US Set to Send $11B in International Aid in Latest COVID Bill

By Katherine Gypson
March 10, 2021 VOA

FILE - A doctor uses a stethoscope to listen to the breathing of a patient confirmed to have COVID-19 at the Fann university hospital in Dakar, Senegal, May 13, 2020.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed $11 billion in foreign aid Wednesday as part of the massive $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The move is just the beginning of the U.S. international response to the coronavirus pandemic, former aid officials told lawmakers.

“The gap still remains,” Rajiv Shah, a former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and currently president of the Rockefeller Foundation, said during a House panel hearing Wednesday.

“In order for the U.S. to lead the world in filling that gap,” he added, “we will likely both have to do more to bring together multilateral partners through the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other institutions where we can use our voice.”

Experts had pushed for the American Rescue Plan to contain as much as $20 billion in foreign aid.

“This was a tricky issue, getting that $11 billion in there, but it’s an acknowledgement of a few things,” said J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and director of its Global Health Policy Center.

“It’s an acknowledgement that fixing COVID within the United States’ boundaries and getting out from underneath the pandemic — reopening society, reopening the economy — will only be successful if it is done universally around the world, that we cannot be thinking as if it were some isolated islands,” he said.

FILE - A worker pulls a cart of coronavirus aid items being prepared for shipment, at a World Health Organization facility, part of the International Humanitarian City, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 5, 2020.

Some aid recipients

Morrison said the $11 billion includes support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has taken on the fight against the coronavirus in many low-income countries. Money also will go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s health preparedness programming.

The United States has provided $2 billion out of a planned $4 billion to COVAX, a global alliance providing COVID-19 vaccines to at-risk populations in 92 mid- and low-income countries, according to a USAID press release. The COVAX program runs separately from Russian and Chinese efforts to win the vaccine diplomacy race by distributing their own shots.

Republican Representative Nicole Malliotakis said it was crucial to counter Chinese influence in the coronavirus aid sphere by ensuring the aid in the American Rescue Plan and other U.S. development programs is “clearly branded as a gift from the American people, United States, as the most generous nation in the world.”

The American Rescue Plan is the fifth coronavirus relief package passed by Congress in the past year to address the economic and health impact of the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. It is not clear if U.S. lawmakers will pass another aid package given concerns about the massive amount of spending to date.

Shah, however, said it was clear that the United States and other wealthy nations would need to work together to address the crisis in the developing world.

“There will be the need for much greater assistance in a coordinated global economic recovery,” he said at Wednesday's hearing. “It is true that developing countries and emerging economies have been hit hard by the pandemic. And it is also true that while we have done 20% to 30% of GDP [gross domestic product] and fiscal and monetary responses across wealthier nations, emerging markets have done 6% and developing countries have done less than 2%.”

Subcommittee Chairman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, warned that global poverty rates have risen for the first time in decades during the pandemic.

The bulk of the American Rescue Plan funds a massive anti-poverty program within the United States. Experts estimate that the relief bill’s impact on the American economy will cause the global economy to grow by as much as 1 percent.

President Joe Biden is expected to sign that bill into law by the end of this week.

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. 

Analysis of Chilling Massacre Site Unearthed in Croatia Points to a 'Random Killing'

MINDY WEISBERGER, LIVE SCIENCE
11 MARCH 2021


Blunt force injuries in boy (l) and young woman (r) (M. Novak/Institute for Anthropological Research)

HUMANS

Around 6,200 years ago, 41 people in what is now Croatia were killed and buried in a mass grave, and members of their own community may have murdered them, according to new analysis of the remains.

Adult men and women were among the dead, but ages in the group ranged from 2 years old to 50 years old, and about half of the skeletons belonged to children.

Many of the killing blows were strikes to the skull that landed from behind, and there were no marks on the arm bones that indicated the victims tried to defend themselves from their attackers, scientists reported in a new study.

Genetic analysis showed that about 70 percent of the deceased were not closely related to other victims, but all shared common ancestry.

Researchers suspect that the massacre may have been prompted by a sudden population boom or shift in climate conditions that depleted resources and led to indiscriminate mass murder.

