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Hawaii Telescope Construction Expected to Draw Protesters, Police

Police and protesters are gearing up for a fight in Hawaii as construction is set to begin on a massive telescope on Mauna Kea, the islands’ highest peak, considered sacred by some native Hawaiians.

State officials said the road to the top of Mauna Kea mountain on the Big Island will be closed starting Monday as equipment is delivered to the construction site.

Scientists chose Mauna Kea in 2009 after a five-year, worldwide search for the ideal site for the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. Construction was supposed to begin in 2014 but was halted by protests.

Opponents of the $1.4 billion telescope will desecrate sacred land. According to the University of Hawaii, ancient Hawaiians considered the location kapu, or forbidden. Only the highest-ranking chiefs and priests were allowed to make the long trek to Mauna Kea’s summit above the clouds.

Supporters of telescope say it will not only make important scientific discoveries but bring educational and economic opportunities to Hawaii.

The company behind the telescope is made up of a group of universities in California and Canada, with partners from China, India and Japan.  

Astronomers hope the telescope will help them look back 13 billion years to the time just after the Big Bang and answer fundamental questions about the universe.

It is not clear what the opponents of the project have planned for Monday but Gov. David Ige said unarmed National Guard units will be on hand to help enforce road closures and transport workers and supplies.

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India Hits ‘Technical Snag,’ Aborts Moon Launch

India aborted the launch Monday of a spacecraft intended to land on the far side of the moon less than an hour before liftoff.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission was called off when a “technical snag” was observed in the 640-ton, 14-story rocket launcher, Indian Space Research Organization spokesman B.R. Guruprasad said.

The countdown abruptly stopped at T-56 minutes, 24 seconds, and Guruprasad said that the agency would announce a revised launch date soon.

Chandrayaan, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, is designed for a soft landing on the lunar south pole and to send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by a previous Indian space mission.

With nuclear-armed India poised to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, the ardently nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is eager to show off the country’s prowess in security and technology. If India did manage the soft landing, it would be only the fourth to do so after the U.S., Russia and China.

Dr. K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, said at a news conference last week that the estimated $140 million Chandrayaan-2 mission was the nation’s “most prestigious” to date, in part because of the technical complexities of soft landing on the lunar surface, an event he described as “15 terrifying minutes.”

After countdown commenced Sunday, Sivan visited two Hindu shrines to pray for the mission’s success.

Criticized program pays off

Practically since its inception in 1962, India’s space program has been criticized as inappropriate for an overpopulated, developing nation.

But decades of space research have allowed India to develop satellite communications and remote sensing technologies that are helping solve everyday problems at home, from forecasting fish migration to predicting storms and floods.

With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission this month, the world’s biggest space agencies are returning their gaze to the moon, seen as ideal testing grounds for technologies required for deep space exploration, and, with the confirmed discovery of water, as a possible pit stop along the way.

“The moon is sort of our backyard for training to go to Mars,” said Adam Steltzner, NASA’s chief engineer responsible for its 2020 mission to Mars.

Seeking water on the moon

Because of repeated delays, India missed the chance to achieve the first soft landing near the lunar south pole. China’s Chang’e 4 mission landed a lander and rover there last January.

India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission orbited the moon in 2008 and helped confirm the presence of water. The Indian Space Research Organization wants its new mission’s rover to further probe the far side of the moon, where scientists believe a basin contains water-ice that could help humans do more than plant flags on future manned missions.

The U.S. is working to send a manned spacecraft to the moon’s south pole by 2024.

Modi has set a deadline of 2022 for India’s first manned spaceflight.

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Local Afghan Journalist Killed by Unknown Assailants

Unknown armed assailants killed a reporter for a local radio station in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktia province.

Nader Shah Sahibzada, a reporter for Voice of Gardiz local radio, went missing on Friday and authorities found his dead body on Saturday near his home in capital city, Gardiz.

Initial autopsy reports suggest that Sahibzada has been severely tortured and stabbed to death.

Aminullah Amiri, an editor of the Voice of Gardiz radio, told VOA that Sahibzada was running entertainment shows at the station and had no conflicts with anyone, suggesting he may have been killed because of his work.

Sardar Wali Tabassum, the provincial police spokesperson, told VOA that an investigation has been launched into the killing of Sahibzada and efforts are under way to bring those responsible for his death to justice.

Sahibzada’s case is not an isolated incident.  According to media advocacy groups in Afghanistan, so far this year seven local journalists have been killed by unknown armed men.

No group has immediately claimed responsibility for Sahibzada’s killing, but late last month the Taliban warned Afghan media outlets that if they do not stop what the militant group called “anti-Taliban statements”, they would be targeted.

