Category Archives: War On Drugs

I thank David Scharfenberg for writing thoughtfully about the need for prison reform (Free more criminals, Ideas, Feb. 5). I disagree, however, with the notion that the drug war is not the major problem behind Americas huge prison growth. While less than 20 percent of prisoners may be serving time for drug offenses, the reality is that most crimes are the result of drug prohibition.

As a public defender attorney and a former mental health clinician at a mens maximum security prison, I have worked with hundreds of people charged with theft, robbery, and other crimes resulting from drug addiction. Addiction in and of itself usually does not lead to crime; it is the laws prohibiting drugs that trigger law-breaking.

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Why is it uncommon to see someone suffering from alcoholism robbing stores and yet common to see the person with opiate addiction doing so? Because the person suffering from alcohol use disorder can obtain alcohol for a small price compared with black-market opiates.

In addition, murders are too often committed in connection to drug warring.

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At the center of our disastrous drug policies are people suffering. We would all benefit from investing our money in prevention, rehabilitation, education, and employment opportunities rather than expensive cages.

Lisa Newman-Polk

Ayer

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War on drugs has left us with a latticework of crime - The Boston Globe

Trump on Drug War: 'We're Going to be Ruthless ... We Have No Choice' CNSNews.com (CNSNews.com) -- Speaking before a prominent group of police chiefs and sheriffs from across the nation, President Donald Trump said his administration will fight a "ruthless" war against illegal drugs and assist state and local officials in stopping ... and more »

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Trump on Drug War: 'We're Going to be Ruthless ... We Have No Choice' - CNSNews.com

Mexican Marines raid the Zetas Photo Credit: Creative Commons/By Borderland Beat Reporter Buggs

Attention deficit disorder isnt usually a welcome presidential attribute, but Mexicans can be thankful that Donald Trump has temporarily shifted his focus away from their country to pick fights instead with Iran, the EU, China, California, and the U.S. news media.

The last time Trump addressed Mexico, right after the election, the peso fell 17 percent. Within days of his inauguration, Trump demanded that Mexico pay for a border wall, prompting cancellation of his planned summit meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pea Nieto.

As former Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhanlamented, it took only one week of bilateral engagement between the new U.S. administration and Mexico to throw the relationship into a tailspin. That relationship would be better if Trump had stuck to theview he expressedin November 2015: I dont care about Mexico, honestly. I really dont care about Mexico.

Someday soon, however, Trump will rediscover his interest in Mexico, and relations will likely suffer again. But Mexico need not take his abuse lying down. As the buyer of more than aquartertrilliondollars in U.S. exportsthe second largest market in the world for U.S. goodsMexico has some leverage if Trump tries to play rough with tariffs and trade.

And if Trump persists in sending a bill to Mexico City for his wall, Pea should seriously consider sending a bill in return to Washington to pay for the U.S. drug war.

The high cost to Mexico of the U.S. drug war

For years now, Mexico has paid an extraordinarily high price in lives and social disruption for Washingtons insistence that North Americas drug problem be tackled south of the border, where the drugs are grown and transported, rather than primarily in clinics and halfway houses at home to treat the medical and psychological issues of users.

Successive administrations, starting with President Nixon, have demanded ever tougher border controls, aerial spraying programs, and DEA-backed anti-cartel operations in Mexico. All their efforts and sacrifices have been for naught. U.S. residentscurrentlyexport up to $29 billion in cash to Mexican traffickers each year to buy marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, and heroin.

Forcing that trade underground has taken a terrible toll on Mexico in terms of violence, corruption, and social upheaval. Since 2006, when President Felipe Caldern ordered his military to join the war on drug traffickers, Mexico has lost about200,000 livesand 30,000 more have disappeared,dwarfingthe civilian death toll in Afghanistan and Iraq over that period.

The majority of them were victims of criminal organizations, but human rights organizations also reportsoaring rates of human rights violations, including torture and killing, committed by security forces.

The2016 Global Peace Index, prepared by the Institute for Economics and Peace, estimates the total cost of violence in Mexico at $273 billion, or 14 percent of GDP, with no end in sight.Direct fiscal costsof fighting the war on crime were about $32 billion in 2015 alone. Yet the United States has contributed only about $2.5 billion since fiscal 2008 to Mexicos drug war, under the so-called Merida Initiative.

