Britain and Spain joined other major powers Tuesday in suspending military exports to Turkey following its incursion into northeastern Syria. Britain is carrying out  a review of arms sales to its NATO ally, its chief diplomat said. “We will keep our defence exports to Turkey under very careful and continual review,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement to parliament. “No further export licences to Turkey for items which might be used in military operations in Syria will be granted while we conduct that review.” Spain, a major arms exporter to Turkey, similarly announced a halt to sales of military material. Spain’s Socialist government asked Turkey to “put an end to this military operation”, saying it “endangered regional stability”, increased the number of refugees and threatened Syria’s territorial integrity. “In coordination with its European Union partners, Spain will deny new export licences for military equipment that can be used in the operation in Syria,” a foreign ministry statement said. “Turkey’s legitimate security concerns must be addressed and resolved by political and diplomatic means, not by military actions.” Spain was Turkey’s fifth biggest arms supplier between 2008 and 2018 after the United States, South Korea, Germany and Italy, according to …

The Trump administration, in an effort to mend fences with the powerful corn lobby, proposed on Tuesday a deal to offset waivers granted to oil refiners that exempts them from the nation’s biofuel blending requirements, the Environmental Protection Agency said. The proposed plan would calculate the volume of biofuels refiners have to blend by using a three-year average of exempted gallons as recommended by the Department of Energy, the EPA said. This will potentially boost demand for biofuels, a response to farmers who were outraged by the EPA’s decision in August to exempt 31 oil refineries from their obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard.   …

Yemeni officials say Saudi Arabian troops have taken control of the airport and ports in the interim capital Aden from separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. They say the move is part of a settlement between President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Southern Transitional Council, which controls Aden.   They say the separatists in southern Shabwa Province also handed over arms to the Saudi-led coalition, paving the way for Hadi’s government to fully control Shabwa and other southern provinces.   The officials spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.   The United Arab Emirates-backed separatists clashed with forces loyal to Hadi’s government in August and took control of Aden.   The two sides are allies in the Saudi-led coalition that has been battling Iran-aligned Houthis since 2015. …

Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry says archeologists have uncovered at least 20 ancient wooden coffins in the southern city of Luxor. A brief statement from the ministry says Tuesday says archeologists found the coffins in the Asasif Necropolis. The necropolis, located in the ancient town of West Thebes, includes tombs dating back to the Middle, New Kingdom and the Late Periods (1994 B.C. to 332 B.C.). Photos from the ministry show colored coffins with inscriptions and paintings. The ministry described it as one of the “biggest and most important” discoveries in recent years. The ministry says it will release further details at a news conference on Saturday. Egypt has sought publicity for its archaeological discoveries in the hopes of reviving its tourism sector, which was badly hit by the turmoil following the 2011 uprising. …

KYIV — Ukraine is at the center of the impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump, as Democrat opponents claim he pressured Kyiv to investigate the son of his political rival Joe Biden. The web of allegations and counter-claims is rooted in Ukraine’s efforts to clamp down on corruption following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.   Many Ukrainians now fear their country could suffer from the fierce political battles in Washington.   In the past six years, Ukraine has weathered revolution and war and remains beset by economic and existential threats. So it is with shock and bewilderment that the country finds itself at the center of an American presidential showdown.   “Truth be told, I think this problem is all between the Republicans and the Democrats. These are not our problems,” Kyiv resident Irina told VOA.   “I think that Ukrainian people know for sure that all this is an American circus, a theater, and we shouldn’t pay any attention,” said Volodymyr Kostik, who was born in Ukraine but was visiting Kyiv from his home in Florida. FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the sidelines …

France’s prime minister said on Tuesday decisions by Turkey and the United States in Syria would have serious consequences in the region and that it was inevitable that their actions would lead to a resurgence of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. “This is devastating for our security with the inevitable resurgence of Islamic State in northeastern Syria and probably also northwest Iraq and so the destabilization of a government that doesn’t need that,” Edouard Phillipe told parliamentary questions. He accused Washington of allowing and strengthening the Turkish offensive because of its decision to unilaterally withdraw 1,000 troops from Syria.   …

Ukraine is at the center of the impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump – as Democratic opponents claim he pressured Kyiv to investigate the son of his political rival Joe Biden. The web of allegations and counter-claims are rooted in Ukraine’s efforts to clamp down on corruption. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Kyiv, the country fears becoming the victim of the fierce political battles in Washington. …

