helicopter] was functioning," Durazo told a news conference.

Alongside the politicians were Captain Roberto Cope and first officer Marco Antonio Tavera, and it is presumed there was a fifth passenger, Durazo said, without giving more details.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Twitter that his government would investigate the accident. Durazo said that the authorities had been in touch with the helicopter and engine manufacturers, who will be at the scene on Tuesday. "We will act with total transparency," he said.

Television images showed the remains of an aircraft in flames, a plume of smoke and people inspecting the scene.

Alonso, from the center-right National Action Party (PAN), took office this month after winning a bad-tempered contest in July. Lopez Obrador's leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) accused her of stealing the election.

Moreno was governor of Puebla between 2011 and 2017 and headed the PAN in the Senate.

An electoral tribunal validated the Puebla result only this month, and opposition politicians called for an independent investigation into the crash due to the charged atmosphere.

Vicente Fox, a former Mexican president and longtime critic of Lopez Obrador, told local television he was troubled by the timing of the accident after the electoral dispute. "Every single doubt must be cleared up," he said.

MORENA and its allies hold a majority in the state congress.

For now, Puebla's interior minister Jesus Rodriguez will be interim governor before elections are held within five months, the Puebla government said.

A number of Mexican politicians have died in aircraft accidents in recent years, including federal interior ministers in 2008 and 2011. The latter two were also members of the PAN. (VOA)

Kevin Spacey to Face Charge in Sexual Assault of Teen at Nantucket

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM  - Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey is facing a felony charge for allegedly sexually assaulting the teenage at a Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States restaurant more than two years ago.

The Oscar-winning actor is set to be arraigned on a charge of indecent assault and battery on January 7.

In November last year, Boston-based news anchor Heather Unruh held a news conference to share her son's allegation of sexual assault against Spacey.

She said her then-18-year-old son was was sexually assaulted by Spacey in a late-night encounter at the Club Car restaurant and bar in Nantucket on July 7, 2016. She said her son didn't report the assault right away because he was embarrassed.

On Monday, soon after the charge became public, Spacey posted a video on YouTube titled "Let Me Be Frank,'' breaking his year-long silence on the accusation.

On the video, Spacey delivers a monologue in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflix's House of Cards, who was written off the show after the sexual misconduct allegations emerged.

He tells his audience, "``Of course some believed everything and have just been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all, they're just dying to have me declare that everything they said is true and I got what I deserved. ... I'm certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn't do.''

It is unclear whether Spacey is referring to the charge he faces.

Spacey is also being investigated for an alleged assault in Los Angeles in 2016. He had also faced accusations of sexual misconduct while he was the artistic director of London's Old Vic Theatre. (VOA)

Zainab Sesay Reconnects with Stranger Who Brought Her Daughter from Sierra Leone to US 15 Years Ago

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - Zainab Sesay wasn’t afraid of adventure. Born in Sierra Leone, she immigrated to the United States when she was 11. But she always felt a connection to her homeland and the family she left behind.

In 2003, she decided to return. Leaving the U.S. wouldn’t be easy. Zainab had a career. Friends. A family.

“I was working with Northrop Grumman at the time,” she told VOA. It was the best company she would ever work for. She was in her mid-twenties and had a good life. But something was missing.

So she gave up what she knew.

“It was a very daring move, to say the least,” Zainab said.

She had another reason to return to her home. Zainab wanted to reconnect with her grandmother, and she wanted Maya, her 5-year-old daughter, to meet her.

“The trip was solely to take her back to learn of my heritage and my background,” Zainab said.

So the two boarded a plane and, with no planned return date, left the lives they knew behind.

A difficult adjustment

The transition wasn’t easy.

It was Maya’s first experience in such an unfamiliar place. And Zainab wasn’t prepared for how much her country of birth had changed.

But the pair adjusted.

Suddenly, five months into their stay, Maya and Zainab’s adventure took an unexpected turn.

Maya had a medical emergency and needed to be flown back to the United States, immediately, to see a pediatrician. Zainab couldn’t accompany her on such short notice, but she was determined to get Maya to the U.S.

Any state would do — Zainab’s mother and then-fiancé could travel anywhere to pick Maya up.

The catch was finding a trusted adult to accompany her.

