news on nov 18.docx

8/13/2019 News on Nov 18.docx

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Libya and its fledgling security forces, overwhelmed by militia violence and unrest since the

overthrow of dictator Moammar Gadhafi two years ago, are going to get some help from

the U.S. military, a top American commander said.

Adm. William McRaven, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, said Saturday the

United States will train 5,000 to 7,000 conventional troops as well as counterterrorism

forces.

Another U.S. official told CNN the training is likely to take place in Europe once all the

details are finalized.

A major challenge will be developing a security force that's not influenced by the

well-armed militias that have proliferated in the lawless atmosphere across Libya.

Mourning in Tripoli a day after dozens are killed

"As we go forward to try and find a good way to build up the Libyan security forces so they

are not run by militias, we are going to have to assume some risks," McRaven said.

"As a country, we have to say there is probably some risk that some of the people we will

be training with do not have the most clean record. At the end of the day, it is the best

solution we can find to train them to deal with their own problems."

He made the remarks at a defense forum at the Reagan Presidential Library in California

just a day after deadly fighting in the capital, Tripoli, on Friday. State news said at least 43

people were killed and hundreds of others were wounded during clashes.

Popular sentiment against the various militias has been mounting for months in Tripoli and

other parts of the country, including the eastern city of Benghazi, which has been grippedby increasing violence, including political assassinations.

The chaos in Libya hit home for Americans after U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and

three other Americans were killed on September 11, 2012, in an attack on the U.S.

diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

The United States has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the

arrest of anyone involved in the attack. While U.S. authorities have filed charges in the

case, no one has been arrested.

A NATO air campaign helped overthrow Gadhafi two years ago, but ever since there has

been widespread unrest and poor security.

"The United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and the European Union

have done little to follow through with an effective Libya restructural policy. They have

struggled to coordinate support to address the problems with Libya's security sector and

justice system," a Human Rights Watch report said in September.

News 3
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3/10

Qatar migrant workers 'treated like

animals'Amnesty (BBC)Qatar's construction sector is rife with abuse, Amnesty

International (AI) has said in a report published as work begins on

Fifa World Cup 2022 stadiums.

Amnesty says migrant workers are often subjected to non-payment of

wages, dangerous working conditions and squalid accommodation.

The rights group said one manager had referred to workers as "animals".

Qatari officials have said conditions will be suitable for those involved in

construction of World Cup facilities.

It has not yet commented on the latest report.

Amnesty said it conducted interviews with 210 workers, employers and

government officials for its report,The Dark Side of Migration:Spotlight

on Qatar's construction sector ahead of the World Cup.

The report includes testimony from Nepalese workers employed by a

company delivering supplies to a construction project associated with the

planned Fifa headquarters.

The workers said they were "treated like cattle", working up to 12 hours a

day, seven days a week, including during Qatar's hot summer months.

Disabilities

Amnesty said some of the abuses amounted to "forced labour".

Some migrant workers were threatened with penalty fines, deportation or

loss of income if they did not show up to work even though they were not

being paid, Amnesty said.

More than 1,000 people were admitted to the trauma unit at Doha's main

hospital in 2012 having fallen from height at work, Amnesty said, citing an

unnamed hospital representative.
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Some 10% were disabled as a result and the mortality rate was

"significant", AI said.

"It is simply inexcusable in one of the richest countries in the world, that

so many migrant workers are being ruthlessly exploited, deprived of theirpay and left struggling to survive," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary

general.

"Our findings indicate an alarming level of exploitation.

Many of the migrant workers in Qatar come from South Asia, Amnesty says

"Fifa has a duty to send a strong public message that it will not tolerate

human rights abuses on construction projects related to the World Cup."

It follows a report by the UK's Guardian newspaper in September, which

likened workers' conditions to "modern-day slavery".

The Guardian investigationdrew a strong response from the world

professional footballers' association Fifpro, which collaborates with the

Uni Global Union, the voice of 20 million service sector workers.

Qatar must protect the rights of the workers who are to deliver the 2022

World Cup, it said.

FifPro board member Brendan Schwab said it was "inexcusable for

workers' lives to be sacrificed, especially given modern health and safety

practices in the construction industry".

News 4

Dozens dead in Russian plane crash(BBC)A passenger plane has crashed at an airport in the Russian city of

Kazan, killing all 50 people on board.

The Boeing 737 had taken off from Moscow and was trying to land but

exploded on impact at about 19:20 local time (15:20 GMT), officials said.
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5/10

The Emergencies Ministry said there were 44 passengers and six crew

members on the Tatarstan Airlines flight.

Investigators are now looking at whether a technical failure or crew error

may have caused the crash.

