Democratic U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, a powerful and respected voice in Washington, passed away Thursday at the age of 68. Cummings was one of the heads of an impeachment committee investigating President Donald Trump.  The late U.S. congressman, who represented the state of Maryland, was also an inspirational figure for many, especially African Americans.  VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.   …

Election fever is mounting in Botswana as voters prepare to go to the polls Oct. 23.  Former President Ian Khama has formed a breakaway party to seek the presidency because of policy differences with his handpicked successor, President Mokgweetsi Masisi. And an opposition coalition also is campaigning to form a new government. From Gaborone, Botswana, Mqondisi Dube has more. …

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence  hailed a deal he reached with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara as a temporary cease-fire of Turkey’s military assault against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. But some former U.S. national security officials and lawmakers are rejecting the deal, criticizing the Trump administration for abandoning its long-time Kurdish allies that fought as a key part of a coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. VOA’S Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.   …

U.S. President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Texas Thursday evening to drum up support in a state that may be shaping up to become a battleground in the upcoming 2020 national election. Trump rallied as news broke about the cease-fire announced by White House officials and Turkey in its assault on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report from Dallas.   …

An extended gunbattle with high-caliber weapons raged Thursday in the streets of the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state.     Heavily armed civilians in trucks were firing in downtown Culiacan, with some shooting what appeared to be .50-caliber sniper rifles and truck-mounted machine guns, according to Culiacan-based news outlet Riodoce.    Riodoce reported there was a heavy deployment of Mexican security forces and that gunmen had blocked entrances to the city with burning vehicles, a common tactic to make it difficult for security forces to maneuver.  Sinaloa public safety director Cristobal Castaneda told Milenio television the army started an operation Thursday afternoon and soon afterward government surveillance cameras alerted authorities that gunmen in vehicles were circulating in downtown Culiacan.  Simultaneously, 20 to 30 prisoners escaped, though some were quickly recaptured, he said.  Castaneda did not state what the military’s objective was with the operation.   State officials asked residents to avoid going out in parts of city.  Sinaloa’s soccer club Dorados announced that it had canceled its game Thursday because of security concerns.  Sinaloa cartel Sinaloa is home to the cartel by the same name, which was led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in July.  After Guzman’s third arrest in 2016, an …

Two giant, badly damaged construction cranes towering over a partially collapsed hotel project are to be demolished Friday with a series of controlled explosions in hopes of dropping them straight down without damaging nearby businesses and historic buildings around the site at the edge of the French Quarter. Fire Chief Tim McConnell said work was beginning Thursday in hopes of bringing the multi-ton structures down ahead of approaching tropical weather. Forecasters said a tropical storm could form in the Gulf of Mexico and affect the area by Friday night. At a news conference, authorities said the storm was expected to move east of the city, but could still kick up stiffer winds and rain that might contribute to the cranes tumbling in dangerous directions. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards tours the scene before addressing reporters near the Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans, Oct. 17, 2019. “There is still a possibility of tropical storm force winds here in New Orleans,” Governor John Bel Edwards said. “That is not the probability. But there is a probability that we’re going to have elevated winds regardless.” McConnell described a plan involving workers suspended from another crane, moved in Thursday, to weaken the damaged …

A United Nations mission in Afghanistan said more civilians have been killed or injured in the past quarter than in any three-month period in the last decade. A report released Thursday said the 1,174 civilian deaths and 3,139 injuries in the third quarter of this year marked a 42% increase compared with the same period last year.  In the previous quarter, 785 civilians were killed and 1,254 were wounded. The latest figures brings to more than 8,000 the number of casualties in the first nine months of 2019. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said most of those were caused buy anti-government insurgents. The report said women and children accounted for more than 41% of casualties this month, with 631 children being killed and 1,830 injured. “The harm caused to civilians by the fighting in Afghanistan signals the importance of peace talks leading to a cease-fire and a permanent political settlement to the conflict; there is no other way forward,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan. “Civilian casualties are totally unacceptable, especially in the context of the widespread recognition that there can be no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.”   …

