| ‘Red, red wine': The meaning of African election symbols Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:04 PM PDT  Campaign colours and why they are so important for those in pursuit of power.
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| Britain and EU to try to rescue post-Brexit trade talks Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:00 PM PDT |
| Twitter blocks tweet from Trump adviser downplaying masks Posted: 18 Oct 2020 03:22 PM PDT  Twitter blocked a post Sunday from an adviser to President Donald Trump who suggested that masks do not work to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The tweet violated a Twitter policy that prohibits sharing false or misleading misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to harm, a company spokesperson said.
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| UN hopes meeting will raise $1 billion for key Sahel nations Posted: 18 Oct 2020 02:06 PM PDT |
| Puerto Rico, unable to vote, becomes crucial to US election Posted: 18 Oct 2020 01:41 PM PDT  The campaigns of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are rallying people in a place where U.S. citizens cannot cast ballots but have the ear of hundreds of thousands of potential voters in the battleground state of Florida. The candidates are targeting Puerto Rico in a way never before seen, with the U.S. territory suddenly finding itself in the crosshairs of a high-stakes race even though Puerto Ricans on the island cannot vote in presidential elections despite being U.S. citizens since 1917. It's a novel role that plays off the sentiment that Puerto Ricans in Florida feel they are voting by proxy for those back home left out of U.S. democracy.
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| Michigan governor pushes back against Trump rally chants Posted: 18 Oct 2020 11:15 AM PDT  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Sunday that President Donald Trump is inciting "domestic terrorism" following "lock her up" chants at his rally in the state the night before. Whitmer told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the rhetoric is "incredibly disturbing" a little more than a week after authorities announced they had thwarted an alleged plot to kidnap the Democratic governor. "The president is at it again and inspiring and incentivizing and inciting this kind of domestic terrorism," Whitmer said.
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| Ivory Coast election: Pascal Affi Nguessan's home burnt down Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:39 AM PDT  Pascal Affi Nguessan has called for a boycott of the 31 October election.
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| German econ forecasts solid as long as coronavirus contained - Altmaier Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:22 AM PDT |
| German CDU mulls virtual congress to elect new leader - Handelsblatt Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:14 AM PDT |
| Merkel's old rival Merz says Germany has become 'sluggish' under the Chancellor in first CDU husting Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:20 AM PDT  Angela Merkel's old foe Friedrich Merz said that Germany had become "too sluggish" under its veteran leader, as the three candidates for the Christian Democratic Union party leadership met in Berlin for the first hustings on Saturday evening. Mr Merz, a pro-business millionaire who has been out of frontline politics for the best part of two decades, argued that the government has dropped the ball on issues such as digitalisation and clean energy technologies. "This country has become too slow, we have become too sluggish," he said, complaining that a lack of digitalisation in schools had been exposed during the pandemic. The 64-year-old is up against the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, and foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen. Mr Röttgen is only seen as having an outside chance of winning the vote among party delegates at the party convention on December 4th. Mr Laschet, a centrist and close confidant of Ms Merkel, told the meeting that he was the man to continue the success that she had brought Germany. The leadership race takes place just two years after the last contest to take over the dominant party of German post-war politics. The woman who won on that occasion, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, beat Mr Merz in a closely fought contest. But she stood down at the beginning of this year after failing to reverse slumping polling figures. It was just a few weeks after her resignation that the party's fortunes were turned around because of strong public approval for how Berlin managed the coronavirus pandemic. Unusually, the public's favourite to take over from Ms Merkel is not a member of the CDU. Instead Markus Söder, leader of the Bavarian CSU, a sister party to the CDU, is enjoying strong polling figures thanks to his safety-first approach to the pandemic. Mr Söder, state premier in Bavaria, has however signalled that he does not intend to run for the top job.
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| Policy vs. personality: Undecideds torn as election nears Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:10 AM PDT  Amanda Jaronowski is torn. The lifelong Republican from suburban Cleveland supports President Donald Trump's policies and fears her business could be gutted if Democrat Joe Biden is elected. It's a "moral dilemma," Jaronowski said as she paced her home one recent evening after pouring a glass of sauvignon blanc.
