China has announced a tariff exemption on U.S.-produced pork, withdrawing duties as high as 72%, one of many tariffs Beijing imposed on American agricultural products amid a protracted trade war with Washington. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports from the Midwest state of Illinois, farmers feel the economic pinch even as China’s need to import pork is growing.   …

A former Roman Catholic priest who fled to Morocco before he was returned to the United States and convicted of sexually abusing an altar boy in New Mexico in the 1990s was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said. U.S District Judge Martha Vazquez imposed the sentence in Albuquerque federal court on Arthur Perrault, 81, a onetime Air Force chaplain and colonel, U.S. Attorney John Anderson said in a statement. “There are few acts more horrific than the long-term sexual abuse of a child,” Anderson said. “At long last, today’s sentence holds Perrault accountable for his deplorable conduct.” U.S. Attorney John Anderson, right, and federal prosecutor Sean Sullivan converse after a former Roman Catholic priest who fled the country decades ago was sentenced to 30 years in prison, Sept. 13, 2019, in Santa Fe, N.M. Perrault’s trial attorney, Samuel Winder, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Perrault was convicted by a federal jury in April on six counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact with a minor in 1991 and 1992 at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque and at the Santa Fe National Cemetery, prosecutors said. The victim, now …

Drone attacks targeted a major Saudi Aramco processing facility and oilfield in eastern Saudi Arabia Saturday, the Interior Ministry said, sparking a huge fire at one of the sites before dawn. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes amid previous drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. It wasn’t clear if there were any injuries in the assault on the processing plant in Buqyaq and at the Khurais oil field. Online videos apparently shot in Buqyaq included the sound of gunfire in the background. Smoke rose over the skyline and glowing flames could be seen a distance away. The fires began after the sites were “targeted by drones,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Aramco did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press. The company describes its Abqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq as “the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world.”  The facility processes sour crude oil into sweet crude, then later transports it onto transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Estimates suggest it can process up to 7 million barrels of crude oil a day. The plant has been targeted in …

Speaking at the White House after John Bolton’s surprise exit as national security adviser, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo couldn’t hide a smile of satisfaction. With the departure of Bolton, Pompeo has become the undisputed king of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy — with the exception, that is, of Trump himself. The former soldier, lawyer and businessman has made a quick ascent in Washington since arriving as a Kansas congressman elected in the 2010 right-wing populist “Tea Party” movement. But many speculate that Pompeo will choose not to stay long in his newly powerful position, enticed by an opening to represent Kansas in the Senate next year, perhaps with an eye on running for the top prize in the 2024 presidential election. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks with National Security Adviser John Bolton before a joint news conference between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House, June 7, 2018. Knowing when to give up First tapped as CIA director before moving to the State Department last year, Pompeo is so close to Trump that the president last year said he was his only adviser with whom he has never argued. …

Like many kids, Rihanna dreamed of someday growing up to be rich, but helping others was at the forefront of her vision.    “It’s always been important to me before any success,” she told The Associated Press on Thursday at her annual Diamond Ball charity gala. “As a kid, just seeing those commercials on television with the kids in Africa, where it’s like, ‘It just takes 10 cents or 25 cents to help somebody’ — I used to think, `When I grow up, I’m a gonna be rich and I’m going to make a lot of money and I could make a lot of 10 cents and a lot of 25 cents.’ ”    She’s made a lot more than that as superstar singer and now fashion and beauty mogul, and with her Clara Lionel Foundation has doled out money around the globe to help support education programs, women’s health and emergency response organizations for people in need.   Cardi B at Rihanna’s fifth annual Diamond Ball at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, Sept. 12, 2019. The foundation, named after Rihanna’s grandparents, raised more than $5 million Thursday night. Cardi B and Offset, A$AP Rocky, Karlie Kloss, DJ Khaled, 21 Savage, Pharrell Williams and others came out to support …