“Those who continue doing so will be recognized by the group as military targets who are helping the Western-backed government of Afghanistan,” the insurgent group said in a statement.

“Reporters and staff members will not remain safe,” the statement added.

Both U.S. and Afghanistan condemned Taliban’s threats against the Afghan media outlets.

“Freedom of expression and attacks on media organizations is in contradiction to human and Islamic values,” Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s office said in a statement.

John Bass, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, said in a tweet that the Taliban should stop threatening Afghan journalists.

“More violence, against journalists or civilians, will not bring security and opportunity to Afghanistan, nor will it help the Taliban reach their political objectives,” Bass said.

Deadliest place for journalists

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which advocates for freedom of the press around the world, reported that Afghanistan was the world’s deadliest country for journalists in 2018 followed by Syria.

The group said in its annual report in late December that 15 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan and 11 others have been killed in Syria, making both countries the deadliest places for journalists around the world.

The increased fatalities among journalists in Afghanistan is due in part to bombings and shootings that targeted media workers.

In April of 2018, a double bombing in Kabul killed nine journalists, including six Radio Free Europe reporters.

The Islamic State (IS) terror group claimed responsibility for those attacks, which they said deliberately targeted journalists.

Some of the materials used in this report came from Reuters.

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Refugee Girls’ Choir Touches Hearts

The power of song can heal the hearts and bring people together.  A girls’ chorus named Pihcintu sings to do just that.  Most members are from war-torn countries and refugee camps around the world. Together they sing as one and spread a message of hope. VOA’s June Soh caught up with the group in Washington and has this story narrated by Carol Pearson 
 

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Book Lovers Set Up Little Free Libraries Across America

At a time when podcasts, e-books and smartphones are blossoming, old-fashioned books are still popular in the United States. That is why tiny free libraries, where people exchange books, are sprouting up across the nation to help book lovers. For VOA, Iryna Matviichuk visited some exchanges in the Washington area. Anna Rice narrates our story.
 

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Wood: Tomorrow’s Skyscraper Construction Material?

Tall buildings made of wood are beginning to pop up around the world, from the United States and Canada to Norway and soon England. Builders say wood may well be the construction material of the future. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
 

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Harmful Bacteria and Cancer’s Worst Nightmare May Be a Microscopic Drill

A team of researchers across three universities is working on a cell-killing machine invisible to the naked eye.

“We want to be bacteria’s worst nightmare,” said James Tour, T.T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry at Rice University in Houston. He is also a professor of materials science and nanoengineering, and computer science.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose one of the biggest threats to global health, according to the World Health Organization. Researchers at Rice University, Durham University in Britain and North Carolina State University may have discovered a way to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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They’re experimenting with tiny, manmade nanomachines that can drill into a cell, killing it. The machines are single molecule motors that can spin at about 3 million rotations a second when a blue light shines on them. As they spin, they drill into the cell. Harmful bacteria cannot mutate to overcome this type of weapon, Tour said.

“We may have found something that the cell could never build a resistance to,” he added.

The nanomachines are so small that about 50,0000 of them can fit across the diameter of a human hair. In comparison, only about 50 cells can take up that amount of space.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are not the only enemies this weapon can fight.

Cancer killer

The nanomachines can drill into cancer cells, causing the cells’ nucleus to disintegrate into fragments.

“We’ve tried four different types, and every cancer cell that it touches is toast,” said Tour, whose team tested the nanomachines on a couple strains of human breast cancer cells, cancerous skin cells and pancreatic cancer cells.

The way it works is that a peptide, also a molecule that consists of amino acids, is added to the nanomotor. That peptide recognizes specific cells and binds the nanomachine to that cell so that only cancer cells, not healthy cells, are targeted. A blue light activates the machine.

“Generally, it’s not just one nanomachine, it’s 50, and each cell is going to get 50 holes drilled in it generally,” Tour said.

The nanomachines can fight cancerous cells in the mouth, upper and lower gastrointestinal tracts and bladder “wherever you can get a scope in, a light, apply it right there, and use the light” to activate the motors, Tour said.

It would only take a few minutes to kill cancerous cells with nanomachines, in contrast to days or longer using radiation or chemotherapy, Tour said.

Sculpt away fat

In another application, nanomachines could be used to sculpt away fat cells when applied onto the skin through a gel.

“You just take a bright light and just pass it over and these start attacking the adipocytes, which are the fat cells and blow those open,” Tour said.

Next steps

Researchers have only worked with nanomachines in a lab, so using this method in a clinical setting is still some time off. Later this year, researchers will start testing nanomachines on staphylococcus bacteria skin infections on live rodents.

One challenge scientists will have to overcome as nanomachine research progresses is how to get the blue light deep into the body if the motors are to fight bacteria or tumor cells that are well below the skin’s surface.

