Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) tribunal charged eight former commanders of the demobilized FARC guerrilla group Thursday with being responsible for war crimes relating to kidnapping and crimes against humanity, an unprecedented decision awaited for years by thousands of victims.  

The former commanders have also been charged with other war crimes, including homicide, forced disappearance, torture and sexual violence. 

The JEP, a tribunal created under a 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and FARC to investigate crimes committed by the guerrilla group, which was formally known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, decided to change the name of the crime from the “illegal retention of people” to the “taking of hostages and serious deprivation of liberty” after the victims said the original name did not evoke the suffering experienced by them and their family members. 

The FARC’s last military commander and current party leader, Rodrigo Londono, known as “Timochenko,” who signed the 2016 Peace Agreement with the government, was among those charged. 

The JEP confirmed that FARC kidnapped 21,396 people, although it said that the number did not reveal the magnitude of the phenomenon due to the large underreporting. According to the judges, victims did not report the crimes due to fear of retaliation. 

Some victims were freed after a ransom was paid, but most were held for years, and many were killed or died in captivity. Former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by this armed group for seven years. FARC commanders have called the kidnappings a "big mistake." 

The eight former guerrilla members will have 30 days to decide whether to accept their responsibility in these crimes. If they accept the accusations, they will face restrictions on their freedoms for five to eight years. If they reject their responsibility, they could face up to 20 years in prison. 

This is the first time since the signing of the 2016 peace deal that the JEP has attributed criminal responsibility to former leaders of the guerrilla group after victims and the government party complained that the tribunal had been complicit with the guerrillas.​​​​​​​ 

The 2016 peace deal brought a cease-fire after more than five decades of armed conflict between the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian government. Under the deal reached in Cuba, rebel leaders and government negotiators agreed on the creation of a new political party, recently renamed the Common People’s Party or the Comunes for short, and a political future for the left-wing group./aa

A coronavirus vaccine candidate from American pharmaceutical company Novavax is over 89% effective in preventing people from contracting COVID-19, the drug maker announced Thursday. 

The Maryland-based company announced the results of its phase 3 trials in the UK, which were done in coordination with that country's vaccine task force and included the more transmissible, and possible more deadly, UK variant. The protein-based vaccine was tested in trials that included over 20,000 participants.

"NVX-CoV2373 is the first vaccine to demonstrate not only high clinical efficacy against COVID-19 but also significant clinical efficacy against both the rapidly emerging UK and South Africa variants,” Novavax President Stanley Erck said in a statement, using the company's name for its candidate.

"NVX-CoV2373 has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners, collaborators, investigators and regulators around the world to make the vaccine available as quickly as possible," he added.

A separate Phase 2b trial was also conducted in South Africa, which showed the drug is not anywhere close to being as effective against a variant tearing through that country. That phase two trial concluded with an efficacy of just 49.4% when about 92% of those with COVID-19 had the South Africa variant.

That trial was much smaller than the one in the UK with just 4,400 participants./aa

Major US stock market indexes closed higher Thursday, recovering from massive losses the previous day. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 300 points or 0.1% to 30,603 points while the S&P 500 gained 36 points or 0.1%, ending at 3,787.

The Nasdaq rose 66 points or 0.5% to end at 13,337 with Netflix, Moderna and Zoom each gaining over 2% and Microsoft reaching an all-time high of $242.64.

The VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, was significantly down by 18.8% to 30.21 after soaring 61.6% Wednesday to reach its highest level since Nov. 2.

Gold was as high as $1,866 per ounce at one point but failed to hold on to its gains and slid into negative territory. Silver remained more resilient and was around $26.50 an ounce with a 5% gain at the time of the final bell.

The price of Brent crude oil was down 0.85% at $55.06 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $52.26 a barrel with a 1.1% loss.

Stocks have been driven higher in recent days by small retail investors, who took major hits after broker app Robinhood earlier Thursday restricted its users from trading.

Shares of GameStop and BlackBerry declined by more than 40%, while AMC Entertainment shares lost 56%./aa

Japan is working on possible scenarios to minimize the risk of coronavirus infections during the Olympic Games, Kyodo news agency reported Thursday. 

“The government is considering three options -- not imposing a limit on spectators, placing a ceiling of 50% of the venues' capacity or holding events behind closed doors, according to the officials,“ it said.

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said officials are working on various simulations for the Games.

“Basically, I don't think [the games without fans]is something that would happen or something that I would like to do, but it won't be a simulation unless we think about it,” he told reporters following a meeting with International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach, according to the Japanese news agency.

The Olympics will be held in a "safe and secure" environment with measures to fight the outbreak, Mori and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga have insisted.

“Japan is scheduled to decide by the end of spring the number of fans allowed at each venue and whether to admit fans from overseas,” Kyodo added.

Initially scheduled for last July, the 2020 Games were among a host of sporting events postponed worldwide because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The event is now scheduled for Tokyo from July 23 - Aug. 8, followed by the Paralympics Aug. 24 - Sept. 5./aa

A new investigation by Amnesty has linked law enforcement equipment supplied by France with the excessive use of force deployed by security forces in Lebanon during the anti-government demonstrations.

The report released by Amnesty international on Thursday, found a range of French ammunition from tear gas canisters, pepper sprays to grenade launchers, rubber bullets, and armoured vehicles used to transfer troops deployed to suppress mass protests between 2015 and 2020.

The equipment was used in large quantities particularly during massive protests which erupted across cities and villages from October 2019 and continued until August 2020 against government’s inefficiency to control rising prices, high unemployment, and corruption.