Related: 25 grisly archaeological discoveries

The grave was discovered in 2007, when a man who lived in a small village in the hills of Potočani, Croatia, was digging a foundation for a garage, and heavy rains exposed a pit holding dozens of skeletons.

Archaeologists with the University of Zagreb happened to be conducting a survey nearby, and they were able to start investigating the mass grave on the day it was discovered, said Mario Novak, lead author of the new study and head of the Laboratory for Evolutionary Anthropology and Bioarchaeology at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia.

The pit is small, measuring about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter and 3 feet (1 m) deep, and at least 41 bodies had been unceremoniously dumped there.

At first, the archaeologists thought that the remains were modern, either from World War II or the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s, Novak told Live Science. But there were no contemporary objects in the pit – just fragments of pottery that looked to be prehistoric.

And when researchers inspected the victims' teeth, they found no dental fillings. Radiocarbon dating of bones, soil and pottery fragments confirmed the age of the burial, dating it to around 4200 BCE.

The researchers identified 21 of the victims as children between the ages of 2 years and 17 years old, and 20 as adults between 18 years and 50 years old; 21 of the dead were male and 20 were female.

(Novak et al, 2021, PLOS One)
Above: The Potočani mass burial, with the upper layers of the pit showing numerous commingled skeletons. 

Just random killing

But how did they end up buried together? For the new study, Novak and his colleagues sampled DNA from remains and analyzed the bones of 38 individuals. When the researchers inspected the bodies, they found that most had at least one traumatic injury at the back of the skull, and some skulls had as many as four punctures.

Mass graves in medieval Europe frequently contained people of all ages and sexes who succumbed to the Black Death, but the victims in the Potočani pit died by violence, not of infectious disease, Novak explained.

"The only plausible scenario was a massacre," he said.

Distribution of men and women, and of adults and children, was roughly equal, and there were no wounds to their limbs or faces, so they likely weren't killed in a skirmish during combat.

It is unknown if the victims were restrained or otherwise incapable of defending themselves – "if someone attacks you with a club or a sword, you reflexively raise up your forearm to protect the head," which would have left at least some remains with cut marks on the arm bones, Novak said. "But we didn't see any facial injuries, and no defensive injuries whatsoever."

(M. Novak/Institute for Anthropological Research)

Above: Three penetrating injuries on the right side of the skull of a young adult female from Potočani.

Genetic data showed that only 11 of the victims were close relatives, so the massacre wasn't targeting a specific family group. Neither did it look like a planned discriminatory killing, in which foes tended to murder older men while taking women captive.

"In this case, it was just random killing, without any concern for sex and age," Novak said.

A Neolithic death pit that was recently described in Spain also held a jumble of skeletons – male and female, young and old. DNA showed that the victims were recent arrivals to the region, so they may have been slaughtered by locals protecting their territory, Live Science previously reported.

But genetic evidence from the site in Potočani indicated that even though most of the dead weren't closely related, they shared common ancestry. This means that they weren't newcomers; rather, they came from a local population that was homogeneous and stable, "so we can exclude that this massacre was associated with the influx of new immigrants," Novak said.

The most likely explanation is one that archaeologists and climatologists have suggested for other ancient massacre sites in Germany and Austria dating to about 5,000 years ago, in which adults and children were also killed indiscriminately and thrown into shallow mass graves.

In those scenarios, prolonged climate change that caused flooding or droughts – perhaps combined with an unexpected population boom – could have led to squabbles over precious resources.

And in Potočani, one of those struggles turned deadly.

"By studying such ancient massacres, we might try to get a glimpse into the psychology of these people, and maybe try to prevent similar events today," Novak said.

"We have evidence of ancient massacres going back to 10,000 years ago, at least. Today, we also have modern massacres – the only thing that's changed is we now have more efficient means and weapons to do such things. But I don't think human nature or human psychology has changed much."

The findings were published online March 10 in the journal PLOS One.

Related content:

Back to the Stone Age: 17 key milestones in Paleolithic life

In Photos: The Life and Death of Ancient 'Urbanites'

Photos: 5,000-year-old Neolithic figurine

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.