The German government recently unveiled a plan to tax carbon emissions from cars and buildings. It’s a big move in a country known for its fast cars, but whose young people are demanding climate friendly transportation. One way Germany hopes to reduce its carbon footprint – and appease the young climate activists – is by rolling out new and innovative trains.  Michael Scaturro has more from Berlin. …

Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno on Monday officially scrapped his own law to cut expensive fuel subsidies after days of violent protests against the IMF-backed measure, returning fuel prices to prior levels until a new measure can be found. The signing of the decree is a blow to Moreno, and leaves big questions about the oil-producing nation’s fiscal situation. But it represents a win for the country’s indigenous communities, who led the protests, bringing chaos to the capital and crippling the oil sector. The clashes marked the latest in a series of political convulsions sparked by IMF-backed reform plans in Latin America, where increased polarization between the right and left is causing widespread friction amid efforts to overhaul hidebound economies. Moreno’s law eliminated four-decade-old fuel subsidies and was estimated to have freed up nearly $1.5 billion per year in the government budget, helping to shrink the fiscal deficit as required under a deal Moreno signed with the International Monetary Fund. But the measure was hugely unpopular and sparked days of protests led by indigenous groups that turned increasingly violent despite a military-enforced curfew. Moreno gave in to the chief demand of demonstrators late on Sunday, tweeting on Monday that: “We have …

Two Pacific Northwest tribes on Monday demanded the removal of three major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River to save migrating salmon and starving orcas and restore fishing sites that were guaranteed to the tribes in a treaty more than 150 years ago. The Yakama and Lummi nations made the demand of the U.S. government on Indigenous Peoples Day, a designation that’s part of a trend to move away from a holiday honoring Christopher Columbus. For decades, people have debated whether to remove four big dams on the Lower Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia, but breaching the Columbia dams, which are a much more significant source of power, has never been seriously discussed.   Proposals to merely curtail operations, let alone remove the structures, are controversial, and the prospects of the Columbia dams being demolished any time soon appear nonexistent. Tribal leaders said at a news conference along the Columbia River that the Treaty of 1855, in which 14 tribes and bands ceded 11.5 million acres to the United States, was based on the inaccurate belief that the U.S. had a right to take the land. Under the treaty, the Yakama Tribe retained the right to fish at …

Along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, tens of thousands of New Yorkers and tourists celebrated the world’s largest display of Italian-American pageantry on Columbus Day, while New Mexico and a growing list of states and municipalities ditched the holiday altogether for the first time. The Italian navigator namesake who sailed to the modern-day Americas in 1492, Christopher Columbus has long been considered by Red paint covers a statue of Christopher Columbus, Oct. 14, 2019, in Providence, R.I., after it was vandalized on the day named to honor him as one of the first Europeans to reach the New World. Since Berkeley’s decision to rename the holiday in 1992, more than People taking part in a rally to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day in downtown Seattle sing as they march toward Seattle City Hall, Monday, Oct. 14, 2019. The observance of the day was made official by the Seattle City Council in 2014. America, she adds, was never “discoverable” in the first place, a “misnomer” that runs in direct contradiction to decades-old American history textbooks and the people who defend Christopher Columbus’s legacy. “In their minds, accepting the truth, is somehow shifting the power — [in] that it contributes to the loss of power …

Police in northern Nigeria rescued nearly 70 men and boys from a second purported Islamic school where they were shackled and subjected to “inhuman and degrading treatments.” The raid in Katsina, the northwestern home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, came less a month after about 300 men and boys were freed from another supposed Islamic school in neighboring Kaduna state where they were allegedly tortured and sexually abused. “In the course of investigation, sixty-seven persons from the ages of 7 to 40 years were found shackled with chains,” Katsina police spokesman Sanusi Buba said in a statement. Men and boys are pictured after being rescued by police in Sabon Garin, in Daura local government area of Katsina state, Nigeria, Oct. 14, 2019. “Victims were also found to have been subjected to various inhuman and degrading treatments.” The raid occurred on Oct. 12 in Sabon Garin in the Daura local government area of Katsina state. Police issued a statement Monday and said they were working to reunite the victims with their families. Police arrested one man, 78-year-old Mallam Bello Abdullahi Umar, for running what they called an “illegal detention/remand home.” Lawai Musa, a trader who lived near the center, told Reuters …

