Study casting doubt on Bolivian election fraud triggers controversy

Aislinn Laing

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology experts that called into question the alleged election fraud that drove Bolivian President Evo Morales to resign has triggered sniping between left and right-leaning governments in Latin America.

The analysis by two researchers in MIT’s Election Data and Science Lab, made public last week, stated that an Organization of American States (OAS) finding that fraud helped Morales win was flawed and concluded that it was “very likely” the socialist president won the October vote by the 10 percentage points needed to avoid a runoff.

The OAS in a statement on Friday dismissed the MIT study as “unscientific.”

Bolivia will run a fresh election in May. The MIT study prompted Morales, who fled Bolivia first to Mexico and then to Argentina, to call on Sunday for the “democratic” international community to steward the upcoming election carefully.

“The coup-mongerers intend to disqualify our candidates,” Morales wrote on Twitter.

The OAS report cited several violations in the October election including a hidden computer server designed to tilt the vote toward Morales, who served as Bolivia’s president for 14 years. Morales resigned amid violence in Bolivia in the aftermath of the election fraud allegations, declaring he was the victim of a “coup.”

Morales has said he will return to Bolivia, but has been charged by the caretaker government with sedition and blocked from running as a candidate for senator.

Leaders of a number of left-leaning Latin American countries supportive of Morales have weighed in since the release of the MIT report, with Mexico asking the OAS to clarify its findings.

Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro reiterated his claim that the OAS is a tool of the United States, posting on Twitter on Sunday that the MIT study was “more proof that the Ministry of the Colonies (OAS) threatens the will of the free peoples of the continent.”

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said the report’s findings justified his continued support for Morales.

“We demand the prompt democratization of Bolivia, with the full participation of the Bolivian people and without prescriptions of any kind,” Fernandez wrote on Twitter.

Conservative leaders in Latin America backed the OAS.

Ernesto Araujo, Brazil’s foreign minister, said fraud in Bolivia’s election had been “crystal clear”.

Tuto Quiroga, a former Bolivian president who is running in the upcoming election, called the MIT study a “rehash of old lies.” Quiroga pointed out that Morales had himself asked the OAS to review the October election, called a fresh vote after the OAS report on the matter and dismissed members of the country’s electoral board.

MIT did not respond to a request for comment.

Recession, record violence hit support for Mexico president: poll

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Record levels of violence and an economic slump are taking an increasing toll on support for Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.

The Feb. 20-26 survey of 1,000 Mexican adults by pollster Buendia & Laredo showed the president’s approval rating had slipped to 62% from 67% in late November. In February 2019, backing for the veteran leftist stood at 85%, the poll said.

“Bit by bit, the economy and security are starting to cut through more,” said Jorge Buendia, head of the polling firm.

Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018 promising to bring down record levels of gang-fueled violence and to ramp up economic growth. Instead, he presided over a mild recession last year, and was unable to stop homicides rising to new heights.

Holding daily news conferences at 7 a.m., the 66-year-old has been adept at shaping the political agenda, blaming Mexico’s problems on the legacy of corruption and “neo-liberal” privatizations he says he inherited from previous governments.

But his response to a slew of brutal murders in recent weeks, including one of a 7-year-old girl and another of a young woman mutilated by her partner, has been less surefooted, sparking protests and helping galvanize opposition to him.

The survey suggested that confidence in the government was lower than in the president. Some 40% of respondents said the country was on the wrong track, up from 29% in November, while 49% took the opposite view, down from 57% in the previous poll.

That net positive balance of opinion of 9 percentage points represented a sharp decrease from the survey’s positive balance of 56 points one year earlier.

Launching attack after attack on what he describes as his “conservative” opponents, Lopez Obrador has admitted to polarizing Mexico. The latest survey suggested that divisions in society have widened as his popularity frays.

Support for the president among Mexicans with lower levels of education has held up far better, the poll showed.

In August 2019, Lopez Obrador had a 70% approval rating among respondents with only primary education, a 73% rating among those attaining only secondary levels of education, and 68% among Mexicans who had university degrees or better.