Mexicos pain shows no signs of easing. New York Timesreportedin December that Mexico suffered more than 17,000 homicides in the first 10 months of last year, the highest total since 2012. The relapse in security has unnerved Mexico and led many to wonder whether the country is on the brink of a bloody, all-out war between criminal groups, it said.

Time for an alternative

In his last phone call with Mexican President Pea,Trump reportedly complained, You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with. We are willing to help with that big-league, but they have to be knocked out and you have not done a good job knocking them out. According to one disputed account,Trump threatenedto send U.S. troops south of the border if Mexico doesnt do more to stop the drug problem.

Pea can continue to do Washingtons bidding,ensuring his political demise, or he can challenge Trump by asking why Mexico should fight North Americas drug war on its own soil and at its own expense. If he goes the latter route, hell have plenty of good company.

Former heads of state from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, along with other distinguished members of theGlobal Commission on Drug Policy, have called for normalization of drugseliminating black markets and incentives for violence by legalizing individual possession and cultivation of drugs while instituting public health regulations. They note that such programs have succeeded admirably in Portugal and the Netherlands at reducing both the criminal and public health costs of drug abuse.

The harms created through implementing punitive drug laws cannot be overstated when it comes to both their severity and scope, they assert in their 2016 report, Advancing Drug Policy Reform. Thus, we need new approaches that uphold the principles of human dignity, the right to privacy and the rule of law, and recognize that people will always use drugs. In order to uphold these principles all penalties both criminal and civilmust be abolished for the possession of drugs for personal use.

Support for decriminalization is growing in Mexico, where the supreme court in 2015approvedgrowing and smoking marijuana for personal use. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox nowadvocateslegalizing all drugs over a transition period of up to a decade.

Jorge Castaeda, a former Mexican foreign minister, recentlyopined, Mexico should take advantage of Californias decision to legalize recreational marijuana. Regardless of Mr. Trumps victory, the approval of the proposition in the United States most populous state makes Mexicos war on drugs ridiculous. What is the purpose of sending Mexican soldiers to burn fields, search trucks and look for narco-tunnels if, once our marijuana makes it into California, it can be sold at the local 7-Eleven?

Criticsrightly point out that what works in the Netherlands wont necessarily solve Mexicos problems. Its powerful drug gangs have diversified into a host of other violent criminal enterprises. They control territory, intimidate or corrupt law enforcement, and kill with impunity. Legalizing drug sales wont end their criminal ways, but it could erode their profits and let police focus on universally despised crimes with direct victimsmurder, kidnapping, extortion and the like.

As Mexican journalist Jos Luis Pardo Veirasremarkedlast year, Decriminalizing drug use will not fix a deeply rooted problem in this country, but it will allow Mexicans to differentiate between drugs and the war on drugs, between drug users and drug traffickers. This is the first step in acknowledging that a different approach is possible.

As for Trump, let him build his wall and see if that keeps out all the drugs. If not, maybe by then Mexico will be able to offer some useful advice on how to fight the drug problem not with guns, but with more enlightened policies.

Jonathan Marshall is an independent scholar and journalist.

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Mexico Should Ask Trump to Pay For The Drug War - AlterNet

Saturday February 11 2017

Fahim Ali, one of the people undergoing rehabilitation at Kisauni Level Four Hospital, talks to a Nation reporter on February 8, 2017. He wants the government to deal with drug trafficking. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

It is business as usual at drug dens in Mombasa despite the government's tough talk against traffickers and promise to eradicate the menace.

Hundreds of drug addicts are still camped in some of the notorious dens in the county, with little being done to rehabilitate them, the Saturday Nation can reveal.

A spot check at drug dens in Kisauni, Old Town, Shimanzi and near the Coast General Hospital showed that the addicts have been left to fight for themselves despite assurances by the government to intervene.

The addicts still mill around the areas, injecting themselves with drugs in broad daylight.

According to the National Authority for the Campaign against Drug Abuse (Nacada) and US anti-narcotics Agency, some 96,752 people are addicted to hard drugs, including cocaine and heroin at the Coast, 40,000 of them are students aged between 12 and 17 years.

In August last year during his tour of the Coast, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed immediate crackdown on drugs, dealers and their dens and the rehabilitation of users.

He told local politicians to work with security forces and Nacada to ensure all drug dens are eliminated in the same manner illicit brews were destroyed in Central Kenya and Nairobi.

