Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday his country would not hold bilateral talks with the United States. Speaking to parliament, Rouhani said the only way negotiations would happen is if the United States lifts all of its sanctions against Iran, and that such talks would involve the other signatories of the 2015 international nuclear deal. U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement last year after being a sharp critic of the terms agreed to between Iran and a group of nations that included Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the European Union. Trump last week expressed openness to meeting with Rouhani, saying “there’s a really good chance” they would talk.  The U.S. leader wants any new deal to go further than the 2015 pact to include not only restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity but also banning it from testing ballistic missiles. Rouhani reiterated Tuesday that Iran wants European nations to commit to buying oil to circumvent U.S. sanctions or else Iran plans to further step back from the nuclear agreement. Already Iran has gone past the stated limit on the amount of enriched uranium it can hold as well the limit on the level to which it can enrich.  …

Want to experience life on Mars?  You don’t have to wait till it’s possible to travel there. Spain is much closer.  Astroland, an interplanetary agency in Spain, has replicated Martian environment in a cave in northern Spain and has opened it to visitors from around the world. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the project called Ares Station attracts visitors who like adventure. …

Fighting among rival factions had ground commerce to a halt at the Port of Benghazi but three years after it re-opened trade is up. Officials say the plan is to raise enough money to fully restore and expand this hub of Libyan business. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

East Timor is marking the 20th anniversary of a referendum that ended 24 years of Indonesian occupation and delivered independence, but that also sparked a bloody rampage by pro-Jakarta militias who killed 1,500 people and pushed another half-a-million out of their homes. The capital has been sprucing up with freshly painted structures, newly paved streets and manicured gardens for the arrival of foreign dignitaries for celebrations that will last until the end of the month. But beneath the cheery facade is a lingering anger. Joao Borras, now 37, was forced to flee as militias rampaged through the capital, Dili, shot dead his two best friends, and razed his home. He said the killings were not just in the open but also behind closed doors by a government apparatus backed by militias that watched every move. “It’s a horrible life actually,” Borras said. “There’s a lot of people killed, but you didn’t see because they took you in the night time. They said ‘let’s go for interviews’ – and you will not come back the next morning.” The struggle since independence United Nations peacekeepers landed three weeks after the August 30, 1999 referendum and restored order. Independence followed on May 20, …

Peru plans to beef up security at its border with Ecuador to prevent illegal immigration, after stricter entry requirements for Venezuelans led to a 90% drop in legal crossings, a government official said on Monday. More than 850,000 Venezuelans have fled their homeland for Peru in recent years, part of a mass exodus from the Caribbean nation as it faces a crippling economic crisis. But in June, Peru started requiring Venezuelans who arrive to already have visas, part of stricter policies for Venezuelans in some South American nations. “The entry of Venezuelan migrants to our country has dropped dramatically and today it’s 90% less than what we saw in June,” Foreign Minister Nestor Popolizio told journalists. Popolizio said his ministry was working with the interior ministry and police to make sure Venezuelan migrants were not evading the new requirements by crossing illegally. “We’re engaged in a very direct coordination … to ensure more protection all along our border and to avoid illegal entries,” Popolizio said. Popolizio said Peru was one of 11 countries in the region trying to coordinate their policies on handling immigration from Venezuela. After Peru started requiring visas of Venezuelans, Chile and Ecuador implemented similar measures. All …

The new U.S. ambassador to Mexico has taken aim at Mexican icon Frida Kahlo for her support of Marxism, stirring up a fierce social media debate with a tweet asking if the painter had not been aware of atrocities committed in the name of that ideology. Few Mexicans have enjoyed greater global recognition than Kahlo, who spent long periods bedridden after a traffic accident in her youth, attained international fame following her death in 1954 and became a feminist symbol in the 1970s. She created some 200 paintings, sketches and drawings – mainly self-portraits – in which she transformed her misfortune into works of bold color. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Landau, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and sworn in last month, must navigate a volatile bilateral relationship. Trump frequently berates Mexico over trade and immigration. Not shying away from controversy himself, Landau took to Twitter on Sunday during a visit to Kahlo’s house, now a museum in the colonial-era Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacan. “I admire her free and bohemian spirit, and she rightly became an icon of Mexico around the whole world. What I do not understand is her obvious passion for Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism. Didn’t she know …