Not only do women already earn Image from “From Cradle to Cane: The Cost of being a Female Consumer” study conducted by New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. The report found women pay:   — 7%  more for toys and accessories   —  4%  more for children’s clothing —  8% more for adult clothing  —  13% more for personal care —  8% more for senior/home health care products Baby clothes specifically for girls cost more than clothes for boys. Girls’ shirts can cost up to 13% more than boys’ clothes. Toys marketed to girls cost up to 11% more than toys for boys, even when it’s the exact same item in different colors. “I have no doubt that it’s real,” says Surina Khan, CEO of the At a Washington-area store on Oct. 17, 2019, a 2.7 oz. bottle of men’s deodorant cost 20 cents less than a comparable women’s deodorant in a smaller 2.6 oz. size. Horwitz also says the real problem is that girls and women are socialized to want the pink items. “There is no reason why women shouldn’t be able to walk into the drugstore and buy the men’s razors. Right?” he says. “And if they did, and …

Crude oil contaminating the northeastern coast of Brazil has reached the town of Maragogi, one of the region’s main tourist beaches, its mayor said Thursday. Images on local television showed dozens of people in Maragogi, known for its natural pools of crystalline water, shoveling and raking the sand in an attempt to remove the sludge from the coast. The region is known as the “Brazilian Caribbean.” As a truck from Brazil’s environmental agency loaded up with oil-stained sand, some volunteers, apparently without supervision from authorities, joined the work with small shovels. Environmental regulator Ibama reported there are at least 178 locations in nine Brazilian states that have been affected by the oil. In terms of expanse, it is Brazil’s largest-ever environmental disaster, according to David Zee, an oceanographer at Rio de Janeiro’s state university. Workers remove oil from Viral Beach, in Aracaju, Brazil, Oct. 8, 2019. The oil that has been polluting Brazil’s northeastern beaches since early September is likely coming from Venezuela, according to a report by Brazil’s state oil company. The government’s response has been questioned by ocean experts and environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace. As in Maragogi, in recent weeks many Brazilians have worked to remove oil …

Men have floated out the hatch on all 420 spacewalks conducted over the past half-century. That changes Friday with spacewalk No. 421. NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will make “HERstory,” as NASA is calling it, with the first all-female spacewalk. All four men aboard the International Space Station will remain inside, as Koch and Meir go out to replace a broken battery charger. The battery charger failed after Koch and a male crewmate installed new batteries outside the space station last week. NASA put the remaining battery replacements on hold to fix the problem and moved up the women’s planned spacewalk by three days.   NASA, meanwhile, is asking schoolteachers to share photos of their students celebrating “HERstory in the making.” The pictures might end up on the spacewalk broadcast. Russia holds claim to the first spacewalk in 1965 and also the first spacewalk by a woman in 1984. The U.S. trailed by a few months in each instance.   As of Thursday, men dominated the spacewalking field, 213 to 14. Meir, a marine biologist who arrived at the orbiting lab last month, will be the 15th female spacewalker. Koch, an electrical engineer, already has done three spacewalks; …

Venezuela was elected Thursday to the U.N. Human Rights Council, despite criticism of the South American country’s human rights record.    The HRC works to promote and protect human rights around the world, and the membership of the council is voted on by the U.N. General Assembly. Each region has a set number of seats elected in staggered three-year terms.    Venezuela won its seat with 105 votes.    Brazil took the other Latin American seat that was up for election with 153 votes.    Costa Rica announced its candidacy Oct. 3 to try to prevent Venezuela’s nomination and garnered only 96 votes. The Latin American country said Venezuela was “not an adequate candidate” because of serious human rights violations.  ‘Historic day’ “Today is a historic day for our country. International law has triumphed and the attempt to impose a colonial enclave in Venezuela has failed,” announced U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada on Twitter. “The U.N. has shown that it belongs to all humanity and not a small group that wants to use it to impose its supremacy.”  Human Rights Watch made a statement with 54 other groups on Oct. 10 opposing the South American nation’s candidacy because of the government’s history of extrajudicial killings and arrests of dissidents.  A U.N. …