By February, the approval rating among the first two groups was only slightly lower, standing at 69% and 67% respectively. But support among the university-educated had plunged to 43%.

Nicaraguan poet and priest who criticized president dies at 95




FILE PHOTO: Nicaraguan poet and priest and Reina Sofia Prize winner, Ernesto Cardenal, speaks during a celebration for his 90th birthday at the National Theatre Ruben Dario in Managua, Nicaragua January 27, 2015. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas/File Photo

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaraguan poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal died on Sunday at the age of 95 in Managua due to heart and kidney problems, a close relative said.
Cardenal, a strong critic of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, was suspended by the Catholic Church for more than three decades due to his political activism.

Diaspora has big role as Somalia rebuilds economy, global ties: finance minister

Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Somalia’s 2-million strong diaspora has a huge role to play as the Horn of Africa country rebuilds its economy and resets ties with major international institutions after three decades as a “failed state,” Somalia’s finance minister said.

FILE PHOTO: A general view shows traffic along the road in Dhusamareb,

administrative capital of Galmudug state, in central Somalia December 23, 2019.

 REUTERS/Feisal Omar/File Photo

Long saddled with $5.3 billion in debt, Somalia is in the process of inking debt forgiveness deals with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other big institutions after nearly three decades of clan warfare, famine and sporadic terror attacks by al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabaab.

Somali Finance Minister Abdirahman Duale Beileh, a longtime member of the diaspora himself, will finalize a debt forgiveness agreement on Monday with the African Development Bank in Abidjan, another milestone as Somalia normalizes ties with the rest of the world.

He signed the first of several such deals with the World Bank on Thursday in Washington, paving the way for Mogadishu to receive deeper and broader financial and technical support, and expects the IMF to follow suit later this month.

“It’s a historic moment,” Abdirahman told Reuters in an interview on Friday. “I’m really happy I get to participate in the renaissance, the rebirth of Somalia.”

On March 31, Somalia officials will meet with Paris Club creditors, with non-Paris Club creditors to attend as well.


He said he hoped the creditors would agree to cancel about 75% or 80% of Somalia’s debt, with the remainder to be repaid on strict and closely supervised terms over the next few years.

Those agreements will pave the way for Somalia to receive grants and concessional financing to build new water and energy infrastructure, fund education and expand fisheries and other potential sources of revenue, Abdirahman said.

But he said he is also relying on help from Somalis living in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, who contribute about $2 billion or 40% of Somalia’s gross domestic product in remittances each year, to shore up trust in the government, invest in businesses and move the country forward.

“We need a big perception change, a big cultural shift,” he said, noting that 75% of Somalis were under 30 years old and had no memory of more normal times before 1991. “It is totally a shift of paradigm, a shift of attitude.”

Educated and working in the West, he said he was counting on diasporan Somalis to change the attitudes of their clansmen back home, and support a range of reconstruction projects. Women also had a huge role in rebuilding the economy, he said.

To guide its work, Somalia is now building a database of potential donors and investors among diasporan Somalis.


Abdirahman, who also holds a U.S. passport, plans to do his own outreach during a visit to one of the biggest communities in Minneapolis in May.

“You can’t imagine the feeling of being reclassified from a failed state to a normal country,” he said. “To be classified as a normal country is a blessing for us.”

Canada and indigenous group reach tentative deal in dispute that led to road, rail blockades

Steve Scherer
BUSINESS NEWS
MARCH 1, 2020 / 2:13 PM

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian authorities on Sunday reached a tentative deal with an indigenous group in the Pacific province of British Columbia that could end solidarity protests across Canada that have been blocking rail lines and roads for weeks.


FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the indigenous Wet'suwet'en Nation's hereditary chiefs block the Pat Bay highway as part of protests against the Coastal GasLink pipeline, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada February 26, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Light/File Photo

Activists have disrupted passenger and freight traffic to show solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people, who are seeking to stop TC Energy Corp’s (TRP.TO) Coastal GasLink pipeline from being built across their land.

After three days of talks in which work on the pipeline had been stopped, Indigenous affairs ministers from British Columbia and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said they reached an agreement that would address future land rights disputes, but said pipeline construction would continue.