Saudi Arabia is struggling to hold together a military coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen after local allies turned on each other in a power struggle that has strained Riyadh’s alliance with its main regional partner, the United Arab Emirates. The UAE, the second power in the coalition, has openly intervened on behalf of southern separatists battling the Saudi-backed government for control of the south, launching air strikes on government forces trying to regain their interim seat of power in Aden port. The escalation risks further fracturing the Saudi-UAE alliance and emboldening the Houthi movement, which the coalition was formed to fight. The United Nations is trying to restart talks to end the 4-1/2 year conflict, largely seen as a proxy war between rival powers Saudi Arabia and Iran. What’s happening in Southern Yemen? UAE-backed separatists, who seek self-rule in the south, seized Aden, base of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government, in early August after they accused a party allied to Hadi of complicity in a Houthi assault on their forces. The two sides were nominal allies under the Western-backed, Sunni Muslim coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthi group, which ousted Hadi from power in …

Veteran film director Brian De Palma, maker of “Carrie” and “Scarface,” has no intention of retiring yet, though he is 78, and is now working on a horror movie inspired by the scandal engulfing Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Some 70 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct dating back decades. Once among Hollywood’s most powerful producers, Weinstein has denied the accusations and said any sexual encounters were consensual. He has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges against him. In an interview with Reuters during the Venice Film Festival, where De Palma revisited his career in a masterclass, the director spoke about sexual misconduct in Hollywood, dealing with bad reviews and adapting to changes. Below are edited excerpts of the interview. Q:  There is talk you are looking to revisit the horror genre maybe with a take inspired by the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Why that subject matter? De Palma:  “Because my years of working in and out of Hollywood you were very aware of the kind of abuse to women that was going on. And being a director who directs women all the time you are very sensitive in how they are treated in the movie that you are making. …

Timothee Chalamet is already one of the most acclaimed young actors working today, but he says that the prospect playing young Henry V in “The King” was terrifying. “It was a real challenge for me,” Chalamet said Monday at the Venice International Film Festival, where the film is having its world premiere. “It was terrifying at the same time but I had an amazing time.”He was drawn to the project simply because he was out of his wheelhouse. The 23-year-old has been nominated for an Oscar, but he’s never done stunts, worked with swords or played a role quite like this. And not many people his age have. The film is drawn from Shakespeare’s “Henry V” as well as “Henry IV” parts one and two. Co-writer and co-star Joel Edgerton, who plays Falstaff, had had a formative experience doing the plays. But they’d often cast older actors who had the perceived gravitas and experience for the part. “There was a real aversion to using younger actors for these roles,” Chalamet said. “At the time power was wielded by unusually young people…That felt new and unique to explore.” He said there is something “disturbed” about young people having so much power. …

Dubai set up a real estate planning commission on Monday to regulate projects and avoid competition between semi-government and private firms, its ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum announced on his website and Twitter account. Dubai has traditionally encouraged open, competitive business but heavy oversupply in the property market, an important sector of the economy, has seen residential prices slide by at least a quarter since mid-2014. Sheikh Mohammed has put his son and Deputy Ruler Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed in charge of the new body, which will also take steps to stop similar sorts of projects being developed. The property sector accounted for 7.2% of the emirates’ gross domestic product in 2018. Dubai property shares rose following the announcement, led by a 3.4% jump in Emaar Properties. A number of state-owned developers, such as Nakheel, and semi-government owned developers like Emaar will also be part of the new body, known as the Higher Committee for Real Estate Planning. “Controlling supply and demand will be the key to real estate sustainability for the coming years,” Dubai Land Department’s (DLD) Director General Sultan Butti bin Mejren said in a statement. The DLD, which is already involved in regulating the sector, would …

