Month: October 2019

A woman who worked at NBC News claimed that Matt Lauer raped her at a hotel while on assignment for the Sochi Olympics, an encounter the former "Today" show host claimed was consensual. The claim outlined by Brooke Nevils in Ronan Farrow's book, "Catch and Kill," puts a name and details behind the event that led to Lauer's firing by NBC in 2017. It also provoked the first public response from Lauer, who said in a defiant and graphic letter made public by his lawyer that "my silence was a mistake." Variety first reported Nevils' charges after obtaining a copy of Farrow's book. The Associated Press typically does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault, unless they step forward publicly as Nevils has done. Nevils, who was working for Meredith…

The United States has taken custody of two Islamic State prisoners accused of taking part in beheading American journalists in 2014, The Washington Post reports. The two men were taken from a Kurdish-run prison in northern Syria, where Kurdish forces can no longer guarantee they can keep detaining the prisoners after the Turkish military incursion. The Post said the two are Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh. They were allegedly part of a quartet of British-born Islamic militants who their hostages dubbed "The Beatles." One U.S. official told the Post the two have been taken to Iraq, while another simply said they are in U.S. military custody but would not say where they are. "The Beatles" were led by an IS militant named Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed "Jihadi John." Emwazi beheaded…

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Wednesday announced a cabinet reshuffle, declared three days of national mourning and said those who shot protesters would be punished as he sought to quell anti-government unrest that has roiled Iraq for days. Authorities fear that violence, which has killed more than 110 people, mostly protesters angry at government corruption, could spiral, leading war-weary Iraq towards more civil strife. Protests erupted in Baghdad last week and soon spread to southern cities. Abdul Mahdi's government has sought to address demonstrators' grievances. However, a package of reforms announced by the government — including more job opportunities, subsidies and housing — is unlikely to satisfy Iraqis; nor is a cabinet reshuffle, likely to feature many of the same faces despised by protesters as an out-of-touch political…

A U.S. Secret Service dog that prevented a potential attack on President Barack Obama in the White House in 2014 has been given the rare honor of an Order of Merit from a British charity, the first foreign animal to receive the award. Hurricane, a Belgian Malinois, was a highly trained member of the Secret Service and had previously been part of a victorious U.S. Canine Olympic team. In October 2014, when Obama and his family were home at the White House, an intruder scaled the fence and managed to fight off the first canine team deployed to intercept him. Hurricane and his handler, Special Operations Officer Marshall Mirarchi, were the backup team that night. “The second he got target lock, I sent him," Mirarchi said. "He weaved through our…

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has condemned deadly violence during protests in Iraq and called on the country's government to "exercise maximum restraint," the State Department said Tuesday. In a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi, Pompeo "condemned the recent violence in Iraq and noted that those who violated human rights should be held accountable," the department said in a statement. "The secretary lamented the tragic loss of life over the past few days and urged the Iraqi government to exercise maximum restraint. "Pompeo reiterated that peaceful public demonstrations are a fundamental element of all democracies, and emphasized that there is no place for violence in demonstrations, either by security forces or protestors." Demonstrations in Iraq began with demands for an end to rampant corruption and chronic…

A Philadelphia jury on Tuesday awarded $8 billion in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson and one if its subsidiaries over a drug the companies made that the plaintiff's attorneys say is linked to the abnormal growth of female breast tissue in boys. Johnson and Johnson immediately denounced the award after the jury's decision in the Court of Common pleas, saying it's "excessive and unfounded" and vowing immediate action to overturn it. The antipsychotic drug Risperdal is at the center of the lawsuit, with the plaintiff's attorneys arguing it's linked to abnormal growth of female breast tissue in boys, an incurable condition known as gynecomastia. Johnson & Johnson used an organized scheme to make billions of dollars while illegally marketing and promoting the drug, attorneys Tom Kline and Jason Itkin…

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders defended President Donald Trump's use of Twitter to get his message out and said Tuesday that the U.S. hopes that unrest in Hong Kong can be handled “both internally and peacefully.” Speaking at a forum in Taiwan, Sanders said it is “always positive to have such great access to the president and what his thinking is.” “I think the president has done a tremendous job, often going around the media and going directly to the American people, letting them know where he stands on a particular issue,” said Sanders, who no longer holds any position in Trump's administration. Since leaving the White House in June, Sanders — one of Trump's most ardent defenders — has been hired by Fox News to provide political…

The White House announced Sunday that U.S. troops will pull out of northern Syria as Turkey moves forward with a military offensive. The decision has led to condemnations from Congress, clarification from the Pentagon and fear from local allies. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports. ...