Many airlines allow children as young as 5 to fly unaccompanied, but they often require itineraries for direct, nonstop flights.

Getting Maya to America wouldn’t be so straightforward. Zainab needed a passenger’s help.

At Lungi International Airport, Zainab approached strangers. “Is anyone traveling to America? Can my daughter accompany you?” Zainab pleaded.

Everyone said no.

Eventually, Zainab talked to a representative with Brussels Airlines.

“Is there a passenger my daughter can travel with?”

At first the agent didn’t answer. Disclosing that information was against policy.

Sensing Zainab wouldn’t relent, she motioned to a 29-year-old American sitting nearby, with a warning: He’s traveling to the U.S., the agent told Zainab, but he’s probably not in the best emotional state to chaperone a minor.

But Zainab was desperate.

“So I walked over, looking quite distraught. And as I approached this gentleman, he looked more distraught than I did.”

Bad news

Tom Perriello had seen humanity at its worst.

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, he attended Yale and, after earning his Juris Doctor degree, traveled to Sierra Leone, where he worked for the prosecutor on the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

The tribunal had been established in Freetown, in 2002, to oversee prosecutions of individuals accused of war crimes. The country had suffered terribly during a brutal, decade-long civil war.

On this day, Tom was mourning a personal setback. He had received bad news from the U.S.: His maternal grandmother, his only living grandparent, had died.

He was traveling home to attend her funeral.

Suddenly, a woman appeared in front of him.

He looked up.

“This is going to be by far the most insane question you have ever received,” she said. “Could you please travel with my daughter? I need to urgently get her back to the States to my mother.”

Tom was skeptical. Trafficking scams weren’t uncommon. And that was the last thing he wanted to be caught up in at this moment.

He declined and explained the reasons for his travels.

But the woman continued pleading.

He looked at the mother and her daughter. He knew this wasn’t a trick. They needed him.

He agreed to help.

‘I was freaking out’

Zainab’s frenetic state began to settle as she watched Tom and Maya board the plane.

“I stood by, watched that flight leave and realized, oh my god, I don’t even know this guy. I didn’t take any of his information. I had no clue of how to reach him.”

Her thinking was clouded, but there was no way to take back her actions now.

“And that was the last I saw of him.”

Around 2:30 a.m. the next morning, Zainab awoke to a frantic call from the United States.

It was her mother, and she had upsetting news.

In Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire, Tom and Maya had been stopped.

Tom didn’t have proper documentation, Zainab’s mother explained, and he couldn’t continue to travel with Maya. He had 24 hours to prove he was allowed to accompany her; otherwise, she’d be returned to Sierra Leone, undoing Zainab’s risky plan.

The paperwork they wanted was straightforward. But in Sierra Leone, Zainab had no access to faxes or email. But Maya’s grandmother was able to procure the paperwork from the U.S., and she sent a letter to appease the airline.

Zainab was horrified.

“I was freaking out,” she said. She couldn’t sleep as she waited for a call back.

Hours later, the ordeal ended as quickly as it began.

Zainab’s mother called with good news: Maya and Tom were allowed to continue.

They left Africa and made it all the way to Dulles International Airport, in Virginia, where Zainab’s mom drove to pick up Maya.

Tom dropped her off, and Zainab’s mom gave him a hug before he walked out of their lives.

‘Beyond any human being I’ve met’

Zainab never knew the name of the man who helped her daughter. Over time, his face faded from memory. She wanted to reconnect, but she had no leads to follow.

“It’s as if I was searching for an unknown person,” she said.

The years passed, and Zainab and Maya re-established their lives in the U.S.

Tom’s career as a politician, diplomat and advocate flourished. He became a U.S. Congressman in 2009, serving Virginia’s 5th district. He’s now the executive director of the Open Society Foundations’ U.S. Programs.

“He is, by far, beyond any human being I’ve met,” Zainab said.

Maya flourished, too, and now lives in California. She shared her story on Twitter this month, and talked about the recent reunification.

It was just this month that Zainab learned Tom’s identity. Both sides had told their story to friends and colleagues. Eventually, a shared connection put them in touch.

In a recent letter, Tom told Zainab details she never knew such as the songs he sung to Maya while they traveled together. And, how he missed his connection after landing at Dulles International Airport, in Virginia, never making it to his grandmother’s funeral.

