A judo world champion from Iran could seek asylum in Germany after disobeying orders from the government to withdraw from the world championships in Tokyo to avoid a potential bout against an Israeli opponent. The International Judo Federation said late Sunday that Saeid Mollaei was ordered to withdraw from last week’s competition by Iranian deputy sports minister Davar Zani. The IJF said Mollaei was then called by Iranian Olympic Committee president Reza Salehi Amiri, who said security services were at his parents’ house.   Mollaei was the defending champion and could have faced Israeli athlete Sagi Muki in the final. They were the two top-ranked athletes in their class prior to the world championships. Mollaei said he was ordered to withdraw ahead of a preliminary bout against a Russian so it didn’t appear to be a boycott of Israel.   Mollaei kept competing but eventually lost in the semifinals and did not have to face Muki, who won gold and later called Mollaei “an inspiration.”   “I want to compete wherever I can,” Mollaei said in a statement from the IJF. “I live in a country whose law does not permit me to. We have no choice, all athletes must …

Russia’s Foreign Ministry says that its ambassador to Egypt has died. He was 68.   The ministry said Sergei Kirpichenko died suddenly Monday morning in a hospital in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. It did not name the cause of death.   A career diplomat, Kirpichenko was Russia’s ambassador in Egypt since 2011 and also served as Russia’s envoy to the Arab League, which is based in Cairo. He was previously posted in the United Arab Emirates, Libya and Syria.   The flag over the Russian Embassy in Cairo is flying at half-staff in Kirpichenko’s memory. …

Greece has formally ended the last remaining banking restrictions imposed four years ago during a financial crisis that saw the country nearly crash out of the eurozone. The decision announced last week took full effect Monday as limits were lifted on international business transactions, overseas cash withdrawals and money sent to students studying abroad, among other cash curbs. Capital controls were imposed in 2015 during a standoff between international bailout lenders and the previous Greek government that triggered a three-week closure of Greek banks and severe limits placed on cash withdrawals. Greece eventually signed up to a third consecutive bailout agreement and the banking restrictions were later gradually dismantled. Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted that “the abolition of capital controls is a necessary condition to attracting investment and growth.”   …

In the back of a West Des Moines brew pub, a dozen supporters of Pete Buttigieg sipped craft beer and wine, scribbling members of their social circles on campaign worksheets  —  clubs, yoga groups, jobs, school organizations. Over the next hour, people like Julie DeMicco, a local middle school teacher, worked their smartphones in what Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign calls a “relational phone bank,” calling and texting. DeMicco hoped to catch some of her teacher friends to test their interest. ”Doing just like cold calling is so awkward,” DeMicco said. “Calling my friends for a couple minutes, it’s fun and easy.” Her work may be easy, but Buttigieg’s is not. In Iowa, Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is well behind his better-known 2020 presidential rivals, who have spent months building a deep organizational structure in the state that marks the first test for the Democratic presidential nomination. But thanks to his campaign taking in nearly $25 million in contributions in the last quarter, money that he is using to help create an army of peer-to-peer foot soldiers, Buttigieg is rapidly trying to catch up. And while Buttigieg’s team has confidence in his strategy, particularly the component of aggressively …

U.S. President Donald Trump is praising law enforcement in West Texas where seven people were killed when a gunman opened fire on people after fleeing a traffic stop. Trump on Sunday called the shooting rampage “a very sad situation.” But when asked what legislation might result from the shooting, he did not have a definitive answer. Despite the rising toll from mass shooting in the United States, many politicians are reluctant to call for tougher gun control laws for fear of losing the votes of gun rights supporters and campaign contributions from the gun lobby. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

Far from just playing backgammon or shuffleboard, today’s senior citizens may want to renew their gym memberships.  A new, small-sample study says that older adults benefit from the types of exercise just years ago thought too risky for their bodies. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi stretches and warms up for this story. …

