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Photographer  Olivier Toscani made a career out of provocative advertising campaigns for Benetton, the Italian clothing maker famed for its colorful knitwear. But that decades-long relationship has been severed after Toscani outraged relatives of victims in the deadly 2018 Genoa bridge collapse. Toscani told RAI television this week, “Who cares about a bridge collapse?He was responding to a public flap over a photograph of founding members of the Sardines political protest movement alongside key members of the Benetton family, which controls the company that maintained the bridge. The president of the committee to remember the 43 people who died August 14, 2018, in the Morandi Bridge collapse called the remarks “inopportune and confused.'' `'It could be that [Toscani] travels by helicopter and using a bridge is for commoners,'' Egle Possetti said. `'Unfortunately, many Italians travel over bridges every day, and unfortunately some people will remain forever under ‘that bridge,' certainly not due to some stray lightning strike. Forty-three innocent deaths count little for him, but for us they were everything.'' 'Deeply pained'Toscani apologized in an interview with La Repubblica published Thursday.I am sorry. More: I am ashamed to apologize. I am humanly destroyed and deeply pained.” But the damage was done. Benetton said in a statement Thursday that the group “completely disassociates itself from Mr. Toscani’s remarks and acknowledges the impossibility of continuing the professional relationship with its creative director.” It added that chairman Luciano Benetton “and the entire company renew their sincere closeness to the families of the victims and to all those who have been involved in this terrible tragedy.” The Benetton family, as controlling stakeholder in the Autostrade highway company that maintained the Morandi bridge, has been embattled ever since the accident as the government squabbles over whether to revoke its agreement to operate thousands of kilometers of Italian toll highways. So the photo showing the founders of the Sardines movement alongside the Benettons was widely criticized as a misstep by the less than three-month-old group. Since its founding in November, the group has mobilized tens of thousands to protest the growing popularity of right-wing leader Matteo Salvini. The leaders said their appearance in the photo, at the Benetton cultural center Fabrica, had been “naive.” 
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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has gotten a boost after a four-day visit to Washington where he met with President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials. It’s been a year since the United States and other Western nations threw their support behind Guaido with little success in pushing Nicolas Maduro from power. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari reports on Guaido’s latest diplomacy push to gain new momentum for his opposition movement
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The European commissioner for human rights urged Moscow Friday to investigate a violent assault on a journalist and a lawyer in Russia’s province of Chechnya.Elena Milashina, from the independent Novaya Gazeta, said she and Marina Dubrovina, a lawyer accompanying her on a trip to Chechnya, were pushed and beaten by a dozen people in the lobby of their hotel late Thursday. Milashina long has exposed human rights violations in Chechnya.The regional branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry in Chechnya said it was looking into the incident.The Kremlin has relied on Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov to keep the North Caucasus region stable after two devastating separatist wars. International rights groups have accused Kadyrov’s feared security forces of extrajudicial killings, torture and abductions of dissenters.The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović on Friday condemned the assault on the journalist and the lawyer as “the latest of a series of worrying attacks on human rights defenders and critics” in Chechnya.Mijatović noted that “ the climate of hostility against independent civil society activists, human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists in Chechnya is often fomented by virulent and threatening speech of political leaders, including at the highest levels” of the regional leadership.She urged the Russian authorities to “urgently reverse this unacceptable situation and uphold their obligations to ensure that human rights defenders can work safely and freely.” Mijatović emphasized that those responsible for the assault must be punished.
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The alleged rape of three American women by Afghan migrants is prompting a public examination of Spain’s legal system, with media commentators and politicians debating the veracity of the charges and the competency of Spanish authorities to handle the case appropriately.The Spanish press has delved into intimate details of the case, including speculation that the women – three sisters from the Midwestern state of Ohio aged 18, 20 and 23 — contrived the sexual assault to claim on their travel insurance. Reports have even cited disclosures by hospital examiners that the youngest of the three sisters was a virgin before her encounter with the alleged rapist.The United States, meanwhile, is advising other Americans to take precautions against sexual assault and warning about the legal handling of sexual assault cases in Spain. “U.S. citizen victims of sexual assault in Spain can find it very difficult to navigate the local criminal justice system, which differs significantly from the U.S. system,” said an advisory issued by the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. It specifically warned American female students to “take precautions against sexual assault during their stay in Spain.”FILE – Activists protest in Barcelona, Spain, June 21, 2018. A Spanish court triggered a new wave of outrage Oct. 31, 2019, by acquitting five men of gang rape and instead finding them guilty of a lesser charge of sexual abuse.Spain’s interior ministry says that while the number of rape cases has risen from fewer than 1,000 in 2016 to some 1,400 in 2019, the total remains well below that in most other European countries. Reported sexual assaults in France, by contrast, rose from 16,000 to 52,000 over the same period, according to the French government.A U.S. Embassy official told VOA that most rape cases in Spain go unreported because of the inadequate treatment that victims receive from police, health authorities and the legal system.While 34 sexual assaults against American women were reported during 2019, the official said many more cases go unreported, adding that a major American university with one of the largest exchange programs in Spain received complaints of sexual violence on an average of once per week.The three sisters, all college students, have accused Afghan refugees of violently