“I was so saddened,” Zainab said, learning about his sacrifice.

“He is a godsend to me and my family.”

For Tom, the reunion couldn’t be happier.

“It was a tremendously challenging journey,” he recently told VOA. “And I’m really glad that it worked out well then — even more ecstatic to know we were able to be back in touch.”

Tom and Zainab have communicated in recent weeks. But they haven’t met face-to-face since their fateful encounter at Lungi International Airport 15 years ago.

“I can’t stop thanking him. I want the opportunity to be able to hug this person, just to hold him. To feel him in the flesh. It’s just been this ghost of a person, 15 years. I want to just hug him, hug him tightly. And thank him.” (VOA)

Pope Urge To Forgo Greed and Gluttony of Christmas for Simple Love

VATICAN, LELEMUKU.COM - Pope Francis urged Christians on Monday to forgo the greed, gluttony and materialism of Christmas and to focus instead on its message of simplicity, charity and love.

Francis celebrated a Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, opening a busy week for the pope that includes a Christmas Day message and blessing, a Dec. 26 prayer, New Year’s Eve vespers and a Jan. 1 Mass.

During his homily Monday, Francis lamented that many people find their life’s meaning in possessions when the biblical story of Christ’s birth emphasizes that God appeared to people who were poor when it came to earthly possessions, but faithful.

“Standing before the manger, we understand that the food of life is not material riches but love, not gluttony but charity, not ostentation but simplicity,” Francis said, dressed in simple white vestments.

“An insatiable greed marks all human history, even today, when paradoxically a few dine luxuriantly while all too many go without the daily bread needed to survive,” he said.

Francis has focused on the world’s poor and downtrodden, its refugees and marginalized, during his five-year papacy. The Catholic Church’s first pope from Latin American instructed the Vatican to better care for the homeless around Rome, opening a barber shop, shower and medical clinic for them in the embracing colonnade of St. Peter’s Square.

To extend his outreach this Christmas, Francis sent his trusted secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to Iraq to celebrate with the country’s long-suffering Christians.

Catholics are among the religious minorities targeted for Islamic State-inspired violence that has driven tens of thousands from their homes.

Parolin met Monday in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi. He is scheduled in the coming days to travel to northern Iraq to meet with Kurdish leaders in Irbil and to celebrate Mass in Qaraqosh in the Nineveh plains, near Mosul, according to the Vatican.

The Vatican has for years expressed concern about the exodus of Christians from communities that have existed since the time of Jesus, and urged them to return when security conditions permit.

Francis is likely to refer to the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria during his Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” (To the city and the world) speech. He is scheduled to deliver it Tuesday from the loggia of St. Peter’s and again at Mass on New Year’s Day, which the church marks as its world day for peace. (VOA)

Christmas Day Funeral Planned for Guatemalan Migrant Girl, Jakelin Caal

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - Christmas 2018 will be a day of sadness in the tiny Guatemalan village of San Antonio Secortez. It is the day when the family of seven year-old Jakelin Caal will hold her funeral.

Jakelin died earlier this month while in the custody of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol after she crossed into the United States with her father, Nery. They were part of one of the caravans of Central American migrants.

Jakelin's small white coffin arrived at the airport in Guatemala City Sunday and was brought 354 kilometers north to the dirt-poor village.

Among the while balloons and flowers surrounding the casket was a hand-written message to Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales saying "We ask you for jobs, electricity, potable water, roads...so we don't have to emigrate."

Nery Caal entered the U.S. in the hopes of finding work, which does not exist across much of Guatemala.

It is still unclear exactly how Jakelin became ill.

She was apparently well when agents arrested her and her father along with other migrants when they crossed the U.S. border into New Mexico on December 6.

She became sick on the bus ride to a border patrol station and arrived with 41 degree Celsius fever.

Emergency medical teams flew her to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, where she died two days later. Her brain was swollen and her liver had failed.

U.S. agents say the child likely had little to eat and drink before arriving at the U.S. border.

Critics of U.S. immigration policy point to Jakelin's death as an example of the harsh treatment many migrants can expect when they cross the U.S. borders.

President Donald Trump has said all immigrants are welcome to the U.S. but must come to the country legally.(VOA)

Thousands of African Migrants Die Crossing the Sahara Desert

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - New records by the International Organization for Migration find more than 6,600 Africans have died over the past five years, most while crossing the Sahara desert toward Europe. However, the study notes these numbers are “just the tip of the iceberg.”

