Author: Selleco

The nation’s worst measles epidemic in 27 years could be in its final stages as a week went by with no new reported cases. “To get to zero is tremendously encouraging,” said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University expert on vaccination policy. The current epidemic emerged about a year ago and took off earlier this year, with most of the cases reported in Orthodox Jewish communities in and around New York City. It started with travelers who had become infected overseas but spread quickly among unvaccinated people. In the spring, 70 or more new cases were being reported every week. Not long ago, the nation that saw that many measles cases in a whole year. So far this year, 1,241 cases have been confirmed — a number that didn’t rise last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. The last time the CDC reported no new measles cases was 11 months ago. New York Declares End of Worst Measles Outbreak in Three Decades About 654 people, many in areas with large Orthodox Jewish communities, were infected since October last year but there have been no new cases since mid-July, the city government said New York officials responded to the explosion of measles cases with a wave of measures, including education campaigns to counter misinformation about vaccine safety and fines for people who didn’t get vaccinated. The epidemic has threatened the Unites States’ nearly 2-decade-old status as a nation that has eliminated measles. The status could come to an …

World leaders meeting at the United Nations General Assembly, which begins Tuesday in New York, must make nuclear arms control a priority, according to a group of over 100 political, military and diplomatic figures. They have issued a statement warning that the risks of nuclear accident, misjudgment or miscalculation have not been higher since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

The Islamic State terror group has issued a new audio recording , claiming to show the group’s reclusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi encouraging his supporters and fighters to conduct more military operations and engage in more propaganda. The recording, posted to the internet Monday by IS’s al-Furqan media division, also calls on IS supporters not to forget about Muslims being held in prisons and refugee camps. U.S. officials have yet to comment on the purported recording. Earlier this year, the terror group released a video of the man it claimed was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seeking revenge for the fall of the terror group’s self-declared caliphate In Iraq and Syria. IS Claims Video Shows Reclusive Leader, Calls for Revenge The Islamic State issued a new video Monday claiming to show its reclusive leader delivering a message to his followers, urging them to seek revenge for the fall of the terror group’s self-declared caliphate In Iraq and Syria. The more than 18-minute-long video posted to the internet by IS’s al-Furqan media division shows a man, allegedly Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, sitting cross-legged against a white backdrop with a machine gun and a couple of pillows by his side.  The man is seen speaking with other IS members, whose faces are blurred or covered with masks, acknowledging the recent fall of the Before that, the 48-year-old Baghdadi had not been seen since he gave a sermon at the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq, in July 2014. The lack of public appearances and the sporadic …

A U.N. investigator finds that two years after the violent expulsion of more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, the situation in their home country remains too dangerous for them to return from their refuge in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh. U.N. Special Rapporteur, Yanghee Lee, says Myanmar commits ongoing gross violations of international law and uses brutal measures to repress ethnic minorities in Rakhine and southern Chin states. She says many civilians have been killed and tens of thousands displaced by the indiscriminate use of heavy artillery and other methods of warfare used by both the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s armed forces, and the Arakan Army, an insurgent group in Rakhine. Doubts Hang Over Fresh Rohingya Repatriation Attempt to Myanmar  Rohingya interviewed by UN say they don’t want to go home until their safety is guaranteed and they are recognized as citizens in Buddhist-majority country She says by no stretch of the imagination is it possible to believe the Rohingya refugees would be safe if they returned to Myanmar. In August, she notes an agreement was hatched to repatriate 3,450 refugees. She says Myanmar claims to have done what is necessary for the repatriation to be successful and blames Bangladesh for delays in the operation going ahead. She says the contrary is true. “Myanmar has done nothing to dismantle the system of violence and persecution, and the Rohingya who remain in Rakhine live in the same dire circumstances that they did prior to the events of August 2017,” said Lee. “They are denied …