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| Trump, Biden go on offense in states they're trying to flip Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:53 AM PDT  President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden went on offense Sunday, with each campaigning in states they are trying to flip during the Nov. 3 election that is just over two weeks away. Trump began his day in Nevada, making a rare visit to church before a fundraiser and an evening rally in Carson City. The rally drew thousands of supporters who sat elbow to elbow, cheering Trump and booing Biden and the press.
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| Plan to retrieve Titanic radio spurs debate on human remains Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:40 AM PDT  No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights. Lawyers for the U.S. government have raised that question in an ongoing court battle to block the planned expedition. "Fifteen hundred people died in that wreck," said Paul Johnston, curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
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| Iran says UN arms embargo on Tehran has been lifted Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:34 AM PDT  Iran said a longstanding UN embargo on arms sales to and from the Islamic republic expired Sunday in line with a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers from which Washington has withdrawn.
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| U.N weapons embargo on Iran lifts after 13 years Posted: 18 Oct 2020 07:22 AM PDT  A 13-year-old United Nations embargo on Iran that blocked the nation from buying and selling weapons expired on Sunday, despite U.S. protests, The Associated Press reports. Iran's foreign affairs minister, Javad Zarif, called the occasion a "momentous day for the international community … in defiance of the U.S. regime's effort." The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency claimed last year that if the embargo was allowed to expire, as was in keeping with the five-year timetable described by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, then Iran would potentially attempt to purchase fighter jets, anti-aircraft missiles, and tanks from Russia, or other arms from China. Iran has insisted it has no plans for a "buying spree," and some experts say the country is "more likely to purchase small numbers of advanced weapons systems," The Guardian reports.More stories from theweek.com Why this libertarian is voting for Biden The town halls weren't a debate — but Trump still won Is America ready for a boring president?
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| 10 things you need to know today: October 18, 2020 Posted: 18 Oct 2020 06:39 AM PDT |
| Tulsa digs again for victims of 1921 race massacre Posted: 18 Oct 2020 06:35 AM PDT  A second excavation begins Monday at a cemetery in an effort to find and identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and shed light on violence that left hundreds dead and decimated an area that was once a cultural and economic mecca for African Americans. "I realize we can tell this story the way it needs to be told, now," said Phoebe Stubblefield, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Florida and a descendant of a survivor of the massacre who is assisting the search, told The Associated Press. The violence happened on May 31 and June 1 in 1921, when a white mob attacked Tulsa's Black Wall Street, killing an estimated 300 people and wounding 800 more while robbing and burning businesses, homes and churches.
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| Despite past Democratic wins, Trump making a play for Nevada Posted: 18 Oct 2020 05:19 AM PDT  Democrats have kept Nevada in their column in every presidential election since 2004. In the 2018 midterm election, Democrats delivered a "blue wave," flipping a U.S. Senate seat and bolstering their dominance of the congressional delegation and Legislature. "I don't know where this state goes," said Annette Magnus-Marquart, executive director of the Nevada progressive group Battle Born Progress.
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| Black officers break from unions over Trump endorsements Posted: 18 Oct 2020 05:17 AM PDT  Police unions nationwide have largely supported President Donald Trump's reelection, amid mass demonstrations over police brutality and accusations of systemic racism — but a number of Black law enforcement officers are speaking out against these endorsements, saying their concerns over entering the 2020 political fray were ignored. Trump has touted his support from the law enforcement community, which includes endorsements from national, city and state officers' unions — some of which publicly endorsed a political candidate for the first time.
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| Uganda's 'taxi divas' rise from COVID-19's economic gloom Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:47 AM PDT  Then it was another woman's turn in the exercise to prepare drivers for Uganda's new all-female ride-hailing service, Diva Taxi. The taxi service, dreamed up by a local woman who lost her logistics job at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, was launched in June and has recruited over 70 drivers. It's uncommon to find women taxi drivers in Uganda, a socially conservative East African country where most women labor on farms or pursue work in the informal sector.
