World News

SALTA, Argentina (AP) — Feminist groups have rallied to the support of 18 cloistered Carmelite nuns who have filed an unusual complaint of gender violence against the local Catholic archbishop.

Dozens of activists gathered Tuesday in the esplanade of the Convent of St. Bernard in Salta, some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires.

The nuns, members of the Discalced Carmelites order, have filed a complaint with a local court accusing Salta Archbishop Mario Antonio Cargnello, Bishop emeritus Martín de Elizalde and vicar Lucio Ajalla of “physical, psychological and economic violence.”

The archbishop has denied the accusations and the position of the other two is unclear because they have not given statements or officially named attorneys.

Elizalde had been designated by the Vatican to hear the nuns’ complaints, but they complain he had accepted the behavior they denounced.

Protesters carried posters reading “Sister, We Believe You” and “Enough of Violent Priests!” The woman joined hands and spread out around the historic structure in a symbolic hug.

“Sometimes one thinks that the sisters are in harmony, in a contemplative live, but the violence of the church itself has made them say, ‘enough!’” said Irene Cari of the Forum of Women for Equal Opportunities, one of several groups that participated in the demonstration.

The cloistered nuns have long been at odds with Cargnello over their support for a local woman who professes to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary that he does not accept.

Attorneys for the nuns say the archbishop was upset when an image of the Madonna del Cerro was placed at the funeral of a nun in 2020 and that Ajalla lunged at a nun to stop her filming the scene. They say the archbishop himself, as well as Ajalla, hit the prioress’ arm when she recovered the device used to film.

The attorneys say there were other threats and aggressions but did not detail them, citing a court gag order. The archbishop’s defense says the problem is rooted in economic issues and the administration of the Carmelite properties.

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A judge in Fiji has ruled that U.S. authorities can seize a Russian-owned superyacht — but has put a hold on his order until at least Friday while defense lawyers mount a challenge.

The yacht Amadea — worth $325 million — had earlier been stopped from leaving the South Pacific nation because of its links to Russia. That order will stand for now, preventing U.S. authorities from taking the yacht to Hawaii or elsewhere.

A question remains over which of two Russian oligarchs really owns the Amadea, with only one of them facing sanctions. There are also questions about how far U.S. jurisdiction extends into Fiji.

Suva High Court Justice Deepthi Amaratunga on Tuesday granted an order allowing the U.S. to seize the superyacht after the U.S. had earlier filed a warrant. But the judge has also allowed for a pause while defense lawyers put together their challenge.

The judge’s next decision in the case will come on Friday, when he will decide whether to continue to put a hold on the yacht’s seizure pending a formal appeal by the defense.

The U.S. Justice Department in March announced the creation of a team of federal agents and prosecutors to pursue wealthy Russians or those aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The team, called Task Force KleptoCapture, was set up to seize assets belonging to oligarchs with the aim of pressuring Russia to end the war.

The U.S. claims the real owner of the superyacht Amadea is Suleiman Kerimov. The economist and former Russian politician was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 for alleged money laundering and has faced further sanctions from Canada, Europe, Britain and other nations after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Kerimov made a fortune investing in Russian gold producer Polyus, with Forbes magazine putting his net worth at $14.5 billion.

But defense lawyers claim the real owner is Eduard Khudainatov, the former chairman and chief executive of Rosneft, the state-controlled Russian oil and gas company. Khudainatov currently does not appear to face any sanctions, unlike many oligarchs and people with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin who have been sanctioned since the war began.

As with many superyachts, determining the real ownership of the Amadea is difficult due to the shadowy trail of trusts and shell companies. On paper, the superyacht is registered in the Cayman Islands and owned by Millemarin Investments Ltd., also based in the Cayman Islands.

Defense lawyers have claimed in court that Millemarin Investments Ltd. is the legal owner of the vessel and that the company is linked to the real, or beneficial, owner, Khudainatov. But U.S. authorities have claimed that behind all the various fronts, the real owner is Kerimov.

