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Barely one week after report went viral that African immigrants were being sold as slaves in Libya, more stranded Nigerians were on Tuesday evacuated from the North African country.

No fewer than 253 Nigerians arrived at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) cargo terminal aboard a chartered flight which touched the ground at around 8 p.m.

They were received by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) officials and other relevant personnel at the airport.

The returnees comprised 140 female adults; four female children and four female infants while there were 102 male adults, two male children and one male infant.

There were two medical cases among the returnees who were evacuated with Ambulance.

NEMA Deputy Director in charge of Search and Rescue, Dr. Bandele Onimode said the evacuation was facilitated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The latest returnees brought the number of those repatriated from Libya to over 1000 in 2017.

Some of the returnees expressed relief for returning home, saying there was no place like home as they regretted the hardship experienced in an attempt to seek greener pastures.

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Again, 253 repatriated from Libya - Daily Trust

BENGHAZI, Libya An air strike on a prison has killed five people in a Libyan desert town where armed factions have been fighting along a strategic route from the southern border region to the capital Tripoli, a medical source said on Tuesday.

No one claimed responsibility for the strike in Sabha, but forces aligned with a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli control a desert air base there that previously came under air attack from rivals allied with eastern commander Khalifa Haftar.

Two guards and three prisoners were killed in the strike on the prison in Sabha and four other people were wounded early on Tuesday, the medical source said.

The North African OPEC state slipped into turmoil after the 2011 civil war that ended Muammar Gaddafi's rule. It has been plagued since by fighting between rival political leaders backed by their military factions, each claiming legitimacy.

The southern front line has focused on control around the Tamanhent air base 30 km (19 miles) northeast of Sabha. The fighting risks escalating into the first major confrontation between forces tied to the Government of National Accord (GNA) and Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA).

Haftar is aligned with a former eastern parliament and government that have rejected the GNA since it arrived in the capital Tripoli, in the far west of the country, more than a year ago as part of U.N. efforts to stabilize Libya.

His forces have been extending their control along Libya's central Mediterranean coast and southwards into the desert regions of Jufra and Sabha. He says they also intend to take over Tripoli though some analysts doubt his military strength.

Tamanhent is controlled by a force from Misrata, a militarily powerful western city that has backed the GNA.

Since 2014, loose military alliances based in the east and west of Libya have been engaged in intermittent conflict and the Western-backed GNA has struggled to extend its control even in Tripoli, where rival militia factions operate.

(Reporting by Ayman Al-Warfalli in Benghazi and Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli; writing by Patrick Markey; editing by Mark Heinrich)

CARACAS Venezuelan security forces fired scores of tear gas volleys and turned water cannons on rock-throwing protesters on a bridge in Caracas on Wednesday as the death toll from this month's anti-government unrest hit at least 29.

ANKARA Turkish authorities said they had arrested more than a thousand "secret Imams" who had infiltrated police forces on behalf of a U.S.-based cleric accused by President Tayyip Erdogan of trying to topple him last July.

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Air strike kills five in southern Libya's Sabha: medical source - Reuters

Two commanders from Libya were in Brussels on Tuesday (25 April) to discuss migration with the European Commission as part of a broader effort to stop people from fleeing into Europe.

A senior EU commission official told MEPs on Monday that a "huge meeting" had been organised on their behalf by the EU's foreign policy branch, the European External Action Service.

"We are dealing with two coastguards. One reporting to the ministry of interior, the other one to the ministry of defence. We try to engage with both," said Maciej Popowski, a commission deputy-director.

Popowski said discussions would revolve around the needs of the commanders and what the EU could offer in return. It would also "make sure that the assistance we offer is used in an appropriate way, so that these funds are well spent."

Asked for details on the meeting, an EU commission spokesperson told EUobserver that it was about providing the Libyan Coast Guard with support as part of a plan with the EU's naval operation Sofia.

Sofia's primary goal is to crack down on migrant smugglers and "disrupt" their business model.

The EU also wants to help dismantle the networks by beefing up Libyan border surveillance with the help of seven member states through the so-called Seahorse Mediterranean Network.

That includes giving the Libyan navy access to the EU nabla data, and possibly, by extension, giving access to the country's ministries of defence and interior.

Both ministries are plagued with problems.