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Friday that they had arrested a senior intelligence officer for allegedly stealing sensitive documents.    Cameron Ortis faces five charges under Canada’s criminal code and its Security of Information Act, the federal police agency said in a statement.    “The allegations are that he obtained, stored and processed sensitive information, we believe with the intent to communicate it to people that he shouldn’t be communicating it to,” prosecutor John MacFarlane told journalists after Ortis appeared in court Friday.    Canada’s Global News reported that Ortis, who was arrested Thursday, was a top adviser to former RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson and had control over counterintelligence operations.    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is campaigning for a second term in office, told reporters at an election rally, “I can assure you that the authorities are taking this extremely seriously,” without commenting further.    His opponent, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, said it was “extremely concerning that a senior RCMP intelligence officer has been arrested for leaking national security information.”    “This is another reminder of the threats we face from foreign actors,” said Scheer, who is tied in the polls with Trudeau.    The RCMP fears Ortis stole “large quantities of information, …

The controversy swirling around the burial of Zimbabwe’s founding leader, Robert Mugabe, centers on his widow, Grace, who has remained dramatically cloaked behind a heavy black veil as she succeeded in getting the country’s president to scrap his plans for the ex-leader to be buried in a simple plot alongside other national heroes and instead build a grand new mausoleum for her husband. Known as a strong-willed woman with political ambitions, Grace Mugabe has made the most of her role as the grieving widow — and some in Zimbabwe think she is using the issue to reassert herself as a force to be reckoned with in the country. When the 54-year-old Grace objected to the funeral plans for Mugabe, who died last week at 95, President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to her palatial 25-bedroom residence in Harare’s posh Borrowdale suburb to consult her about how the interment should proceed. He departed saying he would respect her wishes and scrapped his funeral plans. The coffin of the late former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe at his residence in Harare, Sept. 12, 2019. She and other family members said they had enlisted the support of Zimbabwe’s traditional chiefs to determine how Mugabe would be …

An international press freedom monitor has awarded Vietnamese journalist and blogger Pham Doan Trang a 2019 Press Freedom Prize for Impact. “Pham Doan Trang is a true heroine given the situation of press freedom in Vietnam, where journalists and bloggers who do not toe the line of the current direction of the Communist Party face extremely severe repercussions,” said Daniel Bastard, who heads the Asia-Pacific Desk of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Trang, who has no fixed address, reports on civil rights issues in Vietnam, where she has been beaten and imprisoned twice. Two other women received awards from the group Thursday night in Berlin. Saudi journalist Eman al Nafjan received the award for Courage and Maltese journalist Caroline Muscat received the prize for Independence. Founder of Luât Khoa Trang’s prize is awarded to journalists whose work has led to concrete improvements in journalistic freedom, independence and pluralism, or to an increase in awareness of these matters, according to an RSF statement. Trang founded Luât Khoa, an online magazine that specializes in providing information about legal issues, and she edits another, The Vietnamese, which helps citizens defend their rights and resist the Communist Party’s rule, RSF said. Independent journalists and bloggers …

Government experts Friday backed an experimental treatment for children with peanut allergies that could become the first federally approved option for preventing life-threatening reactions. The treatment is daily capsules of peanut powder that gradually help children build up a tolerance. The outside panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted overwhelmingly in favor of the treatment from Aimmune Therapeutics. The nonbinding vote amounts to an endorsement for approval. The FDA is expected to make its final decision by January. Important option The panelists said the medication was an important option for parents and children dealing with peanut allergies. However, several also said they had concerns because the pill has to be taken continuously to maintain its effect. An estimated 1.6 million children and teenagers in the U.S. would be eligible for the medication, to be sold as Palforzia, which is intended for ages 4 to 17. Peanut allergy is the most common food allergy in the country and the standard treatment involves strictly monitoring what children eat. That approach doesn’t always work and accidental exposure is common, sending 1 in 4 children with peanut allergies to the emergency room every year. ‘Peace of mind … invaluable’ Parents at …

Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, and why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.   New twist for those forced to remain in Mexico  Asylum-seekers who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months may be automatically rejected in U.S. immigration court, according to a U.S. Supreme Court decision this week. This is likely to affect thousands of people, largely Central Americans. Under the Migrant Protection Protocols, many asylum-seekers and migrants were forced to wait for their U.S. immigration hearings in Mexico. MPP hearings began in Laredo, Texas, this week, though reporters and other observers were barred from attending what would normally be public court proceedings. Read more of VOA’s U.S.-Mexico border coverage, including interviews with migrants.  From the Feds:  — Border agents discovered a shack at a Texas cemetery that was being used as a stash house for 10 Chinese nationals who had entered the U.S. without authorization. The number of people from outside Central America who cross from Mexico is increasing, as VOA reported last month.   — The number of people detained …

A Taliban delegation traveled to Moscow and held talks with Russian officials Friday, a week after the United States abruptly called off a yearlong peace dialogue with the insurgent group over U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. Russian media quoted Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen as saying that his delegation had met with Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, and discussed “the recent developments regarding the peace process in Afghanistan.” FILE – Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Doha, speaks to the media in Moscow, May 28, 2019. Chief Taliban negotiator Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who is leading the insurgent delegation, told Russia Today television his team had hammered out a formal agreement with American interlocutors and the two sides together with Qatar, which hosted and mediated the talks, were preparing for a deal-signing ceremony when Trump surprisingly declared the process as “dead.” Stanikzai for the first time publicly discussed some details of the U.S.-Taliban prospective agreement for ending the Afghan war, America’s longest overseas military intervention. “When it is signed, there will be a complete cease-fire between us and the American forces. We will give safe passage to the American forces. … And on Sept. 23, …

Joshua Wong, one of the most visible leaders of the Hong Kong protest movement, has arrived in the United States to rally support following a whirlwind visit to Berlin. Wong, who has been permitted to travel internationally while on bail facing charges stemming from more than three months of pro-democracy protests, will spend the next several days speaking to legislators, human rights advocates and students in New York and Washington. College students are among the audiences Wong, 22, and fellow protest leaders are aiming to address on their U.S. tour, with a stop at New York’s Columbia University on Friday and an appearance scheduled for Wednesday at Georgetown University in Washington. Wong and other protest leaders will also testify at a hearing organized by the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), aimed at examining recent developments in Hong Kong and the future of U.S.-Hong Kong relations. FILE – Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong speaks to students at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 11, 2019. At a recent diplomatic event in Washington, Randall Schriver, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security, told VOA that Washington maintains regular contact with the Hong Kong government through the U.S. consulate …

U.S. actress Felicity Huffman has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for her role in a wide-ranging U.S. college admissions cheating scandal. The former “Desperate Housewives” television star was also given a $30,000 fine and 250 hours of community service during her appearance Friday at a Boston court. Huffman pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy and fraud for paying $15,000 to boost her daughter’s scores on the SAT college entrance test. Before her sentencing Friday, Huffman said she is “deeply ashamed of what I have done. I have inflicted more damage than I could ever imagine.” Huffman is the first parent sentenced among 51 people charged in the scandal, in which wealthy parents paid bribes to ensure their children were accepted into prominent U.S. universities.   In some cases, the bribes were paid to college athletic team coaches who labeled the students as recruited athletes even though they did not play the sport. Prosecutors had recommended a monthlong prison sentence for Huffman, saying that penalties of only a fine or probation would mean little to someone who is worth millions of dollars. FILE – Actress Lori Loughlin, and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli leave the federal courthouse after …