Britain is bracing for an explosive week of political battles this week which could prove crucial in Britain’s proposed exit from the European Union. Lawmakers return from summer break Tuesday, when they will try to seize control of Parliament to prevent Britain leaving the EU without a deal. There have been protests across the country against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue, or suspend parliament – and as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the battle now appears to be now only about Brexit, but about the very fabric of a society and country once seen as one of world’s most stable democracies. …

African beats are spreading worldwide due largely to a growing African population around the globe. But it’s not just audiences from the diaspora that are dancing to the rhythm. As VOA’s Jesusemen Oni reports, the international rise of afro beats is causing a stir in the music industry and influencing culture and markets in the West.  …

Hong Kong high school students gathered in a park on what was the first day the new school year Monday in a strike to show their continued support for the pro-democracy movement. Earlier, demonstrators disrupted the Monday morning commute by blocking train doors. Sunday protesters seeking democratic rights blocked access to the international airport, setting fire to barricades on the road, blocking entrance to the airport bus terminal and leading transit officials to suspend train service to the facility. The protests prompted authorities to cancel some flights, which forced travelers to trek on foot for hours toward the city center.  Many of Sunday’s protesters wanted  to exact revenge after riot police on Saturday beat rail customers with batons and soaked them with pepper spray while carrying out arrests. Most of those attacked were not arrested.  The young people, frustrated over a bill that could more deeply involve mainland China in the city’s legal affairs, have targeted the airport as a vulnerable nerve center where protests draw heavy media coverage.  In addition, they vented their anger at the Hong Kong urban transport company, the MTR Corp., by trashing a station Sunday, hours after protesters caused severe damage at 32 other stations. The …

Joyce Sasser was born in 1970 with no bones in her thumbs. Her doctors blamed thalidomide, a drug used to treat pregnant women experiencing morning sickness, until it was found to cause congenital abnormalities.  Sasser said her mother swore up and down she’d never taken thalidomide; the two risks she felt she’d taken were much, much milder. “She said ‘if two aspirin or half a glass of champagne could have done it, I am responsible, but I didn’t take thalidomide,’” Sasser said.   Sasser says despite that denial, doctors continued to believe their theory and implemented treatments accordingly – including one that permanently stunted her arms. It wasn’t until Sasser was 20 and pregnant with her first daughter that doctors found the real reason for her abnormalities: Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a congenital issue in which the bone marrow fails to make enough red blood cells. As her mother had insisted for years, it had nothing to do with thalidomide. Sasser’s mom’s experience – and the medical decisions she allowed, despite her protestations that the doctors had it wrong – are still all too common, even a half-century later. Sasser has learned over time how to manage the multiple medical difficulties that …

The center of Hurricane Dorian is making its way across Grand Bahama Island with a life-threatening storm surge, drenching rains and what forecasters called “catastrophic” winds. Dorian presents extra danger to the island because of its slow speed, moving westward at only 9 kilometers per hour early Monday.   The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm could drop 30 to 60 centimeters of rain across the northwestern Bahamas, with 75 centimeters in isolated areas. Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Sunday was “the worst day of my life” as the storm pummeled the islands with top sustained winds of 295 kilometers per hour. “Many had not heeded the warning. Many have remained behind and still there are individuals within the West End area who still refuse to leave,” he said at a Nassau news conference. “I can only say to them that I hope this is not the last time they will hear my voice.” Bahamas’s Prime Minister Hubert Minnis gives a speech during Americas Economics Summit in Lima, Peru, Friday, April 13, 2018. Officials in states along the southeastern U.S. coast have issued their own warnings and ordered people to evacuate the most vulnerable areas.  Evacuation orders go …