Chinese filmmaker Yonfan says his animation “No. 7 Cherry Lane” is his love letter to Hong Kong, in which he tells a tale of romance set in the late 1960s. Seven years in the making, the film follows Ziming, an English literature student at Hong Kong University, as he begins to tutor beautiful student Meiling. He develops feelings for her mother, Mrs. Yu, originally from Taiwan, taking her to see films and their romance develops through movies seen on the big screen. Described as a love letter to Hong Kong in production notes, the narrated hand-drawn 2-D animation feature is set against a backdrop of the 1967 Communist-led riots in Hong Kong. “No. 7 Cherry Lane,” Yonfan’s first animation and his first movie since 2009’s “Prince of Tears”, is one of 21 films competing for the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered on Monday. “This film is about love, and it is not about the exploitation of sex and sensuality to attract the box office,” Yonfan told a news conference, speaking in English. As a child, Yonfan, who was born in China’s central Hubei province, moved with his family to Taiwan. He went to Hong …

Almost 200 people were rescued attempting to make the dangerous crossing from North Africa to Spain on Monday, the coastguard said. The rescues come amid a debate in Spain over the role that charity boats should play in assisting government efforts after a Spanish non-governmental organization ship was at the center of a standoff with European states last month. In the Strait of Gibraltar, 73 people were rescued from three boats, among them 10 minors, Spanish rescue services said. A member of Spanish Red Cross carries a migrant child, intercepted off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea, after arriving on a rescue boat at the port of Malaga, southern Spain, Sept. 2, 2019. Another 110 people were rescued from five boats in the Alboran Sea, the majority of whom will be taken to the port of Malaga. Arrivals to Spain so far this year by mid-August were a little over 18,000, Interior Ministry data shows, a 39% reduction on the same period last year. United Nations data show irregular sea arrivals from the Middle East and North Africa to European Union dropped from over 1 million in 2015 to some 141,500 people last year while nearly 15,000 people are estimated …

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, moderates who project themselves as pragmatic collaborators, are taking a no-compromise approach on the overhaul of the nation’s gun laws after the latest mass shooting.    Campaigning separately in eastern Iowa on Monday, the former vice president and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, say the minimum provisions include universal background checks, a ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition, and red flag laws to allow officials to confiscate firearms from dangerous people.    Biden told reporters before a Labor Day picnic in Cedar Rapids that inaction from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans is “disgraceful.” Asked if there’s room for negotiation, he declared: “None. This is one we have to just push and push and push and push and push.” Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks with local residents at the Hawkeye Area Labor Council Labor Day Picnic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sept. 2, 2019. Buttigieg also rejected compromise, saying after a campaign event in Cedar Rapids: “There is just no good faith in the congressional GOP nor, I believe, in the White House when it comes to dealing with this issue.” Their comments come two days after a gunman toting …

Norway-backed talks between Venezuela’s opposition and the government of President Nicolas Maduro must focus on elections, an opposition negotiator said on Monday, as the dialogue proceedings remain stalled after the government walked out. Maduro’s delegation suspended its participation last month to protest a new round of U.S. sanctions, and has not yet established when it will return to the proceedings that are meant to resolve the country’s political standoff. Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognized by more than 50 countries as the nation’s legitimate president, has said the country needs to hold a free and fair vote following Maduro’s 2018 re-election that was widely described as rigged. “It was the regime that walked out abruptly because it did not want to discuss … what’s important for the country, which is holding a free election,” said legislator Stalin Gonzalez, a lead opposition negotiator. Asked when the talks will resume, Gonzalez responded “that question should be asked of the regime, if they’re prepared or not to discuss the important issues.” Neither Venezuela’s information ministry nor Norway’s foreign ministry replied to requests for comment. Guaido, who is head of the opposition-run National Assembly, in January invoked the constitution to assume a …

