China may be a “new road” for North Korea if diplomacy with the United States fails, experts say. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a senior North Korean official Wednesday in Pyongyang during a three-day visit that began Monday, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Wang told Ri Su Yong, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, that China’s prosperity cannot be impeded by any country, apparently referring to the U.S., with which Beijing has been involved in an FILE – Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk during Xi’s visit in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), June 21, 2019. Reconciliation Kim and Xi held their first summit in March 2018, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s landmark Singapore summit in June 2018, and have stepped up diplomacy in an apparent move to repair their relationship. Kim and Xi have met five times since the first summit. Relations between the two historical East Asian allies soured when Kim took power in 2011 and began testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. In response to North Korea’s weapons tests in 2016 and 2017, Xi supported …

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam is expected to address the media Thursday, a day after she withdrew a controversial extradition bill that has triggered mass protests and plunged the Chinese territory into its worst political crisis in decades. Lam, in a prerecorded televised message, Wednesday formally withdrew the bill, acceding to one of pro-democracy protesters’ five demands, although many demonstrators and lawmakers said the move was too little, too late. The official China Daily said Thursday that the withdrawal of the bill was an olive branch that leaves demonstrators with no excuse to continue violence. Protesters hold placards reading “Strike for Hong Kong” during continuing pro-democracy rallies in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, in Tamar Park, Hong Kong, Sept. 3, 2019. Beijing stopped earlier withdrawal  The announcement came after Reuters reports Friday and Monday revealed that Beijing had thwarted Lam’s earlier proposals to withdraw the bill and that she had said privately that she would resign if she could, according to an audio recording obtained by Reuters. The Beijing-backed leader is expected to meet the media before she departs for a trip to China’s Guangxi province Thursday afternoon. Skirmishes broke out in some districts late Wednesday after Lam’s announcement, which came …

The captain and crew who leapt from a burning dive boat off Southern California saved themselves as 34 people perished below deck.     Whether their escape from the Conception before dawn Monday was the only viable option, an act of cowardice or even a crime has yet to be determined. But there are laws providing for punishment of a ship’s master who shirks his duty to safely evacuate passengers.    The responsibilities of master and crew are broadly defined, said professor Martin J. Davies, the maritime law director at Tulane University. With passengers, their duty is take reasonable care in all circumstances.    If the captain made no attempt to save passengers trapped in a burning boat, that would be a violation of his duty. But it wouldn’t necessarily be wrong if crew members decided there was nothing they could do to help the passengers in the berth and abandoned ship to seek help from a boat nearby.    “The notion of the captain always goes down with the ship is consistent with that only because the captain is expected to stay there and do something if that’s going to help,” Davies said. “The idea that the captain is actually supposed to die along with everyone else is not …

Pakistan warned Wednesday that India was “sowing the seeds” of another war in the region through its controversial actions in Kashmir, a disputed territory that has long been a flashpoint between the nuclear-armed rivals. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a month ago revoked a decades-old constitutionally provided limited autonomy for the two-thirds part of the divided Muslim-majority territory administered by India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses to the nation on the country’s Independence Day from the ramparts of the historical Red Fort in New Delhi, India, Aug. 15, 2019. New Delhi also has since imposed curfew-like restrictions in Kashmir, deployed tens of thousands of additional troops there, cut off all communication and arrested thousands of people, including mainstream Kashmiri politicians and activists. Now in its fifth week, the clampdown to quell violent protests in Kashmir has spurred severe international criticism of India. Pakistan, which also controls a portion of Kashmir, swiftly denounced and rejected Indian actions, downgrading diplomatic as well as bilateral economic ties. “India’s actions in occupied Kashmir come at a time when the region as a whole is inching towards stability, but India is sowing the seeds of a new war,” Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor …

Nearly two years later, the Syrian city of Raqqa, the former de facto capital of Islamic State (IS) terror group, continues to suffer from the aftermath of the war against the Islamic State. Recently, a new mass grave was unearthed that contained more than 200 bodies of IS victims. Sirwan Kajjo reports from Raqqa, Syria. …

A Honduran court has sentenced former first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla to 58 years in prison for embezzling about $600,000 in government money between 2010 and 2014, when her husband Porfirio Lobo was president. Bonilla’s sentence for embezzlement and fraud was at the high end of the possible sentencing range. The case was originally brought by the Organization of American States’ anti-corruption mission. Investigators for the nongovernmental National Anticorruption Council have told prosecutors that Bonilla deposited $600,000 in government funds into her personal bank account five days before Lobo ended his four-year term in January 2014. Prosecutors said she used the money to buy jewelry and pay credit cards. The Supreme Court said Wednesday Bonilla will also have to pay back about 10% of the money, or about $52,000. …