Former state Sen. Bill Larkin, a World War II veteran who served as a state lawmaker in New York for four decades, died Saturday. He was 91.  His family announced the death Sunday, calling Larkin a “dedicated public servant, soldier and statesman.”  Larkin represented a stretch of the Hudson Valley as an assemblyman from 1979 to 1990 and then as a state senator until his retirement last year.  A Republican, he was known for forging bipartisan friendships in Albany and advancing veterans’ causes and health care for infants.    “He lived a storied and authentically American life,” Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro said in a statement.   William J. “Bill” Larkin Jr. was born in Troy, New York, and was raised by his aunt and uncle. He thought he was 18 when, while still in high school, he enlisted in the Army in 1944.   It wasn’t until years later that he discovered he was born in 1928, not 1926, as he had always believed. “I wasn’t upset,” Larkin recalled last year. “I was in the armed forces. I met with people who cared about our country, and I was very proud.” Larkin served in the Pacific during WWII, where he …

Tensions are rising between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as the Israeli military said on Sunday that a number of anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon, targeting an Israeli military base and vehicles. “A number of hits have been confirmed,” the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that it “is responding with fire towards the sources of fire and targets in southern Lebanon.” No casualties were reported from the attack, Israeli officials said. Retaliation Hours before the incident, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had vowed to retaliate for the recent “Israeli aggression” in south Beirut. “This time I wanted to say it would be open-ended where we would retaliate from,” he said during a televised speech Saturday night, which was broadcast on Hezbollah channel al-Manar TV. The leader of the Iranian-backed group said that the first response against Israel was downing its two drones in Lebanon last week. Two explosive-laden drones crashed and exploded in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh in Beirut last Sunday. The attack was blamed on Israel by the Lebanese government and Hezbollah. Israel hasn’t officially commented on the alleged incident. But Israeli officials have warned that they would target Iran and its proxies should …

Wall Street stock futures weakened in early trade on Monday, setting a dour tone for Asian markets after tit-for-tat tariffs between the United States and China took effect, reinforcing investors’ gloomy expectations for global growth prospects. The E-mini futures for U.S. S&P500 ESc1 fell as much as 1.06% in early trade and last stood down 0.68% at 2,905 while Chicago-traded Nikkei futures NIYcm1 suggest Japan’s Nikkei .N225 is on course to fall 0.7%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS, which lost 4.7% last month, is likely to stay under pressure. The United States slapped 15% tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods on Sunday – including footwear, smart watches and flat-panel televisions – while China imposed new duties on U.S. crude, the latest escalation in a bruising trade war. A variety of studies suggest the tariffs will cost U.S. households up to $1,000 a year and the latest round will hit a significant number of U.S. consumer goods. In retaliation, China started to impose additional tariffs on some of the U.S. goods on a $75 billion target list. Beijing did not specify the value of the goods that face higher tariffs from Sunday. Many market players say …

The United States and China on Sunday put in place their latest tariff increases on each other’s goods, potentially raising prices Americans pay for some clothes, shoes, sporting goods and other consumer items before the holiday shopping season. President Donald Trump said U.S.-China trade talks were still on for September. “We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters as he returned to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat. “But we can’t allow China to rip us off anymore as a country.” The 15% U.S. taxes apply to about $112 billion of Chinese imports. All told, more than two-thirds of the consumer goods the United States imports from China now face higher taxes. The administration had largely avoided hitting consumer items in its earlier rounds of tariff increases. With cloudy skies in Washington, President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he returns to the White House from Camp David, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019, in Washington. But with prices of many retail goods now likely to rise, the Trump administration’s move threatens the U.S. economy’s main driver: consumer spending. As businesses pull back on investment spending and exports slow in the face of weak global growth, American shoppers have …