California’s top utility regulator blasted Pacific Gas and Electric on Monday for what she called “failures in execution” during the largest planned power outage in state history to avoid wildfires that she said “created an unacceptable situation that should never be repeated.”   The agency ordered a series of corrective actions, including a goal of restoring power within 12 hours, not the utility’s current 48-hour goal. “The scope, scale, complexity, and overall impact to people’s lives, businesses, and the economy of this action cannot be understated,” California Public Utilities Commission President Marybel Batjer wrote in a letter to PG&E CEO Bill Johnson.   FILE – Pacific Gas and Electric employees work in the PG&E Emergency Operations Center in San Francisco, Oct. 10, 2019. PG&E last week took the unprecedented step of cutting power to more than 700,000 customers, affecting nearly 2 million Californians. The company said it did it because of dangerous wind forecasts but acknowledged that its execution was poor.   Its website frequently crashed, and many people said they did not receive enough warning that the power was going out.   “We were not adequately prepared,” Johnson said at a press conference last week. PG&E spokespeople did not …

Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “bears full responsibility” for the resurgence of Islamic State, a growing humanitarian crisis, and possible war crimes. This was the Pentagon’s strongest condemnation so far of Turkey’s military operation against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. Esper calls Turkey’s attacks on the Kurds “unnecessary and impulsive.” He says it has undermined what he calls the “successful” multinational mission to defeat Islamic State in Syria by allowing “many dangerous ISIS detainees” to flee detention camps that had been guarded by the Kurds. FILE – U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper addresses reporters during a media briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Oct. 11, 2019. Esper says U.S. relations with Turkey have been damaged. He says he plans to go to Brussels next week to press other NATO allies to slap sanctions on Turkey. Turkish forces entered into northern Syria last week after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the pull out of the approximately 1,000 U.S. forces in the area. They will be redeployed elsewhere in the Middle East to “monitor the situation,” according to Trump. The U.S. had been fighting side-by-side with the Kurds in …

Brandishing red flares and shouting “glory to Ukraine,” thousands of far-right and nationalist activists marched Monday through Kyiv, protesting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s leadership and his long-awaited peace plan for eastern Ukraine. Zelenskiy sought to prove his patriotic credentials by visiting Ukrainian troops on the front line of the five-year conflict with Moscow-backed separatists, which has killed at least 13,000 people. Earlier Monday, he held a moment of silence at a monument to its Ukrainian victims. Activists and supporters of Ukraine’s nationalist movements take part in a rally in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 14, 2019. Police deployed around key sites in the Ukrainian capital as more than 10,000 people marched under a blanket of yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags, in one of several nationalist gatherings Monday to mark Defense of the Homeland Day. Zelenskiy urged participants to avoid violence and warned of potential “provocations” from those who want to stoke chaos. Black-clad men holding up red flares like torches led the procession, some in white masks to conceal their identity.   “Glory to Ukraine!” they chanted. “No capitulation!” The crowd included uniformed veterans of the conflict who are urging Zelenskiy not to allow a troop withdrawal, local elections or amnesty for separatists. All are …

This month South Africa’s parliament debates the National Health Insurance bill, a plan for universal health care that proponents say will bring justice and equality to the healthcare system in this deeply unequal country. But critics say the plan is too ambitious and they doubt the government, which has been repeatedly accused of corruption in other public-sector projects, can do it honestly. VOAs Anita Powell reports from Johannesburg. …

Police in the U.S. state of Texas say an officer who shot and killed a black woman in her home in Fort Worth has resigned. The city’s police chief, Edwin Kraus, told a news conference that officer Aaron Dean would have been fired Monday if he did not resign. Kraus said “the officer still faces criminal charges from the major case investigation.” He said he expects a “substantial update” within a day on whether criminal charges will be filed against Dean. FILE – An officer shines a flashlight into a window in Fort Worth, Texas, in this Oct. 12, 2019, image made from a body camera video released by the Fort Worth Police Department. Dean, who is white, shot 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson, who is black, through a house window Saturday after a neighbor called a non-emergency police line to report Jefferson’s front door had been left open. Jefferson was in the house with her 8-year-old nephew. Fort Worth police said in a statement over the weekend that officers saw someone near the window inside the home and said an officer fired after “perceiving a threat.” Jefferson’s family has called for an independent investigation of Dean as well as the Fort …