The President gave them a two-week ultimatum to set up a drug rehabilitation centre at the National Youth Service (NYS).

But six months down the line, nothing has been done.

On Friday, when the Saturday Nation visited the camp, construction of a perimeter wall, which began immediately after the directive for the purpose of securing the camp to ward off bad elements was still incomplete.

The wall is actually not a big problem because it is 90 per cent complete. We are waiting for Nacada to bring equipment and the county to send counsellors and medical personnel, an official at the NYS camp said on condition of anonymity.

'JOHO TARGETED' But speaking in an interview in Mombasa, a director at Nacada, Ms Farida Rashid, said the programme would kick off soon.

Currently we have addicts who are being rehabilitated at the Coast General Hospital, but soon we will open the NYS centre and take in others as planned, she said.

Last week, both Mr Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto reiterated their determination to arrest drug dealers.

But this degenerated into a war of words with Governor Hassan Joho, who claimed that he was being targeted.

The governor on Tuesday said the two leaders were not honest in the fight against drug lords, maintaining that the government was bent on derailing his political career in the pretext of fighting drugs in Mombasa.

He claimed that during the runup to the 2013 General Election, the same narrative was built up, with the view of discrediting him as a leader.

But even as the war of words intensified, those affected have appealed to authorities to come to their aid.

We were told we would be rehabilitated since last year but this is empty talk. We are still suffering. It is not that we like this life but there seems to be nobody to help us, Fahim Ali, a drug user in Frere Town, Kisauni, one of the hardest hit areas, said.

Ms Neema Said, who has been using drugs for more than 10 years, said politicising the matter had made matters worse, adding that those who were interested in being rehabilitated are back in the dens.

Yesterday, members of the civil society added their voice on the matter calling for a sober debate on fight against drug trafficking.

We are doubtful the government will measure up to the task and eradicate the drug menace. We will wait to see if the commitment will go beyond the 2017 election, Suba Churchill, Convener of Civil Society Reference Group, said in Mombasa.

Mr Shahbal said that a senior ODM official was a beneficiary of proceeds from the sale of drugs.

Two Seychelles nationals and two South Africans were arrested.

Trump's initial decree fell afoul of the law.

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Rights agency calls for sober talk in war on drugs - Daily Nation

In a speech before law enforcement leaders this week, President Trump vowed to be ruthless in the fight against drugs that are poisoning our people. Trump's comments represent a sharp departure from the Obama administration, which publicly disavowedthe harsh anti-drug rhetoric of previous decades in an effort to emphasize treatment of drug users overpunishment.

We're going to stop the drugs from pouring in, Trump told the assembled members of the Major Cities Chiefs Association on Wednesday. We're going to stop those drugs from poisoning our youth, from poisoning our people. We're going to be ruthless in that fight. We have no choice. And we're going to take that fight to the drug cartels and work to liberate our communities from their terrible grip of violence.

[In executive actions, President Trump vows crackdown on violent crime. Is America as unsafe as he thinks?]

Aside from the cartels, Trump did not elaborate on who would be at the receiving end of that ruthlessness. In a campaign speech in New Hampshire last October, Trump outlined the drug control policies he supported, including expanded treatment options for drug users and better access to anti-overdose drugs.

He also called for increasing mandatory minimum prison sentences for the most seriousdrug offenders, aggressive prosecution of drug traffickers, and cracking down on shipping loopholes that he said allowed countries such as China to send dangerous drugs to the United States via the Postal Service.

In that speech, Trump also criticized the Obama administration for commuting the sentences of record numbers of high level drug traffickers, many of them kingpins. He said continuing that strategy would amount to turning our streets back over to gangs, drug cartels, and armed career criminals.

This rhetoric is dangerous, disturbing, and dishonest, Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said in astatement. History has taught us that cracking down on drugs and building walls will not stop the supply or use of drugs. It mostly causes the death and destruction of innocent lives.

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Nearly 80 percent of Americans favor eliminating mandatory minimum drug sentences like the ones Trump called for expanding.

A 2014 Pew Research Center survey showed that Americans strongly prefer treating drug usersoverincarcerating them, 3 to 1. But federal policy has been slow to reflect that preference.

In the past decade, federal focushas shiftedsomewhatfrom supply-side anti-drug policies seizing drug shipments, incarcerating dealers and arresting drug users toward a more demand-side approach that uses substance abuse treatment and prevention programs to stop people from using or becoming addicted to drugs in the first place.