The EU's own mission to Libya said in a confidential report leaked to a British NGO that the interior ministry was infiltrated "by militias and religiously motivated stakeholders" and that its defence ministry had "little or no control of the armed forces".

Despite the issues, the EU still decided to set aside some 90 million in April to help fund migrant projects inside the war-torn country.

Around half of that money will go to somehow improving the lives of people detained in centres, which are often run by armed militia groups.

That also includes detection and analysis of data on mixed migration flows, routes and trends through a so-called Displacement Tracking Mechanism.

But not everyone is convinced of the EU schemes.

"Migrants are big business in Libya, pumping more money into that system is actually going to make it worse," Doctors Without Borders' (MSF's) Libya programme manager, Annemarie Loof, told MEPs.

The NGO has access to a handful of detention facilities in Tripoli and one in Misrata.

Loof described the conditions as deplorable with some people having to toss their urine onto the walls for it to evaporate given the lack of toilets.

"They are sold, you can sponsor a migrant if you wish, which means you pay a certain sum of money and take somebody home," she said.

The EU is training the Libyan coast guard to rescue people at sea. They are then sent to a detention centre to languish.

MSF warns that returning more people to already overcrowded detention centres will only aggravate the abuse and exploitation.

Italy recently gave the Libyan coast guard the first two of 10 rescue boats.

The whole is made worse given the lack of any real influence and control over the country by the internationally recognised National Government of Accord (GNA).

One EU official also noted to the MEPs on Monday that Libya's oil-based economy was on the verge of total collapse given the drop in prices and exports.

"This is going very bad," he said.

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Libya commanders in Brussels for migration talks - EUobserver

Former Attorney General Eric Holder used his speech on the first morningof Rev. Al Sharptons National Action Network conventionto warnthat voting rightsparticularly those of communities of colorare currently under siege by Republican voter identification laws.

Holder, the first African-American to lead the U.S. Department of Justice, highlighted how courts had found GOP-backed North Carolina and Texas statutes obligating poll-goers to display a state-verified credential to be discriminatory. The appointee of former President Barack Obama accused Republicans of trying to change the rules to overcome growing demographic disadvantages.

He also made a dig at President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly assertedsans evidencethat millions of people illegally cast ballots in last Novembers election.

Over 50 years ago, the passage of perhaps the most significant civil rights legislation in our nations historythe Voting Rights Act of 1965that most basic of American rights, the right to vote, to protect and that most basic of American rights is now, as Rev. Al said, under siege, Holder said at the annual Manhattan gathering. Now to employ the language of our president, that is how elections are officially rigged by state governments controlled by his party.

History will be harsh in its assessment of those efforts, he continued.

Noting that studies have shown that actual instances of in-person voter fraud are extremely rare, Holder said the country should be making it easier for people to vote. He blasted what he described as un-American attempts to to make it more difficult for their fellow citizens to express their views.

He also argued there wasnt a need for voter identification because people are already required to in some way verify themselves at the polls. New York, for instance, has people sign their names in the voter roll.

Now let me start with a basic statement upon which youll all agree: every person attempting to vote should not show he or she is who they claim to be cause face it, too many today forget that this has always been the case, Holder continued. Let me say that again: it has always been a component to identify yourself before you cast a ballot.

Holder noted that the Census Bureau reported that in the 2008 presidential election, more than 70 million adult citizens did not vote and 60 million were not registered to vote.The real aim, he said, should be to establish automatic voter enrollment for all residents of a state.

This is one of the places where I think we should focus our efforts, he said.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Mayor Bill de Blasio have repeatedly called for reforms to New Yorks voting system, including automatic voter registration of eligible voters, same-day registration and allowing registered voters to change their party enrollment closer to primary day, calling the system outdated and regressive. Ahead of the New York primary last April, tens of thousands of people, mainly in predominantly Hispanic Sunset Park, got removed from the voter books.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged similar reforms during his State of the State tour in January.

Originally posted here:
Eric Holder Rages Against 'Un-American' Voter ID Laws at Al ... - Observer

The judge who struck down a Trump administration crackdown on sanctuary cities is a hard-core Democrat activist whose life has been steeped in liberal politics since childhood.