Investigative committee official Vladimir Markin told Rossiya 24 TV that

experts were checking whether poor quality fuel and weather conditions

could have been contributing factors.

It was raining in Kazan when the aircraft crashed.

Among the dead was Irek Minnikhanov, a son of the president of the

Russian Republic of Tatarstan, according to the official passenger list.

Aleksander Antonov, who headed Tatarstan's branch of the Federal

Security Service, was also among the passengers.

The UK Foreign Office confirmed that a British national died in the crash.

"We are in touch with local authorities and providing consular assistance

to those affected," it said in a statement.

The victims also included two children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "expressed his condolences to the

relatives of the victims in this horrible disaster", his spokesman Dmitry

Peskov was quoted by the news agency Interfax as saying.

A government commission has been set up to investigate the cause, he

said.

Reports said the pilot, 47-year-old Rustem Salikhov, had already tried to

land several times before crashing.

Distressed relatives are being helped by a team of psychologists

The crew had said they were not ready to land because of technical

problems, Russian news agencies report.


6/10

A journalist who said she had flown on the same aircraft from Kazan to

Moscow earlier on Sunday told Russia's Channel TV that there was a

strong vibration during the landing in the Russian capital.

"When we were landing it was not clear whether there was a strong wind,although in Moscow the weather was fine, or some kind of technical

trouble or problem with the flight," said Lenara Kashafutdinova.

"We were blown in different directions, the plane was tossed around. The

man sitting next to me was white as a sheet."

The plane had been in service since 1990, Russian officials are quoted

as saying by the local media.

The airport in Kazan - the capital of Tatarstan - has been closed since the

accident and is not expected to re-open until Monday afternoon.

Kazan lies about 720km (450 miles) east of Moscow.

Family members and friends of the victims are getting help by a team of

psychologists. The government also promised financial compensation.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says that although some ofRussia's biggest airlines now have very good reputations, frequent

crashes by smaller operators mean the country has one of the worst air

safety records in the world.

News 5

Toll rises as tornadoes wreak havoc

across Midwest (The Guardian)Ferocious weather pounded the midwest on Sunday withtornadoes,intense

thunderstorms and giant hail threatening 53 million people across 10 states and leaving

tens of thousands without power.

A county coroner said two people were killed when a tornado hit their home in rural

southernIllinois.Washington County coroner Mark Styninger said the elderly man and his

sister died on Sunday afternoon in their farmhouse in the town of New Minden, about 50

miles southeast of St Louis. Another person was reported killed in the town of Washington.

Emergency officials also said that two more people were killed in Massac County, Illinois,
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7/10

on theKentuckyborder where a twister devastated several neighborhoods. The Illinois

Emergency Management Agency confirmed one other death, Associated Press reported.

With communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many

people had been killed or hurt by the unusually strong late-season tornadoes.

According to the National Weather Service's website, 65 tornadoes struck, most of them in

Illinois. But meteorologist Matt Friedlein said the total might fall because emergency

workers, tornado spotters and others often report the same tornado.

The National Weather Center said the storm had created tornadoes in Bone Gap and Miller

City, Illinois, in Mount Carmel, Noblesville and Vincennes inIndiana,and in Paducah,

Kentucky. By mid-afternoon there were reports of 59 tornadoes, 128 reports of damaging

winds and 36 reports of large hail. The storm paths threatened major cities including

Chicago, Cinncinatti, Detroit and Louisville, Kentucky.

Storms caused extensive damage in several central Illinois communities. Washington, a

community of more than 15,000 people,appeared to have been particularly hard hit.State

official said emergency crews were racing to the area amid reports of people trapped in

buildings.

In a telephone interview with the Associated Press, Washington resident Michael Perdun

said: "I stepped outside and I heard it coming. My daughter was already in the basement,

so I ran downstairs and grabbed her, crouched in the laundry room and all of a sudden I

could see daylight up the stairway and my house was gone. The whole neighborhood'sgone, [and] the wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house."

"Literally, neighborhoods are completely wiped out," a local Republican congressman,

Aaron Schock, told Fox News. "I'm looking at subdivisions of twenty to thirty homes and

there's not a home there."

"The entire town of Washington is devastated," he added.

"We have reports of homes being flattened, roofs being torn off," Sara Sparkman, a

spokeswoman for the health department of Tazewell County, Illinois, where Washington is

located, said in a telephone interview with Reuters. "We have actual whole neighborhoods

being demolished by the storm.

Sparkman said the storm had caused damage in Washington and Pekin, south of Peoria.