forcing them into sexual intercourse on New Year’s Eve in the city of Murcia.The accused men, who have been released since their arrest days after the incident, claim the sex acts were consensual. Their lawyer has filed charges of “false accusation” against the women claiming inconsistencies in their police testimonies.U.S. Embassy spokesman Adam Lenert said the way in which rape victims are questioned in Spain is outdated and tends to put the burden of doubt on the victim. The first questions police asked the three women concerned what clothes they wore and whether they had consumed alcohol or drugs before they met their alleged rapists at a bar. They were also asked about travel insurance, which is mandatory for U.S. students in most exchange programs.Those practices persist despite a growing feminist movement, led in some instances by top officials of the ruling Socialist government, which has greatly raised consciousness about sexual violence. “Spain has become highly sensitized on matters concerning rape and sexual harassment,” said news anchor Antonio Jimenez, who led a round-table discussion about the U.S. travel advisory on his nightly talk show on one of Spain’s main television channels.At least two recent gang rape cases triggered mass protests by women’s groups, which have argued for stiffer jail terms for the perpetrators, who have become known as “wolf packs.”Right-wing groups have further politicized the issue, with some conservative leaders blaming the problem on the rising tide of immigrants from Muslim countries. Speaking before the congress two weeks ago, VOX party leader Santiago Abascal criticized the leniency extended to the Afghan rape suspects as an example of how immigrants receive special consideration.Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right party VOX, waves to supporters during a rally in protest against the new coalition government led by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, at Cibeles Square in Madrid, Spain, Jan. 12, 2020.There is concern that as the case of the three Ohio sisters gets entangled in Spain’s politics and complex legal system, it may become increasingly difficult to get a clear verdict or trial.Defense lawyer Melecio Castaño, said on television that evidence suggests the women and their alleged attackers had a “cordial farewell” on the morning after their encounter and that cell phone records indicate that one of the women subsequently called one of the men.Sources close to the women’s legal counsel say that text messages sent to one of the alleged attackers were placed at the request of police in an effort to locate him.Under Spanish law it’s necessary for the victims to appear before the court in order to “ratify” their charges. The Americans have left Spain and might be hesitant to return due to the way in which they have been treated, U.S. Embassy officials say.
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A gritty tale set in France’s disenfranchised suburbs, or banlieues, ranks among the finalists for the best foreign language film at Sunday’s Academy Awards in Los Angeles. However, Les Miserables has also unleashed a debate about what has changed in France and what has not.  For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from the Paris suburb of Montfermeil
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Britain is set for another royal wedding. Buckingham Palace announced Friday that Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter Princess Beatrice will marry in London on May 29.The palace says 31-year-old Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 37, will wed in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace. The chapel was the location for the wedding of Beatrice’s great-great-great-great grandmother Queen Victoria to Prince Albert in 1840.The queen will host a reception afterwards at Buckingham Palace.
Beatrice, the elder daughter of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, announced her engagement to real estate entrepreneur Mozzi last year. He is a Briton descended from a noble Italian family.The father of the bride quit public royal duties in November amid an outcry over his friendship with the convicted U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in August.An American woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, says she had several sexual encounters with the prince at Epstein’s behest, starting when she was 17. The FBI wants to question the prince as part of its Epstein investigation, but a U.S. prosecutor said last month that Andrew had been uncooperative.The prince denies wrongdoing.Beatrice’s younger sister, Princess Eugenie, married Jack Brooksbank at Windsor Castle in 2018.
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Russian authorities have added more than 200 Jehovah’s Witnesses to a register of extremists and terrorists, the organization said in a statement Friday.The latest move in a crackdown on the religious group effectively cuts the believers off from the country’s financial system, because being on list leads to one’s bank accounts being frozen and to severe restrictions on any financial transactions.Russia officially banned Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 and declared the group an extremist organization. The Kremlin has actively used vaguely worded extremism laws to crack down on opposition activists and religious minorities.Since then, hundreds of members have been subjected to raids, arrests and prosecution. Twenty-four members of the organization have been convicted, nine of whom have been sentenced to prison, and more than 300 people are currently under criminal investigation.Most of the blacklisted believers have not been convicted yet but are under investigation, the Jehovah’s Witnesses said.Jarrod Lopes, a spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses world headquarters in the United States, said Friday that Russian authorities are “vilifying Jehovah’s Witnesses, crippling them from caring for their basic needs.”“Clearly, Russia has effectively reinstated its darkest period of history by relentlessly persecuting Jehovah’s Witnesses, as did its intolerant Soviet predecessors,” Lopes said.Thousands on registerThe register, available on the website of Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial intelligence agency, currently contains more than 9,500 names. It doesn’t state a person’s affiliation with an organization. The Associated Press was able to identify at least two dozen Jehovah’s Witnesses on the list.Rosfinmonitoring officials would neither confirm nor deny blacklisting Jehovah’s Witnesses to The Associated Press, saying that they add people to the register based on the information law enforcement provides them.The crackdown on members of the group continues despite a promise by Russian President Vladimir Putin to look into “this complete nonsense.”“Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians, too, so I don’t quite understand why persecute them,” Putin said at a meeting with the Presidential Council for Human Rights in 2018.