This Saturday, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington will break ground on a $15 million monument to Native American military veterans, after more than two decades of planning. In 1994, Congress passed legislation calling for the museum to build the memorial, noting that Native Americans, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians have a “long, proud and distinguished tradition of service” in the U.S. Armed Forces, “in numbers which far exceed their representation in the population of the United States.” The decorated hat of an American Indian veteran appears at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, in Bedford, Mass., Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007. Logistical and funding issues, however, stalled the project. Congress did not commit funds for the memorial and ruled that it should be housed inside the NMAI. That changed in 2013 when Congress clarified the bill, allowing NMAI to begin raising funds from private donors and gave the green light to constructing the monument on museum property.  More than 120 artists submitted design proposals. Jurors were unanimous in selecting the winning design by Harvey Pratt, a former forensic artist, member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma and a veteran himself. Headshot photo of Cheyenne/Arapaho artist Harvey Pratt, who submitted the winning design for a new Native American Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C. Photo by and courtesy of Neil Chapman. His design, “Warriors’ Circle of Honor,” features a three-and-a-half meter stainless steel circle, a symbol culturally and spiritually significant to tribes across the United …

Several Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday lined up to call for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the face of a new, uninvestigated, allegation of sexual impropriety when he was in college. Kavanaugh was confirmed last October after emotional hearings in the Senate over a sexual assault allegation from his high school years. The New York Times now reports that Kavanaugh faced a separate allegation from his time at Yale University and that the FBI did not investigate the claim. The latest claim mirrors one offered during his confirmation process by Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate who claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken party. When he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, Kavanaugh denied all allegations of impropriety . Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said after the new report that “Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people.” She tweeted: “He must be impeached.” A 2020 rival, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, tweeted that “Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.” Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke asserted in a tweeted, “We know he lied under oath. He should be impeached.” He accused the GOP-run Senate of forcing the FBI “to rush its investigation to save his nomination.” Their comments followed similar ones from Julian Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary, on Saturday night. “It’s more clear than ever that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath,” he …

Visiting a black church bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in the civil rights era, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Sunday the country hasn’t “relegated racism and white supremacy to the pages of history” as he framed current tensions in the context of the movement’s historic struggle for equality. He spoke to parishioners at 16th Street Baptist Church in downtown Birmingham as they commemorated the 56th anniversary of the bombing that killed four black girls in 1963. “It’s in the wake of these before-and-after moments when the choice between good and evil is starkest,” he said. The former vice president called out the names of the victims — Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley. He drew nods of affirmation as he warned that “the same poisonous ideology that lit the fuse on 16th street” has yielded more recent tragedies including in 2015 at a black church in South Carolina, in 2018 at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh and in August at an El Paso, Texas , Wal-Mart frequented by Latino immigrants. Key Takeaways From Democrats’ Third 2020 Debate Will it have any effect on fundamentals of nominating fight that remains remarkably stable at top with five months until voting begins? He condemned institutional racism as the direct legacy of slavery and lamented that the nation has “never lived up to” the ideals of equality written into its founding documents. But then he added a more personal note. “Those who are white try,” Biden said, “but …

Roughly 49,000 workers at General Motors plants in the U.S. plan to go on strike just before midnight Sunday, but talks between the United Auto Workers and the automaker will resume. About 200 plant-level union leaders voted unanimously in favor of a walkout during a meeting Sunday morning in Detroit. Union leaders said the sides were still far apart on several major issues and they apparently weren’t swayed by a GM offer to make new products at or near two of the four plants it had been planning to close, according to someone briefed on the matter. “We stood up for General Motors when they needed us most,” union Vice President Terry Dittes said in a statement, referring to union concessions that helped GM survive bankruptcy protection in 2009. “Now we are standing together in unity and solidarity for our members.” UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg said Sunday evening that contract talks would resume at 10 a.m. Monday, but the strike was still expected to go ahead. GM on Friday offered to build a new all-electric pickup truck at a factory in Detroit that is slated to close next year, according someone who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because that person wasn’t authorized to disclose details of the negotiations, which hadn’t been released to the public. The automaker also offered to open an electric vehicle battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio, where it has a plant that has already stopped making cars. The new factory would be …

Syrian government troops on Sunday bombarded a rebel-held area in the Syrian northwestern province of Idlib, a monitor group said. Several missiles targeted towns and villages in the southern part of Idlib that are controlled by rebel forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. No casualties were reported in the Sunday attack. Despite a unilateral ceasefire that was declared by the Syrian government and its ally Russia in late August, government forces have continued targeting towns and cities across the Syrian province, experts said.   “The ceasefire is vague and seems to only apply in certain parts of Idlib,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory. He said that details of the ceasefire haven’t fully been disclosed. “What is clear, however, is that [Syrian] regime forces want to recapture two highways that connect Aleppo to Damascus and Latakia. Both routes go through south Idlib,” Abdulrahman told VOA. Syrian rebels said they have managed to halt the regime’s assault on south Idlib temporarily. “We are responding directly by targeting the positions from where the shells are fired,” Naji Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front opposition force, told Reuters news agency Sunday. In Syria’s Idlib, Foreign Jihadists Complicate Efforts to Achieve Stability Syrian state media reported Sunday that clashes broke out between regime troops and jihadist forces in the southern countryside of Idlib The Idlib province, home to nearly 3 million people, is the last major stronghold of rebel forces fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Idlib …