BGR SCIENCE

We now know why Starship SN10 detonated after landing

By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
March 10th, 2021

SpaceX’s Starship program is a very, very big deal for the company. It’s still in its infancy, with test flights not yet reaching Earth orbit, but in the future, we might see Starships taking humans to Mars or even further. With all that in mind, you can understand why every launch of a Starship prototype is important for both SpaceX and, potentially, humanity, but with a trio of explosions marring the past three launches, it’s been a trying time for the company.

Now, with the image of Starship SN10 exploding on the landing pad still fresh in everyone’s mind, SpaceX boss Elon Musk has finally offered up some details that could explain why the mighty rocket was a one-launch wonder.

According to Musk, some issues that were already being workeout for the next prototype likely contributed to SN10’s landing issues. To be clear, the spacecraft did “land,” but it did so without a bit too rough for its landing legs to handle. The prototype apparently crushed its own legs when it landed, and Musk thinks he knows why.

“SN10 engine was low on thrust due (probably) to partial helium ingestion from fuel header tank. Impact of 10m/s crushed legs & part of skirt,” Musk explained in an exchange on Twitter. He then went on to explain why the helium ingestion was an issue to begin with: “If autogenous pressurization had been used, CH4 bubbles would most likely have reverted to liquid. Helium in header was used to prevent ullage collapse from slosh, which happened in prior flight. My fault for approving. Sounded good at the time.”

The prior flight Musk is referencing here was SN8, which also ended in an explosion. In attempting to solve one problem, SpaceX may have inadvertently created another. But that’s all in the past now, and SpaceX is looking forward to proving that it can land its Starship without an explosion following in the minutes that follow.

Musk did note in follow-up tweets that SpaceX isn’t totally set on using legs for Starship in the future. It’s possible, Musk said, that the company will opt for a “catch” technique rather than a controlled landing. It wouldn’t be pretty, but as Musk admits, it would probably be a more reliable option.

“Might just catch the ship with the launch tower, same as booster,” Musk explained. “Could just have it land on a big net or bouncy castle. Lacks dignity, but would work. But, optimized landing propellant is only ~5% of dry mass, so it’s not a gamechanger.”

PSA

PPP Loans and Small Business Debtors in Bankruptcy

March 10, 2021

After the Paycheck Protection Program (the "PPP") was established in The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), enacted on March 27, 2020, debtors in bankruptcy cases applied for PPP loans. The Small Business Administration (the "SBA”) opposed PPP loans for debtors, and courts were split as to whether the SBA could block debtors from qualifying for and receiving PPP loans. Then Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Act) (Pub. L. No. 116-260), which was signed into law on December 27, 2020 (the “CAA”). The CAA amends the United States Bankruptcy Code to permit PPP loans to certain debtors, namely Subchapter V small business debtors, Chapter 12 family farmer debtors, and self-employed Chapter 13 debtors. However, there was a catch. The CAA further provides that PPP loans will be available only if the SBA Administrator in its discretion sends a letter to the Director of the Executive Office for United States Trustee acquiescing to PPP loans in bankruptcy. To date, the SBA has not acquiesced.

On March 3, 2021, the SBA released guidance in its FAQs with respect to borrowers who received PPP loans under the Cares Act and later became debtors in a bankruptcy case.

If a borrower that was eligible for a First Draw PPP Loan files for bankruptcy protection after disbursement of the First Draw PPP Loan, that borrower is eligible for loan forgiveness, provided it meets all requirements for loan forgiveness set forth in the PPP Interim Final Rules, including but not limited to, loan proceeds are used only for eligible expenses and at least 60% of the loan proceeds is used for eligible payroll costs.”

FAQ No. 59. This is in line with what debtors in applicable bankruptcy cases have been doing – seeking loan forgiveness. The SBA further discussed whether a borrower that was eligible for a First Draw PPP Loan and files for bankruptcy protection after disbursement of the First Draw PPP Loan is eligible to apply for a Second Draw PPP Loan. According to FAQ No. 60:

No. Each applicant for a Second Draw PPP Loan must certify on the Second Draw Borrower Application Form (SBA Form 2483-SD) that the applicant and any owner of 20% or more of the applicant is not presently involved in a bankruptcy proceeding. Thus, a borrower that received a First Draw PPP Loan and files for bankruptcy protection after disbursement of the First Draw PPP Loan is not eligible to apply for a Second Draw PPP Loan.