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Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti pledges to abolish the 100% tariffs on Serbian imports, an impediment in normalization efforts between the two countries since 2018.Kurti, who was confirmed as prime minister by the Kosovo Assembly on Monday, said in an interview with Voice of America that the objective of the ruling coalition composed of his party, Vetvendosje (Self-Determination), and the Democratic League of Kosovo, is to introduce “measures of full reciprocity in trade, politics and economy” with Serbia.  This is not about revenge but justice, stated Kurti, adding, “Reciprocity is fairness.  It is a fair approach. It is on the justice record, and I know that in one of his statements. U.S. President Donald Trump has mentioned reciprocity as a value and a concept that is close to his heart. So, international relations in the world today are built on this principle.”Lamenting what he called “numerous unacceptable actions that Serbia has taken towards us,” he described Kosovo’s reactions as defensive measures. “Serbia’s campaign is offensive. Reciprocity is protection, it is defensive, and it is the minimum for some kind of dignity and integrity of our being an independent state.”U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenel speaks after he met with the leader of Vetevendosje, newly nominated prime minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti, in Kosovo’s capital Pristina on Jan. 23, 2020.Kosovo authorities have been under relentless pressure from Western allies to remove the tariffs. Trump’s special envoy for Kosovo and Serbia, Richard Grenell, urged the new Kosovo government to drop tariffs.“We expect the tariffs to be dropped immediately,” said Grenell, who is also U.S. ambassador to Germany. “We made clear to all the [Kosovo] party leaders that dropping the tariffs was in the best interest of Kosovo and its economy, and the desire to attract new businesses. And the party leaders agreed,” he said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.European Union-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo over normalizing relations stalled after the previous Kosovo government imposed 100% tariffs on Serbian goods to protest efforts by Belgrade to block Kosovo’s accession into international organizations.On Thursday, former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who introduced tariffs in 2018, urged Kurti in an open letter “not to drop the tariffs.”  Haradinaj said that “the 100% tax is imposed as a defensive measure against Serbia’s aggressive policy toward Kosovo and can be revoked with recognition.”Negotiations with Serbia remain one of the main challenges facing the new prime minister and his government.Kurti does not rule out the possibility of reaching an agreement with Serbia this year.“It’s possible, but I cannot foresee such a thing now. Now, I can express my will for dialogue, for open and principled dialogue,” he said.Serbia and its ally Russia do not recognize Kosovo’s independence.Since its declaration of independence, more than 100 countries have recognized Kosovo, including the United States and most EU nations.
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Venezuelan police rounded up six U.S. oil executives who have been under house arrest, hours after President Donald Trump met with opposition leader Juan Guaido in Washington.Family members of the six executives of Citgo said they were seized from their homes Wednesday night and that they didn’t know where the men were being held.Elliot Abrams, U.S. special representative for Venezuela, said U.S. officials thought the men were being held in El Helicoide prison and were taken there by Venezuelan intelligence agents. He said the timing of their detention, just after Trump held talks with Guaido, was suspicious.President Donald Trump and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido walk to a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Feb. 5, 2020.”We condemn this cruel and indefensible action and demand that their long, unjust detention come to an end and they be allowed to leave Venezuela,” Abrams said. “We urge the regime to release unconditionally all persons who are being detained, including National Assembly deputies.”There has been no comment from Venezuelan officials.Citgo is a Venezuelan-owned oil company whose corporate headquarters and main refinery are based in Texas.Police arrested the men in November 2017 and charged them with embezzlement, money laundering and corruption.A Venezuelan court ordered them to be put under house arrest awaiting trial.Citgo says the executives are political prisoners and that their fundamental human rights are have been violated. The company says it will continue to provide legal expenses and other support to their families.The families have appealed to the State Department to help win the executives’ freedom and also met last year with Vice President Mike Pence.It was unclear if Trump and Guaido talked about the detained men during their meeting.
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Jhon Jario Velàsquez, known by his alias “Popeye,” an assassin who worked for Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, died on Thursday according to a statement by Colombia’s prison institute.The statement said the 57-year-old, who had a long criminal history, died at the National Cancer Institute in Bogota, where he had been treated for stomach cancer.Velàsquez’s first stint in prison was for 23 years after plotting the murder of an ex-presidential candidate. But Velàsquez has admitted to committing over 300 murders himself and also helped coordinate the killings of nearly 3,000 people for Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel during the 1980s and 90s.After serving extensive prison time he gained fame as an author and YouTube celebrity with over 1.2 million subscribers. On his YouTube channel, he spoke angrily about leftist rebels, corrupt politicians and expressed a desire to run for a seat in Colombia’s senate.Velàsquez spoke openly about his career as an assassin during a television interview, expressing his preference for a revolver and saying he “worked from the eyebrows up.”He continued to confess to assisting in many of Colombia’s most notorious crimes, including the killing of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan in 1989, the kidnapping and murder of Colombian journalist Diana Turbay and the Avianca Airlines bombing, which killed 107 people.He was released from prison in 2014, but Velàsquez’s time out of jail was short-lived when authorities caught him partying with a wanted U.S. drug trafficker in 2017. By 2018, he was arrested on extortion charges.Velàsquez was hospitalized in late December, 2019 at the National Cancer Institute in Bogota where he died early Thursday morning.Even years after his run with Escobar’s cartel, Velàsquez continued to boast about his former boss, describing him as “a good friend and a good enemy.”Escobar founded the Medelli cartel and was shot and killed by Colombian security forces in 1993.