This year alone, hundreds of eye-witness accounts have confirmed nearly 1,400 migrant deaths on the African continent. But researchers say these numbers represent only a tiny fraction of the overall number of deaths of people on the move in Africa.

The International Organization for Migration reports most of the recorded deaths have occurred in the Sahara Desert, northern Niger, southern Libya, and northern Sudan. It says the migrants use these routes to reach Libya, the gateway to Europe and a hoped-for better life.

IOM spokesman, Joel Millman, says the migratory routes are used by smugglers and traffickers who take advantage of the African migrants they encounter. He says the main causes of recorded migrant deaths in Africa indicate that many are preventable.

“Starvation, dehydration, physical abuse, sickness and lack of access to medicines are causes of death frequently cited by the migrants who reported deaths on routes within Africa," he said. "Involvement with human smugglers and traffickers in human beings can put people in extremely risky situations in which they have little agency to protect themselves, let alone fellow travelers they see being abused.”

While most of the deaths identified are young men, Millman tells VOA hundreds of women and children also are among the victims. He says the survey, which deals with the deaths of migrants, reveals that little support is given to those who have survived the terrible journey.

He says people who have seen their fellow travelers die are severely distressed. He says they experience significant psychosocial stress but receive little help in recovering from the traumatic events. (VOA)

More Than 160 Killed in Lampung and Banten as Tsunami Strikes Sunda Straits

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - A tsunami struck beaches along Indonesia’s Sunda Straits late Saturday local time. The death toll has risen to 168people with about 745 injured, the country’s disaster agency said Sunday.

The casualties occurred in three regions — South Lampung, Lampung Province in Sumatra and the Serang and Pandeglang regions of Banten Province in Java Island, west of the capital Jakarta — along the Sunda Strait, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNBP), said in a statement.

Hundreds of homes, nine hotels and 10 boats were damaged, BNBP said Sunday.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported an eruption of Krakatoa, a local volcano, about 9 p.m. Saturday local time, and the tsunami struck a short time later, about 9:30 p.m.

The cause of the tsunami was the result of a combination of undersea landslides after the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatoa and the tidal wave caused by the full moon,according to BMKG.

The number of casualties is expected to rise because officials have not been able to contact all the areas affected by the tsunami, the statement said. A highway connecting Serang and Pandeglang had also been damaged.

Disaster agency head Endan Permana told local media that many people were missing in tourist locale of Tanjung Lesung, Banten province, near Jakarta, and that police were providing assistance, as emergency workers had not yet arrived in the area, according to Reuters news agency.

On Sept. 28, a quake and tsunami that hit near the city of Palu, on the island of Sulawesi, killed more than 2,500 and displaced about 70,000.

On Dec. 26, 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a tsunami that killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia. (VOA)

Cuban Lawmakers Approved New Constitution; Referendum Next

HAVANA, LELEMUKU.COM - Cuban lawmakers Saturday unanimously approved a revised draft of a new constitution that retains the island’s one-party socialist system but reflects its socio-economic opening since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The draft new constitution, which has 229 articles and will replace a Cold War-era one, will maintain the Communist Party as the country’s guiding force and the state’s dominance of the economy, according to state-run media. A copy has not yet been distributed to the public.

The document, however, also legitimizes private business that has blossomed in the last decade, acknowledges the importance of foreign investment and opens the door to gay marriage, according to state-run media.

It imposes age and term limits on the presidency, after late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul Castro ruled the country for nearly six decades, and introduces the role of a prime minister.

Citizen changes

The current draft incorporates into an original one published in July hundreds of mainly small changes proposed by citizens during a three-month public consultation at community meetings nationwide. It will go to a referendum next Feb. 24.

“This process is a genuine and exceptional demonstration of the practice of power by the people and therefore of the markedly participative and democratic nature of our political system,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel told the national assembly in a speech closing its weeklong, twice-yearly session.

The 58-year-old took office from his mentor Raul Castro in April although the latter remains head of the Communist Party until 2021.

Critics say the fundamentals of Cuba’s system were never up for discussion and the government only included suggestions it wanted to.