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| 'I appeal to you': Merkel asks Germans to stay home as she focuses on individual responsibility Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:39 AM PDT  Angela Merkel appealed directly to the German people on Saturday to "stay at home whenever possible" after a meeting with state leaders last week failed to produce the tough coronavirus measures she had been pushing for. Speaking on her weekly podcast, the veteran Chancellor told Germans that "every day counts" as she encouraged them to strictly limit their movement and personal contacts. "I appeal to you. Please avoid any trip that is not totally really necessary, avoid celebrations that are not necessary. Please stay at home whenever possible," she said on the same day that reported daily cases hit a new record of over 7,800. Implying that a strict lockdown could be imposed over the festive period if case numbers do not come down, Ms Merkel said that "what our Christmas will be like will be decided in the coming days and weeks." The message appears to be a rare attempt to bypass long-winded political negotiations via an emotional appeal to the German public. The 66-year-old Chancellor, widely praised for her sober management of the pandemic during the spring, has struggled to convince all of the country's state leaders to get on board with national restrictions, even as case numbers soar. At a meeting of the 16 Bundesländer at the Chancellery on Wednesday, talks went on long into the evening. But the states agreed to little beyond vague commitments to tighten the rules on public gatherings and mask wearing if case numbers were to rise above 35 per 100,000 people. Ms Merkel reportedly warned the governors that "what we are announcing is not tough enough to avert disaster." On issues such as health and education policy, the German political system is highly decentralized, meaning that the Chancellor is reliant on the good will of state leaders to be able to announce national pandemic rules. Adding to the confusion, administrative courts in several states have overturned local rules on bar and restaurant closing times, as well as lifting bans on overnight stays for people from domestic hotspots. Judges have described the measures as disproportionate.
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| Iran can purchase tanks and jets after expiry of UN arms embargo Posted: 18 Oct 2020 03:29 AM PDT  Iran can once again purchase tanks and fighter jets after the expiry of a UN arms embargo on Sunday. The US had sought to keep the embargo in place amid concern that Tehran could now begin to build up its armed forces. The Islamic Republic will not, however, immediately begin a spending spree, according to a statement from he Iranian foreign ministry on Sunday. "Iran's defence doctrine is premised on strong reliance on its people and indigenous capabilities," it said. The US Defense Intelligence Agency predicted in 2019 that Iran would likely try to buy Russian Su-30 fighter jets, T-90 tanks and Yak-130 trainer aircraft once the embargo lifted. Tehran expressed an interest in the Russian tanks in 2016 but ultimately invested instead in a domestic alternative, the Karrar. The embargo, which was established in 2007, expired as per an agreement in the 2015 nuclear deal in which Iran, Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China and the United States sought to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief. "Today's normalisation of Iran's defence cooperation with the world is a win for the cause of multilateralism and peace and security in our region," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter. Tensions between Tehran and Washington soared after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, culminating in January when the US assassinated Iran's top general Qassim Soleimani in a Baghdad drone strike. The Trump administration insisted in August it has re-invoked UN sanctions on Iran via a clause in the agreement, but the claim has largely gone ignored by the international community given Washington's withdrawal from the deal. At the time, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened Russia and China with possible sanctions if they disregarded the US decision. Iran has been militarily outspent for years by Gulf rivals such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have purchased billions of dollars of US weaponry. There is concern in Iran that softening relations between Gulf nations and the US could unlock further sales. In September the UAE, Israel and Bahrain agreed a peace deal. An agreement over a possible deal for the sale of Lockheed Martin's cutting edge F-35 fighter jet to the UAE was rumoured shortly afterwards, with Mr Trump saying he had 'no problem' with such a sale.
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| Egypt releases comedian after more than 2 years in prison Posted: 18 Oct 2020 03:11 AM PDT |
| French premier joins nationwide tributes to beheaded teacher Posted: 18 Oct 2020 02:26 AM PDT  France's prime minister joined demonstrators on Sunday who rallied together across the country in tribute to a history teacher who was beheaded near Paris after discussing caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad with his class. The demonstrations came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump sent France a message of solidarity in the wake of the attack. Samuel Paty was beheaded on Friday in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine by a 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen refugee who was shot dead by police.