On April 19, after the yacht had sailed into Fiji from Mexico, the High Court in Suva ordered that the Amadea not leave Fiji until the merits of the U.S. warrant to seize the vessel were determined. Perhaps reflecting the question over ownership, the court later ordered Fijian prosecutors to amend an original summons, which named just Kerimov, to also include Millemarin Investments Ltd. as a second respondent to the case.

For now, the yacht continues to sit in a Fijian harbor with its crew of about 25 rotating on and off the vessel, while a police officer remains on board to ensure it stays put.

According to Boat International, the Amadea is 106 meters long and was built in 2017. It features a stainless steel albatross that extends off the bow and weighs more than 5 tons, a live lobster tank in the galley, a 10-meter (33-foot) pool, a hand-painted Pleyel piano and a large helipad.

The U.S. Embassy in Suva earlier said in a statement that the U.S. was acting with allies and partners around the world to impose costs on Russia because of its “war of choice.”

“We continue to ratchet up the pressure on Putin’s oligarchs and we are working with allies and partners to go after corrupt gains from some of the individuals closest to Putin, no matter where they are held around the world,” the embassy said.

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BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday noone could assume that Russia would not attack other countries and Germany would support Finland and Sweden if they decided to join NATO.

“If these two countries decide they should join the NATO alliance then they can count on our support,” Scholz said in a statement after hosting the Swedish and Finnish leaders at a two day cabinet retreat.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Miranda Murray; Editing by Madeline Chambers)

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By Monica Machicao

LA PAZ (Reuters) – Inmates in Bolivia’s overcrowded prisons are now able to reduce their jail time by reading books in a new program influenced by one in Brazil that aims to spread literacy and give hope despite a notoriously slow judicial process.

The state program “Books behind bars” offers detainees a chance get out of jail days or weeks in advance of their release date. Bolivia does not have a life sentence or death penalty, but pre-trial detention can last for many years due to a slow judicial system.

The program has been launched in 47 prisons that do not have resources to pay for education, reintegration or social assistance programs for prisoners, the Andean country’s Ombudsman’s Office says.

So far, 865 inmates are sifting through prose, improving their reading and writing skills. One of them is Jaqueline, who has already read eight books in a year and has passed four reading tests.

“It is really hard for people like us who have no income and who do not have family outside,” she said. “There are people here, for example, who are just learning how to read and write.”

Nadia Cruz with the Ombudsman’s office said the intention is to encourage inmates awaiting trial.

“That is important because what is reduced (on the sentences) is relatively little, it is hours or days in some cases, depending on what the board decides,” she told Reuters.

With a daily salary of 8 bolivianos ($1.18), incarcerated Bolivians are forced to work to be able to eat and pay the high court costs to be released.

The country’s prisons and jails have long suffered from overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, with some detainees staging protests over the lack of health care, according to Human Rights Watch.

Amid these difficulties, learning to read can be like escaping the prison walls, at least in the mind, said Mildred, an inmate at the Obrajes women’s prison in the highland city of La Paz.

“When I read, I am in contact with the whole universe. The walls and bars disappear,” she said.

($1 = 6.7900 bolivianos)

(Reporting by Monica Machicao; Writing by Daniel Ramos and Carolina Pulice; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will meet Tuesday with Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican official said in a tweet Monday afternoon.

Ebrard also said he will have a meeting to discuss investments in Central America and Mexico’s southern region.

(Reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Kylie Madry)

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ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece lifted COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday for foreign and domestic flights, its civil aviation authority said, ahead of the summer tourism season that officials hope will see revenues bouncing back from the pandemic slump.

To fly in or out of the country, travellers were previously required to show either a vaccination certificate, a certificate saying they had recovered from coronavirus or a negative test.

From May 1, passengers and crew will need only to wear a face mask, the civil aviation authority said.