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar on Sunday responded to the son of a 9/11 victim who criticized the congresswomen last week on the anniversary of the attacks. Nicholas Haros Jr., whose mother died in the World Trade Center, spoke at the ceremony on the 18th anniversary of the attacks wearing a shirt that said “Some people did something,” a reference to comments Omar earlier this year. “Today I am here to respond to you exactly who did what to whom,” he said. While speaking to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in March, Omar said the group was founded because “some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”  The comments sparked immediate backlash. On Sunday, Omar was once again asked about her comments and those of Haros while appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation. “9/11 was an attack on all Americans. It was an attack on all of us, and I certainly could not understand the weight of the pain that the families of the victims of 9/11 must feel,” Omar said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” But, she said, we should also remember that “many Americans found themselves now having their civil rights stripped from them,” in the aftermath of the attacks. “So what I was speaking to was that as a Muslim, not only was I suffering as an American who was attacked on that day, but the next day I woke up as my fellow Americans were now treating …

Tropical Storm Humberto is expected to become a hurricane Sunday as it slowly strengthens to the north of the Bahamas, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Weather forecasters have not issued any coastal watches or warnings for the storm that is moving north-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometer per hour. NHC said late Saturday “the center of Humberto should continue to move well offshore of the east coast of Florida during the next day or so and then move away from the U.S.” The NHC added that “swells generated by Humberto are expected to affect the northwestern Bahamas, and the coast of the U.S. from east-central Florida to North Carolina during the next few days.” The center warned that the “swells could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.” Humberto’s presence forced officials to suspend aid efforts and close airports Saturday in the Bahamas as it grapples to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian. Dorian was a Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever to hit land, that wrecked the archipelago’s northwest region two weeks ago. Guterres visits Bahamas U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Saturday after returning from the Abaco island in the Bahamas that he was “horrified” by what he saw.  “I’ve never seen such a level of systematic devastation,” he said. “Hurricane Dorian has been classified as Category 5. I think it’s category hell.” “But it was not powered by the devil,” Guterres warned, it was “powered by climate change.” …

A watery grave of old sunken ships has been designated the newest national marine sanctuary in the United States. Located in Maryland about 60 kilometers south of Washington, the “ghost fleet” rises like an apparition out of the water when the tide is low. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to this underwater park with ships going back more than one hundred years.   …

Selecting a college or university from the thousands in the U.S. can be mind-boggling. Many applicants turn to a web search to find rankings of the “best” colleges and will find U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, Princeton Review, and Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education ranking sites, to name a few. Are those rankings and lists accurate, though, and, more importantly, are those “top” schools the best for you? U.S. News & World Report published its first “America’s Best Colleges” report in 1983, and many schools use those rankings to promote themselves. However, some educators have questioned the published rankings and how useful they are. Experts rank college rankings Ray Anderson is a former high school principal who works with AGM-College Advisors in Virginia. Anderson says that while he uses the rankings and talks with students about the results, what’s more important is knowing what the student wants, likes and is capable of doing. “The focus is on who you are, and then what schools match you,” Anderson said, “not matching you to the school.” Jeffrey Stahl, a Virginia high school counselor, agrees that rankings have limited value. He said the rankings “can be helpful,” but that some students pay too much attention to the name of a school and its position in rankings. “So much about the campus environment, students, professors, cannot be shown just by ranking,” Stahl said. He suggests that families use the ranking information as a starting point. Then, they should widen their search, make their …

