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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's National Assembly voted Thursday to approve a bill backed by the ruling and opposition parties to launch a fresh probe into the deadly Halloween crowd crush in the capital Seoul in 2022. An earlier bill, which was backed the opposition-led parliament without the support of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), was vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol in January. The latest bill is a compromise that removes granting full investigative power to the panel, which Yoon had objected to, according to his office. Under the bill, a committee made up of members recommended by two major parties and a chair chosen by them through consultations will look into the tragedy. The passage of the bill comes after Yoon met opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party for talks on Monday following the PPP's crushing general election defeat last month. It also comes amid growing pressure on authorities, including from relatives of the victims, to hold those responsible to account. A spokesperson for Yoon on Wednesday welcomed the agreement reached between the ruling and opposition parties on the bill as indicating a return to cooperation in politics. The Halloween crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon district in 2022 killed nearly 160 people and relatives of the victims as well as the United Nations Human Rights Committee have since called for an independent inquiry. A police investigation published early last year concluded that a lack of preparation and an inadequate response were the main factors behind the deadly crush. In January, South Korean prosecutors indicted the former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, charging him with contributing through negligence to the crush. No senior government figures, including the interior and safety minister, have resigned or been sacked so far over the crush.

STAVANGER, Norway — A convicted sex offender is asking the Norwegian Supreme Court to declare social media access is a human right. The case before the court Thursday involves a man who molested a minor and used the Snapchat messaging app to connect with young boys. The unnamed offender was sentenced last year to 13 months in prison and banned from using Snapchat for two years. His lawyers argue that depriving him of his account is unlawful under the European Convention on Human Rights. The case turns on how vital social media has become for freedom of expression, even though the court must decide the case through laws that predate such sites. "The case raises important questions about the extent to which the state can restrict access to social media platforms, which are significant tools for exercising the right to freedom of expression and maintaining social connections," defense lawyer John Christian Elden said. A November 2023 appeal against the ban failed with the state successfully arguing the ban was "proportionately measured against the fact that the defendant has used Snapchat to exploit children sexually." The Appeal Court added that he still had the right to use other social media. If the Supreme Court also upholds the decision, the offender could attempt to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The European convention has been used before to test the limits on Norwegian justice. Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right extremist who murdered 77 people in 2011, lost a court challenge in February that argued being held in isolation while serving his prison sentence amounted to inhumane punishment under the convention. Signatories to the ECHR agree to abide by 18 articles guaranteeing citizens rights including life, liberty and freedom of expression. Norway was the second country to ratify the convention in 1952, after the United Kingdom. Snapchat, run by Snap Inc., allows users to send and receive messages that disappear once they are read. Users also can physically locate other users who opt in to location tracking. Snap prohibits child sexual exploitation on the app but allows accounts to be create anonymously. In an email it said, "when we disable accounts for sexual exploitation and grooming behavior, we also take steps to block the associated device and other accounts connected to the user from creating another Snapchat account." Snap disabled 343,865 accounts connected with child sexual exploitation in the second half of 2023. It sanctioned 879 accounts in Norway though it is not clear how many of these were permanently disabled. The Norwegian court will issue its ruling in the coming weeks.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Istanbul, Turkey & Washington — Activists from an international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid are applying for new maritime flags to sail to Gaza from Turkey after the flags of two of their ships were removed by Guinea-Bissau authorities last week. “We will take flags of different countries. We will also apply to Turkey. We will also try to get Turkey’s flag,” Behesti Ismail Songur, head of the Mavi Marmara Association, a group that is part of the international flotilla, told VOA. “So, this will be a litmus test for all states. We will see who will be brave enough to flag the freedom fleet,” Songur said. The flotilla is organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which consists of several Turkish and international groups, including the Turkish Islamist Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) and the Mavi Marmara Association. Inspection The flotilla has three ships, named Vicdan (conscience in Turkish), Anadolu (Anatolia), and Akdeniz (the Mediterranean). Anadolu, docked at Turkey’s Iskenderun port in the Mediterranean, was set to transport 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, the activists were planning to sail to Gaza on the Akdeniz, a ferry, from Istanbul’s Tuzla shipyard. Vicdan, recently acquired by the group, was not part of the planned sailing. Anadolu and Akdeniz carried Guinea-Bissau flags until last week when the Guinea-Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR) inspected them and decided to remove the flags. Flotilla organizers said the GBISR referred to their planned mission to Gaza while informing them about the removal of the flags. GBISR did not respond to VOA’s request for comment. The flotilla organizers believe that Guinea-Bissau authorities withdrew their flags because of pressure from Israel, which objects to the refusal of the organizers to allow the ships to be inspected for contraband or weapons. But Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo dismissed these allegations Monday.  