Twitter on Wednesday halted users’ ability to fire off tweets via text messages as it seeks to fix a vulnerability that led to CEO Jack Dorsey’s account being hijacked. Dorsey last week was the target of so-called “SIM swap” fraud, which enables a hacker to trick a mobile carrier into transferring a number — potentially causing people to lose control not only of social media, but bank accounts and other sensitive information. This type of attack targets a weakness in the use of “two-factor authentication” via text message to validate access to an account, a break-in method that has grown popular in recent years. “We’re temporarily turning off the ability to Tweet via SMS, or text message, to protect people’s accounts,” the Twitter support team wrote on the platform. “We’re taking this step because of vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by mobile carriers and our reliance on having a linked phone number for two-factor authentication.” The San Francisco-based service added that as it works on a long-term solution to the problem, tweeting via text message eventually will be turned back on in markets where users rely on that technique. Embarrassing hack Even with considerable security precautions in place, Dorsey …

Bangkok ranked first in 2018 for the fourth straight year as the city with the most international visitors, according to an annual report by Mastercard released Wednesday.    With almost 23 million international visitors last year, the Thai capital outpaced both Paris and London, which were second and third with just over 19 million visitors each.     Other top cities in order were Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York, Istanbul, Tokyo and Antalya, Turkey.    The report pointed to broad increases in international travel, with the total number of international visits up 76 percent since 2009.    Nine of the top 10 cities saw increases in 2018 compared with the prior year. London was the exception, with a drop of 4 percent.    Dubai topped the list as far as consumption, with travelers spending an average of $553 per day and visitors spending a total of nearly $31 billion. Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and Bangkok were second and third as far as spending.    Established in 2011, the Global Destination Cities ranks 200 cities based on visitor arrivals and cross-border spending. …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday lashed out at pressure on some countries — including his own — not to acquire missiles with nuclear warheads. “Some (countries) have missiles with nuclear warheads in their hands but I shouldn’t have it. I do not accept this,” he said in a speech in the eastern city of Sivas.  Turkey does not possess nuclear weapons and has been a party to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty since 1980.  The Turkish leader’s remarks come amid burgeoning defense ties between Turkey and Russia in defiance of Ankara’s NATO ally the United States. Washington has reacted to Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 by kicking the country off its F-35 fighter jet program. The U.S. says Russia will be able to glean sensitive technical knowledge about the new fighter if it is operated alongside the S-400. On Friday, Erdogan suggested Turkey could look to Russia for an alternative after its F-35 exclusion. …

Ben Wagner worked three days a week for his congressional representative this summer in northern Virginia.    A senior at the College of William and Mary this fall in Williamsburg, Virginia, Wagner was busy reaching out to constituents, answering phone calls and conducting research for U.S. Representative Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat.    He said the experience helped define his future.    “I realized that that’s what I want to do,” Wagner said. “Be on the Hill. Be a staffer. Run a campaign.” (The Hill refers to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.)    And he couldn’t have done it without the people who provided him food, housing, transportation and health insurance: his parents. Wagner worked as an intern for free.    Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., center, poses for photos with Senate interns, Wednesday, July 9, 2008, on Capitol Hill in Washington. “I really have to thank my parents,” he said. They knew that “taking this internship, whether or not it was unpaid, was something that I needed to do in order to advance my career to the next step.”    Wagner was one of an estimated hundreds of thousands of unpaid interns in the U.S.      But “it’s a …

Illegal drug use is on the rise around the world according to a new UN report. How bad is it and what is being done to stop the spread of dangerous and increasingly deadly drugs? Former US “Drug Czar” Gil Kerlikowske and Ben Westhoff, author of “Fentanyl Inc.” weigh in with Greta Van Susteren. Recorded September 4, 2019    …

Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei accused U.S. authorities on Wednesday of attempting to break into its information systems and of trying to coerce its employees to gather information on the company.    Huawei, which faces mounting American pressure including possible loss of access to U.S. technology over accusations the company is a security risk, said in a statement that Washington has used “unscrupulous means” in recent months to disrupt its business.    American officials have given no evidence to support claims Huawei might aid Chinese spying, accusations the company denies. The United States, Australia, Japan and some other governments have imposed restrictions on use of Huawei technology. Huawei Technologies Ltd. is the No. 2 global smartphone brand and the biggest maker of network gear for phone companies. Export controls announced by the Trump administration in May would limit Huawei’s access to U.S. technology. Implementation has been postponed to mid-November. Washington is lobbying European governments to exclude Huawei from next-generation telecom networks. Germany, France and Ireland say they have no plans to ban any supplier. Huawei, headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen, gave no evidence to support its accusations. A company spokesman said he had no additional details.    The …

Rescuers trying to reach drenched and stunned victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas fanned out across a blasted landscape of smashed and flooded homes Wednesday, while disaster relief organizations rushed to bring in food and medicine. The official death toll stood at seven but was certain to rise. The full magnitude of the crisis in the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama was still coming into focus, with rescue crews yet to reach some stricken areas. “Right now there are just a lot of unknowns,” Parliament member Iram Lewis said in Grand Bahama in the wake of the most powerful hurricane on record ever to hit the country. “We need help.” Dorian, meanwhile, pushed its way northward off the Florida shoreline with reduced but still-dangerous 105 mph (165 kph) winds on a projected course that could sideswipe Georgia and the Carolinas. An estimated 3 million people in the four states were warned to evacuate. The storm mauled the Bahamas for over a day and a half with winds up to 185 mph (295 kph) and torrential rains, swamping neighborhoods in muddy brown floodwaters and destroying or severely damaging thousands of homes. “We are in the midst of one of …

A large explosion at a fireworks factory in northern India on Wednesday killed at least 16 people and caused the building to catch fire and collapse, officials said. Police Officer Mukhtiar Singh said 15 other people were injured in the blast in Batala, a town in Punjab state about 460 kilometers (285 miles) north of New Delhi. Singh said rescue work is continuing at the site. Deepak Bhatia, a state government administrator, said the cause of the explosion was being investigated. The building caught fire after the blast, he said. Television images showed a brick-lined building that had completely collapsed from the force of the explosion. Fireworks manufacturing is a big business in India, with firecrackers often used in festivals and weddings. Many illegal factories produce firecrackers that are cheaper to buy than legally made fireworks.           …

Lebanon’s prime minister is pledging to keep the national currency pegged to the dollar and says the government won’t consider an International Monetary Fund program that would leave it to the markets to decide the price of the Lebanese pound. Saad Hariri told CNBC late on Tuesday: “We believe that keeping the Lebanese pound at 1,500 (to the dollar) is the only stable way to move forward with these reforms.” The Lebanese pound has been pegged to the dollar since 1997. Hariri’s comments came a day after Lebanese leaders declared “an economic state of emergency” to resolve the country’s economic crisis. Lebanon has one of the world’s highest public debts, standing at 150% of gross domestic product. Growth has plummeted and the budget deficit has reached 11% of GDP.   …

The creation of a so-called “safe zone” in northeastern Syria has gotten off to good start, with U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces pulling back from a small, initial area along the Turkish border, a Syrian Kurdish official said — but calm can only prevail if Turkey also removes its troops. Ilham Ahmed, co-chair of the executive committee of the U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Council, said the understanding reached between Washington and Ankara last month, and in coordination with the Syrian Kurdish-led forces, constitutes a step toward starting a dialogue over mutual security concerns.    “We seek to find a way to dialogue, and starting to implement this plan expresses our readiness and seriousness,” Ahmed said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.    “We want to tell the world and the coalition that we are ready to take serious steps to get to dialogue,” she added.   Turkey views the U.S-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in Syria as an extension of a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.   Ankara has already carried out military offensives inside Syria to push the group away from the western end of the border. Over the last weeks, Turkish officials threatened a similar offensive in northeastern Syria, …

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has unveiled measures to tackle domestic violence, following a spate of murders of women that have sparked public outrage. More than 100 women have been killed so far this year in France by their spouses, partners or ex-partners.  VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports domestic violence and murder of women is a worldwide problem, but many governments choose to ignore it.  …

Farming them is much kinder to the environment than raising cattle or pigs. They require less land, less water, and emit fewer greenhouse gases. So far so good… that is, if eating gourmet dishes featuring a variety of creeply-crawlies (crawling insects) doesn’t bug you (cause distress).  If you are eating right now, you may want to put down your fork until after VOA’s Arash Arabasadi digs into the story. …

Online cooking videos are an indispensable tool for at-home chefs, but using a mobile device in the kitchen can get messy. A New York University student has solved the problem by turning the traditional apron into a remote control for devices. Tina Trinh reports. …