 
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Britain is letting European Union citizens stay once the country completes its transition out of the EU at the end of 2020. But some are choosing to leave and move back to the continent.Hanneke van der Werf is a Dutch herbalist and garden designer living on the border of Wales and England. Britain has been home for more than 25 years, but she is now preparing to leave.“This country has changed into something unrecognizable. It used to be very liberal, very outward looking, very welcoming and very tolerant,” Werf said. “And I personally was actually attacked the day after the referendum about me not being British, and why I wasn’t going, why I was still even there.”British-born people kept asking her why she had stayed in Britain after the Brexit vote, and those questions hurt.Considering move to EU countryVan der Werf has decided not to move back to the Netherlands but is contemplating a move to one of the southern EU countries.  Britain officially left the European Union on Jan. 31. It is still obliged to adhere to EU laws through the end of 2020 when the transitional period is over.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly session of Prime Ministers Questions in Parliament in London, Jan. 29, 2020.Speaking on immigration during the December 2019 campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he could “make sure that numbers come down.”While he said that British people are “not hostile to immigration at all,” they want their country to be — in his words — “democratically controlled and that’s what Brexit allows us to do.”Another EU citizen preparing to leave Britain is Carole Convers. As a French student she visited Britain in 1987 and decided to move permanently to the southern English seaside resort of Brighton.  “I’d always seen myself as you know just a normal citizen really, which happened to live in a bit of Europe that wasn’t in the same bit as where I was born,” Convers said. “And that, that feeling went. I went from being a citizen to an uncertain future as a migrant, not knowing what would change for me.”Many decide to stayConvers campaigned with The 3 Million, an NGO that lobbies to protect the rights of EU citizens in Britain.While she initially considered applying for a British passport, she eventually decided against it.The latest figures from Britain’s home office show more than three million EU citizens have applied to stay in the country.  The process is often turning out to be difficult. EU citizens are not given a physical document to prove if their application to stay in the country is successful — and that is causing anxiety among some.  From Brighton to BurgundyConvers resents having to apply to stay in the country she has been living in for so long.After 31 years of living in Brighton, Convers has decided to move back to Burgundy, in east-central France at the end of April with her British partner.  “It’s all a bit uncertain because we’ve got accommodation only for the first few months,” Convers said. “And he doesn’t speak French, so I’ll have to find a job.”Not welcome?More than three million Europeans had moved from the continent to Britain after it joined the EU in 1973. The welcome appears to have worn off.Since British voters approved Brexit in 2016, there has been an increase in reports of xenophobia, racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric — often directed at those coming from Poland.The British Office for National Statistics last year said net migration from the European Union has fallen since 2016.  Those numbers are now at their lowest since 2003. 
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Lawyers for former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo urged International Criminal Court judges Thursday to lift conditions they imposed on him last year when he was released following his acquittal on crimes against humanity charges.Gbagbo and former youth minister Charles Ble Goude both were cleared early last year of involvement in deadly post-election violence in their West African nation.Prosecutors have appealed the acquittals, urging judges to call a mistrial, but both men were allowed to leave the court’s custody pending the appeal’s outcome. Judges, however, imposed conditions  on their liberty including that they had to turn in their passports, not leave the country hosting them, report weekly to police or the court and not contact witnesses or talk to the media about their case.Dozens of supporters attended Thursday’s hearing, waving to Gbagbo from the public gallery as the case opened. Gbagbo smiled and waved back. It wasn’t immediately clear when the court would decide on whether to free Gbagbo and Ble Goude.FILE – Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo enters the courtroom at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Jan. 15, 2019.Their supporters were hopeful judges would release them.“Today we are expecting something that should have happened long ago. We are not only expecting — we know that its going to happen today. It’s a day for freedom. It is a day to celebrate,” Njoh Fabrice Frisson said outside court.Speaking on behalf of Gbagbo, international law professor Dov Jacobs told judges they didn’t have the right to rein in the ex-president’s liberty.He said that, “in principle no restrictions can be placed on the freedom of a person who has been acquitted. This person should be able to enjoy all his rights, including his civil and political rights.”If judges agree to lift the conditions, it would clear the way for Gbagbo and Ble Goude to return home almost nine years after Gbagbo was ousted from power by force.The possibility of Gbagbo’s return is already escalating political tensions in a presidential election year. In written submissions to the court, Ivory Coast’s government argued that unconditionally freeing Gbagbo — effectively clearing him to return home — could rekindle the very tensions that led to him being put on trial.Ivory Coast’s incumbent leader, Alassane Ouattara, who ultimately prevailed back in 2011, has signaled that he could attempt to serve a third term if Gbagbo were to try and run again. Doing so would involve revising the constitution before October, and the opposition already has warned such a move could lead to widespread social unrest.Gbagbo officially received nearly 46% of the vote in 2010 and maintains a strong base of supporters who allege they have been left out of the reconciliation process in the years since his ouster.Gbagbo’s party, the Ivorian Popular Front, splintered into two factions back in 2014 and has been beset by infighting in recent years. One side has been led by ex-Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who distanced himself politically from Gbagbo after his ouster, while Gbagbo’s wife plays a prominent role in the other faction.Media reports say those differences appear to be on the mend after an apparent meeting between the two men last month in Brussels.Gbagbo’s wife, Simone Gbagbo, 70, was pardoned in August 2018 after serving three years of a 20-year sentence on charges of undermining state security in Ivory Coast. She lives in Abidjan, where she serves as second vice president of the party’s faction known as GOR (the French acronym for Gbagbo or Nothing).ICC judges acquitted Gbagbo and Ble Goude of involvement in violence that left more than 3,000 people dead in the aftermath of disputed 2010 presidential elections. The judges halted their trial at the halfway stage, saying prosecutors failed to prove their case.Prosecution lawyer Reinhold Gallmetzer told the court that if their appeal is accepted and a mistrial declared, prosecutors will seek a retrial.He said the judges shouldn’t reconsider the conditions because the circumstances that led judges to impose them last year haven’t changed.
