Feed aggregator

QUITO, Ecuador — The Mexican president quickly moved to break off diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police broke into the Mexican Embassy to arrest a former vice president who had sought political asylum there after being indicted on corruption charges. In an extraordinarily unusual move, Ecuadorian police on Friday forced their way into the embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been residing there since December. On Saturday, he was taken from the attorney general's office to a detention facility in an armored vehicle followed by a convoy of military and police vehicles. People who had gathered outside the prosecutor's office yelled “strength” as the vehicles began to move. The raid prompted Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to announce the break of diplomatic relations with Ecuador Friday evening. Glas has been convicted on bribery and corruption charges. Ecuadorian authorities are still investigating more allegations against him. “This is not possible. It cannot be. This is crazy,” Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular section in Quito, told local press while standing outside the embassy. “I am very worried because they could kill him. There is no basis to do this. This is totally outside the norm.” Defending its decision, Ecuador's presidency said in a statement: “Ecuador is a sovereign nation, and we are not going to allow any criminal to stay free.” Lopez Obrador fired back, calling Glas' detention an “authoritarian act” and “a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico." Alicia Barcena, Mexico's secretary of foreign relations, posted on the social platform X that several diplomats suffered injuries during the break-in, adding that it violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Diplomatic premises are considered “inviolable” under the Vienna treaties and local law enforcement agencies are not allowed to enter without the permission of the ambassador. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lived inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years because British police could not enter to arrest him. Barcena said that Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law.” She also said Mexican diplomats were waiting for the Ecuadorian government to offer the necessary guarantees for their return home. Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry and Ecuador’s Ministry of the Interior did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Mexican Embassy in Quito remained under heavy police guard late Friday. A day earlier, tensions between the two countries escalated after Mexico's president made statements that Ecuador considered “very unfortunate” about last year's election, won by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa. In reaction, the Ecuadorian government declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Tehran, Iran — Iranian police have arrested three suspected members of the Islamic State group who were plotting attacks at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, state media reported Saturday.  Those arrested in the city of Karaj in the northwestern province of Alborz included Mohammed Zaker, who was identified as "a senior member" of the group, according to the official IRNA news agency.  "The police in Alborz province arrested three members of the Islamic State group who were planning a suicide attack during the end of Ramadan celebrations," IRNA said.  It was not immediately clear when the arrests took place or whether they included foreign nationals.  IRNA also reported the arrest of eight "accomplices" but did not elaborate.  Local media reported Tuesday about the arrest of two alleged IS members in the holy city of Qom.  In January, IS claimed responsibility for twin bombings in the southern Iranian city of Kerman that killed more than 90 people.  The attacks took place at a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the death of Qasem Soleimani, a top Revolutionary Guards general killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in 2020.  Iran has been battling jihadi and other militant groups for years.   On Saturday, IRNA reported that the number of "martyrs" killed in recent attacks by jihadis near the border with Pakistan had risen to 16, all members of the security forces.  It said the toll, one of the deadliest in years, includes members of law enforcement, Guards, and paramilitary Basij forces.  State media had earlier reported that 10 security personnel and 18 members of the Jaish al-Adl jihadi group were killed in the clashes.  The Sunni Muslim rebel group Jaish al-Adl was formed in 2012 and is listed by Iran and the United States as a "terrorist" organization. 

