Mykola Mykolayevich Khrystotodorov (“Mykola”), his wife Oksana, and his daughter Viktoriya (collectively, “the Petitioners”) are citizens of the Ukraine who sought asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), based on persecution on account of their Baptist religion. The Immigration Judge (IJ) denied their applications and refused to reopen the proceedings for the submission of additional evidence. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissed their appeal, and the Petitioners seek judicial review. We granted a temporary stay of removal and of voluntary departure, and now, having fully considered the claims, we deny the petition for review and dissolve the temporary stay order.
I.
Mykola and his family entered the United States in early December 1999 as non-immigrant visitors with permission to remain in this country until January 9, 2000. They remained longer than authorized, and removal proceedings commenced on June 14, 2001. They admitted the allegations, conceded removability, and filed an application for asylum, withholding of relief, and relief under the CAT, asserting that they had suffered persecution in the Ukraine on the basis of their Baptist religion and that they have a well-founded fear of persecution on this basis if they are returned to the Ukraine. At a hearing before the IJ on October 30, 2002, Mykola testified that he and his family are citizens of the Ukraine and lived in the city of *779 Izmayil. They became Baptists in 1996, and he asserted that as a result of their faith, they suffered persecution by members of the Ukranian National Assembly-Ukranian National Self Defence (UNA-UNSO), whom he described as hit-men for the ruling National Democratic Party. Mykola recounted four principal incidents.
First, in August 1998, his sister was attacked on account of her faith by classmates who were members of UNA-UNSO. Mykola was a crew member on a ship and away at sea at the time. Although the incident was reported to police, they took no action. Second, in September 1998, Mykola was walking in the market with his wife, sister, and brother-in-law when they were attacked by four members of UNAUNSO, one of whom had attacked his sister the previous month. They punched Mykola in the face, and he spent the night and the next day in bed, but the injury did not require significant medical treatment. Because the police had not responded to his sister’s complaint the previous month, Mykola complained to the mayor about the incident. Mykola wrote two letters to the mayor with no meaningful response.
Third, Mykola described an incident at a rally on October 8, 1998. He and some other individuals who had been beaten by UNA-UNSO members decided to organize a rally to protest this abuse. They garnered support from local churches and other religious minorities, including Baptists, Jews, and Pentacostals, and a group of 150 to 200 people gathered across the street from the mayor’s office in protest. Myko-la said that they were interrupted when attacked by UNA-UNSO hit-men who arrived in a bus carrying batons and yelling, “Beat the Baptists!” (Petitioners’
The fourth incident occurred on November 20, 1998. He returned home to find red paint on his gate warning him to get out of the Ukraine, and the family dog had been beaten to death. Mykola referenced other threats as well and some vandalism to his home. He and his wife and child left the Ukraine for the United States in December 1999. His parents still live in Izmayil. Mykola said his parents have had some windows broken in their house and that his mother had been fired from her job.
At the close of the October 30, 2002, hearing, the IJ indicated that further documentation was needed and continued the hearing, giving the parties an opportunity to obtain documentation of the October 1998 rally at Izmayil and Mykola’s injuries. (See R. at 633.) On November 14, 2003, the IJ heard further evidence and again continued the hearing, noting that the medical records were in conflict (id. at 722) and that there was no documentation to support a conclusion that the UNA-UNSO was tied to the government (id. at 719-20). The IJ continued the hearing yet again, pointedly informing Mykola that he was being given another “opportunity to dig around some more” to find documents to help his case. (Id. at 724.)
Following the final hearing in March 2004, after nearly 18 months of continued hearings and ample opportunity to submit exhibits, the IJ expressed unresolved credibility concerns with the case and con-
*780
eluded that the claims lacked adequate corroboration. The background country information submitted was plentiful, but it made no mention of the October 1998 rally or of any serious incident of this sort, although more minor isolated incidents involving some discrimination, loss of jobs, and verbal harassment were reported. The IJ stated he was “at a loss to try to understand why the respondent has no corroborating evidence of such a major incident.” (Petitioners’
Mykola offered some evidence of receiving medical treatment after the October 1998 incident to corroborate his claim. A note from the Danube Basin Hospital dated January 29, 2000, and signed by two doctors, certified that Mykola had been a patient at the hospital from October 8, 1998, to October 17, 1998, but the State Department’s initial inquiry had found no records of his treatment at the Danube Basin Hospital. Also, the credibility of the hospital note was challenged with a letter from the director of the hospital, stating that Mykola did not apply for medical assistance at the hospital and that the signatures on the certificate he offered were not genuine. No other medical records verified his hospitalization, and he said that his family was recently told his records had been lost. One document indicates that Mykola received outpatient stitches at a dental clinic for a cut wound on his lower lip in October 1998.
