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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Fleeing war, South Sudanese
create booming camps in Uganda
Pop superstar George Michael
dies of heart failure at 53
LONDON — George Michael’s moment of liberation fol-
lowed what seemed at first to be a time of deep humiliation.
He was blessed with sensual good looks and an exquisite
voice, attributes he used to become first a teenybopper heartthrob
and then a mature solo artist with videos that played up his con-
siderable appeal. He kept his own sexual orientation private, until
he was arrested in 1998 for lewd conduct in a public toilet in Los
Angeles after being spotted by a male undercover police officer.
In an earlier era, that might have doomed his career. Instead of
retreating, however, he made a single and video — “Outside” —
that ridiculed the charges against him and mocked the Los Ange-
les police officers who busted him.
The memorable image of the two uniformed policemen kiss-
ing in the video — both funny and outrageous at the time —
helped Michael come out as a proud gay man. He was unashamed,
unapologetic and ready to poke fun at himself even as he pro-
duced a steady stream of hits.
But Michael, whose death from heart failure at 53 was
announced Sunday, struggled in his later years, fighting health
issues and substance abuse problems. His voice remained golden
— at times it seemed there was almost no limit to his range — but
his behavior in public became ever more erratic.
Russia: Focus is on faults, not
terror, in plane crash probe
SOCHI, Russia — A pilot error or a technical fault — not
terrorism — is likely to be the cause of the plane crash into the
Black Sea, Russia’s transport minister said Monday as the nation
held a day of mourning for the victims.
All 84 passengers and eight crew members on the Russian
military’s Tu-154 plane are believed to have died Sunday morn-
ing when it crashed two minutes after taking off from the south-
ern city of Sochi. The passengers included dozens of singers in
Russia’s world-famous military choir, nine Russian journalists
and a Russian doctor known for her charity work in war zones.
On Monday, the search operation involved more than 3,500
people on 45 ships — including 135 divers flown in from across
Russia — sweeping a vast crash site at sea and along the shore,
according to the Defense Ministry.
Five helicopters and drones were being used to help spot bod-
ies and debris. Two deep-water submersibles arrived Monday in
Sochi to aid the operation, which went on all through the night
thanks to powerful searchlights.
The Black Sea search area — which covers over 10 square
kilometers (about 4 square miles) — is plagued by underwater
currents that can carry debris and body fragments into the open
sea.
Recounts or no, US elections
are still vulnerable to hacking
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Jill Stein’s bid to recount votes in
Pennsylvania was in trouble even before a federal judge shot it
down Dec. 12. That’s because the Green Party candidate’s effort
stood almost no chance of detecting potential fraud or error in the
vote — there was basically nothing to recount.
Pennsylvania is one of 11 states where the majority of voters
use antiquated machines that store votes electronically, without
printed ballots or other paper-based backups that could be used
to double-check the balloting. There’s almost no way to know if
they’ve accurately recorded individual votes — or if anyone tam-
pered with the count.
More than 80 percent of Pennsylvanians who voted Nov. 8
cast their ballots on such machines, according to VotePA, a non-
profit seeking their replacement. A recount would, in the words of
VotePA’s Marybeth Kuznik, a veteran election judge, essentially
amount to this: “You go to the computer and you say, ‘OK, com-
puter, you counted this a week-and-a-half ago. Were you right the
first time?’”
These paperless digital voting machines, used by roughly 1
in 5 U.S. voters last month, present one of the most glaring dan-
gers to the security of the rickety, underfunded U.S. election sys-
tem. Like many electronic voting machines, they are vulnera-
ble to hacking. But other machines typically leave a paper trail
that could be manually checked. The paperless digital machines
open the door to potential election rigging that might not ever be
detected.
What’s more, their prevalence magnifies other risks in the
election system, such as the possibility that hackers might com-
promise the computers that tally votes, by making failures or
attacks harder to catch. And like other voting machines adopted
since the 2000 election, the paperless systems are nearing the
end of their useful life — yet there is no comprehensive plan to
replace them.
AP Photo/Tim Ireland
Tributes are left on the gate outside the home of British
musician George Michael in London on Monday. Michael,
who rocketed to stardom with WHAM! and went on to en-
joy a long and celebrated solo career lined with controver-
sies, has died, his publicist said Sunday. He was 53.
Trump’s pick for ambassador to
Israel has all sides on edge
NEW YORK — If President-elect Donald Trump wanted
to show he planned to obliterate President Barack Obama’s
approach to Israel, he may have found his man to deliver that
message in David Friedman, his pick for U.S. ambassador.
The bankruptcy lawyer and son of an Orthodox rabbi is every-
thing Obama is not: a fervent supporter of Israeli settlements,
opponent of Palestinian statehood and unrelenting defender of
Israel’s government. So far to the right is Friedman that even
many Israel supporters worry he could push Israel’s hawkish
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be more extreme, scut-
tling prospects for peace with Palestinians in the process.