Some, including opposition groups that typically do not mobilize many people, are already campaigning against the constitution online using the hashtag #yovotono (“I vote no”).

One of the articles revised regards the accumulation of property. Whereas the first draft originally banned this, the revised constitution simply stipulates that the state must regulate it, according to state-run media.

However the latest draft also reinserts the aim of “advancing towards communism” that was taken out of the first draft.

Marriage

One controversial revision is the elimination of an article that recognized matrimony as the union of two persons as opposed to the union between a man and a woman as in the 1976 constitution.

That article was the one that sparked the most controversy in a society that has made great strides in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in recent years but remains conservative on the topic.

The new draft removes the definition of marriage altogether thus still opening the door to same-sex union albeit not giving it the same symbolic level of backing.

The government has said instead it will update the family code and put it to a referendum in the next two years.

“There is no setback,” wrote Mariela Castro, the daughter of Raul Castro, who has championed LGBT rights in Cuba in recent years, on Facebook.

“The fight continues, let’s give a ‘yes’ to the constitution and then close ranks to achieve a family code as advanced as the new constitutional text.”

She asked for permission to briefly interrupt the assembly meet Saturday to hug her father in an unusual public display of affection within the Castro family, thanking him for his example “as a parent and as a revolutionary,” sparking applause.

Intellectuals angered

Still, the decision to put the family code to a referendum has angered Cuban intellectuals who say fundamental human rights should not be put up for vote. Other laws have not been put to a referendum.

“Equal rights to marriage in Cuba should be a presidential decree, not a referendum that exonerates the state from responsibility and opens the door to conservative homophobia,” said Harold Cardenas, a professor of Marxism and blogger. (VOA)

Simcha Rotem, The Last Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Fighter Dies

WARSAW, LELEMUKU.COM - Simcha Rotem, the last known Jewish fighter from the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, has died. He was 94.

Rotem, who went by the underground nickname “Kazik,” was among the rebels who carried out the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, the Warsaw ghetto uprising symbolized a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other resistance campaigns by Jews and non-Jews alike.

Rotem, who passed away Saturday after a long illness, helped save the last survivors of the uprising by smuggling them out of the burning ghetto through sewage tunnels.

The Jewish fighters fought for nearly a month, fortifying themselves in bunkers and managing to kill 16 Nazis and wound nearly 100.

Six million Jews perished in the Holocaust. (VOA)

Carlos Ghosn Case Shines Light on Japan Justice System

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - Since his arrest on suspicion of falsifying financial reports, Nissan’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn has been sitting in a humble cell for more than a month, interrogated day in and day out, without a lawyer present.

His case is drawing attention to the criminal justice system in Japan, where there is no presumption of innocence and the accused can be held for months before trial. The system, sometimes called “hostage justice,” has come under fire from human rights advocates.

When a court denied Tokyo prosecutors’ request to detain Ghosn another 10 days on Dec. 20, it was so unusual that the Japanese media reported he might be released. But such speculation was dashed when prosecutors rearrested him a day later on suspicion of breach of trust, tagging on a new set of allegations centered on Ghosn’s shifting personal investment losses of some 1.8 billion yen ($16 million) to Nissan Motor Co. On Sunday, a court approved prosecutors’ request to detain him through Jan. 1.

Treatment routine

But his plight is routine in Japan. People have signed confessions, even to killings they never committed, just to get out of the ordeal.

A trial could be months away and could drag on even longer. And his chances aren’t good: The conviction rate in Japan is 99 percent.

Those close to Ghosn and his family say he is asserting his innocence. But it is unclear when release may come for Ghosn, who led a two-decade turnaround at Nissan from near-bankruptcy. Tokyo prosecutors consider Ghosn, a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese ancestry, a flight risk.

'A proper investigation'

Other nations may have legal systems that are criticized as brutal and unfair. The U.S., for instance, has its share of erroneous convictions, police brutality and dubious plea bargains. But, in the U.S., a person is presumed innocent, has the right to have an attorney present and is freed within 72 hours if there is no charge.

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond’s School of Law, said such a longtime detention is highly unusual in the U.S.

“Each time the government reaches a deadline where Ghosn might be released, the government files new allegations and re-arrests,” he said.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Shin Kukimoto said prosecutors are merely doing their job of “trying to carry out a proper investigation.”