The IJ lamented the lack of corroboration, noting that if there had been undisputed medical evidence of a nine-day hospital stay clearly showing he was the victim of a mob attack by political extremists, “that would go a long way to support the respondent’s claim. Unfortunately, the records don’t go that far.” {Id. at 23.) The IJ also noted that if there had been “satisfactory background documentation coupled with individualized information from the respondent that would corroborate that he actually was targeted by extremist groups in Izmayil, the Court would grant the case.” {Id. at 24.) Because the IJ found a “significant variance” between Mykola’s testimony and the information contained in the country background reports {id. at 25), and because of the lack of evidence corroborating Mykola’s testimony, the IJ denied the applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief and granted voluntary departure.
Approximately two weeks after the denial, the petitioners filed a motion to reopen the proceedings, offering evidence of a local news article reporting the October 8, 1998, rally incident. The article reported that members of UNA-UNSO had appeared on the scene and “trampled the peacefully [ ] gathered Christians who were carrying signs praising God.” (Petitioners’ App. at 42.) The article reported that the police were “[ljate as usual,” that they had not acted to avoid such conflicts, and that all of the seriously injured people were treated at municipal hospitals. {Id.) Mykola explained that his father had recently obtained the article from a fellow church member, and that he had not known earlier of this article’s existence. The IJ denied the motion to reopen, concluding that the article was discoverable earlier and was therefore not “new evidence.” The IJ also noted that it was not sufficient corroborating evidence to justify reopening the case.
*781
Before the BIA, the Petitioners argued it was unfair for the IJ to indicate he would have granted the application if they had presented corroborating evidence of the 1998 demonstration and then to refuse to reopen the proceedings when presented with the evidence. The BIA stated that the Petitioners had not accurately characterized the IJ’s decision and dismissed the appeal for essentially the same reasons as the IJ, concluding that there was “no clear error in the [IJ’s] determination that the evidence was inconclusive due to conflicting documents.” (Petitioners’
II.
Where the BIA has adopted the IJ’s opinion and added reasoning and analysis of its own, we review both decisions.
See Krasnopivtsev v. Ashcroft,
The Attorney General has discretion to grant asylum to a refugee, 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1)(A), and a refugee is a person unable or unwilling to return home “because of persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion,”
id.
§ 1101(a)(42)(A).
See Sow v. Mukasey,
A request
for
withholding of removal is automatically included in an application for asylum. 8 C.F.R. § 1208.3(b). Withholding of removal is proper if the Attorney General decides that the applicant’s life or freedom would be threatened in his home country because of his race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(A). This court has characterized the standard of proof for withholding of removal as more stringent than asylum because it requires a showing of “a clear probability” that the applicant will face persecution, rather than a well-founded fear.
Eta-Ndu,
Relief under the CAT requires the applicant to demonstrate “ ‘that it is more likely than not that he or she would be tortured if returned to the proposed country of removal.’ ”
Malonga v. Mukasey,
III.
The Petitioners challenge the IJ’s findings regarding credibility and the need for additional corroborating evidence. To establish eligibility for asylum or withholding of removal, a petitioner must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution that is “both subjectively genuine and objectively reasonable,”
Eta-Ndu,
As to the first and second concerns, the IJ found that the significant variance between Mykola’s testimony of violence and the country background reports, which did not mention similar violence against people similarly situated with the Petitioners, required further corroboration. The record includes background information that details some isolated acts of discrimination against Baptists, Evangelical Christians and Jews, including loss of jobs or verbal harassment but not violence, and as a whole, the reports indicate that the Baptist religion is flourishing in the Ukraine. Glaringly absent from the country reports, as well as the religious-based reports submitted, is any mention of the October 1998 rally, a significant event as described by Mykola, although more minor isolated incidents were reported.
1
*783
The background reports offered no corroboration of Mykola’s assertion that the UNA-UNSO is supported by the controlling government. The reports identify the UNA-UNSO as a fascist organization that engages in threatening and harassing behavior, but there is no indication that the government condones their harassment or tolerates violence by the group.
