Month: October 2019

Scores of senior doctors in Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have threatened to strike starting Thursday, if the government fails to meet their demand for better salaries and working conditions. They would join hundreds of their junior counterparts, who’ve been on strike since September 3 for the same reasons. Patients are being turned away from public health facilities amid the southern African country’s protracted economic crisis, given shortages of staffing, medical equipment and supplies. “Appalling and disgraceful” conditions have left “no option but to openly declare our incapacitation,” the Senior Hospital Doctors Association said in a statement, setting a deadline of Thursday for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to respond. According to the Zimbabwe Health Service Board, the government employs roughly 1,550 doctors and specialists in public hospitals serving the southern African country…

The sloth - a super slow tree dweller that spends most of its life hanging upside down - isn't on an endangered species list.  But human activity hasn't  been kind to the popular creature who lives in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. VOA's Arash Arabasadi tell us about a rehabilitation program that aims to get sloths back on their feet … and into treetops. ...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has acknowledged he was on the telephone call that triggered the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump. “I was on the phone call,” Pompeo confirmed Tuesday at a news conference in Rome, without offering details about what was said during the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But during an interview last week on ABC News’ ‘This Week,’ Pompeo was vague about what he knew about the call, which eventually precipitated a whistleblower complaint expressing concern Trump was seeking foreign interference in the 2020 election by asking Ukraine to investigate Democratic candidate Joe Biden. “So, you just gave me a report about a I.C. (intelligence community) whistleblower complaint, none of which I’ve seen,” Pompeo had said. U.S. President Donald Trump insists he…

Malaysian singer-songwriter, Yuna fourth album “Rouge” was released this summer. The album has a pop and R&B feel because she wanted to bring back the feel of old records -- old vinyl. She is best known for the collaboration with Usher on her breakout single, “Crush”, which peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Adult R&B chart. ...

In Hong Kong there are growing concerns the government is condoning the excessive use of force against pro-democracy demonstrators after police shot a student protester on Tuesday. More than 100 people were injured during Tuesday's mass demonstrations in Hong Kong. Police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds. Some protesters armed with rocks and homemade gasoline bombs also attacked police. Lawful and reasonable In one skirmish that was captured on video, an 18-year-old student was shot by a police officer, who was being attacked by protesters in Tsuen Wan neighborhood in Central Hong Kong. Hong Kong Police Commissioner, Stephen Lo, said on Wednesday the officer’s use of potentially deadly force was “lawful and reasonable." Vigil Held for Hong Kong Student Shot in Latest Anti-Beijing ProtestsViolent clashes between protesters…

A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration's bid to dismiss lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a 2017 decision to downsize two sprawling national monuments in Utah.   U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan's written decisions issued Monday night means the legal challenges seeking to return the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to their original sizes can move forward.   Chutkan didn't decide the key question at the core of the lawsuits: Does the Antiquities Act give presidents the power to create monuments as well as reduce them? The government has already created new management plans for the downsized monuments. President Donald Trump downsized Bears Ears by 85% and Grand Staircase by nearly half. Ruins of ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings at Butler Wash in Bears Ears National Monument…

Ukraine's president said Tuesday that no one explained to him why millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to his country was delayed, shrugging off suggestions that President Donald Trump froze the funding to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is struggling to distance himself from U.S. politics, and to contain the damage to Ukraine and his own reputation from a July phone call between him and Trump that unleashed a congressional impeachment inquiry. “It is impossible to put pressure on me,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Many people try to influence me,” he said, but “I am the president of independent Ukraine.” Zelenskiy said that in discussions with Trump, he repeatedly stressed the importance of the U.S. military aid to help Ukraine battle Russian-backed…

A strike by the United Auto Workers union has caused a parts shortage, forcing General Motors to shut down its pickup truck and transmission factories in Silao, Mexico. Spokesman Dan Flores confirmed that production at the factories ended Tuesday morning, affecting 6,000 workers. The plant shutdown means that GM has lost any new supplies of its light-duty Chevrolet Silverado, the company's top-selling U.S. vehicle. Earlier GM had to close a Mexican engine plant and an assembly plant in Canada due to the strike. The strike by over 49,000 union workers is now in its third week, and both sides are feeling the impact. Workers are having to get by on $250 per week in strike pay instead of their normal base pay of about $1,200 per week. The 16-day strike…

Ugandan's pop star and presidential hopeful Bobi Wine has denounced the government's banning of civilian use of red berets, a symbol of his "People Power" movement that he hopes to use to oust longtime President Yoweri Museveni. The government this month gazetted the red beret and other pieces of military wear as "property of the state." It warned people who wear or sell them that they would be prosecuted under military law, which can lead to a life sentence. "This beret ban is a sham. It is a blatant attempt to suffocate a successful threat to the autocratic status quo," Wine, 37, said in a statement. FILE - Yoweri Museveni, who has been president of Uganda since 1986, speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa meeting at the Cape…

U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Australia's prime minister to help discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the New York Times is reporting. The Times reported Monday that during a recent telephone call, Trump asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help U.S. Attorney General William Barr collect information for a Justice Department probe into Mueller's investigation.  The paper said its sources were two U.S. officials with knowledge of the call. FILE - U.S. President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr participate in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sept. 9, 2019. The Times also reported that the White House restricted access to the call's transcript to only a small group of officials, a move that is similar to the handling of Trump's July…

The Irishman set to take over as the European Union's top trade official on Monday urged the United States not to launch an economically damaging tariff war with the bloc over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing. The World Trade Organization ruled in May that Europe illegally subsidized Airbus, hurting U.S. competitor Boeing. The WTO is set shortly to allow President Donald Trump to slap tariffs worth billions of euros on European products — including wine, cheese and olives — in response. The EU has brought a similar case at the WTO accusing the U.S. government of illegally subsidizing Boeing, and a ruling in its favor is expected, but is still months off. "I would ask the United States to negotiate with us rather than having a tit-for-tat trade war that…