Ruthlessness is a great virtue for a gangster or a warlord, said drug policy expert Mark Kleiman of New York University. Not so useful for the leader of a republic.

Many public health experts agree that the war on drugs was a failure.The thinking behind supply-side drug policies is that by reducing the supply of drugs they become more expensive, and therefore less likely to be used and abused. But a 2013 study in the British Medical Journal found that since 1990, drug prices have decreased while drug purity has increased, making it easier and more affordable than ever to get high.

These findings suggest that expanding efforts at controlling the global illegal drug market through law enforcement are failing, the authors conclude.

From 1991through 2001, when many of these supply-side policies were in full force, the rate of illicit drug use among American teenagers increased sharply. Over the same period, the rate of teen cigarette use fell slightly, and the rate of underage alcohol consumption dropped sharply.

From a public health standpoint, theprimary difference between illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco is that the latter two substances are legal for adult use.

A number ofexperts believe supply-side drug policies can be effective if used judiciously and in conjunction with other policies.

We overlearned the lesson that supply control doesn't work and failed to apply it to prescription opioids when we should have, Jonathan Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon University said in an interview. He said he believes this contributed to the federal government's inadequate response to pill mills and other criminal excesses in the supply of prescription opioids.

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In Trump's 'ruthless' vow, experts see a return to the days of the drug war - Washington Post

Friday February 10 2017

Mombasa gubernatorial aspirant Suleiman Shahbal addresses the press at Jubilee Party's office in Nyali on February 9, 2017. He wants the war on drugs to be intensified. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Businessman Suleiman Shahbal told Governor Hassan Joho to stop politicising the war on drugs.

He on Thursday said 6,725 people had died due to the narcotics in Mombasa in the last two years.

Mr Shahbal, the Jubilee candidate for the governors seat, said 96,752 people at the Coast were hooked to drugs.

Among them are 40,000 students aged between 12 and 17 years.

He was quoting a report on narcotics by the National Authority for Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse and US anti-narcotics agency.

Some of his family members are among those who had died due to the drugs, he said.

At least 60 well-known drug lords were on the loose in the country.

Mombasa is gradually turning into another Colombia with militia gangs, armed youths and criminals moving around. Narcotics is driving virtually every sector in Mombasa, he said at the Jubilee offices in Nyali.

Escobar was a very popular person in Colombia at first. He built schools, hospitals and seemed to be the defender of the peoples welfare and their champion.

"But what became of him later? He became one of the biggest drug barons in the world. This is what is happening in Mombasa.

He was referring to Pablo Escobar the head of the notorious Medellin cartel and one of the worlds most wanted fugitives who was killed by Colombian security forces during a shootout in 1993.

The politician said nobody had linked Mr Joho to drug trafficking.

Why does Governor Joho get so worked up about drugs? Nobody has linked him to the drugs trade. What we have linked him with is fake degrees and everybody knows that he has no degree and cannot get one. Let him go back to school, he said.

Mr Shahbal said that a senior ODM official was a beneficiary of proceeds from the sale of drugs.

He declined to name the official, only saying it is obvious.

If elected governor, Mr Shahbal would push the national government to introduce tough laws such as those in Malaysia and US where anybody involved in the illegal trade was hanged and all proceeds accrued from the trade confiscated by the State, he said.

I will push to make the drug trade a capital offence with zero returns. In the county, we will sensitise grassroots citizens and empower them to arrest any user and hand them over to the police, he said.

Governor Joho on Monday accused the Jubilee Government of plotting to end his political career by linking him to drug trafficking.

If Uhuru and Ruto have evidence I am involved in the trade or anybody else for that matter, why dont they arrest them? Mr Joho said.

Separately, Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar accused the governor of criticising the Jubilee government for its poor development record yet he had achieved nothing for the people who elected him.

If you are fighting someone you must ensure that you are accountable. Are you responsible? If (Mr) Uhuru is giving his people tenders then you should not give your relatives tenders, Mr Omar said.

Mr Omar accused Mr Johos government of boasting that it was an efficient revenue collector, saying that was no reason to be proud.

If you hear a country is taking a lot of revenue from its people then that is a country governed by exploitation.

"There is no pride in Mombasa County being the most expensive in terms of doing business, he said in Kizingo.