 
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FBI Director Chris Wray said Wednesday that Russia is engaged in “information warfare” heading into the 2020 presidential election, though he said law enforcement has not seen ongoing efforts by Russia to target America’s election infrastructure.Wray told the House Judiciary Committee that Russia, just as it did in 2016, is relying on a covert social media campaign aimed at dividing American public opinion and sowing discord. That effort, which involves fictional personas, bots, social media postings and disinformation, may have an election-year uptick but is also a round-the-clock threat that is in some ways harder to combat than an election system hack, Wray said.“Unlike a cyberattack on an election infrastructure, that kind of effort — disinformation — in a world where we have a First Amendment and believe strongly in freedom of expression, the FBI is not going to be in the business of being the truth police and monitoring disinformation online,” Wray said.The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are on alert for election-related cyberactivity like what occurred in 2016, when Russians hacked emails belonging to the Democratic campaign of nominee Hillary Clinton and probed local election systems for vulnerabilities.But, Wray said Wednesday, “I don’t think we’ve seen any ongoing efforts to target election infrastructure like we did in 2016.”His appearance came two days after Democratic presidential caucuses in Iowa were marred by a malfunctioning app that caused a delay in the reporting of results. Though local and federal officials have stressed that the problems weren’t caused by a foreign intrusion, the error played into existing unease surrounding election security and risked amplifying concerns among American about the integrity of the voting process.Even without signs of election system targeting, Wray said Russian efforts to interfere in the election through disinformation had not tapered off since 2016. He said social media had injected “steroids” into those efforts.“They identify an issue that they know that the American people feel passionately about on both sides and then they take both sides and spin them up so they pit us against each other,” Wray said. “And then they combine that with an effort to weaken our confidence in our elections and our democratic institutions, which has been a pernicious and asymmetric way of engaging in … information warfare.”At another point in the hearing, Wray avoided a direct answer when asked if President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr or other administration officials had asked him for investigations into Trump Democratic rival Joe Biden, his son Hunter, or into any members of Congress.The question was posed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the committee chairman and one of seven House Democratic managers of the impeachment case. He asked whether Trump had requested FBI investigations into the Bidens, lawmakers or former national security adviser John Bolton — who is due out with a book next month said to undercut a key Trump defense — as possible payback for impeachment.Wray initially said: “I have assured the Congress, and I can assure the Congress today, that the FBI will only open investigations based on the facts, and the law and proper predication.”After Nadler said he assumed that answer meant that neither Trump nor Barr nor other administration officials had requested improper political investigations, Wray tried again: “No one has asked me to open an investigation based on anything other than facts, the law and proper predication.”Trump has sought, without evidence, to implicate the Bidens in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father, as vice president, was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Ukraine. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden.Wray’s appearance was his first since a Justice Department inspector general report that sharply criticized the FBI’s surveillance of former Trump campaign aide national security Carter Page. The errors produced rare bipartisan calls for changes to the federal government’s surveillance powers.The report identified what it said were significant errors in applications to eavesdrop on Page, including omitting critical information that cut against the FBI’s original premise that Page was a Russian agent — something he has repeatedly denied.After the report was issued, Wray told The Associated Press that the mistakes were “unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution.” He repeated that message to lawmakers Wednesday.The then-chief judge of the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which authorizes wiretapping of subjects on American soil in national security investigations, responded to the report with an extraordinary public rebuke of the FBI and demanded that the bureau report back on what it was doing to fix the problems.The FBI has laid out a series of changes designed to ensure warrant applications are more closely scrutinized before being submitted for a judge’s approval and that they contain accurate information about the reliability and potential bias of sources whom agents rely on. The Justice Department has also said the surveillance of Page should have ended before it did.Wray bristled at the suggestion from some Republican lawmakers that he did not take the report’s criticism seriously enough.“I’ve been a prosecutor. I’ve been a defense attorney, I’ve been an assistant attorney general, I’ve been an FBI director,” Wray said. “To me, candor to the court is sacrosanct, and I don’t think there’s anybody in the FBI who’s belaboring under the misimpression that I think it’s OK to mislead a court.”