French president Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut twice, arriving two days after a massive blast of unsafely stored ammonium nitrate destroyed the city in August, that left 190 dead and 6,000 injured and later in September to personally honour legendary artist Fairouz with the Legion of Honour, the highest honour awarded to civilians in France.

Macron organised an international conference to raise funds to support Beirut and issued a six-week ultimatum to Lebanese politicians to bring in reforms and political change or face sanctions.

Amnesty pointed out France’s special responsibility towards Lebanon in view of Macron’s statements.

“The Lebanese authorities bear primary responsibility for the human rights violations committed by their security forces. However, France , as a key supplier of various law enforcement equipment, contributed to this violence through its arms transfers,” the report stated.

Amnesty has demanded French government to inform the Lebanese security forces to comply with the international standards relating to the use of force. It has also urged Paris to carry out a rigorous risk assessment and halt exports of equipment likely to be used to commit or facilitate violations of human rights./aa

Tesla Inc posted record quarterly revenue of more than $10 billion for the first time in history in the October-December period last year, according to its financial results statement released Wednesday. 

The US electric vehicle maker saw its revenue soar to $10.74 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, up by 45% from $7.38 billion in the same period of 2019.

Its net income also soared 157% to $270 million from $105 million during the period.

The Palo Alto-based company managed to produce a total of 509,737 vehicles during 2020, of which 179,757, or a staggering 35%, came in the final quarter.

Apple posts largest revenue ever

US tech company Apple also posted its largest revenue in a quarter ever in the last quarter of 2020.

The firm's revenue broke a record with $111.4 billion in total sales in the October-December period, up by 21.3% from $91.8 billion in the same period of the previous year.

The majority of sales came from Apple's iPhone devices, which generated $65.6 billion, up 17% from $55.9 billion in the last quarter of 2019.

The company's net income rose to $28.7 billion from $22.2 billion for a 29% increase during the period.

Facebook

Social media firm Facebook's revenue rose to $28.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 33% increase from $21.1 billion in the same period of the previous year.

Its net income jumped by 53% to $11.2 billion from $7.3 billion during the same period.

Facebook said its daily active users totaled 1.84 billion on average for December 2020, an increase of 11% year-over-year, while its monthly active users rose 12% to 2.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2020./aa

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chaired a meeting of the Presidential High Advisory Board on Wednesday. 

Following the two-and-half hour meeting, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said in a statement that the board members discussed the issues of xenophobia and Islamophobia, which are on the rise in Western societies, and the situation the Islamic world is in.

In the meeting, President Erdogan said the racist, discriminatory and barbaric face of the West began to reveal itself with the dropping of the mask of democracy, freedom and human rights it has been hiding behind for a long time, the statement said.

It noted that in the meeting, Erdogan said the practices of massacres, cruelty, oppression, occupation and fanaticism against Muslims are being observed in different geographies from Myanmar to East Turkistan and from the Balkans and the Caucasus to Palestine, adding the most grave and hurtful scenes are being witnessed in the Islamic geography.

"The board members exchanged views with regards to issues concerning efforts to fight against shadowy organizations whose ideological foundations do not stem from the core values of the religion and to strengthen the unity and solidarity of the Islamic world by eliminating its internal tensions," Altun said in the statement./aa

The international community must do more to save the lives of refugees taking risky routes to the Mediterranean due to violence that crosses numerous country borders across a vast swath of sub-Saharan Africa, the UN refugee agency warned Wednesday.

The UNHCR released its 2021 strategic action plan and related funding appeal for the situation, saying it is "deeply worried" as people in the Sahel region face trafficking and abuses, such as kidnap for ransom, forced labor, sexual servitude, and gender-based violence.

The hazards are escalating Sahel conflicts and displacement, new displacement in the East and Horn of Africa, and increasing sea arrivals to the Canary Islands.

The UN recorded more than 1,064 deaths in the Central and Western Mediterranean in 2020, said the UNHCR.

"We hear harrowing first-hand accounts of brutality and abuses that refugees and migrants suffer along the routes towards the Mediterranean," said Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR's special envoy for the Central Mediterranean.

"Many fall prey to traffickers and smugglers and are abused, extorted, raped, and sometimes killed or left to die," said Cochetel.

The Sahel stretches in the northern part of Africa from Senegal in the west on the Atlantic coast, through parts of Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Sudan to Eritrea on the Red Sea coast in the east.

The UNHCR also said the Sahel conflict continues escalating, uninterrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the Liptako-Gourma region, which borders Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

In Burkina Faso, more than 1,000,000 people have been internally displaced, a four-fold increase in one year.

The emergency is already affecting Mauritania and Chad and risks spilling over into the coastal countries of Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo.

UNHCR said it is seeking just over $100 million to enhance refugee protection in African countries on their way to the Mediterranean and the agency said offering safe, viable alternatives to the dangerous journeys marred by abuse and deaths is critical.

Violence in the region has now forced an estimated 2.9 million people to flee, says UNHCR.

With no prospects for peace and stability in the region, further displacement is likely, said the UN agency.

"Facing protracted displacement, dire conditions in neighboring host countries where they sought shelter, the continued economic impact of the COVID pandemic, and a lack of viable alternatives, many continue to attempt risky sea journeys to Europe," noted the UNHCR.

UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said in February 2020: "The Sahel is the place where we must intervene before this crisis becomes unmanageable."/aa

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk in a phone conversation discussed cooperation in various fields, according to Turkey’s Communications Directorate on Wednesday.

Space technologies was the main topic of discussion on the fields of cooperation between Turkey's public and private sectors and Musk’s company, the directorate said./aa