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that India’s recent actions concerning the disputed region of Kashmir will give rise to extremism among Muslims in India and around the world. “When you marginalize human beings, when you push them to the wall, they become radicalized,” Khan said Friday as he addressed a rally of thousands in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during a rally in Muzaffarabad, Sept. 13, 2019. He also indirectly criticized some Muslim governments that either openly supported Indian actions in Kashmir or hardly said anything at all. “Some Muslim governments are quiet due to their trade relations with India. But one-and-a-quarter-billion Muslims are watching. Some of them will be pushed to extremism; some of them will also pick up guns,” Khan warned. Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority region. In August, after India changed its laws on Kashmir, ending the territory’s special status and depriving the region of relative autonomy, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Delhi issued a statement in favor of the move. “We expect that the changes would improve social justice and security and confidence of the people in the local governance and will encourage further …

A Lebanese-American man was referred Friday to prosecutors after confessing he’d worked for Israel during its occupation of Lebanon for nearly two decades, a Lebanese security agency said.   Amer Fakhoury was detained after returning to his native Lebanon from the United States earlier this month. He had worked as a senior warden at the Khiam Prison in southern Lebanon that was run by an Israeli-backed militia, known as the South Lebanon Army, until Israel ended an 18-year occupation of the area in 2000. Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. FILE – The courtyard of the infamous Khiam Prison in southern Lebanon, May 24, 2000. Human rights groups have said in the past that Khiam prison was a site of torture and detention without trial before it was abandoned in 2000. Israel denies the allegations. On Thursday, scores of people, including former Khiam prison detainees, held a sit-in in Beirut protesting against Fakhoury, referring to him as “the butcher of Khiam” and adding that he should be put on trial.   “We reject facilitating the return of agents to the nation,” former detainee Anwar Yaseen was quoted saying by state-run National News Agency. …

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told an election rally Friday that more than 2,000 Taliban fighters have been killed over the past week and insisted his elected office is where the insurgent group must come to seek a decisive political settlement to the conflict. Ghani’s assertions came nearly a week after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ended yearlong direct negotiations with the Taliban over the future of American troop presence in Afghanistan. That dialogue process had excluded the Afghan government because of insurgent opposition. Trump defended his move, citing a recent Taliban car bombing in the Afghan capital that killed 12 people, including an American soldier, and he vowed to intensify military operations against the insurgents. hani did not share details of the estimated 2,000 insurgent casualties he revealed in the public meeting. It was not clear whether the figures were inclusive of the more than 1,000 Taliban deaths the United States said last week it had inflicted on the insurgents in battles over the past 10 days. The Taliban has rejected the claims made by both Ghani and U.S. officials, though, saying their adversaries have never inflicted heavy losses of this magnitude, nor do they have the capacity to do …

Joe Biden parried attack after attack from liberal rivals Thursday night on everything from health care to immigration in a debate that showcased profound ideological divides between the Democratic Party’s moderate and progressive wings. The prime-time debate also elevated several struggling candidates, giving them a chance to introduce themselves to millions of Americans who are just beginning to follow the race. Biden dominated significant parts of the evening, responding strongly when the liberal senators who are his closet rivals — Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — assailed him and his policies. FILE – From left, Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., participate in the debate at Texas Southern University in Houston, Sept. 12, 2019. Unlike prior debates, where Biden struggled for words and seemed surprised by criticism from fellow Democrats, he largely delivered crisp, aggressive responses. He called Sanders “a socialist,” a label that could remind voters of the senator’s embrace of democratic socialism. And Biden slapped at Warren’s proposed wealth tax.   A two-term vice president under Barack Obama, Biden unequivocally defended his former boss, who came under criticism from some candidates for deporting immigrants and not going …

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is refuting allegations that he has ties to an illegal armed group in Colombia after photos were published on social media purportedly showing him posing with two members of a criminal gang. The photos were allegedly taken in late February when Guaido crossed into Colombia and made a surprise appearance at a concert organized by billionaire Richard Branson aimed at helping deliver humanitarian aid to Venezuela. Guaido told Colombia’s BLU radio Friday that he took photos with many people that day and has no way of knowing each individual’s background. Colombia’s military has confirmed that the two men seen in the photographs are members of a criminal gang known as the Rastrojos.   The spat over the photos comes amid escalating tensions between Colombia and Venezuela. …