This does not address the situation where the Second Draw Borrower has since exited bankruptcy and therefore “is not presently involved in a bankruptcy proceeding.” Small businesses that have confirmed bankruptcy plans and are looking to receive a second draw should be able to apply so long as the First Draw PPP Loan can be forgiven and the SBA does not suffer a loss. The application for a Second Draw Loan asks, in part, whether the SBA suffered a loss as opposed to whether a default occurred. Having a default under the loan by the filing of the bankruptcy case does not necessarily mean that there has been a loss suffered by the SBA.

In the meantime, there remains no avenue for chapter 11 debtors to receive PPP Loans during the course of the bankruptcy case.

Senate confirms Michael Regan as EPA chief

ANNA M. PHILLIPS LOS ANGELES TIMES
MARCH 10, 2021 

WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Michael Regan on Wednesday to run the Environmental Protection Agency, putting an environmental regulator known for consensus building at the helm of the agency that will lead President Joe Biden’s efforts to combat climate change through tougher rules on power plants, car emissions and pollution from the fossil fuel industry.

Senators voted 66-34 to confirm Regan, North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, whose reputation for working with Democrats and Republicans in his home state made him an attractive candidate to Biden. Sixteen Republicans crossed party lines to vote for him, while Democrats backed his nomination unanimously.

Though little known outside Washington and North Carolina, Regan has been embraced by Democrats and environmentalists in part because he represents a complete departure from the last four years.

Whereas his immediate predecessors, Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler built careers on fighting against major federal pollution rules, Regan, 44, has a history of environmental advocacy and no known ties to the fossil fuel industry. Unlike Pruitt and Wheeler, who sought to downplay the threat of climate change, Regan hasn’t been shy about backing the scientific consensus linking greenhouse gas emissions to warming temperatures and echoing the Biden administration’s pledge to make it a focus.

After graduating from North Carolina A&T State University with a degree in environmental science, Regan spent nearly a decade working in the EPA’s air quality and energy programs during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. He also worked for the advocacy organization Environmental Defense Fund and, for the last four years, has held the top post at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality where he was credited with brokering the largest coal ash cleanup settlement in the country.

As EPA administrator, Regan will lead an agency suffering from low morale after enduring a complete philosophical shift under the Trump administration. Dozens of environmental regulations protecting the nation’s air and water quality were rolled back and replaced with rules favored by the industries the agency is responsible for regulating. The administration weakened limits on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, relaxed pollution regulations on coal-fired power plants and significantly watered down the Endangered Species Act.

Dozens of scientists and career employees quit, leaving the agency understaffed. Enforcement of the nation’s environmental regulations declined, as did civil and criminal prosecutions against accused polluters.

During his confirmation hearing, Regan said he would work quickly to return the agency to its mission of protecting the environment and public health.

“We will restore the roles of science and transparency at EPA, and support the talented, dedicated career officials,” he told senators. “We will move with a sense of urgency on climate change. We will stand up for environmental justice and equity.”

Sean Hecht, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Regan’s experience working on environmental policy at the federal and state level is likely to give him credibility both with career EPA employees and state regulators responsible for implementing many of the most important federal pollution regulations.

His accomplishments in North Carolina, where a Democratic governor has faced a legislature dominated by Republicans, may also serve him well in Washington.

“He’s somebody who’s able to get things done in the face of a very complicated political environment,” Hecht said. “And even if not everybody is happy with the outcome, I think that’s a very important skill to have.”

Regan has also promised to elevate environmental justice issues within the agency, directing more funding and attention to low-income communities disproportionately affected by toxic chemicals and air pollution from heavy industry and transportation. Biden has pledged to devote 40% of spending in his $2 trillion climate plan to these communities, though it’s unclear how that process will work.

“We’re feeling very hopeful,” said Juan Parras, co-founder of the Houston-based advocacy group Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services.

Parras and his wife Ana organize residents in predominantly working-class Latino and Black communities in southeastern Houston that border chemical refineries, major highways and the heavily polluted Houston Ship Channel. Like many other local activists, they are eager for Biden’s EPA to restore the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the nation’s most significant environmental laws. It was weakened by the Trump administration in effort to speed the approval of projects such as roads and oil and gas pipelines.