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Saturday that drone attacks on two Aramco oil facilities by a Yemen Houthi militia group have cut the kingdom’s oil production in half. Amateur video of the early morning attack in Abqaiq, in eastern Saudi Arabia, showed several blazes raging. By afternoon, video showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky. Saudi officials said no workers were killed or injured in the attacks. A military spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi militia, Col. Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility Saturday for the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities and vowed to increase them if Saudi-coalition forces continued their strikes on targets inside Yemen. It was not clear, however, if the drones originated in Yemen. Smoke is seen following a fire at an Aramco factory in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 14, 2019. Saree said 10 (Houthi) drones hit the two oil facilities run by Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant. He said the attacks are being dubbed “Operation Balance of Terror” and are a response to what he called the “ongoing crimes of blockade and aggression on Yemen” (since the Saudi-led coalition began battling the Houthis five years ago). Saree claimed the attack was the “largest to date” and that it “required extensive intelligence preparations,” including information from sources inside Saudi Arabia. Later Saturday, however, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the attacks on the Saudi oil plants, and ruled out involvement by Yemen’s Houthis. “Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani …

Recent efforts by the governments of Australia and New Zealand to tackle online extremism has renewed the debate over the threat of radicalization on the internet, with some analysts seeing new opportunities for states and tech giants for a joint action. Australian officials earlier this week enacted what they are calling the world’s first law to curb online extremism, as authorities ordered five websites to remove extremist content or face prosecution. The offending websites are all based outside Australia, the country’s eSafety commission told the Financial Times. The commission is charged with investigating and removing such content. In neighboring New Zealand, a self-avowed white supremacist in March opened fire at two mosques and gunned down 51 people while livestreaming his actions on Facebook. On Monday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Wellington to discuss what his company can do to help eliminate violent extremist content on its platform. FILE – People visit a memorial for victims of a shooting at the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 18, 2019. The meeting was a part of Ardern’s efforts through Christchurch Call, a pledge by 18 countries and eight technology companies in Paris on March 15 to collaborate to eradicate violent extremist content from the internet. “It is in fact the prime minister of New Zealand and the Australian movement in the parliament who have stepped up to do something a little more sharp and more defined,” said Farah Pandith, former U.S. special representative …

Italy has agreed to allow rescue ship Ocean Viking to disembark 82 migrants in the southern port of Lampedusa, the SOS Mediterranee charity which runs the vessel said Saturday. “The Ocean Viking just received instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Rome to proceed to Lampedusa,” SOS Mediterranee tweeted. “An ad hoc European agreement between Italy, France, Germany, Portugal and Luxembourg has been reached to allow the landing,” said French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, referring to the division of the migrants between the five countries. “We now need to agree on a genuine temporary European mechanism.” Castaner added. The Ocean Viking was on its second mission and was shuttling between Malta and Italy for nearly two weeks, seeking a port to land the migrants. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which runs the ship jointly with SOS Mediterranee, said the group comprised 58 men, six women and 18 children. The Ocean Viking had rescued 356 migrants on its first mission.   Italy is trying to set up an automatic system for distributing migrants rescued in the Mediterranean between European countries, diplomatic sources said recently. Such a deal would put an end to the case-by-case negotiations over who will take in those saved during the perilous crossing from North Africa, which has seen vulnerable asylum seekers trapped in limbo at sea for lengthy periods. France and Germany have given their green light to the new system, which could also involve Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain, Italy’s Repubblica and Stampa …

The International Organization for Migration reports it has repatriated 127 African and Asian migrants stranded in Libya under difficult, brutal conditions. Tripoli’s Mitiga International airport was shut down last Sunday after being hit by missiles. For safety reasons, IOM’s chartered plane with 127 migrants aboard took off earlier this week from Misrata, about a two-hour drive east of the Libyan capital. From there, the passengers, which included women and children, flew to Istanbul and then onwards to their home countries.  Missions from 15 countries in Africa and Asia, including Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Bangladesh and Egypt were involved in the complex, risky operation. IOM spokeswoman, Safa Msehli told VOA stranded migrants is a reference to those those who either are held in Libyan detention centers or are living freely in urban areas across the country. “In detention centers across Libya we have close to 5,000 migrants that are still detained.  In Libya alone, according to IOM Libya’s DTM (Displacement Tracking Matrix), there are over 600,000 migrants, a lot of whom – not only due to the current context of war – but a lot of whom have arrived in Libya and remain without a solution,” Msehli said.   Libya’s detention centers are notorious as places where refugees and migrants are subject to horrific forms of abuse, including torture and rape, as well as the lack of sufficient food and medical care. Migrants and refugees in urban areas are vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking and kidnapping for ransom. Despite all the …