He said this when he flagged off a caravan to mobilise voters to register.

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Cabinet approves spending of Sh100 billion to increase salaries of all public servants.

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Shahbal to introduce tough laws to curb drug abuse - Daily Nation

PALMA

CEBU CITYPresident Rodrigo Duterte just cant silence bishops and priests.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma on Thursday said Catholic Church leaders would continue to speak out and oppose the administrations bloody war on drugs as well as plans to bring back the death penalty even if they continued to be lambasted by the countrys top executive.

So what? We are not protecting our image. Our primary concern is to proclaim the truth and to help discern what is good for the people and the community, he said in an interview after celebrating Mass to welcome the international centennial image of Our Lady of Fatima at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.

Im sure its not just the President who will castigate the Church. There are other people who will speak ill about us. But in the end, we just cant remain silent out of fear of being criticized. That is not the right way, he added.

President Duterte has been relentless in his criticisms of Catholic Church leaders who have been vocal in condemning the extrajudicial killings that had attended the administrations crackdown on the narcotics trade.

Palma clarified that bishops and priests fully support the Presidents war on illegal drugs but abhor means to end human life.

Palma said Catholic Church leaders have always kept communication lines with the President opened to bridge the gap between the two institutions.

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Palma: Church leaders will continue to oppose bloody war on drugs ... - Inquirer.net

Imagine that a disease broke out, the flu for instance, and killed 50,000 Americans in just one year. You would probably be concerned, right? Wouldn't you agree that something must be done, to help those who are sick and prevent any future infection? That would be the most sensible response. Heres the problem that deadly disease that I just mentioned is not hypothetical.

America has a drug problem and it has become disturbingly deadly. Last year, for the first time, drug overdose accounted for more deaths in the United States than fatal car accidents. To put it bluntly, that is a lot of casualties almost one every 19 minutes to be exact. So yes, this is a very real and infectious disease. An epidemic, you could say, that is creeping into households of all income levels and tearing families apart in both urban and suburban settings.

Alright, so this overdose epidemic is real, we know that much. Now comes the panic and the urgency to help, right? Wrong. I say that because this is not a new problem. Despite recent spikes in drug overdose, drug addiction has plagued America for quite some time. Over 40 years ago, for example, former President Ronald Reagan declared a war on drugs in an attempt to address this problem. Today, we are still fighting and clearly losing that war.Death by overdose was actually more prominent in 2016 than any year prior. Clearly, something is not working. Despite continuous funding and increased awareness, the drug problem in America is as widespread as ever.

So why have the efforts of countless presidents and other political leaders not been enough to end, or even control, this overdose epidemic? The answer is quite simple: America is obsessed with quick-fix solutions to complex problems. Overweight? Dont change your diet, just get surgery. Can't get your kids to focus? Dont increase their exercise and vitamin intake, just get them a prescription. Crashing economy? Dont restructure, just print more money. As you can see, there is a trend here.

America has adopted this culture that is notorious for ignoring the causes and treating the symptoms. As consumer health advocate Mike Adams said, For every problem that demands a mature, well-planned solution, there's a much more seductive quick-fix that completely ignores the problem but temporarily makes the symptoms go away. With that being said, America has certainly been seduced by the idea of a quick-fix solution. Through the media and advertisements, we are constantly bombarded with the misconception that there are fast and easy solutions to our most complex problems. As a result, we oftentimes take the easy way out, sweep our problems under the rug and fail to address our real issues. This is one reason why so many Americans have become addicted to drugs in the first place. Getting high, whether from a prescribed or an illicit drugs, is a quick, but only temporary, fix to our problems.

This quick-fix culture has not only fueled drug addiction in America but has simultaneously prevented us from fixing the complex problem. What does a quick-fix solution to the drug problem look like? Exactly what has been going on for the past 40 years. Poorly planned attacks that are as misguided as they are superficial. At first, in theory, these quick-fix solutions sound great. They are bold, convincing and promise to eradicate all drug use, but it should not have taken this long to realize that these solutions are hollow. The War on Drugs, for instance, placed policemen at the forefront of this battle against addiction. This may have sounded foolproof at the time seeing as there is a drug problem in America and drug use is often illegal. But by cracking down on drug dealers and users, we are being reactive rather than proactive. By the time the user is addicted, its too late, and the problem has already occurred. That is why the War on Drugs was nothing more than an attempt to cover up the symptoms of drug addiction. Consequently, the underlying problems that actually fuel drug addiction were ignored and therefore left to became worse.