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| Why Did Rwanda Abduct Our Dad? Posted: 18 Oct 2020 02:24 AM PDT  Christella Ntirugiribambe was 22 when her father—a Rwandan national—was abducted from a busy market street in June 2015. He hasn't been seen since.In the years that followed his abduction in Nairobi, Kenya, she brought up her four siblings in Canada all the while living in the shadow of fear. "When he was alive I felt safe," she told The Daily Beast. "One of the biggest things I realized after he went was that I wasn't."Despite living thousands of miles from Rwanda, she is one of many members of the diaspora living in fear of the Rwandan state. The recent arrest of Paul Rusesabagina has struck a chord—a reminder that time and distance is no deterrent. "They will never stop," says David Himbara, former senior aide and economic adviser to Rwandan President Paul Kagame now turned critic.After years in the crosshairs of the government, an elaborate ruse involving a private jet in Dubai seemingly tricked Rusesabagina, the inspiration behind the Hollywood movie Hotel Rwanda, back to Rwanda where he now languishes in jail. President Kagame has been credited with ending the genocide, which killed a reported 800,000 people, and putting the country back together in its aftermath, but his critics point to cross-border abductions and assassinations as evidence of another side: a leader that bears a grudge and stops at nothing to crush dissent."If you find yourself even near that country, or they can trick you there, they'll do it. It's the same old story," Christella told us over the phone as we discuss the arrest of Rusesabagina. The Daily Beast spent weeks digging into what happened to her father, Jean Chrysostome Ntirugiribambe, speaking to those who knew him, including friends, family members and colleagues.None of these people could provide any concrete evidence to prove who took Jean Chrysostome. But his disappearance is not an isolated case and the pattern has left those we spoke to, in countries from Kenya to Canada, living in fear of the same thing: the long reaching arm of the Rwandan state. Fear"They can poison you," says Himbara, talking from his home in Canada. He is referring to the Rwandan government, and is reiterating a sentiment other Rwandans in exile have repeated to us. Regardless of whether there is truth to this particular accusation, the fear appears very real—and widespread."Once the Rwandan government has a problem with you, they never give up," said Faustin Rukundo, a member of a Rwandan opposition group who lives in the U.K.He speaks from experience. In 2017, his pregnant wife, British national Violette Uwamahoro, was taken off a bus by two men in civilian clothing while visiting family in Rwanda. She was held for weeks and questioned about her husband. According to the couple, the Rwandan authorities denied holding her until police in the U.K. tracked her phone. We interviewed Uwamahoro after the ordeal back in 2017: "Once the Rwandan government says they don't have you, it means they'll kill you or they have killed you," she said.Rukundo himself was subject to a hacking attack last year. He kept getting missed WhatsApp calls and when he tried to call back the numbers, no one picked up. "I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what," he said. It turns out Rukundo had been targeted by NSO's Pegasus, a spyware that finds its ways into the target's phone and transmits information like location details or call records."I can honestly tell you we are terrified," he told The Daily Beast from the U.K. "When I get in the car, I text my wife, when I leave work, I text her.""The concerns of you being killed are constant," agrees Robert Higiro, a former Rwandan military officer who fled Rwanda and now lives in the U.S. "You'd be very naive if you ever thought you were safe." Who was Jean Chrysostome Ntirugiribambe?When I ask Christella Ntirugiribambe whether she is afraid of speaking out about what happened to her father, she tells me: "He's our dad, you have to do that. If we don't, who else will?"On the evening he went missing, her father had just finished grocery shopping when three men approached him. According to witnesses, they then forced him into a car at gunpoint. Passers-by allegedly tried to intervene but a warning shot was fired. The vehicle sped off, with Jean Chrysostome inside. That was the last time anyone saw him.Christella has long grappled with why. In the years before her father went missing, he had been a defense investigator and legal assistant at the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the court set up to try those deemed responsible for the genocide. He'd conducted most of his work from his home in Nairobi, shuttling to the small, dusty Tanzanian city of Arusha, the seat of the tribunal, for cases. Sometimes he also was a defense witness in cases.The tribunal focused on prosecuting those who organized the genocide during which 800,000 people died in just 100 days. Questions about how thousands of ordinary people were sucked into a wave of genocidal madness have continued to plague Rwanda and beyond, while the international community has grappled with how it did so little to stop the violence.But Jean Chrysostome, whose own role in the troubles is unclear, believed even those accused of the worst