Thousands of people demonstrated in Beirut on Thursday against the government’s management of a dire economy in one of Lebanon’s biggest protests in years, leading the Cabinet to pull a proposed new levy on WhatsApp calls. Protesters blocked roads across Lebanon with burning tires, broadcasts showed, the second time in less than a month Lebanon has seen demonstrations expressing anger at the political elite. The demonstrations have been fueled by stagnant economic conditions exacerbated by a financial crisis in one of the world’s most heavily indebted states. The government is trying to find ways to bring down its gaping budget deficit. Earlier, the Cabinet had unveiled a new revenue raising measure, agreeing a charge of 20 cents per day for calls via voice over internet protocol (VoIP), used by applications including Facebook owned WhatsApp, Facebook calls and FaceTime, Information Minister Jamal al Jarrah said. He also said ministers would discuss a proposal to raise value-added tax by 2 percentage points in 2021 and a further 2 percentage points in 2022, until it reaches 15%. But as protests spread across Lebanon, Telecoms Minister Mohamed Choucair phoned into Lebanese broadcasters to say the proposed levy on WhatsApp calls had been revoked. Prime …

As thousands of pro-independence protesters poured into the streets of Barcelona for a fourth straight day Thursday, the president of Spain’s Catalonia region vowed to push for a new independence referendum within two years.    Quim Torra also condemned the violence that has marred the protests, saying the separatist cause was a peaceful movement.    Catalan protesters, frustrated by the lengthy prison sentences handed to pro-independence politicians this week, have clashed with police, set fires and destroyed property.    The Spanish Ministry of Interior said nearly 100 people had been injured, almost half of them police officers. More than 95 protesters have been arrested since Monday.    “No criminal activity will go unpunished,” interim Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Thursday.    The protests began after the Supreme Court sentenced nine pro-independence politicians to between nine and 13 years in prison for their roles in the 2017 referendum on Catalonia’s push to split from Spain.    The Spanish constitution states that Spain is indivisible and anyone pushing a split is considered a criminal.    The U.S. Overseas Security Advisory Council has warned Americans traveling to northeastern Spain to travel to Catalonia will likely be disrupted by a general strike that has been planned for Friday. It …

Two businessmen pleaded not guilty Thursday of conspiring with associates of Rudy Giuliani to make illegal campaign contributions, as a prosecutor said evidence includes data from over 50 bank accounts and information gathered through 10 search warrants.  David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin are among four men charged with using straw donors to make illegal contributions to politicians they thought could help their political and business interests, including committees supporting President Donald Trump and other Republicans.  Andrey Kukushkin, center, leaves federal court Oct. 17, 2019, in New York. Kukushkin and David Correia pleaded not guilty of conspiring with associates of Rudy Giuliani to make illegal campaign contributions. Their next court date was set for Dec. 2, though U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken granted a request from Kukushkin to remain in California, where a $1 million bail package limits where he can go beyond home to work, legal visits and medical appointments.    Two other men charged in the case, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, worked with Giuliani to try to get Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of Democrat Joe Biden. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, has said he had no knowledge of illegal donations.  Prosecutors say Correia and Kukushkin teamed with Parnas and Fruman …

The portion of Americans with no religious affiliation is rising significantly, in tandem with a sharp drop in the percentage that identifies as Christians, according to new data from the Pew Research Center. Based on telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, Pew said Thursday that 65% of American adults now describe themselves as Christian, down from 77% in 2009. Meanwhile, the portion that describes their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic ranks are losing population share, according to Pew. It said 43% of U.S. adults identify as Protestants, down from 51% in 2009, while 20% are Catholic, down from 23% in 2009. Pew says all categories of the religiously unaffiliated population – often referred to as the “nones” grew in magnitude. Self-described atheists now account for 4% of U.S. adults, up from 2% in 2009; agnostics account for 5%, up from 3% a decade ago; and 17% of Americans now describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” up from 12% in 2009. The report comes at a challenging time for many major denominations in the U.S. The two largest — the Catholic …