Embalo told the Portuguese LUSA News Agency that he never spoke to his Israeli counterpart “about the flagging of ships,” noting that it is not a matter that he would deal with. “I do not usually talk to the prime minister of Israel; I talk to the president of Israel, a friend I met many years ago. That’s who I have been talking to, but about the war in the Gaza Strip,” Embalo said, adding that he talked with Israeli President Isaac Herzog Sunday. Mavi Marmara On April 22 Israel's Channel 12 television reported that Shayetet 13, the Israeli army’s elite special forces unit, had been preparing to intercept the flotilla, citing the Israel Defense Forces.  Shayetet 13 was also involved in 2010 when the Mavi Marmara, carrying pro-Palestinian activists including Turkish Islamist IHH, attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza with a flotilla. Israel views the IHH as a terrorist group. Israeli units boarded the Mavi Marmara with helicopters in international waters, killing nine activists. At least seven Israeli soldiers were injured as activists attacked them with clubs, knives and pipes.  According to a report by the Spanish daily El Pais on April 25, the activists, who were set to sail on the Anadolu and the Akdeniz, took basic training in Istanbul in case of an Israeli attack on the flotilla. The training was conducted by Lisa Fithian, an American expert who teaches “peaceful resistance.” At least 500 international activists were set to sail in the flotilla, including Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, the grandson of late South African President Nelson Mandela; Ada Colau, former mayor of Barcelona; and Ann Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and diplomat who resigned from the State Department in opposition to the 2003 U.S.-led military invasion into Iraq.  Wright, who also participated in the Mavi Marmara voyage in 2010, accused the U.S. of pressuring the current flotilla to prevent it from sailing. “The U.S. is very complicit in trying to stop the Gaza flotilla,” Wright said, referring to a letter to U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken signed by 20 members of Congress last week. In the letter, members of the U.S. House of Representatives said they were "gravely concerned by the reported ‘Freedom Flotilla Coalition,’ which plans to breach the established security perimeter with an unknown number of ships to deliver aid to Gaza.” “The flotilla, led in part by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) — which has close ties with the Turkish government and has previously raised funds for Hamas — intends to bypass established aid channels and refuse to allow Israeli inspection of their cargo, casting doubt on the nature of the mission,” the letter stated. The House members also called on Blinken “to engage directly with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government to prevent or delay the flotilla’s departure and ensure that all shipments to Gaza are vetted and in compliance with international standards for humanitarian assistance.” Wright hopes Erdogan will support the flotilla. Erdogan and Turkish government officials have not commented publicly on the flotilla. Erdogan hosted Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul last month, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on Wednesday that Ankara has decided to join South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service with contributions by Portuguese Service.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington — Families of Americans wrongfully detained in foreign countries called Tuesday on the Biden administration to share more information about their loved ones and to step up efforts for their release. "My father, Jamshid Sharmahd, is a German American national who has been held hostage in Iran for three years and he is on a death row now. Our government has unfortunately failed to bring him back, has failed to engage and talk to us," Gazelle Sharmahd told VOA on the sidelines of a Foreign Affairs Committee roundtable Tuesday. Jamshid Sharmahd, a U.S. resident of Iranian origin, has been sentenced to death in Iran. According to an Amnesty International report, Iranian state media claim Jamshid Sharmahd confessed to having a role in an April 2008 explosion in Shiraz, Fars province, in which 14 people were killed. He has repeatedly denied the charges, Amnesty reported. He was convicted of the charge of "corruption on earth," which is not clearly defined in law, according to the report. His appeal in front of Iran’s Supreme Court is pending, it added. Gazelle Sharmahd was among the nine relatives and representatives of Americans detained in Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Russia, China and Nigeria who testified at a U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee roundtable Tuesday. "My concerns are whether my father is alive or not, and the U.S. government being able to provide proof about his whereabouts and his conditions," said Maryam Kamalmaz, daughter of Majd Kamalmaz, an American psychologist last seen in 2017 at a Syrian government checkpoint outside of Damascus. "As of right now the Syrian government is holding him, however, we have not been able to hear his voice for the past seven years," she told VOA in an interview Tuesday on the sidelines of the roundtable. Maryam Kamalmaz said that her father’s absence has had a profound impact on the family. "It's been an absolute nightmare. You know, you do not realize how special a person is until they are gone. My father completed our family, he was the glue to our family. In my daily life, everything he taught me is echoing in my ears," she told VOA. Debra Tice, mother of Austin Tice, an American journalist kidnapped in Syria in 2012, told VOA Tuesday her main concern at Tuesday’s meeting "was HR 3202, which prevents any engagements with Syria, any company doing business in the United States of America not being able to engage with Syria. It was very important to discuss, it has already been through the floor of the House and it's now at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." Anna Corbett, whose husband, Ryan Corbett, has been detained in Afghanistan, told the congressional hearing, "I literally have no idea what steps are being taken to rescue my husband." US government response In August 2022, the 10th anniversary of the captivity of Austin Tice, Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement: "I am committed to bringing home all U.S. hostages and wrongful detainees held around the world. "As the president said directly to the Tice family, we will continue to pursue all available avenues to bring Austin home and work tirelessly until we succeed in doing so," he said in the statement. In a July 2022 executive order, President Joe Biden declared a national emergency to deal with the threat of wrongful detention. "I therefore determine that hostage-taking and the wrongful detention of United States nationals abroad constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," the order said. "I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with this threat." This story originated in VOA’s Deewa service. 

