8A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2016
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Obama vows retaliation for
suspected Russian hacking
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is promising that
the U.S. will retaliate against Russia for its suspected meddling in
America’s election process, an accusation the Kremlin has vehe-
mently denied.
Amid calls on both sides of the political aisle on Capitol Hill for a
full-bore congressional investigation, including assertions President
Vladimir Putin was personally involved, Obama said in an inter-
view that anytime a foreign government tries to interfere in U.S.
elections, the nation must take action “and we will at a time and
place of our own choosing.”
“Some of it may be explicit and publicized, some of it may not
be,” he told NPR News Thursday. “But Mr. Putin is well aware of
my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it.”
White House officials said it was “fact” that Russian hacking
helped Donald Trump’s campaign against Democratic presidential
nominee Hillary Clinton. Administration officials on Thursday also
assailed Trump himself, saying he must have known of Russia’s
interference. Obama was to hold a news conference at the White
House this afternoon.
No proof was offered for any of the accusations, the latest to
unsettle America’s uneasy transition from eight years under Obama
to a new Republican administration led by Trump. The claims of
Russian meddling in the election also have heightened already
debilitating tensions between Washington and Moscow over Syria,
Ukraine and a host of other disagreements.
Syrian TV: Aleppo evacuation
halted, rebels fired on convoy
BEIRUT — The Syrian government suspended evacuations
from eastern Aleppo just hours after they resumed today, saying that
rebels had opened fire on a convoy of evacuees at a crossing point
with the enclave, state TV reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long the suspension would last
or whether it would delay the cease-fire deal under which tens of
thousands of residents and rebel fighters are being evacuated to
opposition-controlled areas in the surrounding countryside, a pro-
cess likely to take several days.
Earlier today, as the evacuations resumed for a second day, Rus-
sian President Vladimir Putin announced a major new Syria peace
initiative, saying he and his Turkish counterpart are working to set
up peace talks between Damascus and the opposition in Kazakhstan.
The evacuations seal the end of the Syrian rebels’ most import-
ant stronghold — the eastern part of the city of Aleppo — and mark
a watershed moment in the country’s civil war, now in its sixth year.
In announcing the suspensions, the Syrian TV also claimed that
the rebels had tried to take with them captives they had seized and
were holding in the rebel enclave during bitter battles to defend their
territory from a ferocious, weeks-long onslaught by Syrian Presi-
dent Bashar Assad’s troops.
Life in prison or death penalty
are only options for Roof
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Confederate flag is gone from
South Carolina’s Statehouse. The bullet holes have been patched in
Emanuel AME’s fellowship hall. And now Dylann Roof will almost
certainly spend the rest of his days in prison for killing nine black
worshippers at the Charleston church.
A federal jury convicted Roof on all 33 counts Thursday. Those
same jurors will decide in another phase of the trial starting Jan. 3
whether he faces the death penalty or life in prison for hate crimes
at a historic African-American church whose founder led a failed
slave revolt.
When that testimony starts, Roof will be his own attorney, having
again fired defense lawyers who fear Roof is taking over because he
doesn’t want them to present embarrassing evidence in their efforts
to spare his life.
A stunning crime when it happened on June 17, 2015, became
more revolting during six days of testimony. Roof fired 77 shots in
the fellowship hall. More than 50 hit someone. Each of the nine peo-
ple killed were struck at least five times. The medical examiner said
the angles of some of the bullets seemed to show someone was hold-
ing a gun over victims who were lying still with their arms pulled
against them. A prosecutor said they were executed like animals.
For Putin, the summit meeting marked his first official visit to a
G-7 country since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Abe, eager for
progress on the territorial issue, invited Putin even though Japan and
the other G-7 nations still have sanctions on Russia.
Church, state seeing eye to eye
in Putin’s Orthodox Russia
MOSCOW — The Russian Orthodox Church is expanding its
influence in what was once an officially godless state — and Pres-
ident Vladimir Putin appears eager to harness that resurgent power
of faith to promote his own agenda.
Long consigned to society’s margins in the Soviet era of “scien-
tific atheism,” religious activists in today’s Russia can get theater
performances banned and exhibitions closed. Their next target is to
end state funding for abortion in a land where nearly half of all preg-
nancies end in termination.
Putin has condemned recent attacks on art exhibitions and efforts
to hound performers from the stage. But he says owners of galleries
and theaters mustn’t provoke society by showing works that could
cause offense.
“Any freedom has another dimension: responsibility,” Putin told
arts and entertainment figures gathered this month in St. Petersburg.
“There is a very narrow edge between dangerous buffoonery and
freedom of expression.”
The moral authority of the Orthodox Church has grown steadily
under Putin, who sides with the church in promoting traditional
family values and opposing gay rights. He, in turn, cites Russia’s
Christian roots to justify the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula
from Ukraine, noting that a prince of medieval Russia was baptized
there more than a millennium ago.
Japan, Russia agree on economic Taiwan eyes Trump’s China policy
ties; stalemate on territory
with mix of hope and fear
TOKYO — Russia and Japan agreed today to hold talks on joint
economic development on four islands at the center of a decades-old
territorial dispute between the countries.
It was a small step forward that fell far short of breaking the stale-
mate in a dispute that has prevented Russia and Japan from signing a
peace treaty formally ending World War II.
Joint development “would help foster trust toward a peace
treaty,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a news conference
with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after meetings in Japan
over two days.
Asked about developments in Syria, Putin said that he and Turk-
ish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are working to launch a new
round of peace talks in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — As Taiwan becomes a contentious issue
between China and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Taiwan-
ese are hoping it will lead to closer ties with Washington but are
wary of becoming a bargaining chip between the world’s two larg-
est economies.
Trump’s Dec. 2 phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-
wen raised expectations that he will upgrade relations with the
self-governing island with which Washington has only had unoffi-
cial ties since recognizing the Communist government on the Chi-
nese mainland in 1979. Trump followed up the call with tweets
and comments criticizing Chinese trade and foreign policy, stoking
speculation about a major change in American policy toward the
nearly 70-year-old regional rivalry.
“ WE BEAT
MY CANCER
TOGETHER.”
CAROLYN OLSEN – BEND, OREGON
It was just before Christmas in 2008 when Carolyn Olsen of Bend spoke to her
doctor. The news was bad: multiple myeloma, a cancer that attacks blood cells.
Treating it meant traveling to OHSU. She’d have to be away from home for months.
But she knew she could not be away from Dennis, her husband. Throughout her
treatment, he was always with her. Reading to her, giving support, being there.
According to Carolyn, being together made all the difference.
“ The new OHSU guest house will be very
important, not just for patients, but also
To help others like Carolyn and Dennis, we’re building the Gary & Christine Rood
Family Pavilion, a new five-story guest house on Portland’s South Waterfront. Where
children and adults, facing the most serious health crises, can rest, heal and support
each other. Because people heal better when loved ones can be close.
Please make a gift today. Help OHSU build a new home for healing.
OnwardOHSU.org/HomeForHealing
ONWARD // THE CAMPAIGN FOR OHSU
for their loved ones. So together you can
concentrate on getting well.”
– CAROLYN OLSEN