The Sengwer, an indigenous hunter-gatherer community in western Kenya, presented a petition Monday morning to the government in Nairobi demanding the return and protection of what they call their ancestral lands. The community says it faces threats of eviction as Kenya's government takes over conservation of the country's forests and water supplies. Hundreds of members of the Sengwer, a community that lives in the Embobut forest, spent two days marching from their ancestral land in Kenya's North Rift Valley to Nairobi in hopes of meeting President Uhuru Kenyatta. Dressed in traditional regalia, they sang traditional songs as they arrived in Nairobi with the petition to the government. 85-year-old Moses Leleu took part in the march. Leleu says, “As a community, we are yet to be recognized as a Kenyan tribe.…

Steve Herman contributed to this report. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have issued subpoenas to the Pentagon and White House budget office as part of their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, requesting documents relating to Trump's decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine. Three Democratic committees Monday demanded Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Office and Budget and Management Acting Director Russell Vought turn over the documents by Oct.15. Democrats are investigating Trump's actions of pressing Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Part of the investigation includes examining whether or not Trump's decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine was tied to his request for a Ukrainian investigation into the Bidens. <!--[if IE 9]><![endif]--><!--[if IE 9]><![endif]-->2nd Whistleblower Adds to Impeachment Peril at…

The U.N. high commissioner for refugees is calling for urgent action to resolve the global forced displacement crisis as increasing numbers of people flee conflict, natural disasters and grinding poverty. Filippo Grandi was speaking at the opening of UNHCR’s annual weeklong refugee conference. Forced displacement has reached record highs. In recent years, nearly 71 million people have been uprooted from their homes. More than one-third are refugees; the rest are displaced within their own countries. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says the issue of forced displacement is far more complex now than in 1951. That was when the United Nations adopted the Refugee Convention to protect and assist millions of refugees who survived the horrors of World War II.   <!--[if IE 9]><![endif]--><!--[if IE 9]><![endif]-->India, Bangladesh Stress Safe…

The U.N. high commissioner for refugees is calling for urgent action to resolve the global forced displacement crisis as increasing numbers of people flee conflict, natural disasters and grinding poverty. In recent years, nearly 71 million people have been uprooted from their homes. More than one-third are refugees; the rest are displaced within their own countries. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the issue of forced displacement is far more complex now than in 1951, when the United Nations adopted the Refugee Convention to protect and assist millions of refugees who survived the horrors of World War II.   Grandi, speaking at the UNHCR’s annual weeklong refugee conference, said the world now is faced with what he calls mixed flows of refugees and migrants. The commissioner also said that putting…

French and German attempts to end the conflict in east Ukraine risk increasing tensions that were already rising in the European Union over how to handle Russia and which could complicate peace efforts. Progress at talks between Russian and Ukrainian envoys have raised hopes of convening the first international summit in three years on ending the fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces. But some EU states, while welcoming a summit that would involve France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, are worried by growing talk that the EU might partially lift sanctions imposed on Moscow since its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. EU divisions over how to deal with Moscow have been growing over overtures to the Kremlin in recent months, led by Paris. Comments by French President…

Britain's Boris Johnson urged French President Emanuel Macron on Sunday to "push forward" to secure a Brexit deal and told him  the EU should not be lured into the mistaken belief that the U.K. would stay in the EU after Oct.31, the prime minister's office said. Johnson discussed his Brexit proposal, which has been widely rebuffed in Brussels, with Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Sunday. "This is the chance to get a deal done: a deal that is backed by parliamentarians and a deal which involves compromise on all sides," a senior Number 10 source said on Sunday. "The U.K. has made a big, important offer but it's time for the Commission to show a willingness to compromise too. If not the UK will leave with no…