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El Salvador is not ready to receive asylum seekers from the United States and will not accept them until it can offer them the necessary protections and support, Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco said Wednesday.El Salvador is one of three Central American governments that signed bilateral agreements with the U.S. government last year that would allow the U.S. to send asylum seekers from its Southwest border to instead apply for asylum in Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.Guatemala started receiving asylum seekers in November, and Honduras and El Salvador are expected to follow.”We are not going to admit anyone seeking asylum until we as a country have the conditions and technical, financial and human capacity to be able to give these people who are seeking asylum and sent to another country the best treatment,” Hill Tinoco said.The so-called Asylum Cooperation Agreements are among the measures the U.S. government has taken to close the door to asylum seekers arriving at its border with Mexico.Hill Tinoco said her government is at the point of determining the technical team that will meet with their U.S. counterparts to develop a plan of how it could work.
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Canada’s ambassador to China said Wednesday there is a chill in relations between the two countries since Beijing imprisoned two Canadians, but his top priority is winning their release and resetting the relationship.Dominic Barton offered that assessment in testimony before a special House of Commons committee studying the strained relationship between the two countries, which was already tense when he was named to the post last fall.Barton said his main concern is winning the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, both detained by China in December 2018 in what is widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company’s founder.Canadian police arrested Meng in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition request, and nine days later Kovrig and Spavor were detained by the Chinese and accused of violating China’s national security.Neither Kovrig nor Spavor has seen a lawyer or been permitted visits from their families, while Meng has been released on bail and is living in a luxurious Vancouver home while her extradition hearing plays out.Barton said other priorities include clemency for Canadian Robert Schellenberg, who was given a death sentence in January 2019 after having been previously sentenced to prison for drug smuggling.”The chill is real,” Barton said.He said both sides were shaking with anger during his first diplomatic meeting with Chinese officials.”The first conversation I had was probably one of the most unpleasant conversations I have ever had,” he said.Barton said he has now met with all three imprisoned Canadian men and is impressed with how they are holding up. He said he plans to make further personal visits.”I hope that our efforts will soon bear fruit,” he said, without elaborating. “I am unbelievably inspired by their resilience.”
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British companies have made bigger profits investing in Africa than in any other region of the world, according to a new report from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), which urges firms to seek profits on the continent rather than seeing it as a place to do charitable work.With 1.2 billion people and eight of the world’s 15 fastest-growing economies, the ODI says Africa offers world-beating returns on investment.The report looks at investment by British firms in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Its authors say the “young population, growing middle class, and planned industrial growth make the continent a great place to do business.”In 2019, the rate of return on all inward foreign direct investment in developing African countries was 6.5 percent, higher than the rates in developing Latin America and the Caribbean at 6.2 percent, and also higher than the 6 percent return in developed economies.The report was published as Britain formally left the European Union on January 31. The government repeatedly has said its ambition is to create a “global Britain” with new trading partners beyond the European continent. As part of the effort to court new partners, London hosted the Britain-Africa Investment summit last week.Proactive approach neededRecent data from agency the International Trade Center show France and Germany export more than double the value of goods to Africa than Britain does. London must get proactive post-Brexit, according to Lourenço Sambo, director general of Mozambique’s Investment Promotion Center, who spoke to VOA on the sidelines of the summit.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, center, visits the Pavegen stand, a company that converts footsteps into energy, at the Innovation Zone during the UK Africa Investment Summit in London, Jan. 20, 2020.”Nowadays, we very often say, ‘we are not just talking about Africa, we have to talk with Africa,’ Sambo said. “The UK [Britain] has to talk with Africa. If the UK just sits down, the vessel will go, that train will move.”Nigerian entrepreneur Samuel Onwubu said the days when foreign companies could dictate terms to Africa are gone.”UK companies need to come and work with the African business model,” he told VOA.British companies believe they have an edge against their rivals in the field of technology. The UK Space Agency is backing satellite firms that offer services to African farmers, such as PRISE, or Pest Risk Information Service.”It’s taking terabytes of satellite data and sending out text alerts to farmers, which can tell them when pests might become a problem in the future,” explained Chris Castelli, director of programs at the UK Space Agency.Investment in AfricaAfrican entrepreneurs are seeking investment in proprietary technology. Mobihealth is a mobile app that seeks to offer top-level health care access across Africa. Founder Funmi Adewara believes Britain’s expertise in finance could help.”Ninety percent of our doctors are from Western countries, 10 percent from the rest of Africa,” Adewara said. “They provide video consultation, prescriptions, diagnostic tests. We are looking here to connect with people who can help us to scale up our business and take this global.”The secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Mukhisa Kituyi, told VOA in a recent interview that African nations need to work harder to attract investment.”We need to develop this human resource as a contribution to the world’s economy, we need to create the conditions to make Africa the next factory of the world. Then you can say, can Britain step in, just like any other friend of Africa, and offer some of the solution?”Britain says it can offer solutions. Many analysts warn, however, that negotiations over its future relationship with Europe likely will dominate trade talks in the coming months and years.