As migrants and asylum-seekers have crossed America’s southern border in record numbers this year, U.S. Border Patrol has scrambled to adapt. In one Texas sector, a near 1,200% increase in the number of migrant family apprehensions has forced the agency to shift personnel and alter emergency procedures geared to save lives. VOA’s Ramon Taylor and Victoria Macchi report on the natural hazards border crossers face, in what is projected to be one of the deadliest years for migrants in the region. …

After John Ryder retired from teaching high school, he found himself running short of money to keep living in his apartment along the shores of San Francisco Bay, one of the most expensive parts of the United States. In 2015 he moved to the Philippines. Things could hardly be better. “Once you’re here and get your feet wet a little bit, it’s not too bad,” said Ryder, 69, as he ate an American-style lunch at local prices at the Veterans of Foreign Wars restaurant near Clark Field, a former U.S. air base north of Manila. “I couldn’t afford to live in California,” Ryder said. “I had a friend who gave me a break on the rent. When I told him I was going to retire he was, ‘well, I’m going have to raise your rent.’”  Ryder’s story explains why the Philippines gave out a record number of visas, for a single year, in 2018. The total came to 6,437, including spouses and dependents. The 2018 figure marks a 10% increase over 2017.  The Philippines has given out 63,538 visas to foreign retirees since it began issuing them in 1987, according to Philippine Retirement Authority figures. Foreign retirees enjoy a lifestyle …

Rescue workers said Tuesday they have recovered the bodies of 20 people killed in a middle-of-the-night fire aboard a dive boat off the coast of Southern California, while continuing to look for 14 more people feared dead. Divers, in water 20 meters deep, scoured the submerged remains of the 23-meter commercial dive boat, called Conception, where the blaze broke out before dawn Monday, trapping 34 people, who likely were asleep below deck and unable to escape. The U.S. Coast Guard, however, said it had ended 24 hours of aerial searches of the surrounding waters after finding no sight of survivors swimming to escape the disaster. Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said that among the 20 bodies recovered so far, there were 11 women and nine men. He said the bodies of another four to six victims were spotted, but divers could not immediately pull them from the wreckage. A wooden cross and a sign that reads “Go With God” in Spanish are displayed at a memorial site for the victims of the diving boat Conception on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019, in Santa Barbara, Calif. The U.S. Coast Guard said five crew members were awake on the boat’s bridge when …

Russia’s natural resources and environment minister said on Wednesday he supported allowing private oil and gas companies to work on the Arctic shelf. Speaking to reporters at an economic forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, the minister, Dmitry Kobylkin, said he supported “any decision linked to an increase in investment in projects related to hydrocarbons.” The Russian economy is heavily reliant on natural resources and the Arctic’s vast oil and gas reserves are expected to become more accessible as climate change melts the ice and technology advances. “We clearly understand that Russia’s Arctic zone has not been studied enough,” Kobylkin said in separate comments to TASS news agency. “Of course we would like to study it more, but the government cannot allow itself to make such investments. It’s very expensive.” In August deputy prime ministers Dmitry Kozak and Yuri Trutnev proposed that Russia’s Arctic shelf be opened to private investors and proposed to draft legislation to expand access to it. Only state-controlled Gazprom and Rosneft are currently authorized to operate on Russia’s Arctic shelf. Kobylkin told TASS that his ministry was also in talks with Gazprom and Rosneft to increase their Arctic exploration. …

Vienna has held off Melbourne to retain the top spot on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index for 2019, further strengthening its reputation as the world’s most pleasant city, while the ‘gilets jaunes’ protests hurt Paris’ score. The Austrian capital, which attracts tourists for its classical music scene and imperial history but also has abundant green spaces and excellent public services, last year ended Melbourne’s seven-year run at the top of the survey of 140 cities, helped by an improved security outlook across Europe. Vienna and Melbourne have been neck and neck in the EIU survey for years, but the Austrian capital also regularly tops a larger ranking of cities by quality of life compiled by consulting firm Mercer. The gap between the two cities – of 0.7 point out of 100, with Vienna scoring 99.1 – was unchanged in the 2019 ranking published on Wednesday, as were the cities in the top 10, though Sydney closed in on its old rival. “Sydney has risen from fifth to third, thanks to an improvement in its culture and environment score, reflecting an increased focus on combating and mitigating the impacts of climate change, as outlined by the city’s ‘Sustainable Sydney …