After the deal was announced, Coastal GasLink President David Pfeiffer said construction would be restarted on Monday.

The agreement will now be reviewed by the Wet’suwet’en people, British Columbia’s Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser said in a Facebook live stream from the town of Smithers.

That consultations should take about two weeks, Wet’suwet’en hereditary leader Chief Woos said.


The agreement will “create certainty and clarity for the Wet’suwet’en and all British Columbians,” Fraser said, without providing details.

“They are permitted and allowed to go to work,” Fraser said when asked about whether laborers building TC Energy’s GasLink pipeline would be allowed to continue construction.

The proposed agreement includes establishing a permanent table to address legacy land rights and title issues, a senior federal government source said.

Carolyn Bennett, the federal minister of crown-indigenous relations, called the agreement a “milestone” in indigenous relations. Bennett declined to reveal any of the deal’s details, saying the Wet’suwet’en people should “see it first”.

Police in the eastern province of Ontario cleared protesters from a major Canadian National Railway Co (CNR.TO) line on Monday, allowing some shipments to resume.

Trudeau, who says improving relations with aboriginal groups is a priority, called for dialogue. But tensions built quickly as the blockades led to railroad layoffs and shortages of goods like propane and as business groups warned of further economic damage.


At least one rail line in Quebec, south of Montreal, remains blocked as some indigenous protesters were holding out.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau said last week that the effects of the disruptions would be felt for weeks and months to come.


Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Grant McCool and Daniel Wallis

U.S. investigating whistleblower allegations; vows to keep federal workers safe

Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Sunday said it was investigating complaints that federal workers were not given proper protective gear and training before greeting U.S. citizens evacuated from a cruise ship that had 691 people infected with the new coronavirus.

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told CBS’s “Face the Nation” he was personally involved in the probe, and the government was determined to make sure its workers were kept safe.

Azar told CBS it had been 14 days since any HHS worker had contact with the evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and none had contracted the disease.

About 70 cases have been reported in the United States, including 47 cases among people repatriated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the supposed epicenter of the outbreak, or from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Japan.

“Even if these allegations proved to be true, there was no spreading of the disease from this,” he said, adding that the department had offered to test any HHS employees involved if they wanted what he called “that extra piece of mind.”

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Azar said the government would not allow any retaliation against the HHS worker who first raised concerns about the issue or other employees.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal and Representative Jimmie Gomez, a Democrat from California, last week asked the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to provide answers within a week about reports that HHS had retaliated against the whistleblower in question.

In a separate letter to Azar, the lawmakers said the whistleblower alleged that “staff were sent into quarantined areas ‘without personal protective equipment, training, or experience in managing public health emergencies, safety protocols, and the potential danger to both themselves and members of the public they come into contact with.’”


They said the whistleblower also reported that when staff raised safety concerns, they were “admonished ... for decreasing staff morale, accused of not being team players, and had their mental health and emotional stability questioned.’”

On Sunday, Azar declined to provide details on whether the whistleblower had been reassigned to a different position, saying it would be inappropriate to discuss personnel matters.

“Nobody would ever be reassigned or discriminated against or prejudiced or retaliated against because of raising concerns about the functioning of the department,” Azar said. “If our employees raise concerns about our processes, if something proves not to be right, we are grateful.”

Black Democrats turn their backs on Bloomberg at church before Super Tuesday votes

Joseph Ax, Trevor Hunnicutt

SELMA, Ala. (Reuters) - Joe Biden, fresh off a victory in South Carolina propelled by black voters, on Sunday commemorated a landmark civil rights march in Alabama, where some worshippers at an African-American church turned their backs on his rival Michael Bloomberg.

Biden and the others competing for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in November hit the campaign trail before Super Tuesday nominating contests in 14 states including Alabama. Biden, whose win in Saturday’s South Carolina primary galvanized his campaign, and the current front-runner, Bernie Sanders, traded jabs on Sunday news shows.