“We have a complexity of issues down here. Our public officials are going to push against anything Biden does,” Parras said. “But we feel we finally have the ear of the administration.”

Journalist Andrea Sahouri, Arrested at Black Lives Matter Protest in Iowa, Found Not Guilty of 'Bogus Charges'

"If reporters are arrested and hauled away from protests, that denies people the right to know what's going on in their community."

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer



Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri, arrested while doing her job at a protest last year, was acquitted of two misdemeanor charges. 

(Photo: Kelsey Kremer/Des Moines Register)

Supporters of press freedom celebrated Wednesday after a six-member jury in Iowa acquitted Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri in a three-day trial resulting from her arrest while covering a Black Lives Matter protest last year.

"Reporting is not a crime, and journalists should not be punished for doing their jobs and covering matters of public interest."
—Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ

Sahouri was arrested in the Iowa capital on May 31, 2020 while she was reporting on the uprising sparked by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. The Polk County prosecutor then charged the journalist with two simple misdemeanors—failure to disperse and interference with official acts—that could have resulted in a fine, a 30-day jail sentence, or both.

"The acquittal of journalist Andrea Sahouri in Iowa today is a welcome relief, but Polk County prosecutors never should have filed charges against her in the first place," declared Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. "Reporting is not a crime, and journalists should not be punished for doing their jobs and covering matters of public interest."

Amnesty International USA's Denise Bell said the human rights group is "incredibly relieved and heartened" to learn that Sahouri was found not guilty of the "bogus charges" and also put her case into a broader context.

"Clearly, the jury saw these charges for what they are—completely ridiculous," she said. "This case should never have gone to trial. In much the same way Sahouri's unfounded arrest is a part of a larger pattern of police abuses, the decision of Polk County prosecutors to bring her to trial on these charges fits a larger pattern of practices undermining human rights within the United States justice system."

"Reporting at a protest as a working member of the media is not a crime, and treating it as one constitutes a human rights violation," Bell continued. "This fits into a larger trend of police forces across the United States committing widespread and egregious human rights violations in response to largely peaceful assemblies protesting systemic racism and police violence, including the killing of Black people."

The Amnesty researcher emphasized that "journalists must be able to report on scenes of protest without fear of retribution. The right of the media to do their work is essential to the right of freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly."

Sahouri said last year in a video recorded in a police transport vehicle that she was pepper-sprayed in her face and arrested after identifying herself as a journalist, saying: "I'm press. I'm press. I'm press."

In a tweet Wednesday highlighting comments from the ACLU of Iowa, the reporter noted that her acquittal "will set precedent for other unjust arrests during protests."

Sahouri said in a statement after the verdict, "I'd like to thank my family and friends, my Des Moines Register and Gannett colleagues and people around Des Moines, nationally and globally, who have supported me for nearly a year after I was unjustly assaulted and arrested."

She also discussed the case in an interview with the Register, saying that "it's really a tough feeling to go through this trial and have the State of Iowa trying to bring you down and trying to make you seem like you're doing something wrong, when you're really just doing your job."

Spenser Robnett, Sahouri's boyfriend last year, was arrested with her; though Robnett faced the same charges, he was also acquitted, according to the newspaper. The journalist explained that although prosecutors offered to drop the other charge if she pleaded guilty to failure to disperse, she felt it was important to go to trial.

"Andrea was assaulted, arrested, charged, and ultimately tried for doing her job."
—Maribel Perez Wadsworth, Gannett Media

"One, I did nothing wrong, regardless of if I'm a journalist or not, but two, I know I'm not going to be the last journalist arrested, by any means," she said. "This will continue. We've seen an upward trend of journalists being arrested just in the past year, in 2020, and it's really important to stand by your convictions and set this kind of precedent."

Gannett Media, the newspaper's parent company, paid for Sahouri's defense, according to president of news Maribel Perez Wadsworth.

"It was clear Andrea was at that protest as a working journalist. It was clear that police were allowing other journalists to do exactly what Andrea was doing that day—reporting from a breaking news scene," said Perez Wadsworth. "Andrea was assaulted, arrested, charged, and ultimately tried for doing her job."