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen staged multiple airstrikes on a detention center operated by the Houthi rebels in the southwestern province of Dhamar, killing at least 100 people and wounding dozens more Sunday, officials and the rebels’ health ministry said. Franz Rauchenstein, the head of the Red Cross delegation in Yemen, suggested that the death toll could be higher after visiting the site of the attack, saying relatively few detainees survived. A Red Cross statement said the detention center held around 170 detainees. It said 40 of those were being treated for injuries and the rest were presumed dead. “Witnessing this massive damage, seeing the bodies lying among the rubble, was a real shock. Anger and sadness were natural reactions,” Rauchenstein said. The attack was the deadliest so far this year by the coalition, according to the Yemen Data Project, a database tracking the war. The coalition has faced international criticism for airstrikes that have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, killing thousands of Yemeni civilians. Saudi Arabia intervened on behalf of the internationally recognized Yemini government in March 2015, after the Iran-backed Houthis took the capital. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, thrust millions to …

Germany’s president bowed his head and asked for forgiveness for the suffering his nation inflicted on Poland and the rest of Europe during World War II. “This war was a German crime,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Poland’s leaders, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others Sunday at a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II. “I bow in mourning to the suffering of the victims,” Steinmeier said. “I ask for forgiveness for Germany’s historical debt. I affirm our lasting responsibility.” The ceremony, which was also attended by President Andrzej Duda of Poland, was held at 4.37a.m. local time, exactly 80 years after the air strikes that started the Second World War. “Here began the trail of violence and destruction which was to go through Poland and Europe for six years. We call it war, because we are at a loss to express the horror of those years,” Steinmeier said.   U.S. President Donald Trump had originally been scheduled to attend the event, but canceled as Hurricane Dorian barreled toward the U.S. Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn’t invited to attend the ceremony but that didn’t stop Russia officials from marking the role …

The FBI says the gunman who killed seven and wounded 22 in Odessa, Texas Saturday acted alone and likely had no ties to any global or domestic terror group. The shooter hijacked a mail truck and fired at other cars as he sped along a highway before police killed him. The dead include a teenager. Three officers are among the wounded. A 17 month-girl was also struck, losing several teeth and leaving her with holes in her tongue and lip. “There are no definitive answers as to motive or reasons at this point,” Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke said Sunday. But we are fairly certain that the subject did act alone.” Gerke refused to reveal the shooter’s name during a news conference Sunday, saying he did not want to give him any notoriety. But police officials have identified him as 36-year-old Saen Ator. Saturday’s carnage began when Texas state troopers pulled over gunman for failing to signal for a left turn on a highway. He fired a rifle at the rear window of his car, wounding one officer. The shooter ran off and stole a mail truck, firing at other cars at random before being cornered and gunned down in …

Plastic bags, bottles, cigarette butts and other debris lap against the shore of Virage Beach in northwest Dakar, Senegal. Workers from beachside restaurants and surf shops rake the sand to try to capture the waste, but the garbage always returns. A lack of infrastructure and education surrounding proper waste disposal in the Senegalese capital has resulted in piles of litter inundating the city’s streets and beaches. Babacar Thiaw, owner of Copacabana Surf Village, a surf shop and restaurant on Virage Beach that was opened in 1970 by Thiaw’s father, is taking matters into his own hands by turning his restaurant into a waste-free haven. It’s the first of its kind in the region. Hordes of trash sully a canal near a beach in Dakar. (A. Hammerschlag/VOA) “Growing up here, I see all these problems that the environment is facing with the trash,” Thiaw said. “People are just throwing, throwing, throwing, throwing.” Thiaw has spent the past year working with local conservation groups to transition his business into a zero-waste restaurant. He hopes other beachside restaurants will follow suit. But it’s a radical idea in a country where the typical person uses multiple plastic cups throughout the day to drink tea …

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged a grim tally of violent crimes and a weak economy as he delivered the first state of the union address of his six-year term Sunday. Homicides in Mexico are at a record high and the economy is struggling nine months into his administration. Yet López Obrador, who campaigned on promises to end corruption, continues to enjoy sky-high approval ratings of more than 70% after winning the presidency in a landslide July 2018 election victory that also handed his political party a near-majority in Congress. Stamping out corruption and impunity remains a top priority, López Obrador said in his address to Cabinet members, generals, businessmen and journalists at the National Palace. Tackling corruption is a tall task. Mexico scored 28 out of 100 points in Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index, where a lower score indicates higher levels of corruption. That puts Mexico on par with Russia and behind countries such as Bolivia and Honduras in clean business dealings. “Nothing has damaged Mexico more than the dishonesty of its rulers — and this is the main cause of the economic and social inequality, and of the insecurity and violence, that we suffer,” the president …