JERUSALEM — It’s the last wish of a dying mother, to be with her daughter once more. But six months into Israel's war against Hamas, time is running out for Liora Argamani, who hopes to stay alive long enough to see her kidnapped daughter come home. “I want to see her one more time. Talk to her one more time,” said Argamani, 61, who has stage four brain cancer. “I don’t have a lot of time left in this world.” Noa Argamani was abducted from a music festival October 7 when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 260 hostages. The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, images of her horrified face widely shared — Noa detained between two men on a motorcycle, one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams “Don't kill me!” There's been little news about Noa, 26. But in mid-January, Hamas released a video of her in captivity. She appears gaunt and under duress, speaking about other hostages killed in airstrikes and frantically calling on Israel to bring her and others home. Half a year into Israel’s war, agonized families such as the Argamanis are in a race against time. In November, a weeklong cease-fire deal saw the release of more than 100 hostages. But the war is dragging on, with no end in sight and no serious hostage deal on the table. Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead, and divisions are deepening in the country over the best way to bring them home. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back, but he's made little progress. He faces pressure to resign, and the U.S. has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Israelis are divided into two main camps: those who want the government to put the war on hold and free the hostages, and others who think the hostages are an unfortunate price to pay for eradicating Hamas. “They have these two goals and the assessment of the type of risk they’re willing to take to get the hostages back — this is where you see divisions,” said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and analyst for Israeli public television station Kan News. On-and-off negotiations mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt have yielded little. If a viable deal emerges, decisions will become harder and the divisions sharper, Rosner said. But for most families and friends whose loved ones are in captivity, there is no choice but to bring them home. Many are concerned in particular about the women held in Gaza and say, based on testimonies from freed hostages, they fear those remaining could be suffering from sexual abuse. Before a recent parliamentary committee meeting, attendees held posters showing the hostages. Yarden Gonen, whose 23-year-old sister, Romi, also was taken from the October 7 music festival, criticized what she said was the government's inaction. “What are we fighting for?" she said. "What is more important than this?” Outside an art installation mimicking the Gaza tunnels where some hostages are believed to be held, Romi’s mother said she can’t believe it’s been half a year, with much of the world wanting to forget or ignore such a horrible situation. “We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget," Merav Leshem Gonen said. “Every day we wake up and take a big breath, deep breath, and continue walking, continue doing the things that will bring her back.” When Yonatan Levi saw the video of his friend Noa Argamani in captivity, he said he could barely recognize the smart, free spirit of the woman who loved parties and traveling and was studying computer science. “When I saw that video, I thought maybe she’s living physically but has died inside,” said Levi, who met Argamani during a diving course in the southern Israeli city of Eilat. A few months before her abduction, Argamani asked Levi to help navigate insurance issues for her mom, he said. As an only child, she was a big part of her mother's life and care, and she seemed hopeful she would be OK, Levi said. But Liora Argamani's cancer has worsened, according to a video released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. In it, Liora and her husband tearfully thumb through childhood photos of Noa. From her wheelchair, Liora addresses the camera — and U.S. President Joe Biden directly. Behind her rests an enlarged photo of Noa's pained face as she's dragged into Gaza, on a posterboard with her words overtop: “DON'T KILL ME!” “My heart really hurts,” Liora, a Chinese immigrant, says slowly in accented Hebrew. “I am asking you, President Joe Biden. ... I am really begging you." The stress of missing a loved one like Noa is hard on the healthiest of people, and it will only exacerbate a condition like cancer, said Ofrit Shapira Berman, a psychoanalyst who heads a group of health professionals treating freed hostages, families and survivors.