 
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The United States has imposed sanctions on a Bulgarian judge who the State Department says is involved in “significant” corruption in the Balkan country. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday in a statement that he was blacklisting Specialized Criminal Court Judge Andon Mitalov because of his involvement in “corrupt acts that undermined the rule of law and severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Bulgaria.” The statement added that Mitalov’s wife, Kornelia Stoykova-Mitalova, and his daughter, Gergana Mitalova, were also given “special designation” status, which bars them from entering the United States. Ex-lawmaker’s award from PutinMitalov raised the ire of many within and outside Bulgaria when he allowed Nikolai Malinov, a former Bulgarian lawmaker who is charged with spying for Russia, to visit Moscow, where he received an award from President Vladimir Putin. “This is the first such designation in Bulgaria and reaffirms the U.S. commitment to combating corruption in Bulgaria and globally,” Pompeo said in the statement. “The United States continues to stand with the people of Bulgaria in their fight against corruption. The State Department will use these authorities to promote accountability for corrupt actors in this region and globally.” FILE – Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov arrives at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Dec. 14, 2018.The U.S. move came a day after Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said he was “withdrawing my confidence” in the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, accusing it of failing to tackle endemic corruption. The country has experienced steady economic growth under Borisov, but his government has also been criticized for slow progress in the fight against corruption and a perceived f   ailure to hold corrupt officials and businessmen accountable. ‘Acute crisis in governance'”This government and administration are leading to the collapse of the state and depriving us of our future as a nation,” Radev, a former air force commander, said in a live televised address. “Today we are witnessing an acute crisis in governance at all levels, a lack of will to reform and fight corruption.” The European Commission has also slammed Bulgaria over its record in the areas of rule of law and white-collar crime. Malinov has said Bulgarian prosecutors have been targeting him because he openly promotes stronger ties with Russia. 
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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido meets with U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday at the White House as Guaido tries to rekindle his campaign to depose President Nicolas Maduro.In a statement announcing Guaido’s visit, the White House said, “We will continue to work with our partners in the region to confront the illegitimate dictatorship in Venezuela, and will stand alongside the Venezuelan people to ensure a future that is democratic and prosperous.”Guaido’s visit to Washington comes at the end of a world tour that included visits with European and Canadian leaders in an attempt to revive his campaign after an unsuccessful uprising against Maduro last year.The United States and dozens of other countries recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate interim president. Guaido was a guest at President Trump’s State of the Union speech in Washington Tuesday night.Maduro called for direct talks with the U.S. last month, describing them as a “win-win.” Maduro also suggested U.S. oil companies could benefit financially if the U.S. lifted sanctions against Venezuela, including the OPEC member’s state oil company, PDVSA.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet with Maduro Friday in Caracas in a show of support for the socialist leader.Russia has criticized the U.S. sanctions as illegal and harmful, while the Guaido-led opposition has urged Washington to increase pressure on Moscow for supporting Venezuela diplomatically, economically and militarily.Maduro won a second term in office in May 2018, and Guaido declared himself interim president eight months later. 
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The United States is calling for international sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his allies to pressure the government to hold free and fair elections this year.
The United States agrees with Venezuelan activists and opposition leaders that nothing except free and fair elections will end the country’s political crisis.  Congressional elections are supposed to take place by the end of the year, but so far, no date has been set.Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido listens as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 4, 2020.U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Andrew Bremberg says for elections to be credible, they must be open to all parties and candidates, and the independent media must be allowed unrestricted access to cover the event.  He is calling on international partners to support opposition leader Juan Guaido.”We encourage partner nations to implement serious travel and financial sanctions against Maduro and his allies.  We also ask our partners to call on Russia, Cuba and China to cease providing support to Maduro,” he said.Several Venezuelan parliamentarians in exile and other activists have come to the United Nations in Geneva to raise awareness of the plight of the Venezuelan people and to garner U.N. support for free and fair elections.Miguel Pizarro has been an elected member of Venezuela’s National Assembly since 2010.  He was forced to flee the country to Italy last July after being convicted on false charges of conspiracy.He says the U.N. is not toothless.  He says it can effect change and already has done so.  He notes the U.N. human rights council has succeeded in putting the spotlight on the situation of abuse that exists in Venezuela.  Pizarro says U.N. agencies have informed the world about the abysmal humanitarian conditions in the country, which have forced millions of people to flee as refugees.  He tells VOA the United Nations has an important role to play both before and after an election.“If we won an election in Venezuela, we will need observation, multilateral observation, because an election is not only because we know for sure, the day we are able to vote is the last day of the regime in the power.  And that will need a lot of international support to achieve the transition because it will not be an easy peace,” he said.Pizarro says he appreciates the important role played by the U.N. in regard to Venezuela’s humanitarian and refugee crisis.  He says he would like to see the U.N. play a more active role in the political sphere.      