Pakistan said Saturday four of its soldiers were killed and another was injured when “terrorists” from across the Afghanistan border opened fire at two locations. The deadliest of the shootings occurred in the remote Dir district where Pakistani troops were building a border fence when they came under attack from the other side, killing three soldiers and injuring another. The military’s media wing said another soldier was killed when “miscreants” from the Afghan side ambushed a routine border patrol party late Friday in North Waziristan district. It added that two of the assailants were also killed in an exchange of fire. Cross-border militant attacks are not uncommon on Pakistani troops constructing a fence along the country’s nearly 2,600 kilometer border with Afghanistan. Islamabad began the unilateral fencing of the largely porous frontier two years ago to plug hundreds of informal crossings that were encouraging terrorist infiltration in both directions. Military officials expect the massive border project will be in place by end of next year, addressing to a large extent mutual concerns of illegal crossings of both militants and drug traffickers. Pakistan has complained that anti-state militants linked to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have taken refuge in “ungoverned” Afghan border areas after fleeing Pakistani security operations and orchestrate attacks from those sanctuaries. Earlier this week, the United States designated TTP chief Qari Wali Noor Mehsud a global terrorist for directing deadly attacks against Pakistan. Mehsud’s whereabouts are not known but his predecessor, Mullah Fazlullah, was killed in June of …

The World Food Program has launched its biggest relief operation this year to aid thousands of Rohingya refugees whose possessions have been swept away in the torrential rains that hit Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh this week. In the space of 24 hours, the WFP has delivered food to 16,000 Rohingya refugees who have lost everything in the heavy rains that have wreaked havoc in the camps.  The agency reports it also has provided food aid to more than 800 people from the host community displaced by the flooding. Bangladesh is a low-lying country prone to flooding during the monsoon season, which is set to last until October.  However, the amount of rain that battered the region in just one day this week is by any measure extreme and devastating. WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel told VOA a colleague on the ground has described the depth of grief experienced by families who have lost the few belongings they have managed to acquire in the camps.  More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled violence and persecution in Myanmar since August 2017, many with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Citing one family as an example, Verhoosel described the refugees’ predicament as dire. “The family lost everything because all that was in the house was basically washed away, what they used as a bed or what they used to cook.  Everything was basically lost.  They have nothing to cook [with].  They have nothing to sleep [on].  Most of their clothes have been …

Leaders of the United Auto Workers union have extended contracts with Ford and Fiat Chrysler indefinitely, but the pact with General Motors is still set to expire Saturday night.    The move puts added pressure on bargainers for both sides as they approach the contract deadline and the union starts to prepare for a strike.    The contract extension was confirmed Friday by UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg, who declined further comment on the talks.  The union has picked GM as the target company, meaning it is the focus of bargaining and would be the first company to face a walkout. GM’s contract with the union is scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m. Saturday.  Picket lines posted   It’s possible that the four-year GM contract also could be extended or a deal could be reached, but it’s more likely that 49,200 UAW members could walk out of GM plants as early as Sunday because union and company demands are so far apart.  FILE – An employee inspects a Cadillac Escalade as it nears the final process of assembly at the General Motors plant in Arlington, Texas, July 14, 2015. Picket line schedules already have been posted near the entrance to one local UAW office in Detroit.    Art Wheaton, an auto industry expert at the Worker Institute at Cornell University, expects the GM contract to be extended for a time, but he says the gulf between the sides is wide.    “GM is looking through the windshield ahead, and it looks like nothing but land mines,” he …

The leaders of South Sudan and Sudan have agreed to reopen border areas between their countries in a bid to boost trade and the free movement of people. The agreement between new Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, reached late Thursday, is significant because several border areas remain closed, including Heglig in South Sudan’s former Unity State, Kafiakinji in Raja in South Sudan, and El-Khurasana in Sudan’s Western Kordofan state. South Sudan’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, Deng Dau Deng, said he and Sudan’s foreign minister, Asma Mohamed Abdalla, touched on the disputed, oil-producing region of Abyei during their talks.   “Of course the issue of Abyei is a fundamental issue because we want a final status on the resolution on the conflict of Abyei. The current government in Khartoum and the sovereign council and the Cabinet are very open in addressing the issues that are outstanding between South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan,” said Dau. Dau said Hamdok also met with the leaders of various Sudanese rebel groups during a two-day visit to Juba that ended Friday and reaffirmed his government’s commitment to ending hostilities with the rebel groups. A Sudanese government delegation and the rebel groups signed a declaration of principles in Juba and agreed to hold peace talks next month. Dau said part of the reason for Hamdok’s visit to Juba was to cement that process. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir (C-R) and Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok (C-L) are seen …