Why do Americans celebrate Labor Day? Labor Day is a national holiday, created to honor U.S. workers and their contribution to the economy. Many Americans use the day to celebrate the end of summer and would be surprised to know the day has its roots in the labor movement of the late 1800s. How did the holiday begin? During the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution was at its peak, and many Americans worked 12-hour days, seven days a week in harsh conditions for low pay. Even young children worked in factories. Virtually no employers provided their workers with sick days, paid vacation days or health benefits. As workers became more organized into labor unions they began protesting poor and unsafe working conditions and lobbying for more benefits from employers. The move to recognize workers with a holiday began in state governments, which, one by one, passed legislation to honor the common worker. The U.S. Congress created the federal holiday on June 28, 1894, designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day. What is the difference between Labor Day and May Day? Both Labor Day and International Workers’ Day, or May Day, honor the common worker. May Day, which is celebrated …

     The pro-Iranian Lebanese group Hezbollah fired several anti-tank missiles at an Israeli army base and a military ambulance, but there were no casualties, according to the Israeli army. The army said several of the missiles struck their targets and Israel fired dozens of mortars at Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. For the past week, Israel has been bracing for a Hezbollah attack, since an Israeli airstrike that targeted what Israel said was an Iranian plot to bomb northern Israel with armed drones. That attack killed several Iranian fighters, including two members of Hezbollah, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had threatened retaliation.   That came with several anti-tank missiles fired at northern Israel that hit an army base and a military ambulance but did not cause casualties. Hezbollah said the target was an armored personnel carrier and there were injuries.   In a news conference with the visiting president of Honduras, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked relieved that the Hezbollah strike had not caused casualties.   He said that Israel responded to the attack and that he has ordered the army to be ready to respond to any scenario.   An army spokesman said Israel had launched more …

Greek-born French director Costa-Gavras has been recognized for his “particularly original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema” at the Venice Film Festival, where the Oscar winner also presented his new movie about the Greek debt crisis. The 86-year-old filmmaker, known for “Z” and “Missing,” was presented with the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award late on Saturday. While in Venice, he also presented “Adults in the Room”, which is adapted from the book by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and follows Greece’s bailout negotiations in 2015. “There’s a lot of muddled politics in Europe, it has to clear itself up one day, not in the way it’s been clearing itself up over the past few years,” Costa-Gravas told a news conference, citing concerns over rising populism. “I hope that all of that will change.”   …

Hurricane Dorian, a dangerous Category 5 storm, made landfall in the northwestern Bahamas Sunday, slamming the island with 295 kilometer an hour winds. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Dorian is the strongest hurricane in modern history to hit the area and warned “catastrophic conditions” are occurring in the Abaco Islands. The hurricane agency had said the storm’s advance is expected to slow over the next day or two, followed by a gradual turn to the northwest as it edges closer to southeastern U.S. state of Florida “It’s going to stall out…and it hasn’t even touched Florida or the southeast (U.S.) coast,” Peter Gaynor, acting chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Fox News Sunday. “You’ve got to take this storm seriously.” He said emergency officials have been briefing President Donald Trump or his aides on an hourly basis on the storm’s advance. “He has his finger on the pulse,” Gaynor said. Trump visited FEMA headquarters Sunday, where he urged everyone in “Hurricane Dorian’s path to heed all warnings and evacuation orders from local authorities.” Dorian is expected to move near or over Grand Bahama Island on Sunday night and into Monday and “should move closer to the Florida …