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. A court in Turkey has dropped terror charges against a prominent pro-Kurdish politician who has been jailed for more than two years, but authorities are still pursuing a separate case against him, which could keep him imprisoned. Selahattin Demirtas, a former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was accused of leading a terrorist organization, carrying out terrorist propaganda, and other terror-related crimes for which he was faced with up to 142 years in prison. According to Anadolu Agency, a state-run news agency, Demirtas was accused of being a leader of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as PKK, which is designated by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU as a terrorist organization. FILE – Turkish riot police detain protesters as they use tear gas to disperse people who were protesting against Turkey’s policy in Syria, in Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 7, 2014. He was also accused of having links to the violence that erupted in 2014 after protesters took to the streets to criticize the government’s policies in neighboring Syria. At least 30 people were reportedly killed. Monday’s court ruling cleared Demirtas of the terror charges from the main case …

VOA’s Georgian News Service contributed to this report. Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has resigned after a little more than a year on the job.  Bakhtadze announced his decision Monday, saying he had fulfilled the mandate he was given.  “The purpose and main mandate of my nomination for the post of prime minister of Georgia in 2018 was to create and implement a strategic development framework for the country,” Bakhtadze wrote on Facebook. “A strategic development framework has been created, implemented, and therefore I decided to resign because I believe I have fulfilled my mission at this point.” Bakhtadze, 37, a former finance minister who became prime minister in June last year, used a lengthy post on Facebook to warn against damaging divisions in the country. “…we must always remember that the only one who will win from the polarization of Georgian society will be an occupying country,” he wrote. He also called on the ruling Georgian Dream Party to ensure the parliamentary elections scheduled for next year are open to allow all Georgians to be heard and allow the opportunity for “new faces” in the country’s politics. The ruling Georgian Dream Party is expected to nominate Bakhtadze’s successor Tuesday, …

Lebanon will declare an economic emergency and the government has begun work on a plan to accelerate public finance reforms, its prime minister said Monday. Saad al-Hariri also said the policy of keeping stable the Lebanese pound, which is pegged to the dollar, would continue. Cabinet ministers, politicians and lawmakers who met Monday reached consensus on an outline for a plan that would put public finances and the economy on a more sustainable path, Hariri said. “There is agreement to announce a state of economic emergency,” Hariri said. FILE – Lebanese President Michel Aoun gestures upon his arrival at Tunis-Carthage International Airport in Tunis, Tunisia, March 30, 2019. “This difficult economic situation requires us taking speedy measures such as finishing the budget on time and reducing the deficit,” Hariri told reporters after the meeting that President Michel Aoun also attended to address a worsening economic situation. The government would hold more meetings to speed up the work, he said. Lebanon is grappling with one of the world’s heaviest public debt burdens at 150% of GDP and years of low economic growth. Government finances, plagued by corruption and waste, are strained by a bloated public sector, debt-servicing costs and subsidizing the …

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi has set Oct. 23 as the date for parliamentary and local elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said Monday. The poll will elect 57 national assembly and 490 local government representatives, IEC spokesman Osupile Maroba said in a statement. The leader of the political party that wins the most seats in parliament will become president of the country. FILE – Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi delivers a speech in Kang, Botswana, April 5, 2019. Masisi’s Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has been in power since independence from Britain in 1966, but has seen its support erode gradually, and in 2014 lost the popular vote for the first time. Masisi came to power in April 2018 through a well-scripted transition, succeeding Ian Khama, who had served the maximum 10 years. The BDP’s main challenger is an opposition coalition, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), which says the BDP has been in power too long and presided over increased corruption, joblessness and inequality. Masisi has pledged reforms to address unemployment and corruption. The World Bank has named Botswana as one of the world’s most unequal countries; Masisi has also promised to spread the benefits of economic growth more widely and …