When asked by a reporter about “hostage justice,” he replied: “We are not in a position to comment on how the law has been designed.”

Under such a system, those who insist on innocence end up being detained longer. Once the re-arrest processes run out and a suspect is formally charged, bail is technically possible but often denied until the trial starts because of fears about tampered evidence.

Meet Iwao Hakamada

“It is good that the world will learn how wrong Japan’s criminal system is through the case of this famous person. It is something even many Japanese don’t know,” says Seiho Cho, a lawyer in Tokyo and an expert on criminal defense. “Countless people have gone through horrible experiences.”

A famous case is Iwao Hakamada, a professional boxer, who served 48 years in prison, mostly on death row after he signed a confession under questioning and was convicted of killing a family of four. He was freed in 2014 after DNA tests determined blood at the crime scene wasn’t Hakamada’s, and a court ruled police had likely planted evidence. Boxing champions had rallied on his behalf.

A true-life story of a man who refused to sign a confession that he groped a woman on a crowded commuter train became a popular 2007 movie “I Just Didn’t Do It,” directed by Masayuki Suo. The film depicts a five-year legal battle for exoneration, highlighting the burden of proof of innocence was on the accused.

In the U.S., defense lawyers tend to be vocal, but in Japan, it is fairly standard — as in the case of Ghosn — for them to stay silent, especially before trial, because that’s considered better for the suspects. Lawyers are allowed to visit clients in detention.

Nissan, American also charged

Ghosn has been formally charged in the initial set of allegations, underreporting his income by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) for five years through 2015. The maximum penalty for violating Japan’s financial laws is 10 years in prison, a 10 million yen ($89,000) fine, or both.

Greg Kelly, an American Nissan executive who was arrested with Ghosn, has been similarly charged with collaborating on underreporting Ghosn’s income. Kelly was not re-arrested on the latest breach of trust allegations. Kelly’s U.S. lawyer says he is innocent and abided by company policy.

Nissan has also been charged as a legal entity, but no one other than Ghosn and Kelly has been charged or arrested. Nissan executives repeatedly say an internal investigation that began in the summer showed clear and serious wrongdoing, which went unnoticed for so long because of complex schemes “masterminded” by Ghosn and Kelly.

They went to the prosecutors, resulting in the surprise Nov. 19 arrests, and are cooperating closely with the investigation.

Accusations devastating in Japan

Being accused of a crime is devastating in a conformist insular society like Japan. Family members also become targets of discrimination, spurned for marriage and ostracized. Some commit suicide.

Cho, the lawyer, said the long detention and trial mean people lose their jobs, reputation, sometimes their families. But he still had this advice: Whatever you do, don’t confess to anything you didn’t do because that just makes it worse.

“Don’t ever compromise on your innocence,” he said. (VOA)

Daniel Ortega Tightens His Fist in Nicaragua

MANAGUA, LELEMUKU.COM - In barely a week’s time, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has cemented the authoritarian reputation of his government by shuttering the offices some of the few remaining resonant voices of dissent and expelling the international monitors documenting his government’s alleged crimes.

The heavy-handed raids on the country’s most prominent nongovernmental organizations and the seizure of the offices of the independent news outlets Confidencial and 100% Noticias left a clear message that no one, especially former Sandinista comrades, was safe from a crackdown on dissent following a wave of protests that increasingly aimed at pushing the 73-year-old president from power.

At least 325 people have been killed since protests erupted in mid-April and were violently suppressed. Some 565 people have been jailed, according to the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center, which itself was raided. Many of those held face terrorism charges that carry decades-long sentences. Thousands have fled the country in self-imposed exile.

“All Nicaraguans are vulnerable to the possibility that they fabricate charges from the laws they (the government) invented,” the founder of Confidencial, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, said in front of Managua’s courthouse. “No one is safe here. The law protects no one because in Nicaragua there is not rule of law.”

Chamorro ran the Sandinistas’ newspaper La Barricada for years and his mother, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, was initially part of the Sandinista ruling junta when it gained power. But she later split and eventually ran for president, defeating Ortega in 1990.

Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is Ortega’s wife and who also controls the government’s communications, did not grant a request for an interview with herself or Ortega. But at an event with police last week, she made a thinly veiled reference to Chamorro and other “traitors.”