crimes deserved a fair hearing. And he'd been good at his job—he was a key member of the legal team that secured the acquittal of General Augustin Ndindiliyimana. Ndindiliyimana was the former chief of staff of the Gendarmerie Nationale, the national police force. He was put on trial in Arusha, charged with 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and other violations of the Geneva Conventions.Technically Ndindiliyimana had been his boss, as during the genocide, Jean Chrysostome had been a captain in the Gendarmerie Nationale.We tried to understand his role more, finding snippets from a priest's diary entry in the court's archives that indicated a "Captain Jean Chrysostome" may have helped evacuate refugees during an attack on a parish in June 1994. Another priest reiterated that the actions of a certain gendarme and a colonel saved many lives that day. The Daily Beast got hold of one of these priests who was then residing in France but he couldn't remember any of the details all these years on.The tribunal also opened up wounds on the other side of the divide. During Jean Chrysostome's time working there, relations between Kagame and the defense side soured. This was partly on account of an idea that was gaining some traction: that he himself should stand trial at the ICTR for the downing of a plane that sparked the genocide. Members of the defense teams started getting arrested or even killed, while defense witnesses began mysteriously going missing. "It was terrifying," recalls Francois Cantier, a French attorney who represented defendants at the ICTR. "Our life was always in the company of death." A Trail of DestructionBy the time Jean Chrysostome was abducted, Rwandan nationals were disappearing or winding up dead inside and outside the nation's borders.In 2010, the country held its second elections since the genocide. Kagame had won the first direct elections by a colossal 95 per cent of the vote—and he seemed willing to use any method deemed necessary to do the same the second time around."This year was a dangerous year. He was becoming more violent," said Himbara, the former Kagame aide, recalling the months before the election took place.Himbara knew how impulsive his president could be. In 2000, he was plucked from obscurity in South Africa by President Kagame—one day the university lecturer got a call telling him he was urgently needed in Rwanda, a country he had left as a child. There was a private plane waiting for him. "While waiting to meet the president, I heard on the radio that I had been appointed as his principal private secretary," said Himbara, chuckling at the madness of the situation.But things got madder, and much darker. Himbara fled to South Africa in 2010 shortly after watching Kagame beat two staff members for a pair of curtains purchased in the wrong place. "It made me sick to my stomach," he said. But it wasn't long before Himbara also fled South Africa. His friend, Rwanda's former chief of external intelligence turned Kagame critic Patrick Karegeya, was found strangled to death in a Johannesburg hotel on New Years Day 2014."A few months before, he was at my house and we were joking—if Kagame had a satellite and could see us both here, he'd get two in one go!," says Himbara. "I went to Canada for Christmas. When I was about to return, Karegeya got hit and I never came back. I was terrified."Karegeya's killing had been on the cards for a while. In late 2010, former Rwandan officer Robert Higiro says he was instructed by Rwanda's military intelligence director to kill Karegeya and another dissident. But Hirago tipped them off and they came up with a plot to catch the Kagame regime ordering assassinations red-handed. "I reached out to Patrick [Karegeya]," Higiro tells the Daily Beast. "He advised me to go along with it and said we'd work it out together."The two men then secretly recorded the negotiations with the regime. He says Karegeya even set the amount he requested for carrying out the murders: 1 million dollars. The recordings were eventually given to the press and, after Karegeya's death, Higiro testified in Congress.But going public came with its risks. In 2015, the U.S. State Department informed Higiro of a threat to his life and relocated him from Belgium, where he was living at the time, to the U.S. "At first I didn't think I should run as far as the West but it became very serious and I had to find my way to Brussels. But even when I got there, I had to leave," he said.Himbara said he has also faced threats in Canada, with a number of other Canadians reporting similar things, including lawyer Christopher Black, who worked with Jean Chrysostome on the Ndindiliyimana case. An Ordinary Man?But Jean Chrysostome wasn't a high-profile figure like Himbara, Higiro or Karegeya.By the time he disappeared, his contract with the tribunal had ended. Life had seemingly slowed down. Christella says her father was juggling starting up an agribusiness in Kenya and writing a Christian book on marriage following the death of his wife in 2012. "Some people commented on how good his relationship with my mum was, so I suppose that made him think he should write a book!" she said laughing.But Christella says there were indications that something was wrong. Rumors were circulating among the Rwandan community in Nairobi that her father was on