The summer tourism season typically begins after the Greek Orthodox Easter, which was on April 24. Greece is expecting high numbers of visitors this year, with officials predicting revenues reaching 80% of 2019 levels. That was a record year before the pandemic brought travel to a halt.

With infections waning, restaurants and retail shops returned to 100% capacity on Sunday, allowing customers in without proof of vaccination but with a mask.

Greece has reported 3,323,922 cases so far and 29,153 deaths from COVID.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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By Greg Torode, Martin Quin Pollard and Yew Lun Tian

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) -From countering a Western “information war” during a Taiwan conflict to using “shock and awe” to swiftly subdue the island’s forces, Chinese strategists are soaking up lessons from Russia’s Ukrainian quagmire, diplomats, scholars and analysts say.

   Chinese military experts are discussing the conflict in private chat groups, offering their takes on Western involvement in Ukraine and Russia’s perceived failings, say two scholars and four Asian and Western diplomats who are in touch with Chinese strategists.

    Although their conclusions have yet to surface in official military journals or state media, Russia’s failure to quickly crush the Ukrainian military is a key topic – as are fears about how well China’s untested forces would perform.

    “Many Chinese experts are monitoring this war as if they are imagining how this would unfold if it happened between China and the West,” said Beijing-based security scholar Zhao Tong of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    Russia’s approach in the early stages of the war did not subdue Ukrainian forces, which emboldened the international community to intervene with intelligence sharing, military equipment and the economic isolation of Russia.

“China probably should think about conducting a much stronger and much more comprehensive operation at the very beginning to shock and awe the Taiwanese forces to secure a major advantage,” Zhao said, referring to observations from Chinese strategists.

They believe securing that advantage would “deter enemy forces from being willing to intervene”, he said.

Singapore-based scholar Collin Koh said such an approach would create its own problems for China’s People’s Liberation Army.

“If you are going to ‘shock and awe’ Taiwan with overwhelming force in the initial stages, there might be a lot of civilian casualties,” said Koh, of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. That would make occupation difficult and harden international opposition.

“The Chinese can’t have any illusions now that they will be welcomed as liberators in Taiwan and given supplies and assistance,” he said.

Taiwan also has greater missile capabilities than Ukraine, allowing for pre-emptive strikes on a Chinese build-up or attacks on Chinese facilities after an invasion.

Neither China’s defence ministry nor China’s Taiwan Affairs Office immediately responded to requests for comment.

Russian forces invaded eastern Ukraine starting on Feb. 24, reducing towns and cities to rubble amid stiff resistance, losing thousands of troops as well as tanks, helicopters and aircraft. British officials estimated this week that 15,000 Russian troops have died; other sources suggest a higher number.

More than 5 million people have fled after what Russia describes as a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and Western governments say this a false pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression by President Vladimir Putin.

INFORMATION WAR

Chinese strategists also worry about how Russia is contending with indirect Western military assistance, a factor China would also face in a Taiwan scenario, say two scholars and four diplomats.

    Chinese experts are privately arguing about the need for Beijing to better compete in the so-called information war, which has complicated Russia’s position on the battlefield, Zhao said.

Besides isolating Russia economically, Western diplomatic efforts – and reporting on atrocities in the war zone – have made it easier to provide aid for Ukraine and harder for Russia to find outside support.

Zhao said that to Chinese strategists, one of the most important parts of the current conflict was how Western nations “are able to manipulate, from their perspective, international opinion and decisively change the international response to the war.”

Some Chinese strategists believe that the control of information has created a much worse impression of Russian performance than is warranted.

   “There are a lot of discussions about how China needs to pay great attention to this information domain,” Zhao said.

LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES

Some analysts note that the Ukrainian campaign was under way long before Russian forces invaded in late February, with months of build-up on the Russian side of the border. Those efforts were easily tracked by private sector open-source intelligence firms and repeatedly highlighted by U.S. and other governments.