A National Football League game between the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears at

Soldier Field in Chicago was suspended amid high winds and heavy rain. Winds of over

70mph lashed the city.
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8/10

The Chicago Department of Aviation, which manages O'Hare International Airport and

Midway International Airport, said that as of 1.15pmm central time both facilities were at a

ground stop, meaning flights were neither arriving nor departing.

National Weather Service officials said several tornadoes has touched down in Illinois andIndiana. One hit near East Peoria in central Illinois where the Peoria Star Journal reported

that 37 people were being treated for tornado-related injuries at OSF Saint Francis Medical

Center. Tens of thousands of residents have been left without electricity.

The weather service confirmed at least four tornadoes in Indiana. The storms have left at

least 13,000 people across Indiana without power, according to Duke Energy.

Strong winds and atmospheric instability were expected to sweep across the central plains

before pushing into the mid-Atlantic states and north-east by evening. Many of the storms

were expected to become supercells, with the potential to produce tornadoes, large hail

and destructive winds.

A Washington homeowner moves debris next to a set of stairs that once lead to the second floor of his

home. Photograph: Steve Smedley/AP

"People can fall into complacency because they don't see severe weather and tornadoes,

but we do stress that they should keep a vigilant eye on the weather and have a means to

hear a tornado warning because things can change very quickly," said Matt Friedlein, a

weather service meteorologist.

Friedlein said that such strong storms are rare this late in the year because there usually is

not enough heat from the sun to sustain the thunderstorms. But he said temperatures

Sunday are expected to reach into the 60s and 70s, which he said is warm enough to help

produce severe weather when it is coupled with winds, which are typically stronger this

time of year than in the summer.

"You don't need temperatures in the 80s and 90s to produce severe weather [because] the

strong winds compensate for the lack of heating," he said. "That sets the stage for what wecall wind shear, which may produce tornadoes."

He also said that the tornadoes this time a year happen more often than people might

realise, pointing to a twister that hit the Rockford, Illinois, area in November 2010.

News 6


9/10

President of the Philippines vows to

remain in typhoon-ravaged area

(The Guardian)

Benigno Aquino is expected to stay in Tacloban, where

almost every building was destroyed or damaged by

typhoon Haiyan

The president of thePhilippineshas vowed to remain in the area ravaged bytyphoon

Haiyanuntil conditions have improved.

Benigno Aquino is expected to stay in Tacloban, the battered capital of Leyte province,

where almost every building was destroyed or badly damaged by the storm. The decision

comes after criticism of the slow pace of the relief effort.

The death toll from Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, rose to 3,974 on Sunday, while the

number of displaced people increased to 4 million. "We really want to ease the burden of

everybody as soon as possible. As long as I don't see any more improvements, we'll stay

here," Aquino said as he visited Tacloban. He said although there had been progress, it

was insufficient.

His spokesman, Ricky Carandang, said the president wanted to ensureaiddistribution was

smooth and power returned shortly. At present, the only electricity is produced by diesel

generators. There is no running water and insufficient supplies in the tankers brought in.

Unicef said generators, fuel and spare parts had allowed partial restoration of the water

supply in Tacloban, providing clean water to almost 200,000 people, while it had delivered

water purification tablets and tanks to help 45,000 more in the city and another 19,000 in

Roxas.

Mdicins Sans Frontires has reported a growing number of patients with pneumonia and

diarrhoea. Despite the massive international relief effort which includes South Korean,

Israeli and Malaysian medics, rescue experts from Luxembourg and Hungary and Finnish

motor boats alongside major contributions from the US, Japan and the UK many remote

areas have received only minimal support.
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10/10

US military helicopters have helped ferry packages to distant villages but the UN said

some mountainous areas still needed food, with 60% of people in towns in the northeast

part of Capiz province going hungry.

"I remain concerned about the health and wellbeing of the millions of men, women andchildren who are still in desperate need," UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in a

statement.

In Cabungaan, a village in Leyte's Tanauan district where as many as 1,200 died

residents said a Sunday delivery from a US helicopter was the first outside help they had

received. They had been living on one meal a day, one said.

Thousands of Filipinos flocked to damaged churches across the region for their first

Sunday mass since the typhoon.

"The church may have been destroyed, but our faith is intact, as believers, as a people of

God, it has not been destroyed," said Reverend Amadero Alvero, who held a service at the

Santo Nino church in Tacloban, where rain fell through a gaping hole in the roof. He added:

"We are being tested by God, to see how strong our faith is, to see if our faith is true."

Separately, state media in Vietnam reported that flooding has killed at least 28 people in

central regions since Friday, with nine others missing. Around 100,000 houses were

submerged and nearly 80,000 people evacuated, according to the government-run

committee on floods and storm protection.

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