Judge William Orrick III, 63, who on Tuesday blocked the administration from withholding federal funds from cities that don't cooperate with federal immigration officials, attended the landmark 1968 Democratic National Convention as a teen and more recently raised money for 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry.

I will not let my personal views interfere with the administration of justice," Orrick assured lawmakers in 2013, when he was confirmed as a federal judge on the District of Northern California. "I have never let my political beliefs affect my legal judgment, and believe that politics have no place in the courtroom.

On Tuesday, in a suit brought by San Francisco and Santa Clara, Calif., Orrick blocked President Trump's executive order withholding funding from sanctuary cities, saying the president lacked the authority to attach new conditions to federal spending.

Hes definitely one of the more openly liberal leaning judges on the bench based on several rulings hes made over the years."

- Attorney who has argued cases before Orrick

But Orrick's latest ruling, which Trump blasted as a case of "judge shopping" in a Wednesday tweet, and a prior ruling granting Planned Parenthood an injunction barring the Center for Medical Progress from releasing damning undercover videotapes of the abortion provider's employees and contractors, have raised questions about his impartiality.

Hes definitely one of the more openly liberal-leaning judges on the bench based on several rulings hes made over the years," said one California lawyer who has argued cases before Orrick and requested anonymity. "Many of our [9th Circuit] judges are Democratic appointees, and with most of them you feel like you would get a fair shake.

"Judge Orrick is one of the ones I feel uncomfortable having a politically charged case in front of, he added.

Orrick got one of his first tastes of hard-knuckle politics when he was just 15 years old. He went with his father, a delegate for Robert Kennedy, who had been assassinated two months before, to the riotous 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

There was fighting going on inside the convention, as well as outside, Orrick told the Recorder in a story about prominent left-wing bundlers in August 2004.

Orrick would go on to attend Yale and Boston College Law School.

At the time of the Recorder report, Orrick was a lawyer for a San Francisco firm with deep ties to Democratic politics. He had helped organize a nationwide effort dubbed "Lawyers for Kerry and was credited with raising more than $1 million for Kerry in the San Francisco area alone.

When Kerry announced he would not seek his partys nomination in January 2007, a core group of a dozen or so attorneys met at Orricks firm, San Francisco-based Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, and effectively became 'Lawyers for Obama,' according to the Recorder. The group became this kind of built-in network of fundraisers, attorney Thomas McInerney told the Recorder. Obama wasnt even officially in the race yet.

As a bundler for Obama, Orrick raised at least $200,000 according to records obtained by the watchdog group Public Citizen. A bundler, according to Public Citizen, plays an enormous role in determining the success of political campaigns and are apt to receive preferential treatment if their candidate wins.

A few months after President Obama moved into the White House, Orrick told a reporter that he wanted a job in the new administration. I contacted anybody I could think of to say: Let me serve.

McInerney was quoted as saying, "He's not in it for glory. He's doing it because he really believes in Obama."

Orrick's first position was in the Civil Division of President Obamas Department of Justice. Near the end of Obama's second term, he was appointed to his current post.

Other attorneys, also anonymously, have complained publicly about Orrick. One commenter on the blog The Robing Room called Orrick a social justice activist for whom the rule of law is a quaint, malleable notion of no import.

The Robing Room is a nationwide database of judges that contains 100,000 state and federal reviews of judges. Posters are attorneys, litigants and court personnel, said Robing Room Vice President Nicholas Kaizer, an attorney in New York.

The comments reflect the judges bias, said Kaizer, who acknowledged he has no professional experience with Orrick, but analyzed the comments for Fox News. The general flavor reflects a judge that values form over substance, is results-oriented, and somebody that directs litigation to a preordained, predetermined outcome. And that reflects a judge that is not well regarded by counsel.

Kaizer believes comments on his site paint an accurate picture of Orrick.

If theres one or two critical comments its anomalous, but were seeing 4 or 5 or more," he said. "I think you can draw conclusions that what each individual reviewer is saying is accurate and its buttressed by the other reviewers.

While Orrick's latest decision may earn him more detractors, it will likely also prompt others to agree with an earlier assessment by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

William Orrick will be an outstanding addition to the Northern District bench," Boxer said after recommending him for his current post. "He brings a depth of legal experience in both the public and private sectors.

Link:
Sanctuary cities fight: Judge who blocked Trump order a Democrat activist - Fox News