“Taiwan would present a far greater logistical challenge than Ukraine, and to ready an invasion force on that scale undetected would be incredibly difficult,” said Alexander Neill, who runs a strategic consultancy in Singapore.

China’s military leaders also have for decades looked to Moscow for not just weapons but also structural and command doctrine.

Russian and Chinese forces have staged increasingly intensive joint exercises in recent years, including large-scale combined arms operations in Russia in September 2020.

Strategic assumptions from this collaboration, however, are being tested. In 2012 the PLA adopted units similar to Russian Battalion Tactical Groups (BTG) – supposedly swift, nimble and self-supporting units. But Russian BTGs have become bogged down in Ukraine and proven vulnerable to attack.

Russia has also struggled to coordinate the involvement of several military districts in the Ukraine war. Chinese analysts worry a Chinese invasion across the Taiwan Strait – widely seen as a far greater military challenge – would face similar problems, as it requires smooth co-operation across its recently formed Southern, Eastern and Northern Theatre Commands.

Russia’s forces in Ukraine have had command breakdowns and low morale. Analysts say it’s unclear how Chinese troops – untested since they invaded northern Vietnam in 1979 – would perform in a modern conflict.

“We’ve seen signs of alarming indiscipline from Russian troops, which is a reminder that there is so much we don’t know about Chinese troops would perform under the pressures of war,” Neill said. “For all the political indoctrination, we just don’t know how resilient they would be.”

(Reporting By Greg Torode in Hong Kong and Martin Quin Pollard in Beijing; additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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By Chen Lin

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Beijing’s zero-COVID strategy has had dire consequences for the millions Chinese living abroad, most of whom have been unable to see family and friends at home for two years even as the rest of the world eases travel restrictions.

Some cannot afford the sky-high cost of flights and others fear getting stuck in harsh lockdown on arrival. All of them are anxious about the well-being of loved ones back in China.

Ba Lina, a marketing executive based in London, is ridden with guilt over not being able to see her ageing parents.

“I feel helpless and angry, I haven’t been able to see my family for years,” she said.

Reuters spoke with a dozen Chinese nationals in New York, London, Sydney and Singapore about their frustration at being separated from their families in China.

For starters, prices of international flights to China have soared. A one-way ticket within the next six months from Singapore to Guangzhou costs about 80,000 yuan ($12,088.43) due to limited flights with only business-class seats available. Pre-pandemic, the same trip on economy class cost under $370.

Li Wenqi booked a flight from London to China in early 2021 after he graduated from a British university with a masters degree in finance. But he said the flight was suspended multiple times and he was asked to top up the fare by an “exorbitant” amount before he could fly.

“I have given up, I’ll just stay in London. It will even be harder for me to find a job in China given the lockdown situation there,” said Li, who is now working as a waiter in London.

Those lucky enough to return to their homeland face being locked down on arrival under some of the most stringent restrictions seen anywhere in the world during the pandemic.

In Shanghai, the epicentre of China’s coronavirus outbreak, some residents have complained of being forcibly removed from their homes and bussed to makeshift quarantine centres as part of the city’s strict lockdown measures.

Tony Zeng, a Singapore permanent residency holder who got stuck in a lockdown during a visit to China this year, said he was contemplating a change of citizenship.

“After seeing the inefficiency of the Chinese government in dealing with COVID and heavy censorship of COVID-related information that is not in favour of the government, I prefer staying in Singapore now, and perhaps consider converting citizenship down the road,” he said.

Bingqin Li, a professor of social policy and governance at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said China’s strict lockdowns were undermining faith in the government.

“The lockdowns and chaos are affecting the confidence level of people towards the government … the longer the turning point takes to come, the more (trust in government) will be affected and the longer it will take to recover,” she said.

ARDUOUS JOURNEY HOME

To be sure, Chinese living abroad can still return if they are determined.