CAIRO — Two basic mistakes, according to the Israeli military. First, officers overlooked a message detailing the vehicles in the convoy. Second, a spotter saw someone boarding a car, carrying something — possibly a bag — that he thought was a weapon. Officials say the result was the series of Israeli drone strikes that killed seven aid workers on a dark Gaza Strip road. The Israeli military has described the deadly strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy as a tragic error. Its explanation raises the question: If that's the case, how often has Israel made such mistakes in its six-month-old offensive in Gaza? Rights groups and aid workers say Monday night’s mistake was hardly an anomaly. They say the wider problem is not violations of the military’s rules of engagement but the rules themselves. In Israel’s drive to destroy Hamas after its October 7 terror attacks, the rights groups and aid workers say, the military seems to have given itself wide leeway to determine what is a target and how many civilian deaths it allows as “collateral damage.” More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says that it is targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that it tries to minimize civilian deaths. It blames the large number of civilian casualties on militants and says it's because they operate among the population. Israel says each strike goes through an assessment by legal experts, but it has not made its rules of engagement public.  Other strikes  In the thousands of strikes Israel has carried out, as well as shelling and shootings in ground operations, it's impossible to know how many times a target has been wrongly identified. Nearly every day, strikes level buildings with Palestinian families inside, killing men, women and children, with no explanation of the target or independent accountability over the proportionality of the strike. Sarit Michaeli, spokeswoman for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, said the World Central Kitchen strike drew world attention only because foreigners were killed.  “The thought that this is a unique case, that it’s a rare example — it’s an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has been following the situation,” she said. She said a broader investigation is needed into the rules of engagement. “The relevant questions aren’t asked because the investigations only deal with specific cases, rather than the broader policy.” Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, acknowledged, “Mistakes were conducted in the last six months.” “We do everything we can not to harm innocent civilians,” he told reporters. “It is hard because Hamas is going with civilian clothes. … Is it a problem, is it complexity for us? Yes. Does that matter? No. We need to do more and more and more to distinguish.” But the military hasn't specified how it will achieve this. Brigadier General Benny Gal, who was part of the investigation into the World Central Kitchen strikes, was asked whether more questions should be asked before a strike is authorized. “This was not our standards,” he said. “The standard is more questions, more details, more crossing sources. And this was not the case.”  White flags  Palestinian witnesses have repeatedly reported people, including women and children, being shot and killed or wounded by Israeli troops while carrying white flags. Several videos have surfaced showing Palestinians being fired at or killed while seeming to pose little threat to Israeli forces nearby.  In March, the military acknowledged it shot dead two Palestinians and wounded a third while they were walking on a Gaza beach. It said troops opened fire after the men allegedly ignored warning shots. It reacted after the news channel Al Jazeera showed footage of one of the men falling to the ground while walking in an open area and then a bulldozer pushing two bodies into the garbage-strewn sand. It said at least two of the three men were waving white flags.  Aid groups have also reported strikes on their personnel.  Medical Aid for Palestine said its residential compound in the southern area of Muwasi — which the military had defined as a safe zone — was hit in January by what the United Nations determined was a 1,000-pound bomb. Several team members were injured and the building damaged, the group said.  The group said the Israeli military gave it multiple explanations — denying involvement, saying it was trying to hit a target nearby and blaming a missile that went astray. “The variety of responses highlights a continued lack of transparency,” the group said.  The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said a tank shelled a house sheltering its staff and their families in Muwasi in February, killing one staffer's wife and daughter-in-law.  Both groups said they had informed the military repeatedly of their locations and clearly marked the buildings.  Israeli admissions of mistakes are rare.  In December, after a strike killed at least 106 people in the Maghazi camp, the military said buildings near the target were also hit, likely causing “unintended harm to additional uninvolved civilians.” It also admitted soldiers mistakenly shot to death three Israeli hostages who were waving white flags after getting out of Hamas captivity in Gaza City.  “The pattern”  In Israel’s ground assaults, troops are operating in urban environments, searching for Hamas fighters while surrounded by a population hunkering in their homes and in motion, trying to flee or find food and medical care.  Some Israeli politicians and news outlets regularly proclaim there are no innocents in Gaza. And in some videos circulated online, soldiers talk of getting vengeance for the October 7 Hamas terror attacks that sparked the war.  In that atmosphere, Palestinians and other critics say, soldiers on the ground appear to have wide liberty in deciding whether to target someone as suspicious. Residents and medical staff in Gaza say they see the result.  Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a doctor with Medical Aid for Palestinians who just returned from two weeks at a Gaza hospital, said staff regularly treated children and elderly shot by snipers.  “It’s not an anomaly. It’s actually the pattern,” she told journalists in a briefing this week. “I don’t think it’s that children in particular are singled out as targets. The understanding and kind of the conclusion you reach … is that everybody’s a target.”  Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British army and weapons expert who's done research and security missions in Gaza, said that if there was a breakdown in communication in the case of the World Central Kitchen strike, “for a professional army, this is inexcusable.”  “There seems to be a consistent pattern of utterly reckless behavior,” said Cobb-Smith, who helped investigate the Doctors Without Borders shelling.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The United States and China have agreed to hold talks and create two economic groups focused on a wide range of issues — including addressing American complaints about China’s economic model, growth in domestic and global economies and efforts against money laundering — according to a statement released Saturday by the U.S. Treasury Department. The agreement comes on the second day of an official visit to China by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, during which she has urged Chinese leaders to change their domestic manufacturing policies. The two sides are set to hold “intensive exchanges” on cultivating more balanced economic growth and combating money laundering. Yellen said the efforts would establish a structure for Beijing and Washington to exchange views and address Chinese industrial overcapacity, its ability to supply more product than is demanded. “I think the Chinese realize how concerned we are about the implications of their industrial strategy for the United States, for the potential to flood our markets with exports that make it difficult for American firms to compete,” she told journalists after the announcement Saturday. Yellen was en route to Beijing after beginning her five-day visit in the southern city of Guangzhou, which is a key manufacturing and export center for China. While the issue of China’s industrial overcapacity will not be resolved instantly, Yellen said Chinese officials understand it’s an “important issue” for Americans, adding that her exchanges with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will facilitate a discussion around macroeconomic imbalances and their connection to overcapacity. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported Chinese officials “comprehensively responded” to the issue of industrial overcapacity raised by the Americans. “Both sides agreed to continue to maintain communication,” an official readout said. The announcement came a day after Yellen urged Beijing to reform its trade practices and create “a healthy economic relationship” with the U.S. It also follows Chinese state media’s warning that Washington may consider rolling out more protectionist policies to shield U.S. companies.” Some analysts say the announcement reflects Yellen’s effort to push forward on collaboration in areas the U.S. and China agreed on during U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s San Francisco summit last November. “When Xi met Biden in November, they agreed to set up working groups, so Yellen is continuing to push that forward with the meeting,” Dexter Roberts, director of China affairs at the University of Montana's Mansfield Center, told VOA by phone. While he called the announcement a positive development, Roberts said he does not think Beijing and Washington will reach agreement on contentious trade issues during Yellen’s trip. “There could be temporary things like China easing off on subsidizing electric vehicles a bit, but it’s unclear how either side is going to change what's happening in a way that allows the tension over trade to lessen,” he said. Beijing’s displeasure While Washington highlighted threats posed by China’s industrial overcapacity, Beijing focused on its concerns about U.S. export controls on Chinese companies during the meeting between Yellen and He. “The Chinese side expressed serious concerns over Washington’s restrictive economic and trade measures against China,” read the Chinese readout published by Xinhua. Some experts say the United States and China could make progress on U.S. export restrictions on Chinese companies. “Some U.S. businesses are calling for the government to remove some of the export restrictions, especially for chips [integrated circuits],” Victor Shih, director of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California in San Diego, told VOA by phone. Since China is either already making, or is on the cusp of making, some of the computer chips on the sanctions list, Shih said he thinks restricting U.S. companies from selling some of the chips to China will only hurt American interests. “It’s really not hurting China that much,” he said. In addition to U.S. controls on exports to Chinese entities, Shih said the other big topic Chinese officials are likely to raise in meetings with Yellen is potential tariffs Washington may impose on Chinese products. “Since China is the largest exporter in the world, it’s not in its interest for there to be a lot of tariffs around the world, especially for major importers like the U.S.,” he said, adding that talking to Washington about lowering tariffs and not enacting new ones will be an important agenda item for Beijing. While she has not explicitly promised to impose new sanctions on Chinese products, Yellen said she would not rule out the possibility of adopting more