Bloomberg, a former New York mayor, received a chilly reception at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma after pastor Reverend Leodis Strong told the gathering the billionaire businessman initially had turned down the invitation to speak.

“I was hurt, I was disappointed,” Strong said as Bloomberg looked on stonily. “I think it’s important that he came, and it shows a willingness on his part to change.”


About 10 people stood up and turned their backs on Bloomberg as he spoke about racial inequality. Black voters are a key constituency of the Democratic Party.

“I think it’s just an insult for him to come here. It’s the disrespect for the legacy of this place,” Lisa Brown, who traveled to Selma from Los Angeles, told Reuters later. She said the idea to protest Bloomberg’s remarks had circulated but she stood as an individual, not an organized group.

The quiet protest suggests Bloomberg may have an uphill climb with some African-American voters, who have supported Biden in large numbers and carried him to a resounding victory in South Carolina.

Biden and Bloomberg are trying to present themselves as the party’s best choice to take on Trump, arguing that Sanders is too far to the left to win the general election.

Black attendees stand and turn their backs on Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg as he talks about his plans to help the U.S. black community during remarks at commemoration ceremonies for the 55th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" march in the Brown Chapel AME church in Selma, Alabama, U.S., March 1, 2020. REUTERS/Joseph Ax

At church in Selma, the vice president to the country’s first African American president, Barack Obama, was clearly the favorite. Biden was seated in a place of honor with the pastor, facing the pews where Bloomberg sat, and got a glowing introduction from U.S. Representative Terri Sewell, a black Alabama lawmaker who supports him.

“Most importantly, he has earned the right to be in this pulpit and to address you now,” Sewell said.

Democratic contenders Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar sat on folding chairs at the margins of the church audience. The pastor yelled at Tom Steyer, who dropped out of the race after finishing third in South Carolina, to sit down. “This is a house of God, this is not a political rally,” he chided.

The candidates were in Selma to mark the 55th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when civil rights marchers were beaten by state troopers and local police while crossing a bridge in Selma.

Bloomberg skipped the first four state nominating contests including South Carolina but has blanketed the nation with about $500 million in advertising and will be on the ballot for the first time on Tuesday, when the biggest prizes are California and Texas.
He has made a concerted effort to reach out to black voters, including apologies for overseeing an increase in the use of a police practice called “stop and frisk” in New York City that disproportionately affected black and other racial minority residents. A federal judge found the practice was an unconstitutional form of racial profiling.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of registered Democrats and independents, conducted Feb. 19-25, showed Bloomberg garnering the support of 20% of black voters, third among the Democratic candidates behind Sanders (26%) and Biden (23%).

At least five Super Tuesday states - Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and Virginia - have big blocs of African-American voters.

‘NOT A SOCIALIST’

Biden won overwhelmingly in South Carolina, drawing 48% of the votes cast compared to 20% for Sanders. Edison Research exit polls showed Biden with 61% of African-American support there to Sanders’ 17%.


Slideshow (10 Images)

The victory led the former vice president to assert himself as a viable moderate alternative to Sanders, an independent U.S. senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist.

Sanders’ calls for a political revolution have rattled a Democratic Party establishment worried he is too far to the left to beat Trump.

“I think the Democratic Party is looking for a Democrat - not a socialist, not a former Republican, a Democrat - to be their nominee,” Biden told “Fox News Sunday.”

Biden’s reference to a former Republican appears to have been aimed at Bloomberg, who switched parties.

Sanders attacked Biden for taking contributions from political organizations called Super PACs and billionaires, courting wealthy donors at what he said was the expense of working-class, middle-class and low-income people.


“I don’t go to rich people’s homes like Joe Biden,” Sanders said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Biden lags Sanders in fundraising and organization in Super Tuesday states and beyond.

Sanders planned to campaign on Sunday in heavily Democratic California, where he leads opinion polls.

The Sanders campaign announced overnight it had raised $46.5 million from more than 2.2 million donations in February, a huge sum dwarfing what any other Democratic candidate had raised last year in any three-month period.

Biden reported his February haul was $18 million. Warren’s campaign said she raised more than $29 million last month.