Travellers from Singapore, for example, have to take a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test seven days prior to departure, a PCR test and an IgM anti-body blood test two days prior to departure, and another PCR test 12 hours before the flight.

They then have to apply for a “health code” with their mobile phone by uploading the certifications. An Antigen Rapid Test (ART) six hours prior to departure is also required, before they can finally board the plane.

Only those who had a Chinese vaccine are eligible for waivers of the IgM anti-body blood test. Such requirements may vary slightly across countries.

On arrival in China, travellers have to be quarantined at a designated hotel for 14 to 28 days depending on the city, followed by additional days of home quarantine.

The Chinese foreign ministry said China’s COVID measures were designed to protect the people, including from imported cases.

The National Immigration Administration said “strict and tight” border controls were needed as COVID-19 continues to spread across the world.

“I can understand why it is so strict as the Chinese population is huge, but it is very painful to bear,” said Xiang Xiaoxue, a Chinese living in Singapore.

($1 = 6.6179 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Chen Lin in Singapore; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s government said on Friday it had put aside up to 1.6 billion Swedish crowns ($163 million) to strengthen its military infrastructure on the strategically important island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea amid increased tensions with nearby Russia.

Sweden has been rebuilding its military over the last decade, particularly since Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, has added urgency to Sweden’s rearmament programme and sparked a debate about whether it – and Nordic neighbour Finland – should join NATO.

The latest tranche of money will go to expand a barracks and other infrastructure on the island of Gotland, which is seen as strategically key to control of the Baltic.

“The aim is to be able to house many more conscripts and to make operations more effective, and in that way contribute to greater capacity … on Gotland,” Financial Markets Minister Max Elger told reporters.

Sweden reactivated the army’s Gotland Regiment in 2018, which had been disbanded more than a decade earlier, and has reinforced the island’s defence with ground-to-air missiles and other measures.

Gotland, Sweden’s biggest island, lies around 330 kilometres (205 miles) north of Kaliningrad, the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Fleet.

($1 = 9.7726 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Simon Johnson; editing by Niklas Pollard and Gareth Jones)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. ex-Marine Trevor Reed arrived back in the United States, his spokesperson said on Thursday, after being freed by Russia in a prisoner swap that took place amid the most tense bilateral relations in decades over the war in Ukraine.

Reed was released on Wednesday on an airport tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.

The swap was not part of broader diplomatic talks and did not represent an American change in approach on Ukraine, U.S. officials said. Russian-American ties have been at their worst since the Cold War era following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.

Reed, from Texas, was back in the United States, his spokesperson said without elaborating.

Reed’s parents said earlier he would be taken to a military hospital for monitoring. Senior U.S. officials said the 30-year-old was in “good spirits” despite some health issues.

Reed was convicted in Russia in 2019 of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow. The United States called his trial a “theater of the absurd.”

The 30-year-old American was released in exchange for Yaroshenko, who was arrested by American special forces in Liberia in 2010 and convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States. Russia had proposed a prisoner swap for Yaroshenko in July 2019 in exchange for any American.

Russian news agencies reported that Yaroshenko landed back in Moscow and Wednesday and was reunited with his wife and daughter.

The months of tense diplomacy that led to Reed’s release focused strictly on securing his freedom and were not the beginnings of discussions on other issues, senior Biden administration officials said. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the swap followed a lengthy negotiation process.

“The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly,” Biden added.

Russian news agencies reported on April 4 that Reed had ended a hunger strike and was being treated in his prison’s medical center. Reed’s parents said at the time that he had been exposed to an inmate with tuberculosis in December. The prison service said Reed tested negative for tuberculosis.

U.S. officials were working to free another American held in Russia, Paul Whelan, also a former Marine, Biden said. Whelan was sentenced to 16 years on espionage charges in June 2020.

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained at a Moscow airport on Feb. 17 when a search of her luggage allegedly revealed multiple cannabis oil vape cartridges. She faces up to 10 years in prison.

(Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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