A week of cracking down

The new wave of crackdowns began a little over a week ago when Ortega loyalists in congress stripped nine organizations of their legal status, alleging they supported what the government has called a coup attempt, a reference to the protests.

Police raided the groups’ offices the night of Dec. 13, hauling off computers and reams of documents. They returned the following night to occupy their buildings.

Police toting rifles could be seen watching television inside the offices of Confidencial while its staff kept its website updated from hotel rooms, their homes and eventually a secret location where they re-established their newsroom.

“The issue is that the institutions that he’s going after are symbolic of the strength of civil society,” said Manuel Orozco, a senior associate at The Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. Ortega thought he could maintain control through the political parties, but this opposition movement has come from civil society.

When Chamorro went to police headquarters Dec. 15 to ask to see what order had allowed the seizure of his offices, he and his staff were pushed away by riot police who punched and kicked at least one of his reporters.

Riot police were present again two days later when Chamorro and his wife walked hand-in-hand to the gates of the courthouse to seek judicial relief.

“As human beings, obviously we’re afraid of being smashed by the regime, which up to now has prevailed through force and terror,” Chamorro said. Invoking his father, a journalist and national hero killed in 1978 by the Somoza dictatorship that was later overthrown by the Sandinistas, Chamorro said that each person is the master of his own fear.

“All citizens have to learn to manage fear and overcome it and show that you can’t kill ideas and ideas can’t be killed by killing journalists,” he said.

Former Sandinistas

Chamorro isn’t alone as a former Sandinista now squarely in Ortega’s sights. Many of the intellectuals and key figures who participated in early Sandinista governments have split away over the years, accusing Ortega of taking a more authoritarian path.

Vilma Nunez, the president of the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center, was a supreme court vice president under Ortega’s first Sandinista government in 1979 and dedicated much of her early career to defending Sandinistas persecuted by the Somoza regime.

Last week police forced their way into her offices and now the center, known by its Spanish initials of Cenidh, is reorganizing at a clandestine location. Cenidh has been documenting abuses by police and paramilitaries since violence began in April.

“They believe that by finishing off belligerent organizations that won’t be silent about human rights they are going to silence the voices of protest that persist,” Nunez said.

Appearance of normality

In the streets of Managua, outward appearances suggest some degree of normality. Christmas decorations are spread about the city, more restaurants and bars are staying open after dark and the city’s Eastern Market has been humming with shoppers.

But vendors say business has been running 25 to 30 percent below what it was last year, even in the run-up to Christmas.

Nicaragua’s private business umbrella organization COSEP issued a report this month saying that instead of the forecast 5 percentage-point growth in Nicaragua’s economy this year, it will finish with a 4-point contraction.

Not so visible are people living in fear.

A woman who for months has been helping to hide dozens of university students who had occupied campuses in anti-government protests continues to ferry donated food and clothing to them. But she said there’s never enough food, and some subsist on rice and ketchup.

But their emotional health is the greater concern, she said: These were students on career tracks who suddenly found themselves unable to return to the university or even walk down the street. After police and paramilitaries retook the university campuses last summer, hundreds of students have either fled the country or remain in hiding.

“They have imprisoned their future,” said the woman, who requested anonymity to protect the students in her care.

Tight security

To get to the Managua home of Carlos Tunnermann, a former university rector, the Sandinistas’ first education minister and later Ortega’s ambassador to the United States, you have to get through two police checkpoints.

Tunnermann, a member of the Civic Alliance formed to negotiate with the government last spring, lives near Ortega’s home and falls within his expanded security perimeter. The first checkpoint is easy enough, the second, however, is more challenging. After a half hour of questions, the gate finally swung aside.

Tunnermann said that the recent aggression toward the NGOs and Chamorro’s media outfit could have been a reply to the U.S. government’s economic sanctions last month against Murillo and Nestor Moncada, Ortega’s national security adviser.

Tunnermann said Ortega seemed to not grasp yet that each time he ratchets up the crackdown, the international community will increase the pressure on him.

In Tunnermann’s mind, dialogue and eventually a concession by Ortega to move up presidential elections scheduled for 2021 were the country’s best chance for peace.

But there was a major obstacle, he said: Ortega and Murillo “have invented a reality that is not the true reality. It’s a reality that is only in their minds. (VOA)