See Menjivar v. Gonzales,
The IJ correctly considered the general country conditions as relevant to assessing Mykola’s credibility because “an uncorroborated story that is at odds with what is known about country conditions is less likely to be accurate than one that is consistent with country conditions.”
Kondakova v. Ashcroft,
As to the third concern articulated by the IJ — the rehabilitation of the medical records — again, substantial evidence supports the IJ’s decision to require corroborating evidence. Contrary to the Petitioners’ assertion, the IJ did not ignore relevant evidence but expressed concern over the conflicts in the evidence. A statement from the director of the Danube Basin Hospital challenged the validity of the signatures on the statement that Mykola offered as certifying his nine-day hospital stay. The only other relevant medical evidence was a dental clinic record describing out-patient stitches for facial injuries on October 8, 1998, as a result of an “altercation with a man.” (R. at 927.) The stitches were removed on October 17, 1998. A note certifies that Mykola was brought to the dental clinic at the direction of the hospital (Petitioners’ App. at 47), but as the IJ noted, the dental record indicates out-patient treatment and does not corroborate Mykola’s testimony of a nine-day hospital stay resulting
*784
from injuries sustained at the rally on October 8, 1998. The Petitioners’ explanation that corroboration was not plausible because the hospital had recently informed them that Mykola’s records had been lost is unavailing. The IJ discounted this explanation, noting that, not only did they successfully obtain the dental record from 1998, they also obtained evidence of Mykola’s routine merchant marine seaman’s checkups at the Danube Basin Hospital since 1991, yet there was no record of the nine-day hospital stay. The Petitioners would have this court give more weight to the dental record and ignore the conflicting aspects of the alleged hospital stay, but we are not at liberty to reweigh the evidence. See
Eta-Ndu,
The Petitioners argue generally that Mykola’s testimony alone is sufficient to sustain his burden of proof without further corroboration because the IJ did not identify inconsistencies within that testimony. Although our cases often cite to omissions, material inconsistencies, and unexplained discrepancies between the petitioner’s own oral and written statements as supporting adverse credibility determinations or the need for additional corroboration,
see Kondakova,
Because the Petitioners failed to establish eligibility for asylum, they necessarily cannot meet the more rigorous standard of proof for withholding of removal.
Sow,
Finally, the Petitioners argue that the IJ’s refusal to reopen the proceedings to admit “new evidence” violated established precedent, as well as their due
*785
process rights. A motion to reopen may be granted on the basis of new facts that were material and not previously discoverable. 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7);
see also
8 C.F.R. § 1003.23(b)(3). This requires a showing that the new evidence “could not by the exercise of due diligence have been discovered earlier.”
Fongwo v. Gonzales,
The IJ denied the Petitioners’ motion to reopen concluding that the evidence they sought to admit — the local newspaper article about a rally in October 1998 — was not “new evidence” because it was available well before the hearing. It was published on October 15, 1998, and could have been discovered earlier. Mykola offered the explanation that he did not know of its existence because his father had been searching at the library for coverage in the prominent papers, and this article was published in a small local paper and given to his father after he asked church members for help. The IJ noted that the fact that the article was so readily produced when Mykola’s father contacted church members (within approximately two weeks after the hearing) indicated it could have been discovered earlier. The BIA agreed with the IJ that the Petitioners’ explanation for not finding this document earlier was unpersuasive and that in any event, the document provided only one piece of corroborating evidence in a record lacking corroboration in three critical areas.
We are not unsympathetic to the real difficulties a petitioner may face in obtaining corroboration for asylum and related claims, see Onsongo,
To the extent the Petitioners raise a due process claim, they are “simply cloaking an abuse of discretion argument in constitutional garb.”
Sabhari v. Mukasey,
Accordingly, we deny the petition for judicial review and vacate the temporary stay order previously entered.
Notes
. Because the IJ did not have the local news article before him when denying the claims for asylum and related relief, we will not consider it when reviewing the IJ’s denial of relief.
See Alanwoko v. Mukasey,
. The REAL ID Act of 2005, Pub.L. 109-13, 119 Stat. 302, now provides specific criteria applicable to an IJ's credibility determination, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (b)( 1 )(B) (iii) (2006); 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(4)(C) (2006); and 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(C) (2006). Those provisions, however, do not govern this case because they are applicable only in cases filed after May 11, 2005.
See Chen
v.
Mukasey,