Bloomberg, meanwhile, continues to spend. He purchased three minutes of commercial air time during on broadcast networks CBS and NBC on Sunday evening to address the coronavirus outbreak.


Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham and Lisa Shumaker

South Africa probes apartheid-era death in police custody

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME February 3, 2020

FILE — This Aug. 22, 2017 file shows the upper floors of the Johannesburg Central Police Station, formerly known as John Foster Square, in Johannesburg, where medical doctor and former activist Neil Aggett is alleged to have committed suicide while in police custody in 1982. An inquest into the death of Aggett is being held Monday Feb. 3, 2020, where his family and others say they believe he died as result of torture by authorities. (AP Photo/Denis farrell/File)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Being hanged upside down until unconsciousness. Daily beatings. Being forced to do strenuous exercises while naked.

These are some of the abuses perpetrated by South Africa’s police when activist Neil Aggett died in custody in 1982, according to witnesses who were jailed at the same time.

The harrowing testimony came at the inquest into the death of Aggett, a medical doctor and union activist, who police at the time said hanged himself. But his family and others say they believe he died as a result of torture by authorities during apartheid, South Africa’s previous and brutal regime of racial discrimination.
Aggett, 28, was held by police for 70 days without charges before he died. Fellow prisoners who saw him said he appeared to have been badly tortured.

“He was struggling to walk. He was bending forward almost like he was unable to pick his body up. It felt like the time I myself had my hands chained against my feet,” said the Rev. Frank Chikane, an anti-apartheid activist who saw Aggett while both were held by police.

“He was slow like a patient, he looked very weak and stressed,” said Chikane.

Chikane, a prominent former anti-apartheid activist, described how he was tortured by police in the same police building, now known as Johannesburg Central Police Station.

“They hanged me head down. They put me on a broom and hanged me with my head facing down until I lost consciousness. I don’t know how long that lasted. By the time I regained consciousness, they took me back to the cell, ” said Chikane.

Another former prisoner, Barbara Hogan, told how a handcuffed Aggett gave her a defiant clenched fist salute as police officers led him through a corridor.

Hogan, who later became a Cabinet minister in South Africa’s post-apartheid government, said she was subjected to daily abuse by police.

According to Hogan, she was handcuffed to a chair and repeatedly slapped in the face, among other punishments. She said had attempted to kill herself to end the abuse.

“I saw no way of getting out of the situation. I had friends who had been tortured badly,” she said.

Hogan said she regretted that a report she had compiled had been intercepted by the apartheid police and led to the arrest of activists including Aggett.

Aggett had been forced to do strenuous exercises while naked, said another former prisoner Maurice Smithers.

Aggett’s family has pursued the case for years.

The inquest into Aggett’s death follows that of Ahmed Timol, an anti-apartheid activist who also died in police detention. That investigation determined that Timol did not die of suicide, as the apartheid regime had said, but had been killed. Former policeman Joao Rodrigues is set to go on trial for Timol’s killing after a South African court last year declined his application for a permanent halt of his prosecution.

At least 67 detainees had died while in the custody of the apartheid government’s secret police, said Jabulani Mlotshwa of the National Prosecuting Authority.

“Those are the ones which we know of. The grim reality is that the count was probably higher,” he said.

Representing the Aggett family, advocate Howard Varney said their aim is to get the 1982 ruling that Aggett killed himself overturned.

The inquest is expected to continue throughout February.

Graveside memorial as South Africa re-probes activist death

By ANDREW MELDRUM February 5, 2020


JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The dream of an equitable, non-racial South Africa was the driving force of the struggle against apartheid and remains a goal today, those who returned to the grave of an activist who died in police custody 38 years ago said Wednesday.

The memorial for Neil Aggett was held as South Africa begins to re-investigate his death in police custody after battling apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial discrimination that ended in 1994 with all-race elections.

Infuriated by the death of the 28-year-old doctor and trade union activist, an estimated 15,000 people carried his coffin from central Johannesburg to the Westpark cemetery, which in 1982 was for whites only.