some kind of blacklist. "Among Rwandese people, if someone says you're on a list, it means you probably are and you have to be careful," she said.Jean Chrysostome had started to take these rumors seriously. For a whole year before his abduction, his daughter says he'd been receiving strange calls. When he picked up the phone, no one would speak. So he got two phones. He started preparing the children. "He knew what could happen," she said. But Christella doesn't know exactly what had changed that year. "I wish I'd taken more notice," she said. She knows he was sharing criticisms of President Kagame online, mostly over WhatsApp with friends.She also heard from a friend of her father's that he had been helping find safe accommodation for a man named Emmanuel Mughisa. The friend, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed this to the Daily Beast.At the time, Mughisa was living under the pseudonym Emile Gafirita. He was due to fly to France to speak to a judge about reopening the enquiry into the plane crash of the former president, an investigation that has been a diplomatic wound between France and Rwanda. His lawyer, Francois Cantier, says Mughisa claimed to have been in the vehicle that transported missiles to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) headquarters prior to the plane being shot down. President Kagame was the commander of the RPF.But there was a hiccup: "The judge only agreed to protect my client under his real name," recalled Cantier, who had worked at the ICTR and was later contacted by Mughisa with the information. "I knew giving the name would be very dangerous... I know the Rwandan context."And he was right—within a few days of the name being put in the official court records, he says, Mughisa was gone; snatched off the streets of Nairobi.Seven months later, Jean Chrysostome endured the same fate. A Tangled WebThere are many question marks around the abduction of Jean Chrysostome. Why did he go missing? Was it his work at the tribunal or his efforts finding a safe house for Mugisha? Who took him and where is he now?Cantier says he has long wondered about the connection between Mugisha and Jean Chrysostome's disappearance. "I think my client was kidnapped, tortured for the names of people he knew and then killed." Why not just kill him on the street if you didn't want to know his connections, he reasoned.Meanwhile, Christella said the car involved in the abduction was traced to the Kenyan flying squad, an elite quick response unit. According to her, a former flying squad member was later arrested for organizing her father's kidnapping, although he was subsequently released.The cross-border abductions of Rwandan nationals within Africa are often thought to be done with the cooperation of police officers or soldiers from their host country. For example, numerous Ugandan police officers were arrested in 2017 for the abduction of Lt. Joel Mutabazi, a former bodyguard of Kagame. Mutabazi surfaced in Rwanda and was sentenced to life imprisonment.There were also reports that Jean Chrysostome had been working at a charity called Terram Pacis. One of their staff members, a Rwandan-Norwegian called Emmanuel Munyaruguru, had gone missing the year before while visiting refugee camps in Uganda. It is difficult to be certain that it is the same man, but an Emmanuel Munyaruguru based in Norway was listed in a U.N. report as being one of the most significant diaspora supporters of a group founded by some of the Hutu extremists involved in the genocide.We don't know if Jean Chrysostome was associating with people like Emmanuel Munyaruguru.But Christella just wants answers. Over the last five years, the clues have dried up. The Kenyan CID, which investigates the more complex crimes, took over once the flying squad were implicated and progress slowed down, says Christella. "The case died after that," she says. "All we've heard is rumors. We've had no solid evidence in years."For Christella, juggling bringing up the family while making a life for herself in Canada has made it difficult to keep on top of the case. "Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough. But I'm trying my best," she said. She continues to pine for some form of resolution "… I wish someone would pick up my father's case and there would be accountability."But the lack of truth and reconciliation following the genocide has left the country still torn in pieces, and the man who was supposed to be its savior continues to oversee his own brutal recriminations against both sides of the former divide.Accountability, it seems, is a long way off.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Guinea votes to see if president can extend decade in power Posted: 18 Oct 2020 02:20 AM PDT  Guinean President Alpha Conde sought to extend his decade in power in Sunday's election, after the country's constitution was changed earlier this year to allow the 82-year-old leader to run for a third term. This is the third time that opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, 68, has run against Conde and he warns the president is trying to rig the vote to stay in office in this West African nation of 12.8 million. The election contest already has inflamed ethnic tensions, prompting the United Nations chief to urge Guineans to refrain from ethnic profiling and violence.