The heated debate over Friedman’s selection is playing out
just as fresh tensions erupt between the U.S. and Israel, punctu-
ated last Friday by the Obama administration’s stunning move
to allow a U.N. Security Council resolution to pass condemn-
ing Israeli settlements as illegal. The move to abstain, rather than
veto, defied years of U.S. tradition of shielding Israel from such
resolutions, and elicited angry condemnation from Israel, law-
makers of both parties, and especially Trump.
“Things will be different after Jan. 20th,” when he’s sworn in,
Trump vowed on Twitter.
Friedman, certainly, is different.
Cuban President Raul Castro
faces deep problems in 2017
HAVANA — Alex Romero was delighted when President
Barack Obama came to Havana in March bearing the promise of
a bright new future.
Like so many other Cubans, the 42-year-old state photogra-
phy shop employee thrilled at the president’s vision of restored
ties between the U.S. and Cuba. Families would reunite. A flood
of American business would lift the stagnant centrally planned
economy, fueling its slow path toward reform. Even as Obama
spoke, an 80 percent surge in U.S. visitors was drenching state-
run and private businesses with hundreds of millions of desper-
ately needed dollars.
Nine months later, the world seen from Havana looks very
different.
President Raul Castro faces what could be his toughest year
since he took power in 2006. 2017 brings a possible economic
recession and a U.S. president-elect who has promised to undo
Obama’s normalization unless the Cuban government makes new
concessions on civil rights. Resistance to pressure from Wash-
ington is a founding principle for the Cuban communist system,
making domestic concessions in exchange for continued detente
a virtual impossibility.
“People expected that after Obama came there would be
changes in the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba but that
we could keep the best of what we have, the benefits for the peo-
ple,” Romero said. “Trump’s not going to be able to get what he
wants, another type of Cuba. If the world’s number one power
takes us on, 2017 is going to be really bad for us.”
BIDI BIDI CAMP, Uganda — “I don’t want to go back,”
James Issac declared, just minutes after becoming a refugee. “I
don’t want to die.”
For two days, the slender 30-year-old from South Sudan’s
Equatoria region navigated his way out of civil war, riding a
motorcycle along dirt roads and avoiding government sol-
diers who, according to accounts by refugees to The Associated
Press, have taken aim at civilians.
In his last steps on South Sudanese soil, Issac passed a
group of rag-tag rebel soldiers and crossed a rickety bridge into
Uganda, and safety.
“I am happy,” he said, as Ugandan soldiers searched his
belongings for contraband. “There (are) no problems here.”
He is one of 440,000 refugees who have fled South
Sudan’s spiraling conflict into Uganda this year alone, creating
some of the world’s largest refugee camps in just six months’
time.
Once a killer, now a CEO: Ex-con
works to turn youths around
SOMERVILLE, Mass. — John Valverde isn’t your typical
CEO. He spent 16 years in prison for killing a man accused of
raping his girlfriend.
While in prison, Valverde did his best to redeem himself, earn-
ing two college degrees, teaching fellow inmates how to read and
write, and working as an HIV/AIDS counselor.
Next week, he’ll take over as chief executive officer of Youth-
Build USA Inc., an organization with a global network of pro-
grams aimed at helping young, low-income dropouts reclaim
their lives and get skills to land jobs and become community
leaders.
Valverde said he thinks it is important for him to be honest
about his past with the young people he’s trying to help. One in
three has a criminal record.
“They are just like me, and therefore their path could be like
mine, and therefore they could achieve things that they never
imagined,” Valverde said in a recent interview at YouthBuild’s
Somerville, headquarters.
Ski industry skews big, so
smaller resorts tout authenticity
DENVER — A budget ski resort in western Colorado
came up with an eye-popping offer — a $700 lift ticket, the
most expensive in the nation. Only this lift ticket comes with
a sweet bonus: a pair of handcrafted skis made from Colorado
wood.
Gimmicky? Sure. But Sunlight Mountain Resort says that in
an era of increasing ski-industry consolidation, where a handful
of companies control more and more winter sport terrain, scrappy
independent resorts need all the help they can get to compete with
amenity-laden megaresorts.
From baking fresh doughnuts for skiers to displaying local art
to play up a sense of community, smaller, independent resorts say
they have to rely on personality.
“It’s the difference between Budweiser or a craft brew,” said
Troy Hawks, Sunlight’s head of marketing and sales.
The ski industry used to be dominated by independent
resorts, where downhill and cross-country skiers would
drive to a local mountain, maybe get a fireside cup of hot
chocolate in a lodge, then drive home. A ski area with
an on-mountain hotel was a rarity; one with nighttime
entertainment and white-tablecloth dining would be a true
destination.
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