A band of 30 people returned to the grave on Wednesday, the anniversary of Aggett’s death, as harrowing descriptions of police torture have emerged from several people jailed at the same time and who saw Aggett in terrible condition. He was held for 70 days without charges.

The initial inquest in 1982 found that Aggett had hanged himself, despite evidence that he had been repeatedly abused by police.

“The testimony of the abuse is difficult to hear, but I hope this new inquest will find that my brother did not kill himself,” said Aggett’s sister, Jill Burger. “That was very traumatic for our family. It is a wound that needs to be healed and the truth about his death will help that.”

She said she hopes the case will “open the doors for more families to come forward and demand the truth about how their loved ones died.”

More than 65 anti-apartheid activists died in police custody during the apartheid era.

“I hope this re-opened inquest will allow others who lost loved ones to get justice,” Burger said. “This will help families find peace at last.”

Fellow prisoner Prema Naidoo, who spoke at the memorial service, said he became emotional when giving testimony but said it was important to remain committed to the goals of the anti-apartheid struggle.

“Our struggle was about non-racialism. It was a struggle about human rights,” Naidoo said. “Those remain our ideals. We want to see the law take its course against those who perpetuated abuse.”

Janine Ward said her brother and father were detained by police during the apartheid years.

“Let the legacy of Neil and so many others not be wasted,” Ward said. “These stories must come out. We must carry on believing in the beautiful South Africa that we must have.”

SOUTH AFRICA; ELEPHANT SPIRIT ANIMAL SAVED FROM POACHERS TRAP

In this photo taken Tuesday Feb. 11, 2020, Adine Roode, founder of the Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development center (HERD), plays with Khanysia, a five-month-old albino elephant in Hoedspruit, South Africa. Khanysia was severely wounded by a manmade snare set by a poacher in the lower Kruger park . She was found days later severely dehydrated and brought to the Hoedspruit elephant reab center. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

SHEER FEAR SHEER TERROR

In this photo taken Tuesday Feb. 11, 2020, a vies of Khanysia, a five-month-old albino elephant, at the Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development center (HERD), in Hoedspruit, South Africa. Khanysia was severely wounded by a manmade snare set by a poacher in the lower Kruger park . She was found days later severely dehydrated and brought to the Hoedspruit elephant reab center. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

In this photo taken Tuesday Feb. 11, 2020, Adine Roode, founder of the Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development center (HERD), and Juan Ferreira, HERD curator, secure a blanket on Khanysia, a five-month-old albino elephant in Hoedspruit, South Africa. Khanysia was severely wounded by a manmade snare set by a poacher in the lower Kruger park . She was found days later severely dehydrated and brought to the Hoedspruit elephant reab center. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay

In this photo taken Tuesday Feb. 11, 2020, Adine Roode, founder of the Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development center (HERD), plays with Khanysia, a five-month-old albino elephant in Hoedspruit, South Africa. Khanysia was severely wounded by a manmade snare set by a poacher in the lower Kruger park . She was found days later severely dehydrated and brought to the Hoedspruit elephant reab center. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

In this photo taken Tuesday Feb. 11, 2020, Adine Roode, founder of the Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development center (HERD), plays with Khanysia, a five-month-old albino elephant in Hoedspruit, South Africa. Khanysia was severely wounded by a manmade snare set by a poacher in the lower Kruger park . She was found days later severely dehydrated and brought to the Hoedspruit elephant reab center. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)



HOEDSPRUIT, South Africa (AP) — Khanysia did not see the trap set by a poacher in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. She dove head first into the sharp wire snare, which cut her mouth, face and underneath her ear and chin.

It was days before the four-month-old albino elephant was found badly dehydrated but alive, and taken to the Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development center, three hours away.

One month later, Khanysia, named after the Tsonga word for light, weighs a healthy 150 kilograms (330 pounds), is adding 500 grams (1 pound) every day and spends her time playing with caretakers.


“She is a little albino elephant, so it is a bit different than your normal elephant just in caring, especially when the sun is kind of severe,” said Adine Roode, founder of the center, in the heart of Kapama game reserve. “Due to the animal human conflict, we are sitting with orphans. Because of the decreasing land and habitat, we will see an increase, in the future, of elephant orphans.”

