Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor
C4
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2017
World
Panama cuts ties with Taipei PANAMA CITY―Panama broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan and switched to Beijing, accepting its One-China policy, the countries announced Monday. “In light of the interests and wishes of both peoples, the Republic of Panama and People’s Republic of China have decided to grant each other, from the date of this document’s signing, mutual recognition, establishment of diplomatic ties at the ambassadorial level,” the note said. After decades of siding with Taiwan in the disagreement, Panama now “recognizes that there is only one China in the world” and that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory. The new relationship with Beijing was starting Monday, and the previous one with Taiwan ending, the note added. The announcement comes after Beijing began construction last week of a container port, with natural gas facilities, in Panama’s northern province of Colon. Taiwan, considered a rebel province by Beijing, is recognized by around 20 countries worldwide and the issue of its status has risen again with the election of US President Donald Trump. Panama long had stressed it had diplomatic ties with Taipei and commercial ones with Beijing. Today, Chinese ships are the number two users of the Panama Canal, the Central American country’s main source of budget revenue. Panama over the years received generous aid, millions of dollars in cooperation funds from Taipei. But it was simultaneously pressed for decades by Beijing to adopt its stand. AFP
News bulletins acted live in bus FLOWER POWER. Visitors view lotus flowers at a park in Tongling in China’s eastern Anhui province. AFP
Attorney general to face Russia queries in Senate W
ASHINGTON―The eyes of Washington turn again to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, where embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions faces questions over his Russia contacts and role in the firing of FBI director James Comey. It will be the first sworn public testimony from Sessions, a longtime former senator, since he was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed as the nation’s top law enforcement officer in February. It comes as political intrigue pulses through the US capital following explosive testimony by Comey before the same panel last week, and as Trump has expressed frustrations with Sessions, one of his earliest high-profile campaign backers. In his riveting appearance Thursday, Comey said the Federal Bureau of Investigation was aware of information that would have made it “problematic” for Sessions to be involved in investigations into alleged Russian meddling in
last year’s election. Comey said he could address the details only in a classified setting―heightening the suspense about what might be asked and answered on Tuesday. The president sacked Comey in early May. Given that as FBI director Comey was overseeing the probe into Russia and its possible collusion with the Trump team, the firing has led to questions about potential obstruction of justice. But Sessions, who recommended in a signed memo that Comey be fired, may end up claiming executive privilege as a means of limiting the breadth of his testimony. Whether executive privilege is invoked “depends on the scope of the
questions,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Monday. “To get to a hypothetical at this point would be premature,” he added. Although Sessions, a genteel 70-yearold from the southern state of Alabama, backed Trump’s campaign, he was also one of the first administration officials to fly into turbulence. During his January confirmation hearing, he failed to disclose meetings he held with Russian officials. On March 1, The Washington Post reported that he met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign. Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe the next day. “He didn’t tell us the truth,” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy told MSNBC Monday. There are now “things that indicate he had a third meeting,” Leahy added. “Let’s find out under oath what it was.” Sessions may be under a further cloud after Comey suggested the attorney gen-
eral may have failed to take appropriate steps to protect the FBI chief. At the conclusion of a February 14 meeting, Comey testified, Trump urged everyone else but Comey to leave the Oval Office, including Sessions. Comey recalled that he felt “something big” was about to happen, and “my sense was the attorney general knew he shouldn’t be leaving.” Sessions heads to Capitol Hill in a perilous position with his boss, with US media reporting Trump has grown displeased with his attorney general, notably for his recusal on the Russia probe. Trump made his frustration known publicly on Twitter on June 5, when he criticized Sessions’s office for the way it acted on the president’s travel ban on visitors from some Muslim-majority countries. During a White House meeting Monday, cabinet members including Sessions offered a chorus of flattery for the president despite the crises buffeting the administration. AFP
CARACAS―Short of newspapers, Venezuelans are getting updates about their country’s deadly political crisis live―acted out by reporters on the bus to work. Maria Gabriela Fernandez and Dereck Blanco stand on board inside a black frame. “El Bus TV,” reads a sign over their heads. “Good morning everyone. First, the news.” It’s less comfortable than a TV studio― they have to hold onto the rail with one hand to stop themselves from falling when the dilapidated bus brakes. But it’s one way of escaping government censorship. “The idea came from the need to break away from the news circus in this country,” the group’s creative editor Claudia Lizardo told AFP. “To bring people truthful news through a mass transport system: the bus.” In three minutes, Fernandez and Blanco deliver news on health, safety, sports, entertainment and, naturally, economics and politics in a country stricken by food shortages and deadly riots. The clashes at the daily protests by demonstrators calling for President Nicolas Maduro to quit have left 66 people dead since April 1, prosecutors say. Police fire tear gas and water cannons at protesters who hurl rocks and petrol bombs. The Bus TV team digs out original angles to bring home the drama of the protests, which are not broadcast on state television. “Each tear gas canister costs $40. At the black market exchange rate, that is 200,000 bolivars, or a whole month’s salary,” Blanco tells the audience of passengers. “Economic news now: a kilo of chicken wings costs 9,700 bolivars. A Venezuelan on a minimum wage must work a day and a half to buy it.” AFP
Nigeria girls lured into sex slavery BENIN CITY―In Benin City, Nigeria’s capital of illegal migration, no one says the word “prostitution”. The word on the street for the young girls who leave for Italy or France is “hustling”. About 37,500 Nigerians arrived in Italy by boat in 2016, more than from any other African country, and most of them were from the southern city, the capital of Edo state. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded an explosion in the number of Nigerian women trafficked into Europe. In 2013, there were 433 but the following year, it rose to nearly 5,000. There was a “substantial increase” in “more easily-manipulated” under-age victims, the IOM says. Most are destined for sexual slavery. “Why Edo? Why Benin City? I am trying to understand and it gives me a headache,” says Sister Bibiana, who helps young women when they return from Europe, voluntarily or otherwise. “But they’re itching to go back.” The benevolent smile of Jesus radiates down on the meeting room of Sister Bibiana’s small charity in Benin City. “In Europe, people are good people. They are like Jesus,” says one woman, Miracle, explaining why she left Nigeria in 2012. “I pray to God every day. I ask him to find me a way to go back.” Miracle returned from Italy two years ago. The story she tells is sketchy. She claims only to have been a sex worker for a few weeks before being rescued. But the nun who knows her background insists Miracle was a prostitute from when she arrived in Europe until the time she left. AFP
KATY PERRY IN CONCERT. Katy Perry performs during the’Katy Perry-Witness World Wid’e exclusive YouTube Livestream Concert at the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts on June 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. AFP