China says two Americans involved in a teaching exchange program were detained three weeks ago near Shanghai for allegedly “illegally moving people across borders.” Alyssa Petersen, who attended the Idaho campus of Brigham Young University from 2014 to 2017, was being held in a Chinese jail outside Shanghai, according to social media posts by China Horizons, her employer, and her parents. After not hearing from her for weeks, her family discovered she had been arrested by Chinese police sometime around the end of September. Her employer Jacob Harlan, who owns China Horizons, was detained. But Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Petersen and Harlan have been released on bail and granted access to U.S. consular officials. The charges are “bogus, as she has been doing this for 8+ years with no issues,” the family of Alyssa Peterson stated. Petersen is director of China Horizons, an English language program that provides a cultural experience for American college students who teach English in Chinese schools. She assisted her employer, Jacob Harlan in coordinating visas and travel arrangements, according to the company’s Facebook page. Petersen first went to China as a teacher 10 years ago, her family wrote on social media, teaches …

New health classes and government partnerships with not-for-profits focused on menstrual health are improving education for girls in Zambia. In 2017, the government announced it would distribute free sanitary pads to girls in some rural and underserved areas. Two years later, menstrual hygiene management classes have been introduced in schools, and partnerships with organizations such as World Vision have brought reusable sanitary pads to rural communities. Chitentabunga Primary School, in rural Lusaka province, is one of the schools that has received reusable pads to distribute to its students. Educators at Chitentabunga say the pads have helped reduce absenteeism. In years past, 80 to 100 girls would miss classes at any given time due to menstrual issues across seven schools. Now, just five to 10 girls are out at any given time. “We used to have a lot of absenteeism, especially in mature girls, that is, girls that have started their menstrual periods. At a time when they go on their menstrual periods, these girls used to stay away from school,” Tyson Hachilangu, head teacher at Chitentabunga, said. Girls at the school say the pads have improved their quality of life. “Before this program was introduced, we used ordinary clothes, which …

Russian President Vladimir Putin is presenting himself as a peacemaker in the Middle East, the go-to arbiter to whom all regional leaders can turn to, secure in the knowledge that he considers incumbency a good thing and regime change bad, analysts say. When it comes to neighboring Ukraine, though, the picture is different. Russian-backed separatist forces have increased attacks in recent days, and Wednesday mounted a heavy bombardment of Ukrainian defensive positions around the port city of Mariupol, according to both the Ukrainian government and independent observers. Pro-Moscow separatists opened fire on Ukrainian forces more than 30 times on October 16, killing a Ukrainian soldier and wounding another in the process. The day before, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed by a sniper, according to Ukrainian military officials. Ukrainian officials also accuse Russian-backed forces of engaging with 82 mm mortars, proscribed under the 2015 Minsk agreement struck between Russia and Ukraine. The agreement aimed to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region — a Moscow-fomented insurgency that’s claimed more than 14,000 lives since it erupted in April 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. Why Kremlin-sponsored forces have been intensifying their attacks is unclear and goes against the grain …

Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told House impeachment investigators on Thursday that President Donald Trump ordered diplomats to work with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to get Ukraine to open investigations that would help Trump politically. “Mr. Giuliani emphasized that the president wanted a public statement from President (Volodymyr) Zelenskiy committing Ukraine to look into anti-corruption issues,” Sondland said in a prepared statement. Sondland, a major political donor to Trump before being named as the country’s top diplomat in Brussels, said, “Mr. Giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election,” including whether Ukraine knew of the whereabouts of a computer server used by the Democratic National Committee in Washington three years ago, and energy company Burisma, “as two anti-corruption investigatory topics of importance for the president.” Hunter Biden, the son of one of Trump’s key political rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, until earlier this year held a lucrative position on the Burisma board. Both Bidens have denied wrongdoing, although the younger Biden this week acknowledged “poor judgment” in taking the Burisma position because of the political fallout affecting his father. US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, center, arrives for a joint interview with the House …

The European Union and the British government have clinched a new deal setting the terms of Britain’s exit from the bloc. However, it needs to be approved by the British parliament in order to take effect and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party does not have a majority in the House of Commons. Below are reactions from key players in Britain to the new deal, and some comments from business groups and analysts: Prime Minister Boris Johnson: “This deal represents a very good deal both for the EU and for the UK,” Johnson said during a brief statement to media in Brussels, standing alongside European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. “… For us in the UK it means that we can deliver a real Brexit that achieves our objectives and it means that the UK leaves whole and entire on October 31.” “I hope very much … that my fellow MPs (lawmakers) in Westminster do now come together to get Brexit done, to get this excellent deal over the line and to deliver Brexit without any more delay.” “Now is the moment for us to get Brexit done and then together to work on building our future partnership, which I think …