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Winter is high season for tourism around Lake Baikal in Siberia, but the coronavirus outbreak has curtailed its main source of income: Chinese holidaymakers.They account for more than two-thirds of foreign tourists to the world’s largest freshwater lake, a significant part of the around two million Chinese who visited Russia last year, spending more than any other nation in its first three months.Russia has reported just two cases of the fast-spreading virus, but the flow of Chinese visitors to the lake has dwindled as Moscow and Beijing have imposed travel restrictions to stem its spread.”The number of Chinese tourists has fallen dramatically… There’s much less work now. Business is feeling it very badly,” said Anastasia Nikolayeva, a hotel waitress in Listvyanka, a small lakeside town in the Irkutsk region.Flanked by snow-capped hills and woodlands, Lake Baikal contains about one-fifth of the earth’s unfrozen freshwater reserves. It freezes in winter, offering an array of winter sports from skating, skiing, fishing to hovercrafting.That has helped turn it into a popular Chinese New Year destination. More than 49,000 Chinese visited Irkutsk alone in the first quarter of last year, up from 27,000 in the same period of 2017.A similar rush was expected this month after package tours sold out, but fallout from the coronavirus has left the resort’s wood-paneled chalet hotels largely empty. Restaurants have only a fraction of normal business.”It’s New Year in China and we normally have good tours from China in February… This year – just cancellations,” said Artyom Potashov, director of the Krestovaya hotel complex.Boosting what he calls Russia’s still untapped tourism potential is one of a series of targets mentioned in an economic stimulus package that President Vladimir Putin announced last year.Around one in 15 of the 30 million foreign tourists who visited Russia in 2019 were Chinese, so their role in that hoped-for expansion is a big one.But the coronavirus had nipped that in the bud, dealing a setback to the push to increase visitor flows and, for the time being, tour operators in Listvyanka can only guess how long the restrictions will stay in place.”The date when Chinese tourists will be allowed to travel is not yet clear, so we expect the bookings to be canceled at least until March 1,” Yekaterina Slivina, the head of Irkutsk’s state tourist agency said. 
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German sportswear company Adidas on Wednesday said it was temporarily shutting a “considerable” number of its stores in China due to the coronavirus outbreak which has killed nearly 500 people and infected thousands.The company said the fast-spreading virus was having a negative impact on its business but added that it could not yet assess to what extent.Adidas has around 12,000 outlets in China, including franchise stores.Adidas saw sales growth slow to 11% in China in the July-September period from 14% in the second quarter.Several retailers have warned that coronavirus is taking its toll, including Nike Inc and Hugo Boss, which have both closed some stores in China.Adidas’s German rival Puma on Wednesday declined to comment on whether coronavirus has hit its business in China.
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Three men who are members of an Iranian separatist group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, have been jailed in pre-trial custody in Denmark until Feb. 27, suspected of spying for an unnamed Saudi intelligence service.The three members of the London-based group were arrested Monday in Ringsted, 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Copenhagen, for the suspected spying on people and companies over a period of six years from 2012.They appeared before the nearby Roskilde City Court where judge John Larsen on Tuesday ordered the hearing held behind closed doors, meaning no details were made public.Heavily armed police officers with machine guns guarded the courthouse in Roskilde, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Copenhagen. The men who can’t be named under a court ban, pleaded not guilty. The men are facing preliminary charges of espionage under a milder paragraph that could give them up to six years in jail.On Monday, the Saudi ambassador to Denmark, Fahad bin Maayouf Al Ruwaily, was summoned to the Danish foreign ministry.In the same case, another man was arrested Monday in the Netherlands – the historic Dutch city of Delft – for allegedly plotting one or more terror attacks in Iran and for membership of a terrorist organization.
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An avalanche hit a road in eastern Turkey, burying a snow-clearing vehicle and a minibus, and killing at least five people, an official said Wednesday. Two other people are reported missing.The avalanche occurred late Tuesday near the mountain-surrounded town of Bahcesehir, in Van province, which borders Iran.Gov. Mehmet Emin Bilmez told reporters that the snow-clearing vehicle’s operator and six people inside the minibus survived. Rescuers were searching for the other two passengers, but their efforts were hampered by the weather conditions.The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the operator, Bahattin Karagulle, was trapped beneath the snow for some 25 minutes before he managed to break a window and escape. The agency quoted him as saying that he walked toward a village before he was picked up by a vehicle and managed to seek help.
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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized as the country’s interim president by the United States, was guest at Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday, U.S. media reported.Guaido was invited by Trump to attend the flagship event in Washington in a public show of support for his efforts to dislodge President Nicolas Maduro, CNN and NBC reported.Guaido has defied a travel ban to leave Venezuela and meet with officials abroad as he struggles to maintain momentum in his year-long campaign to oust Maduro.The U.S. quickly recognized Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela after he invoked constitutional powers and named himself interim president in January 2019. More than 50 other countries have also recognized Guaido.Maduro won a new term in 2018 elections that were widely criticized internationally as fraudulent.Trump’s choice of guests for the annual speech to Congress are carefully chosen.Trump also invited a senior border patrol officer, a woman whose brother was murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2018, and former Caracas police chief Ivan Simonovis who spent years in jail under Venezuela’s far-left government.
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