It is not known how Khanysia was separated from her mother and herd, said Roode.

For the past 22 years, the center has looked after orphaned elephants, and now has 17 pachyderms on site, she said. The young elephants are eventually released to the private game reserve, she said.

Khanysia is separated from the rest of the herd for the time being. At night she stays in a heated room and in the daytime she goes outside to a large enclosure with tall grass and a mud pool. Under 24-hour supervision, the blue-eyed, pink-skinned toddler seems to be in a non-stop play mood, craving attention and only stopping now and then to scratch her itchy scars on the wood pillars surrounding her pen.

After two hours of cavorting with Khanysia, causing the little elephant to trumpet repeatedly, Roode leaves her in the care of Liverson Sande, the center’s senior carer.

Outside, the 17 other elephants line up for a walk. “It’s so easy to get too attached,” says Roode. “It is difficult to let go.”







AP

South Africa seeks more renewable energy amid power cuts

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME February 13, 2020
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his State of the Nation Address in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020. (Sumaya Hisham/Pool Photo via AP)


JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s president said Thursday the coal-dependent country will turn to more renewable energy as one way to help ease power cuts that have “severely set back” efforts to rebuild the weak economy. But he warned of more blackouts in the immediate future.

South Africans have been outraged by rolling power cuts in the current mid-summer that also have worried investors. The country relies on coal for some 77% of power needs, according to the department of energy, and some citizens were astounded when officials blamed “wet coal” in part for the blackouts.

The outages are just the latest grievance in a country with 29% unemployment, widespread corruption and certain state-owned companies teetering on the edge of collapse. The economy is estimated to grow by less than 1% this year, and more than half of young people are without jobs.


President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech was delayed by an hour and a half as lawmakers with the populist Economic Freedom Fighters party told him to sit down and argued that the public enterprises minister, Pravin Gordhan, should step down.

“We can’t gather like normal here when things are abnormal,” EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi called out. Party members later walked out of the chamber.

Ramaphosa quickly acknowledged South Africa’s problems. “Our economy has not grown at any meaningful rate for over a decade,” he said, and “our public finances are under severe pressure.”

The president warned that the “debilitating” power blackouts will continue as the struggling power utility, Eskom, makes needed changes including long-delayed maintenance.

“Over the next few months as Eskom works to restore its operational capabilities, we will be implementing measures that will fundamentally change the trajectory of energy generation in our country,” Ramaphosa said.

Among the solutions the government is pursuing is allowing commercial and industrial users to generate their own electricity and allowing municipalities to purchase electricity from independent power producers. South Africa also will purchase more from existing wind and solar plants.

“We undertake this decisive shift in our energy trajectory at a time when humankind faces its greatest existential threat in the form of climate change,” the president said, and he vowed to finalize the Climate Change Bill with its framework to reduce the country’s vulnerability to global warming.

Ramaphosa’s term that began when the ruling African National Congress won last year’s elections with its weakest victory ever has been challenging. He has promised to eradicate corruption after his predecessor resigned amid scandal and has vowed to turn around the economy and create jobs for millions of people.


But Ramaphosa faces growing calls to provide clear solutions for the country’s pressing issues.

Many state-owned enterprises, including South African Airways, now rely on government bailouts for survival.

“After years of ... corruption and mismanagement, we are working to ensure that all SOEs are able to fulfil their developmental mandate and be financially sustainable,” the president said.

The economy remains grim. “Low levels of growth mean that we are not generating enough revenue to meet our expenses, our debt is heading towards unsustainable levels and spending is misdirected towards consumption and debt-servicing rather than infrastructure and productive activity,” Ramaphosa said. “We cannot continue along this path.”

He promised not to let up in the fight against corruption but acknowledged that efforts so far have “not been enough to free our economy from the grim inheritance of our past, nor from the mistakes that we ourselves have made.”
Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party Julius Malema, center, and his members dance on the steps of parliament after walking out of Parliament at the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020. (Brenton Geach/Pool Photo via AP)

AP NEWS