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| Armenia, Azerbaijan blame each other for truce violations Posted: 18 Oct 2020 02:14 AM PDT  Despite a second attempt at a cease-fire, Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations Sunday of violating the new truce in their destructive conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The latest truce, which was announced Saturday and took force at midnight, was the second attempt to establish a cease-fire since heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces broke out in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sept. 27. The fighting, involving heavy artillery, rockets and drones, has continued despite repeated calls for cessation of hostilities coming from around the globe.
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| UN arms embargoes on Iran expire despite US objections Posted: 18 Oct 2020 01:03 AM PDT  A decade-long U.N. arms embargo on Iran that barred it from purchasing foreign weapons like tanks and fighter jets expired Sunday as planned under its nuclear deal with world powers, despite objections from the United States, which insists the ban remains in place. While Iran says it plans no "buying spree," it can now in theory purchase weapons to upgrade military armaments dating back to before its 1979 Islamic Revolution and sell its own locally produced gear abroad. In practice, however, Iran's economy remains crippled by broad-reaching U.S. sanctions, and other nations may avoid arms deals with Tehran for fear of American financial retaliation.
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| Israel, Bahrain sign deal establishing formal ties Posted: 17 Oct 2020 11:36 PM PDT  Israel and Bahrain on Sunday agreed to establish formal diplomatic relations, making the small Gulf country the fourth Arab state to normalize ties with Israel. The U.S.-brokered agreement capped a one-day visit by a high-level delegation of American and Israeli officials to Bahrain. Bahrain joined the United Arab Emirates at a festive White House ceremony last month marking the "Abraham Accords," a pair of U.S.-brokered diplomatic pacts with Israel.
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| Afghans say preventing next war as vital as ending this one Posted: 17 Oct 2020 10:25 PM PDT  At a Kabul museum honoring Afghanistan's war victims, talking to visitors reveals just how many layers and generations of pain and grief have piled up during four decades of unrelenting conflict. Danish Habibi was just a child in 2000 when the Taliban overran his village in Afghanistan's serene Bamiyan Valley. Habibi's father disappeared only to return a beaten, broken man, never able to work again.
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| New Zealand's Ardern credits virus response for election win Posted: 17 Oct 2020 09:31 PM PDT  A day after winning a second term in a landside victory, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Sunday she sees the election result as an endorsement of her government's efforts to stamp out the coronavirus and reboot the economy. Speaking at a cafe near her Auckland home, Ardern said she expects to form a new government within three weeks and to prioritize work on the virus response. "We're cracking on very quickly with the work we need to do as a new team," Ardern said.
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| Bolivia's vote a high-stakes presidential redo amid pandemic Posted: 17 Oct 2020 09:00 PM PDT  Bolivians voted Sunday in a high-stakes presidential election meant to end a year of political turmoil — a vote that could bring a return of socialism at a time when it is struggling with a raging pandemic and protests over last year's annulled ballot. Bolivia, once one of the most politically volatile countries in Latin America, experienced a rare period of stability under former President Evo Morales, the country's first Indigenous president who resigned and fled the country late last year after his claimed election win was annulled amid allegations of fraud. Protests over the vote and later his ouster set off a period of unrest that caused at least 36 deaths.
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| Pandemic, politics lead to closure of storied Hong Kong bar Posted: 17 Oct 2020 08:48 PM PDT  Nearly 15 years ago, Grace Ma decided to name her bar Club 71, in commemoration of a July 1, 2003 rally where hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers protested a proposed national security law for the semi-autonomous Chinese city. "I took the name Club 71, because somehow it is more hopeful, with half a million Hong Kong people having a demonstration, a rally, to stand for themselves, not to ignore what's going on in Hong Kong," said Ma. For Ma, the troubles meant it was time to shutter the business for good.
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