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UN: Nicaragua Continues to Repress and Harass Opponents

A report submitted to the UN human rights council this week accuses Nicaragua of continuing to repress, threaten and harass human rights defenders and other opponents one year after the government’s violent crackdown on nationwide demonstrations.

More than 300 people were killed, 2000 injured, and hundreds arbitrarily arrested during last year’s violent repression of peaceful nationwide protests.  More than 70,000 people also fled into exile to escape the heavy-hand of the Nicaraguan government.  

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, says peaceful protests and dissent continue to be repressed in Nicaragua.   She says more than 440 imprisoned protestors have been released, but more than 80 remain in custody under severe conditions.

“Our Office has received allegations that some of them were subjected to torture or ill-treatment by correction officers. . . . We are deeply concerned that human rights defenders and community leaders continue to be targets of attacks, of threats, harassment and constant surveillance,” Gilmore said.

Nicaragua Says Released all Considered Political Prisoners

President Daniel Ortega’s government said in a statement that it has complied with a 90-day period for releasing such prisoners as part of negotiations this spring, a period that expired Tuesday

Gilmore says people are deprived of the right to freedom of expression, including freedom of the media.  She says journalists and other media workers are threatened, harassed and censored.  She notes two prominent journalists were detained for more than five months under terrorism charges.

She urges the government of President Daniel Ortega to engage in a genuine and meaningful dialogue to address people’s legitimate demands for justice and reparation.

Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Carlos Ernesto Morales Davila dismisses the charges as ill-founded.  He says human rights defenders are not persecuted.  They can freely promote and defend human rights.  However, he accuses some of these groups of perverting their cause and engaging in destructive activities.

He says they are trying to destroy the constitutional order of the country and to undermine the work of the government to restore peace and reconciliation.

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New Zealand Collects Guns after Mosque Massacre

New Zealand has held its first public fire-arms collection event in Christchurch Saturday as part of the government’s response to the city’s mosque shootings in March.  Ownership of the types of high-powered weapons used in the attacks that killed 51 people has been restricted.

There were long lines at a racecourse in Christchurch as gun-owners waited to hand in weapons that are now illegal.  It is the first of more than 250 buy-back events that will be held across New Zealand.  The police expect that tens of thousands of guns will be surrendered, although the exact number is unknown.

Semi-automatic weapons were outlawed following attacks on two mosques in Christchurch that left 51 people dead.  The government said the law would remove the most dangerous guns from the community.

New Zealand Announces Assault Weapons Ban in Wake of Christchurch Mass Shootings

Nearly one week after 50 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand were gunned down, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed an immediate ban on all military-style semi-automatic and automatic assault rifles.

The ban, which Prime Minister Ardern announced Thursday in Wellington, includes high-capacity magazines, which can hold multiple rounds of ammunition, and accessories that can convert ordinary rifles into fast-acting assault rifles.

Chris Cahill, from the New Zealand Police Association, which represents officers, believes the buy-back scheme will go smoothly. 

“We know the vast majority of firearms owners are law-abiding citizens,” said Cahill. “While disappointed they have to lose these sorts of firearms they understand why and they want to abide by the law.”

More than $130 million has been set aside to compensate owners of semi-automatic weapons.  The amount each individual will receive will depend on the value and condition of their guns.

But some owners are complaining that the compensation is inadequate.  There are concerns, too, that farming communities, which rely on firearms for hunting and pest control, will suffer because of the ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons.

Judicial Probe Opens Into Christchurch Mosque Shootings

A judicial inquiry into whether New Zealand’s police and intelligence services could have prevented the Christchurch mosque attacks in which 51 worshippers died began taking evidence on Monday.

The royal commission — the most powerful judicial probe available under New Zealand law — will examine events leading up to the March 15 attack in which a lone gunman opened fire on two mosques in a mass shooting that shocked the world.

“This is a critical part of our ongoing response to the attack — the commission’s findings will help to ensure such an attack never happens here again,” Prime

Nicole McKee is a spokesperson for New Zealand’s Council of Licensed Firearms Owners.

“We are a rural and farming community here at the bottom of the world and we use firearms as a tool and there is quite a few of us that hunt as well to put food on the table,” said McKee.

New Zealand authorities hope the scheme will be as successful as one in Australia that was implemented after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 on the island of Tasmania, where a lone gunman murdered 35 people. It prompted more than 700,000 weapons to be surrendered.

The Australian man accused of the Christchurch shootings has denied 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and a terrorism charge.  He is expected to go on trial next year.

The gun collection event in Christchurch will continue Sunday.