measures to safeguard the American supply chain for electric vehicles, batteries or solar panels from heavily subsidized Chinese green energy products. During a phone call Tuesday with Biden, Xi warned that if the United States is “adamant on containing China's high-tech development and depriving China of its legitimate right to development, China is not going to sit back and watch.” Bilateral communication Despite persistent differences over contentious trade issues, Yellen and He underscored the importance for China and the U.S. to “properly respond to key concerns of the other side” to build a more cooperative economic relationship. “It also remains crucial for the two largest economies to seek progress on global challenges like climate change and debt distress in emerging markets in developing countries, and to closely communicate on issues of concern such as overcapacity and national security-related economic actions,” Yellen said Friday. Based on Yellen and He’s comments and signals from the Biden-Xi call Tuesday, some analysts say the U.S. and China will continue to put guard rails around the bilateral relationship to prevent it from further deteriorating. “The two sides have come to the realization that they will have to live together, perhaps uncomfortably at times,” said Zhiqun Zhu, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Bucknell University. While the relationship will remain highly competitive, Zhu said he thinks Beijing and Washington will “stay engaged and seek cooperation in areas of common interest.” “Maintaining stability is the priority for both Xi and Biden now,” he said. Yellen is scheduled to have meetings with other senior officials Sunday and Monday in Beijing.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

GENEVA — Warning that the war in Sudan risks triggering the world’s worst hunger crisis, the World Food Program said Friday that it finally has managed to bring desperately needed food aid into the war-wracked Darfur region for the first time in months. The U.N. food agency said two convoys crossed the border from Chad into Darfur late last week, carrying food and nutrition assistance for about a quarter-million people in north, west and central Darfur. It said the long-delayed mission was given the go-ahead following lengthy negotiations to reopen convoy routes after the Sudanese Armed Forces had revoked permission for humanitarian corridors from Chad in February. “Cross-border operations from Chad to Darfur are critical to reach communities where children are already dying of malnutrition,” said Leni Kinzli, the WFP communications officer for Sudan. Speaking in Nairobi, Kenya, she said that “All corridors to transport food must remain open, particularly the one from [the city of] Adre in Chad to West Darfur, where levels of hunger are alarming.” While expressing relief that lengthy negotiations to reopen the routes have paid off, she warned that unless the people of Sudan receive a constant flow of aid through all possible humanitarian corridors, “the country’s hunger catastrophe will only worsen.” Since the rival Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged the country into war nearly one year ago, the United Nations says more than 8.5 million people have become displaced — 6.5 million within the country. The WFP says 18 million people are facing acute hunger, 90% of them in hard-to-reach areas. A World Health Organization Public Health Situation Analysis of the Sudan conflict finds a record 24.8 million people — almost every other person — need urgent humanitarian assistance in 2024. “This is 9 million more than in 2023. So, how catastrophic is that,” said Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson. “People have been forced to flee their homes due to the humanitarian situation and the destruction of essential infrastructure, such as roads, hospitals, medical facilities and schools. “Also, power, water, communication services, everything — all the infrastructure you need to lead a normal life” has been destroyed, she said. The WHO says at least 14,600 people have been killed and 33,000 injured. It says two-thirds of the population lack access to medical care, noting that disease outbreaks, including cholera, measles, malaria, poliovirus type 2 and dengue, are increasing. “Food insecurity is also at a record high, with nearly half of children acutely malnourished,” said the WHO, underscoring that “urgent action is needed to prevent further catastrophe.” The WFP’s Kinzli said it was critical that aid be quickly and easily delivered to needy people in Darfur through the Tine border crossing or across conflict lines from within Sudan. She said, however, that “fierce fighting, lack of security and lengthy clearances by the warring parties” have led to delays in the distribution of assistance. She noted it was impossible for aid workers to provide help “to people trapped in Sudan’s conflict hotspots.” The “WFP needs aid to be consistently reaching war-ravaged communities through every possible route,” Kinzli said, warning that hunger in Sudan will increase as the lean season starts — the period of the year when food stocks are at their lowest. “Our greatest fear is that we will see unprecedented levels of starvation and malnutrition sweep across Sudan this lean season, and that the Darfur region will be particularly hard hit.” She pointed out that crop production is at an all-time low because the fighting is preventing farmers from harvesting their crops. “Recent crop reports show that the harvest for cereals in Darfur this year was 78% below the five-year average,” she said. “That is why WFP is deeply concerned about how serious the hunger crisis will get this lean season.” Kinzli expressed deep concern that the lean season, which normally runs from May to September, could begin as early as next week and last much longer than usual.