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Jeremiah Manele, a former foreign minister and career diplomat, was elected the Solomon Islands’ new prime minister Thursday, winning 31 out of 49 votes from the newly elected National Parliament. Some analysts say the result means the Solomon Islands under the new government will likely maintain its pro-China foreign policy agenda while adopting a less confrontational approach to handle its relationship with Western democracies, including Australia, the United States and New Zealand. “Manele is largely going to provide continuity on foreign policy and I think Beijing will welcome that as it indicates that their robust relationship with the Solomon Islands will continue,” Parker Novak, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, told VOA by phone. Thursday’s result comes after last month’s parliamentary election delivered no clear winner. The incumbent government previously led by former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare won 15 seats, losing more than half of the seats it held going into the poll. After failing to secure the 26 seats required to form a new government, the two main opposition parties struck a coalition deal Saturday. Ultimately, they nominated former opposition leader Matthew Wale to run in Thursday’s prime ministerial election, in which he eventually won 18 votes. Sogavare said Monday he would not run for prime minister, claiming he had been experiencing pressure from the United States and other Western allies after switching diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019. He also criticized the media for vilifying him and his family. Some experts say Sogavare’s decision to withdraw was a result of the ruling coalition’s heavy loss in the parliamentary election. “To secure the best chance of the coalition maintaining government, a change of leadership was required,” Meg Keen, director of the Pacific Islands Program at Lowy Institute in Australia, said. Thursday’s election was closely followed internationally as competition increases among major powers, including China and the United States, for influence in the Pacific region in recent years. It is also the first election since Sogavare signed a controversial security deal with China in 2022 that raised alarm among Western countries and opposition forces in the Solomon Islands. An experienced politician Some experts say Manele, who served as foreign minister in Sogavare’s administration, is an experienced politician who played an important role during the Solomon Islands’ efforts to deepen diplomatic relations with China in recent years. “Manele played a role in negotiating the change of recognition to China and the security deal with China, he is on the record saying close relations with China will bring development dividends,” Keen in Australia told VOA in a written response. She said Manele will likely uphold Sogavare’s signature foreign policy agenda, the “Look North” policy, but adopt a more measured approach to engage with Western countries, given his background as a diplomat for the Pacific Island nation. “He will be more measured than Sogavare and a less fiery leader,” she added. Despite his tendency to be less confrontational toward Western countries, some analysts warn that Manele could pose a greater threat to regional security than his predecessor. While Manele “won’t push the West’s buttons like Sogavare does,” Cleo Paskal, a nonresident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense for Democracies, told VOA in a written response, “if Manele continues with his pro-PRC bent, he is much more dangerous to security in the region because he will feed fodder to those who want to say everything is fine while he continues the same destructive policies as Sogavare.”  Sogavare, during his five-year tenure as prime minister, embraced a pro-China foreign policy agenda that saw the Pacific Island nation sign a series of security-related agreements with Beijing. Meanwhile, he had repeatedly praised China’s political system and criticized democracy as a cause of “moral decay.” While Sogavare fails to become the first politician to win two consecutive terms as prime minister in the country’s short democratic history, some experts say he will remain a formidable political force there. “Manele and Sogavare worked very closely in the previous government, so it would be a bit surprising to think that Manele wouldn’t look to Sogavare for guidance and input,” Tess Newton Cain, an expert on Pacific affairs at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia, told VOA by phone. Regional and geopolitical implications Novak said China will try to maintain a close relationship with the new Solomon Islands government, but it remains to be seen how much impact Chinese aid and development can have on improving the situation, including economy and health care. “There’s a broader question of how impactful Chinese development aid has been on improving the lives of Solomon Islanders and I think there is a lot of skepticism about that,” he told VOA. On the other hand, Novak said he thinks it is important for Western countries, especially the United States, to maintain and keep expanding their engagement with the Solomon Islands. “They need to be proactive in the relationship and this is especially true for the United States,” he said, adding that foreign aid for development should be prioritized. While Manele will try to stabilize the relationship with the West amid efforts to maintain close ties with China, Keen told VOA that geopolitical competition between major powers will “remain intense” in the Solomon Islands.  VOA's Jessica Stone contributed reporting from Washington.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Police remain on Columbia University’s campus, even after clearing out student protesters and their encampment. But questions remain about how the university and the students move forward. Tina Trinh reports from New York.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Israeli leaders in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. Violence and chaos erupt on campuses as protesters and counter-protesters clash over the war in Gaza. South Korea held talks on joining a part of the AUKUS defense deal between the U.S., Britain and Australia. We talk with Naoko Aoki, an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. The average income of people around the world will be cut by one-fifth because of climate change. And high school students in the U.S. are becoming poll workers for the upcoming election.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.