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(Im)migration Recap, July 7-12, 2019

Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

U.S.: Undocumented people on alert for federal immigration raids, again.
For the second time in a month, there is talk of federal raids to detain undocumented immigrants across the United States. It’s a fearful time for those who are vulnerable.

U.S.: Break in the border spike
A months-long increase in border apprehensions reversed in June, shortly after the U.S. brokered a migration deal with Mexico amid threats of a tariff. It’s also the time of year when temperatures creep up in the southwestern U.S., leading to fewer attempts to enter the country through some of the nation’s remotest, most desolate areas. But it’s too early to say whether the downward trend in border arrivals will continue.

U.S.: Questions over fast-tracking asylum procedures
As the U.S. faces a monumental backlog of asylum cases and an increase in families and unaccompanied children seeking sanctuary in the country, the Trump administration wants to speed up the process. The move worries many immigration lawyers who tell VOA that hurrying cases could jeopardize asylum-seekers’ ability to seek help or advice.

U.N.: Bachelet blasts Washington over border facilities
The UN’s top human rights official joined a chorus of condemnation over the condition of migrant detention facilities in the southwestern United States. Michelle Bachelet is one of the most high profile international voices to criticize how Washington is handling a spike in young children and families crossing the border from Mexico without authorization, overcrowding Border Patrol facilities and being held in substandard conditions. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers again pushed for more oversight of the border detention system.

CAR and Cameroon: Refusing to return home
Central African Republic refugees seeking safety in Cameroon are reluctant to return home. They aren’t confident life will be better if they go back, either in terms of security, work or education.

Bangladesh and Burma: Monsoon mayhem
The U.N. relocated thousands of refugees living in a Bangladeshi camp after a monsoon brought heavy rains through Cox’s Bazar, triggering dozens of landslides and destroying hundreds of shelters. The camp primarily houses Burmese refugees, many from the Rohingya community.

Libya: Detainees march for help, freedom
People detained at a Tripoli facility protested and pleaded for aid organizations to relocate them, in the wake of a recent bombing that killed 53. VOA’s Heather Murdock spoke with one detainee. 

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US Man Accused of Sex Abuse at Kenyan Orphanage He Founded

Federal prosecutors say a Pennsylvania man sexually molested four teenage girls at a Kenyan orphanage he founded with a church’s help.

U.S. Attorney William McSwain announced charges Friday against 60-year-old Gregory Dow of Lancaster, hours after Dow was taken into custody.

McSwain says Dow fled Kenya in September 2017 after being accused in that country of sexual abuse of girls at the Dow Family Children’s Home in Boito, Kenya.

A tipster contacted the Lancaster County prosecutors’ office last year. That started an investigation that produced the new charges that he violated a U.S. law against sexual contact with minors in foreign countries.

Dow told the LNP newspaper this year that he had not done anything wrong.

He is expected to appear in federal court in Philadelphia on Friday.

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Egypt’s Top Movie Critic Youssef Cherif Rizkallah Dies

Egypt’s legendary movie critic and film historian Youssef Cherif Rizkallah, the man who helped popularize Hollywood movie reviews on Egyptian and Middle East televisions, died Friday.

His death comes two days after revealing he had kidney problems. He was 76.

The famed broadcast journalist, best known as Egypt’s mobile movie encyclopedia, was an invaluable film resource for Arab media. He wrote thousands of movie reviews for Egyptian and Arab newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows.

Rizkallah, who prepared and co-hosted three iconic and popular movie review shows on Egyptian television, including, Oscar, Telecinema, and The Magic Lantern, started his career as a news editor with the Egyptian TV News in the 1960s after graduating with a political science degree at Cairo University. In the 1980s, he hosted a show that introduced Hollywood stars to Egyptian and Arab audiences.

The Jesuit-educated movie critic, Rizkallah, was drawn most in his early career to romance and classical storytelling of Hollywood greats like Michael Curtiz, David Lean, Blake Edwards, Richard Attenborough, Garry Marshall, and Rob Reiner.  

He introduced several Hollywood stars via satellite on Egyptian televisions, including actress Meryl Streep and American film actor and director Peter Bogdanovich. 
 

“It is a sheer joy for me to invite Hollywood stars to Egypt, watch their movies and write about them,” he once said. He helped establish more than 40 years ago the Cairo International Film Festival, where many colleagues describe him as a perceptive and world movie guide.

Multi-lingual Rizkallah won several awards for film criticism over the past 20 years, during which he travelled the world to cover film festivals, including Cannes in France, where he was a frequent guest critic. He was also granted The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an Order of France.

Rizkallah was buried Friday in Cairo. He is survived by his wife Mervat el-Ebiary, the daughter of a famed screenplay writer, and their two sons – Ahmed and Karim.

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