Register executive editor Carol Hunter, who testified at Sahouri's trial, warned of the impact of such arrests.

"Newsgathering is a fundamental part of press freedom. Reporters need to be at protests as the public's eyes and ears, to conduct interviews, take photos, and witness for themselves the actions of protesters and law enforcement," she said. "If reporters are arrested and hauled away from protests, that denies people the right to know what's going on in their community."

Pentagon working group to address climate change as national security threat

In a memo this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced he was establishing a Climate Working Group at the Pentagon as the threats from climate change constitute a threat to national security. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

March 10 (UPI) -- The Defense Department supports a White House executive order prioritizing climate change, the Secretary of Defense said in a memo released Wednesday by the Pentagon.

Austin's letter directs the establishment of a Climate Working Group within the Defense Department to coordinate Pentagon responses to a January executive order from President Joe Biden, as well as a tracking protocol to measure implementation of climate and energy goals.

"Climate change presents a growing threat to U.S. national security interests and defense objections. The changing climate is altering the global security and operating environments, impacting our missions, plans and installations," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told senior Pentagon leadership and commanders of combatant commands in a memo dated March 9.

"The department will act immediately to include the security implications of climate change in our risk analyses, strategy development and planning guidance," Austin said in the memo, which directs the establishment, as well as spells out membership, of the DoD Climate Working Group.

RELATED 12 GOP states sue Biden over order that sets 'social costs' of climate change

Biden's executive order includes a comprehensive approach to cooperation between government agencies, countries and non-governmental organizations.

Biden specifically charged the Secretary of Defense with coordinating with cabinet members, technological offices and other agencies to develop "an analysis of the security implications of climate change (Climate Risk Analysis) that can be incorporated into modeling, simulation, war-gaming, and other analyses" within 120 days.

Biden signaled his intent to seriously consider climate considerations on Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration, when one of 17 executive orders he signed mandated that the United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change.
RELATED Naval Postgraduate School to study surprise climate issues in $2.4M award

Austin's action follows a 2020 report after a study on military supply chains by the General Accountability Office.

The 45-page report called for Defense Department incorporation of "climate adaptation into its acquisition and supply guidance."

"Whether it is increasing platform efficiency to improve freedom of action in contested logistics environments, or deploying new energy solutions to strengthen resilience of key capabilities at installations, our mission objectives are well aligned with our climate goals," Austin said in the March 9 memo.

France to declassify long-secret documents related to war in Algeria


A group of French soldiers pose for a group photo in Algeria during the war that lasted for eight years in the 1950s and 1960s. File Photo/Wikipedia Commons

March 10 (UPI) -- French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered the release of a trove of long-secret government documents relating to France's eight-year war with Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s, which ended with full independence for the African nation.

Macron said in his order that the public will ultimately be able to access documents before 1970, which were long kept secret on national security grounds.

Macron said his order will speed up the declassification of the secret archives, which are decades old and will shine greater light on France's activities during the Algerian War between 1954 and its end in 1962.

Elysee Palace said in a statement that Macron's order will "significantly shorten the time required for the declassification procedure" to "encourage respect for historical truth."

Macron had commissioned historian Benjamin Stora to create a report on the secret documents. The release of documents relating to the years up to 1970, particularly those connected to French colonization and the Algerian War, was a key element of the report.

Officials say legislation will be created to detail the declassification process and is expected to receive a vote in the coming months.

France ruled Algeria for 132 years before the North Africa nation gained its independence in 1962. The death toll from the war varies among French and Algerian officials, but most independent experts agree that more than a million Algerians were killed.

Wednesday's announcement came a week after France admitted involvement in the torture and death of Algerian independence activist Ali Boumendjel during the war in 1957.


RELATED Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy convicted of corruption

FACTS VS FICTION/OPINION

Report: Japanese scholars raise objections to

 HARVARD 'comfort women' paper

IN SOLIDARITY WITH KOREA

Japanese academics have signed a petition showing strong concern about a paper authored by a Harvard Law School professor on “comfort women,” according to a South Korean press report. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

March 10 (UPI) -- Japanese historians and scholars condemned a Harvard Law professor's controversial paper on "comfort women," as protests grow in South Korea and the United States.