VOA Connect Episode 87 – Learn all about farming!  From reclaiming the history of African American farming, to educating city kids about where their food comes from to why one man believes that many conservation aspects of farming are in line with his religious beliefs. …

It was Mouctar Diallo’s fifth attempt to reach Europe by sea. His previous four tries had been foiled by gangs on speedboats who returned him to Libya where he was detained and beaten. This time, the 28-year-old from Guinea and 49 other sub-Saharan Africans were determined not to let anything stop them. “Even if the water is not good, we said `today we will go to Europe, or we die,”’ Diallo recalled. And so they departed from Zuwara, Libya, on a blue inflatable plastic boat in a bid to make it across the Mediterranean Sea. About 26 kilometers (16 miles) into their journey a fishing boat approached and offered to help. But Diallo was suspicious. He had been warned that fishermen, just like the criminal gangs, were known to return rescued migrants to Libyan traffickers in exchange for money. Then, a large red boat approached. The migrants recognized it from social media: It was the Ocean Viking, a Norwegian-flagged ship jointly operated by humanitarian groups SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders. Everyone was brought on board. “First I started crying. I was so happy. I said `yes! This time my life has changed,”’ Diallo told an Associated Press journalist aboard …

There were no flag outfits, but Michael Kors’ show for New York Fashion Week was very much a patriotic tribute as he saluted American fashion with a collection that ran from nautical chic to classic glamour-girl gowns to whimsical polka-dot designs. Taking place Wednesday, the last official day of fashion week, the show fell on one of the most solemn days in New York — the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  While the terrorist attack was not referenced, the show radiated not only American pride but themes of love and peace, from a sweater worn by a model that had the word “HATE” crossed out with a red line to the music of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, who serenaded the crowd with songs including Don McLean’s “American Pie” to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” to the O’Jays “Love Train.” Kors told The Associated Press that the collection was inspired by many different threads of the American experience, from the recently reimagined Broadway musical “Oklahoma” to his immigrant ancestors. The Michael Kors collection is modeled during Fashion Week in New York, Sept. 11, 2019. “We got for a gift DNA tests — and in fact …

Actress Felicity Huffman is returning to court to be sentenced for her role in a sweeping college admissions bribery scandal. The “Desperate Housewives” star is scheduled to appear in Boston’s federal court Friday after pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy and fraud in May. She’s the first parent to be sentenced among 34 charged in the scheme. Huffman has admitted to paying $15,000 to boost her older daughter’s SAT scores in 2017 with the help of William “Rick” Singer, an admission consultant at the center of the scheme. Prosecutors say Huffman’s daughter was unaware of the arrangement. Prosecutors have recommended a month in prison, along with supervised release and a $20,000 fine. Huffman’s lawyers say she should get a year of probation, 250 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine. The case is seen as an indicator of what’s to come for others charged in the case. Over the next two months, nearly a dozen other parents are scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty. A total of 15 parents have pleaded guilty, while 19 are fighting the charges. Huffman’s legal team argues that she was only a “customer” in a broader scheme orchestrated by others. In …

The European Union’s powerful competition chief has indicated she’s looking at expanding regulations on personal data, dropping an initial hint about how she plans to use new powers against tech companies.   Margrethe Vestager said Friday that while Europeans have control over their own data through the EU’s existing data privacy rules, they don’t address problems stemming from the way companies use other people’s data, “to draw conclusions about me or to undermine democracy.” She said, “we may also need broader rules to make sure that the way companies collect and use data doesn’t harm the fundamental values of our society.” Vestager spoke days after she was appointed to a second term as the EU’s competition commissioner. She was also given new powers to shape the bloc’s digital policies.   …

India’s first major railway station managed by an all-women staff in the northern Rajasthan state is helping break gender stereotypes and empowering women in one of the country’s most conservative states. Reporter Anjana Pasricha visited the station to see how the initiative has fared since it was launched last year. …