Unofficial results in Mozambique’s elections point to sweeping victories for the ruling Frelimo party and President Filipe Nyusi, prompting some analysts to question the credibility of the polls and warn that the lopsided result may prolong the country’s instability. Mozambique’s electoral commission has not released any official results yet, but the Sala da Paz consortium of Mozambican civil society organizations said it projects that Nyusi won 71% of the vote, far ahead of 21% for Ossufo Momade, leader of the Renamo opposition party. The estimates are based on the group’s calculations of results posted outside polling stations. The Frelimo party, in power since the end of Portuguese colonial rule in 1975, looks set to dominate the parliamentary elections and may win most of the 10 provincial governor positions, according to the civic group, the Center for Public Integrity. Renamo’s Momade is in a tight race for governor of Nampula, Mozambique’s most populous province, according to unofficial results. The reports of a landslide victory for Frelimo come despite a tightly fought campaign, where large rallies suggested Renamo’s popularity, especially in central and northern Mozambique. However, the Oct. 15 elections were marked by restrictions on observers and several reports of suspected ballot …

A Bulgarian teenager was indicted for “grave hooliganism” while four others were fined and received stadium bans over racist abuse at a Euro 2020 qualifier against England, officials said Thursday. Monkey chants and apparent Nazi salutes during Monday’s match in Sofia sparked a storm of protest that overshadowed England’s 6-0 win and led to the resignation of Bulgaria’s football chief and. Thanks to CCTV footage from the national stadium, Sofia police have so far identified nine suspects in the stands, part of a group of black-clad fans, who directed the abuse at England’s players. Six of them were detained on Wednesday. “One 18-year-old was indicted late Wednesday for grave hooliganism and ordered detained in custody for 72 more hours,” Sofia regional prosecution spokeswoman Nevena Zartova told AFP. According to the indictment, the man used obscene hand gestures and Nazi salutes and turned his back to the field and pulled down his trousers twice. If found guilty, he could face up to five years in jail. “Out of the other five, four were handed 1,000-leva (511 euro, $568) fines and two-year bans from sports events. Procedures against the fifth, who is underage, are still ongoing,” Sofia police directorate spokeswoman Svetoslava Kostadinova …

It only took 10 minutes for Fakher Hmidi to slip out of his house, past the cafes where unemployed men spend their days, and reach the creek through the mud flats where a small boat would ferry him to the migrant ship heading from Tunisia to Italy. He left late at night, and the first his parents knew of it was the panicked, crying phone call from an Italian mobile number: “The boat is sinking. We’re in danger. Ask Mum to forgive me.” Hmidi, 18, was one of several people from his Thina district of the eastern city of Sfax among the dozens still unaccounted for in this month’s capsizing off the Italian island of Lampedusa, as ever more Tunisians join the migrant trail to Europe. His loss, and the continued desire among many young men in Thina to make the same dangerous journey, vividly demonstrate the economic frustration that also drove voters to reject Tunisia’s political elite in recent elections. In a parliamentary vote on Oct. 6, the day before Hmidi’s boat sank just short of the Italian coast, no party won even a quarter of seats and many independents were elected instead. On Sunday, the political outsider Kais …

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate on Thursday joined locals in a cricket match in the Pakistani city of Lahore before a trip to a cancer hospital that his mother, Princess Diana, visited a year before her death. The Pakistani government hopes the couple’s four-day official visit will boost the country’s image as a tourist and business destination, after decades of sectarian violence and political unrest. William and Kate, who have frequently donned traditional Pakistani dress by local designers during their trip, have highlighted education and the impact of climate change in the country. At a children’s home in Lahore and in her first public remarks of the tour, Kate said the couple were “moved and touched” by their experiences in the country. “Being here in Pakistan this week, William and I have seen on several occasions how family is at the heart of your culture,” she said, before wishing three of the children happy birthday in Urdu, one of Pakistan’s official languages. At a meeting earlier in Lahore, one of Pakistan’s largest cities and its cultural capital, the chief minister of Punjab state Usman Bazdar told the couple their visit “will further strengthen relations between the two countries”. …