Rip Taylor, the madcap mustached comedian with a fondness for confetti-throwing who became a television game show mainstay in the 1970s, has died. He was 84. Taylor died Sunday in Beverly Hills, California, publicist Harlan Boll said. The man who would become known worldwide as Rip did not have a direct line into show business. He was born Charles Elmer Taylor Jr. in Washington, D.C., to a waitress and a musician and first worked as a congressional page before serving in the Army during the Korean War, where he started performing standup. His ascent began with spots on "The Ed Sullivan Show," where he was known as the "crying comedian." The moniker pre-dated his television stints, however, and went back to his time in the Catskills. "I sat on a…

A homeless man wielding a long metal bar rampaged through New York City’s Chinatown early Saturday attacking other homeless people who were sleeping, killing four and leaving a fifth with serious injuries, police said. Police recovered the weapon, which was still in the suspect’s hands when he was arrested, officials said. “The motive appears to be, right now, just random attacks,” Chief of Manhattan South Detectives Michael Baldassano said, adding there was no evidence yet that the victims were “targeted by race, age, anything of that nature.” Police officers escort Randy Rodriguez Santos from the 5th Precinct to a vehicle bound for a hospital for evidence collection, Oct. 5, 2019, in New York. Randy Rodriguez Santos was taken into police custody early Saturday. Police say he has been arrested at…

A witness in the murder trial of a white Dallas police officer who fatally shot her black neighbor has been killed in a shooting, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing authorities. The newspaper reported that authorities said Joshua Brown, who lived in the same apartment complex as Amber Guyger and Botham Jean, was shot and killed Friday in Dallas. Guyger was still in her police uniform after a long shift when, according to her trial testimony, she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own one floor below and shot him after pushing open his unlocked door and thinking he was a burglar. Brown, 28, testified in Guyger’s trial about the September 2018 night that Jean was killed, saying he was in a hallway on the fourth floor, where he and Jean…

Caviar, a food associated with luxury, is being produced for the first time in Madagascar. The product makes consumers in faraway France happy, and provides hundreds of jobs in this African country.  VOA's Jim Randle has our story.   ...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday defended the Trump administration's approach to Ukraine that is at the center of an impeachment inquiry. He rejected allegations it was at best inappropriate or at worst an illegal abuse of power for which Congress should remove President Donald Trump from office. Pompeo maintained that the investigation the United States sought from Ukraine's government involved possible interference from Ukraine in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He did not speak to Trump's stated desire for Ukraine to specifically investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's and his son Hunter, which impeachment investigators are focused on since a whistleblower complaint surfaced last month. Pompeo criticized the impeachment inquiry as “clearly political” and said the actions of the State Department were aimed solely at improving relations…

U.S. President Donald Trump has asked for a substantial cut in the National Security Council staff, Bloomberg reported late on Friday, citing five people familiar with the plans. The step was described by some sources cited in the report as part of an effort from the White House to make its foreign policy arm leaner. FILE - National Security Adviser Robert C. O'Brien (R) talks with White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney during a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, Sept. 23, 2019. The request to do so was conveyed to officials in the agency by current White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien earlier this week, according to Bloomberg. The reductions at the agency, in…

A global education fund is providing tens of thousands of Sahelian children in crisis with a quality education, bringing hope to boys and girls who have known nothing but violence and sorrow in their young lives. Education Cannot Wait, a funding mechanism set up at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, globally is helping more than 1.4 million children in emergencies go back to school. More than 75 million children caught in conflict, natural disasters and other emergencies are being deprived of an education.  Children in the Sahel, a region just south of the Sahara Desert, are among the most vulnerable.  In Central Mali, armed conflict has forced the closure of more than 900 schools, depriving an estimated 280,000 children of an education. Director of the nonprofit Education Cannot Wait…