Drug addiction is a problem that, demands a mature, well-planned solution. This solution is not going to be some glamorous war. Its going to be a long, slow but steady battle. We need leaders who, "have the courage to address core solutions rather than settling for short-term symptom reductions. We wont fix this problem with smooth rhetoric and bold executive orders, but with local and realistic efforts. These efforts will involve law enforcement reform, cooperation from health care providers and educators and an end to the stigma against drug addicts none of which are quick-fixes.

Luke Dermody is a School of Arts and Sciences junior majoring in political science and criminal justice with a minor in economics. His column, "Under the Radar," runs on alternate Fridays.

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DERMODY: War on Drugs requires more than 'quick-fix' | The Daily ... - RU Daily Targum

BANGKOK A United Nations human rights investigator says there are signs of mounting opposition within the Philippines to President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, with police operations on hold and the Church getting critical of the campaign.

Agnes Callamard, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, however said the thousands of killings in the campaign had given rise to a sense of impunity, which could lead to increased lawlessness and violence.

More than 7,600 people, mostly drug users and small-time dealers, have been killed since Duterte took office on June 30, about a third of them in police operations. Callamard said she knew of only four court cases seeking justice for the victims.

"The difference between the number of reported killings and the number of court cases is unbelievable," she told Reuters in Bangkok. "It's very unusual for that degree of impunity to remain restricted to one kind of crime or one type of community."

Spokesmen for Duterte could not immediately be reached for comment.

The war on drugs has been a signature policy of Duterte, who remains popular in opinion polls.

But Callamard, a human rights expert from France who took up the U.N. post in August, said opposition to the drug war was increasing and had reached a "tipping point."

"There is an increasing awareness on the part of the Filipino people that the war on drugs could hurt them," she said. "The surveys that are being done indicate support for the president...but critique the war on drugs."

One of the Philippines' top polling agencies, Social Weather Stations, said after a survey of 1,500 people in early December that most were satisfied with Duterte's rule. But 78 percent said they were worried that they or someone they knew would be a victim of an extra-judicial killing.

In a series of reports last year, Reuters showed that the police had a 97-percent kill rate in their drug operations, the strongest proof yet that police were summarily shooting drug suspects.

Both the government and police have strenuously denied that extra-judicial killings have taken place.

The Church in the Philippines, Asia's largest Catholic nation, had been a muted critic of the campaign but slammed it earlier this month for creating a "reign of terror" among the poor.

The bloodshed had also generated growing unease and criticism from Philippine civil society groups and media, Callamard said.

Her remarks come as Duterte and his police chief Ronald Dela Rosa face intense criticism for the October kidnap and killing of a South Korean businessmen by anti-narcotics officers inside national police headquarters.

He was arrested for drug offences that his wife said was an official cover for kidnap for ransom.

The case, which came to light in January, prompted dela Rosa to announce the suspension of anti-drug operations to purge the police force of what he termed "rogue cops." Duterte has however vowed to maintain his anti-drugs campaign until his term ends in 2022.

Callamard said real opposition to the drugs war would come from within the Philippines rather than international bodies such as the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In October, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda warned the Hague-based tribunal could prosecute if the killings were "committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population."

Duterte has threatened to withdraw from the ICC, calling it "useless," and said in a November speech: "You scare me that you will jail me? International Criminal Court? Bullshit."

(Reporting by Andrew R.C. Marshall, Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

TOKYO Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will propose new cabinet level U.S.-Japan talks on trade, security and macroeconomic issues, including currencies, when he meets U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, a Japanese government official involved in planning the summit said.

SEOUL Lawyers for South Korean President Park Geun-hye have rejected a plan by a special prosecutor investigating a graft scandal to question her, citing a media leak, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said on Thursday.

STOCKHOLM Eight countries have joined an initiative to raise millions of dollars to replace shortfalls caused by President Donald Trump's ban on U.S.-funded groups around the world providing information on abortion, Sweden's deputy prime minister said.

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Increasing opposition in Philippines to war on drugs: UN official - Reuters

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Trump Watch: Emboldened cops and border patrol agents, a more 'ruthless' war on drugs, and threats against the ... - Washington Post