The Ukrainian president’s envoy for peace talks with Russia-backed separatists expressed concern Friday that the leaders of France and Germany will push Ukraine to make unacceptable concessions to Russia. Ukraine and Russia have been locked in a bitter standoff since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine. Hopes for a solution to the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives, were revived after political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy was elected Ukrainian president in April. FILE – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a meeting with law enforcement officers in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 23, 2019. But his envoy, Leonid Kuchma, told The Associated Press he is concerned that France and Germany, who are mediating the talks, will push Zelenskiy to make trade-offs, such as approving a plan for the separatists to hold local elections in the areas they control without any oversight by the Ukrainian government. “I don’t have a lot of hope,” Kuchma said when asked about a much-anticipated meeting of Zelenskiy with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany. “Zelenskiy will have a very hard time — it will be one against three people.” As the first step toward seeking a solution to the conflict, Zelenskiy negotiated a major prisoner exchange with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which 35 people from both sides were released and flown home Saturday. Some of the prisoners had been incarcerated in Russia for five years. European leaders including German Chancellor …

Renan Toussaint in Port au Prince, Jean Robert Philippe and Jacquelin Belizaire in Washington contributed to this report WASHINGTON / PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – Haitian Senator Willot Joseph, a member of the ruling PHTK party (Pati Ayisyen Tet Kale), admitted Friday that he accepted a $100,000 bribe from Prime Minister-Designate Fritz William Michel in exchange for a yes vote on his nomination. The stunning admission was made during an interview with Haitian news site Gazette Haiti. Parlement/Corruption/ Affaire 100 000 us:- Le Sénateur Wilot Joseph dont le nom est cité dans ce scandale n’y voit aucun inconvénient. Pour le Sénateur qui répondait à un Journaliste de RCH 2000, il n’est pas question de refuser de l’argent en ces temps si durs. pic.twitter.com/oo9GzeAXEE — Gazette Haiti (@GazetteHaiti) September 13, 2019 “I don’t have any problem with [accepting] money that comes my way without having to sign for it, or any kind of paper trail. I take it and I don’t have to be hypocrite [about it] with anyone,” Joseph said. The senator criticized his colleagues who denied taking bribes after a public accusation made by Senator Saurel Jacinthe on Wednesday, as the Senate was preparing to vote on the prime minister’s nomination. The vote was postponed without setting a new date. “They are slick, I don’t see anything wrong with receiving money during difficult times,” Joseph said.   The allegation Haitian Senator Saurel Jacinthe alleges that Senate Leader Carl Murat Cantave offered him cash in exchange for a yes vote on the …

It’s unprecedented. Thousands of Nigerians have joined a lawsuit seeking to block members of the Senate from using public money to buy luxury cars. The suit was initiated by rights groups that became tired of government corruption. More than 6,700 Nigerians have joined suit that aims to prevent parliament from releasing 5.5 billion naira — equal to about $15 million — that would enable leaders of the Senate to purchase luxury vehicles. Three domestic rights groups originated the suit, which was filed with the Nigerian Federal High Court. One of the NGOs leading the lawsuit is civic organization BudgIT. It tracks government spending in an effort to fight corruption. Shakir Akorede, the group’s communications associate, spoke on the class action suit. “This is living the luxury life by the so-called representatives of the people. How in any way does this plan show the seriousness, the commitment on the part of the government to solve our socioeconomic crisis?” Akorede asked. The activists are calling the luxury car allocation unjust, unfair and unconstitutional, a waste of taxpayers’ money. News of the allocation spread across social media, creating widespread anger. The Nigerian Senate’s spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye, told local media that the news is a rumor and that he hadn’t heard about the allocation. He added, however, that government officials are entitled to purchase cars and that he cannot imagine himself in a car used by a former senator. Senators have become accustomed to purchasing new cars with every new term. But political scientist …