Now that eliminating sexual harassment is a top priority for the National Park Service, Director Jonathan Jarvis is laying out the steps he is taking to create a “zero tolerance” culture.
Jarvis said that managers must investigate allegations of harassment and take disciplinary action if they are found to be true – steps that were not taken in two high-profile cases of sexual misconduct at the Grand Canyon and Cape Canaveral National Seashore, where investigators found evidence of a pattern that went unaddressed for years.
A scathing report on the Grand Canyon early this year by the Interior Inspector General’s office revealed that a top official ignored formal complaints from women on river trips who said they were propositioned, bullied and subjected to retaliation when they refused unwanted advances from men.
At Canaveral, the inspector general found that multiple female employees at the Central Florida park have been subjected to sexual harassment, and men and women alike to a hostile workplace for at least five years.
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey on Monday issued warrants for the detention of 42 journalists suspected of links to the alleged organizers of a failed military uprising, intensifying concerns that a sweeping crackdown on alleged coup plotters could target media for any news coverage critical of the government.
While the Turkish government said it is investigating the journalists for possible criminal conduct rather than their reporting, critics warned that a state of emergency imposed after the July 15 coup attempt poses a threat to freedom of expression.
More than 13,000 people in the military, judiciary and other institutions have been detained since the uprising, which killed about 290 people. In the latest purge, Turkish Airlines, the national carrier, said it has terminated the contracts of 221 employees. It said the contracts were ended for problems including conduct contrary to the national interest, such as “sponsoring” the movement of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of fomenting the insurrection.
The number of new Zika infections in Colombia is falling so fast that government health officials Monday declared an end to the outbreak, saying the epidemic phase of the virus’s spread was over.
Nearly 100,000 Colombians have been diagnosed with Zika since the first cases were confirmed last October. But Colombian health officials say the number of new infections in their country is falling by more than 600 a week, meaning that the virus has moved into an “endemic” phase in which it continues to circulate but is no longer spreading pervasively.
Only Brazil, the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, has reported more cases, but Colombia’s total is far below the projected 700,000 infections that health officials were bracing for earlier this year.
The announcement is especially significant because Colombia has had a well-regarded and robust monitoring system in place to track the epidemic and its gravest health risks, including fetal birth defects and the potentially fatal neurological disorder known as Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Associated Press & Washington Post