The U.S. Coast Guard says 34 people are missing after a fire erupted aboard a dive boat off the coast of Southern California. Local media are reporting that several people died in the fire, but the Coast Guard could not immediately confirm any fatalities. Coast Guard officials said five crew members were rescued after the fire broke out on the 20-meter commercial dive boat near Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Santa Barbara. They said are searching for other passengers who have not been accounted for. Officials say the missing passengers were sleeping below desk when the fire broke out before dawn Monday morning. An image posted by the fire department showed the dive vessel engulfed in flames. The Coast Guard says most of the fire has now been extinguished. The boat was on a Labor Day weekend cruise taking divers to the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. …

Hundreds of Palestinian women held a demonstration in the West Bank on Monday to demand an investigation into the death of a 21-year-old woman who many suspect was the victim of a so-called honor killing. Israa Ghrayeb, a makeup artist from a village near Bethlehem, died last month after being hospitalized with severe injuries. Friends and women’s rights activists suspect her male relatives assaulted her over a video shared online that purportedly showed her out with a man who had proposed to her. The family says she jumped from a balcony of their home after being “possessed by demons.”   In conservative parts of the Middle East, women have been murdered by male relatives over suspicions they violated strict rules on relationships and marriage. Such killings are rare in the Palestinian territories, and the case has sparked an outcry online and in Arab media, leading to widespread calls for justice. “There is a criminal suspicion in this case,” said Suhair Farraj, one of the protesters. “We demand a serious investigation.” Ghrayeb died on Aug. 22 after sustaining serious injuries at home nearly two weeks earlier. Her family released a statement saying she jumped off a second-story balcony, breaking her spine …

Authorities in Guatemala have arrested former first lady and losing presidential candidate Sandra Torres on charges of campaign finance violations.   Investigators searched her home and transported her to court Monday morning. An investigator who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case confirmed her arrest.   Torres was married to – and later divorced – former President Alvaro Colom, who governed from 2008 to 2012.   She lost the presidential election last month in a runoff to Alejandro Giammattei.   There have been allegations that campaign contributions for her Unity for Hope party were not properly registered and that some public funds may have been diverted to her presidential bid.   …

Looting and violence spread across several neighborhoods in South Africa’s major cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg on Monday, after a spate of overnight attacks that appeared to target foreign-owned shops. At least 50 shops were looted and burned early Monday in the southern Johannesburg suburbs of Malvern and Jeppestown. Police fired rubber bullets at looters as burnt cars were stranded in the roads as violence grew. Officials dismissed reports that the ongoing attacks were xenophobic and that foreign-owned shops were targeted in the violence, insisting they were opportunistic crimes.   ”Xenophobia is just an excuse that is being used by people to commit criminal acts,” Police Minister Bheki Cele told the media on Monday afternoon. “It is not xenophobia, but pure criminality.” Cele said the government’s first priority was to deploy more police officers to the affected areas. Police arrested 41 people for the violence in Johannesburg, while 8 others were arrested in Tembisa township, east of Johannesburg, and one person arrested in the capitol Pretoria, police said. On Monday, a pamphlet circulating on social media, seen by The Associated Press, encouraged South Africans to chase foreigners out of their communities. The pamphlet, attributed to a group called the Sisonke …

A Tunisian national guard chief and three extremists were killed in a clash Monday, on the first day of the country’s presidential campaign, authorities said. National guard officers and army troops were tracking a radical group in the Kef mountains near the Algerian border when shooting broke out, killing the four, national guard spokesman Housameddine Jbabli told The Associated Press. The security operation was ongoing near the town of Hydra in the Kasserine region, he said. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, who is among 26 candidates running for president, told reporters that the extremists “were planning large-scale terrorist operations,” without elaborating. Radio Mosaique reported that two of the extremists were Algerians from the Okba Ibn Nafaa brigade, which is linked to al-Qaida’s North Africa arm. Tunisian security forces have stepped up land and air operations against extremists hiding in the hard-to-reach mountainous region, where dozens have been killed in clashes in recent years. Monday’s clash came on the day Tunisia’s presidential campaign officially opened, though didn’t appear to be linked to the country’s political situation. Since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings against autocratic rule, Tunisia’s democratic leaders have struggled to contain Islamic extremism, notably along its borders with Algeria and Libya. …