Ryuta Itagaki, a professor of sociology at Doshisha University, told South Korean network KBS that the paper by J. Mark Ramseyer, the Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School, is an example of denial regarding the abuse of women and girls forced to serve in wartime brothels.

NEO LIBERALISM PRO PRIVATIZATION IDEOLOGY NOT FACTUAL 

Itagaki said he and others request the journal, the International Review of Law and Economics, re-evaluate Ramseyer's work and withdraw the paper, "Contracting for sex in the Pacific War," from publication.

Itagaki is one of 4,400 Japanese academics who have signed a statement requesting a retraction, according to KBS. The journal, published by Netherlands-based Elsevier, is likely to go ahead with plans to make the article available in print.

Scholars in Japan opposed to the paper's publication said there was nothing consensual about the recruitment and retention of comfort women at Japanese military outposts during World War II, a main argument of Ramseyer's paper.

"The fact that women were forcibly subjected to acts against their own intention is itself an involuntary act," said Yoshiaki Yoshimi, professor of Japanese modern history at Chuo University. Yoshimi said Ramseyer's decision to "ignore this simple fact" is the greatest source of controversy.

Protests have taken place in the United States and Korea. On Saturday, about 100 demonstrators assembled outside Harvard to denounce Ramseyer, the Harvard Crimson reported.

Rally participants included representatives of the Korean American Society of Massachusetts and students from across the United States, the report said.

Protesters charged Ramseyer with distorting historical facts and "failing to meet research integrity."

A local official from Suffolk County, Linda Champion, said the paper "hit a nerve" in the Korean community.

"It was important for them to come out to express to Harvard University it was not OK for someone to bear a name as prestigious as Harvard and to write propaganda," Champion said, according to The Crimson.

Myanmar bans 5 media companies amid crackdown on protests



Burmese protesters carry signs during a demonstration against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar, Sunday, February. 28. Photo by Xiao Long/UPI | License Photo

March 9 (UPI) -- Myanmar's military junta has revoked the licenses of five independent media outlets amid reports that some of their offices were raided as military forces crackdown on protesters opposing its Feb. 1 coup.

Mizzima Media confirmed that it along with four other media companies Myanmar Now, 7 Day, Khit Thit media and Democratic Voice of Burma had their licenses to publish and broadcast news revoked.

Myanmar Now also said its downtown Yangon office, which was evacuated days ahead of the coup, was raided earlier Monday by armed soldiers and police who arrived at the location via motorcade.

The news organization's editor-in chief Swe Win said they had expected the raid to have occurred earlier.

"We are now at a point where continuing to do our jobs means risking being jailed or killed," he said. "What is certain is that we will not stop covering the enormous crimes the regime has been committing throughout the country."

State media The Global New Light of Myanmar reported the Ministry of Information had banned the companies "from publishing or broadcasting with the use of a kind of media or technology" on Monday night, after the military, known as the Tatmadaw, confronted protesters with lethal force, killing at least three people nationwide.

Two protesters were were fatally shot by security forces in northern Myanmar while a third was shot dead in the southern Ayeyarwady region as protesters took to the streets in a countrywide strike, Myanmar Now reported.

More than 60 people have been killed and 1,857 have been arrested, charged or sentenced since the coup, Myanmar's Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said in its daily update.

Human Rights Watch early Tuesday also called for the junta to "promptly and impartially" investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the death of Khin Maung Latt, 58, a local politician in Yangon who died in police custody.

AAPP said Latt was arrested Saturday from his home and was tortured to death in his cell that night.

The next day, his family recovered his body from the hospital, HRW said.

"Myanmar's junta runs the security forces and can quickly find out who killed Khin Maung Latt if they want to," Brad Adams, Asia director at HRS, said in a statement. "If they want to show they believe in the rule of law, all those responsible should be held to account. Sadly, Myanmar's security forces seem intent on using nighttime raids and brutal mistreatment to create fear and break popular resistance to military rule."

Late last week, Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, called for punitive measures to be imposed against the junta for its escalation in violence against protesters who have taken to the streets since it ousted the civilian-elected government in a coup early last month.