Mozambicans will choose their next president at the polls Tuesday after a 45-day election campaign marred by violence. Voters will decide whether to support Filipe Nyusi, candidate for Frelimo, the ruling party that has held power since Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975. The party has been widely criticized for its alleged role in numerous corruption scandals, including the $2 billion “hidden debts” scandal that has created an economic crisis in the southern African country. Nyusi faces three challengers. The main opposition candidate is Ossufo Momade, leader of the Renamo party, running on a platform of fighting corruption. The two others are Daviz Simango, of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique, and Mário Albino, a political newcomer. Ruling Frelimo Party leader and President Filipe Nyusi, speaks at an election rally in Maputo, Mozambique, Oct. 12, 2019. Voters also will choose provincial governors and 247 members of Parliament. No polling has been done on the presidential race, but analysts predict a close contest between Frelimo and Renamo. Some give the edge to Frelimo, which they say has run a better campaign and has control over electoral bodies. An estimated 13 million of the country’s 30 million people are eligible to cast …

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called Monday for the “immediate de-escalation” of the situation in northeastern Syria, as the humanitarian situation rapidly worsens with Turkey’s military pushing farther into the area. “The secretary-general is gravely concerned over the military developments in northeast Syria, which have already reportedly resulted in many civilian casualties and the displacement of at least 160,000 civilians,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “The secretary-general calls for the immediate de-escalation and urges all parties to resolve their concerns through peaceful means.” Turkey began a military incursion into northeastern Syria on Wednesday, targeting the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Ankara considers as terrorists aligned with separatists inside Turkey. Western countries view the SDF as a key ally in the fight against the self-described Islamic State terror group. While Guterres did not call for the offensive to end, he urged “maximum restraint” and said any military operation must fully respect international law, including the U.N. Charter and international humanitarian law, as well as the protection of civilians. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the opening of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City, New York. The U.N. chief also called …

President Donald Trump is trying to influence votes on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”  Trump on Monday tweeted that viewers should vote for former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. The president called Spicer a “good guy” and wrote “he has always been there for us!”   Spicer tweeted his thanks with instructions on how viewers can cast votes.   Spicer has been paired with professional dancer Lindsay Arnold as they compete for the mirror ball trophy.   He says he’s doing it “to have fun and make it a really good experience.”   Trump supporters have embraced Spicer, but opponents have criticized the program for inviting him.   Spicer told USA Today there’s no question a “huge” amount of his votes come from Trump supporters.   Dancing with the Stars airs Monday night. …

Rescue workers and search dogs are gingerly moving through a dangerously unstable building in New Orleans that partially collapsed over the weekend. They were looking Monday for the only person still unaccounted for following Saturday’s disaster at a hotel under construction at the edge of the French Quarter. Two people died in the collapse. More than 20 were hurt. Mayor LaToya Cantrell says one remains hospitalized.   Fire Chief Tim McConnell says engineers are in the structure to looking for ways to stabilize it. A huge crane at the site also must be stabilized.   Two major thoroughfares near the French Quarter and the main business district remain closed.   The cause of the collapse is under investigation. Officials said the last inspection of record at the site was Sept. 24.     …

A retired soldier who was shot in the head while searching for Army Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl has died.   The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports 46-year-old Master Sgt. Mark Allen of Loganville, Georgia, died Saturday. His obituary says he died from complications of an injury sustained while serving in Afghanistan.   Allen was shot during an insurgent ambush in 2009. He was left unable to speak and paralyzed over much of his body. His official cause of death hasn’t been released.   Allen spent 21 years in the Army and the Army National Guard. He retired upon receiving a Purple Heart in 2013.   Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and held for five years. He was spared prison time for abandoning his post and endangering military comrades who participated in the lengthy search for him. …

A homemade, remote-controlled bomb intended to “kill or to harm” riot control officers was detonated as they deployed against renewed violence in Hong Kong over the weekend, police said Monday, in a further escalation of destructive street battles gripping the business hub.   The “loud thud” Sunday night close to riot officers who had been clearing away a protester-built road block marked the first known use of an explosive device during protests that started in June over a contested extradition bill and have snowballed into an anti-government, anti-police and anti-China movement.    “It exploded less than 2 meters [yards] away from a police vehicle. We have reason to believe that the bomb was meant to target police officers,” Deputy Commissioner Tang Ping-keung said at a news conference.   But despite spiraling violence, widespread vandalism and gasoline-bomb attacks by black-clad hardcore protesters, and repeated government appeals for people not to take their side, the protest movement is still rousing determined support from more moderate demonstrators, broadly worried about the future of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory and its freedoms, unique in China.     A peaceful rally in central Hong Kong’s swanky business district on Monday night drew a giant crowd tens …