Wayne Lee contributed to this report. WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump, in his latest remarks explaining his requests to foreign governments to investigate his political opponents, is asserting he has a constitutional duty to fight corruption. "This is not about politics. This is about corruption. If you look and read our Constitution and many other things, I have an obligation to look at corruption," Trump said to reporters on Friday at the White House. FILE - House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff talks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 25, 2019. At the heart of the Democrats' impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives, which the opposition party controls, is what the intelligence committee's chairman, Adam Schiff, describes as "a damning call in which the President…

The office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights has harshly criticized Iraq's deadly crackdown on people protesting against corruption, lack of jobs and basic services, including electricity and clean water. At least 42 people reportedly have been killed in a series of demonstrations in Iraq this week. Hundreds have been injured and dozens detained.  The U.N. human rights agency says it considers Iraq's response to the peaceful demonstrations excessive and unjustified. It urges Iraqi authorities to talk with protestors, who it says have legitimate grievances that need to be heard. Spontaneous demonstrations have been taking place across the country this past week. U.N. human rights spokeswoman, Marta Hurtado, said most of the protestors are young and unemployed. She said they are demanding the government provide them with jobs…

VOA Connect Episode 90 -  Explore some old-time pastimes, from riding a steam locomotive, to watching a wingwalker take to the sky, and digging into the original Buffalo wings. Plus, see how one small town reinvented itself to become an artist's paradise ...

European cheese makers complained Thursday of being held "hostage" in a transatlantic trade battle that had nothing to do with them after the United States slapped 25% tariffs on the sector in retaliation for state aid to aerospace group Airbus. The dismayed reaction came a day after the World Trade Organization gave Washington the green light to slap punitive tariffs on a range of European products, including spirits and cheese, in punishment for illegal EU aircraft subsidies. FILE - An Airbus A350 takes off at the aircraft builder's headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, Sept. 27, 2019. "What is happening is absurd; we have to see if the American customers are willing to accept the price increase," said Giuseppe Ambrosi, president of Italian dairy association Assolatte. Earlier, the consortium that…

Google pledged Thursday to help train a quarter of a million people for technology jobs, adding its name to a White House initiative designed to get private companies to expand training opportunities for Americans. CEO Sundar Pichai announced the commitment during an appearance with White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump at El Centro community college in Dallas. Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump's daughter, oversees the administration's worker training efforts. Google is also expanding a program it developed to prepare people for entry-level jobs in information technology support in less than six months — no college degree or prior experience required, Pichai said. More than 85,000 students have enrolled in the course since its launch in January 2018. Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during a visit to El Centro College in…

Tanzania denied Thursday it was withholding information from the World Health Organization (WHO) on suspected cases of Ebola, saying it was not hiding any outbreak of the deadly disease in the country. “Ebola is known as a fast-spreading disease, whose impact can be felt globally. This is not a disease that the Tanzanian government can hide,” Tanzania health minister Ummy Mwalimu told journalists in commercial capital Dar es Salaam. “Reports suggesting that Tanzania has not been transparent about suspected cases of Ebola and is not sharing information with the WHO are false and should be ignored.” Last month WHO said Tanzania had refused to provide detailed information on suspected Ebola cases. Map of Tanzania showing cities and a refugee camp. Travel advisories The organization said it was made aware Sept.…

A somber commemoration marking the first anniversary of the slaying of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was held Wednesday in Istanbul just a few meters from the Saudi consulate where he was dismembered. Khashoggi’s brutal killing sparked widespread international condemnation of Saudi Arabia, with calls for justice continuing. A year ago, security camera images showed Khashoggi entering the consulate to collect documents for his forthcoming wedding. Inside, death awaited him at the hands of a Saudi hit squad suspected of acting on orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Commemoration in Istanbul for Slain Journalist Jamal Khashoggi video player. EmbedCopy Commemoration in Istanbul for Slain Journalist Jamal Khashoggi “Last year today, I was standing here. I was a girl in love, waiting for my man to come out of the…