Egypt will push Ethiopia this week to agree to an external mediator to help resolve a deepening dispute over a giant hydropower dam being built on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile, officials said on Sunday.‮‮ ‬‬ Egypt sees the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as an existential risk, fearing it will threaten scarce water supplies in Egypt and power generation at its own dam in Aswan. ‮‮ ‬‬ Cairo says it has exhausted efforts to reach an agreement on the conditions for operating GERD and filling the reservoir behind it, after years of three-party talks with Ethiopia and Sudan. Ethiopia has denied that three-way talks are stalled, accusing Egypt of trying to sidestep the process. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is expected to raise the demand for a mediator when he meets Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during a Russian-African summit in Russia this week. “We’re hoping this meeting might produce an agreement on the participation of a fourth party,” an Egyptian foreign ministry official told journalists at a briefing. “We’re hopeful to reach a formula in the next few weeks.” Egyptian officials said they had suggested the World Bank as a fourth party mediator, but were also open to the role …

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and three others injured in the state of Georgia Sunday in an accident involving the armored combat vehicle they were in, the military said in a statement. The army provided no details on the nature of the accident, which is under investigation, except to say it occurred during an exercise at Fort Stewart, Georgia. “Six soldiers were involved, with three pronounced deceased on site, and three more evacuated to Winn Army Community Hospital where they are being treated and evaluated for their injuries,” an army statement said. Major General Tony Aguto, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, called it a “heartbreaking day.” The soldiers, who were in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, were from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.   …

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday defended his claim that President Donald Trump did not withhold nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine in order to get Kyiv to undertake investigations of Democratic rivals and the 2016 election. Mulvaney told reporters last week there was such a” quid pro quo” by Trump, but hours later walked back the statement and continued to advance his revised version of White House policy discussions in an interview on the “Fox News Sunday” talk show. “There were two reasons we held up the aid,” Mulvaney said. “The first one was the rampant corruption in Ukraine. It’s so bad in Ukraine that in 2014 Congress passed a law … requiring us to make sure that [the fight against] corruption was moving in the right direction. So corruption’s a big deal. Everybody knows it.” He added, “The president was also concerned about whether other nations, specifically European nations, were helping with foreign aid to Ukraine.” FILE – White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney talks to the press at the White House, Oct. 17, 2019. Mulvaney also mentioned during his White House news conference last Thursday that Trump wanted to know …

Influential Iraqi Shi’ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr has given his supporters the green light to resume anti-government protests, after the movement was interrupted following a deadly crackdown. Protests shook Iraq for six days from October 1, with young Iraqis denouncing corruption and demanding jobs and services before calling for the downfall of the government. The protests — notable for their spontaneity — were violently suppressed, with official counts reporting 110 people killed and 6,000 wounded, most of them demonstrators. Calls have been made on social media for fresh rallies on Friday, the anniversary of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi’s government taking office. “It’s your right to participate in protests on October 25,” Sadr told his followers in a Facebook post on Saturday evening. Protesters have opposed any appropriation of their leaderless movement and the firebrand cleric was restrained on Sunday in comparison to his previous exhortations for “million-man marches”.   He qualified his support by adding: “Those who don’t want to take part in this revolution can choose another via the ballot box in internationally supervised elections and without the current politicians,” he said. His statement echoed another he made during protests at the start of the month, in which he …

Tens of thousands of Lebanese protesters of all ages gathered Sunday in major cities and towns nationwide, with each hour bringing hundreds more people to the streets for the largest anti-government protests yet in four days of demonstrations. Protesters danced and sang in the streets, some waving Lebanese flags and chanting “the people want to bring down the regime.” In the morning, young men and women carried blue bags and cleaned the streets of the capital, Beirut, picking up trash left behind by the previous night’s protests. The spontaneous mass demonstrations are Lebanon’s largest in five years, spreading beyond Beirut. They are building on long-simmering anger at a ruling class that has divvied up power among themselves and amassed wealth for decades but has done little to fix a crumbling economy and dilapidated infrastructure. The unrest erupted after the government proposed new taxes, part of stringent austerity measures amid a growing economic crisis. The protests have brought people from across the sectarian and religious lines that define the country. “People cannot take it anymore,” said Nader Fares, a protester in central Beirut who said he’s unemployed. “There are no good schools, no electricity and no water.” Politicians are now racing …

Libya’s coast guard says it’s intercepted dozens of Europe-bound migrants off the country’s Mediterranean coast. Spokesman Ayoub Gassim said Sunday the migrants were returned to shore and would be taken to a detention center in the capital, Tripoli. Gassim said a rubber boat with 89 African migrants, including 16 women and two children, was stopped Saturday off Libya’s western town of Khoms, around 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Tripoli. Libya has emerged as a major transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty to Europe. In recent years, the EU has partnered with Libya’s coast guard and other local groups to stem the dangerous sea crossings. Rights groups, however, say those policies leave migrants at the mercy of armed groups or confined in squalid detention centers rife with abuses.   …

South America’s longest-serving leader was seeking an unprecedented fourth term in Bolivian elections on Sunday, but polls suggested Evo Morales is in the tightest race of his career. The 59-year-old leftist, who cast his vote shortly after polls opened, was favored to win the first round vote, but he was likely to be forced into a December runoff where he could be vulnerable to a united opposition.   The son of impoverished Aymara shepherds, Morales came to prominence leading social protests and won election as Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006.   He allied himself with a leftist bloc of Latin American leaders and used revenues from the Andean country’s natural gas and minerals to redistribute wealth among the masses and lift millions out of poverty in the region’s poorest country. The economy has grown by an annual average of about 4.5%, well above the regional average.   The son of Aymara Indian shepherds has also been credited for battling racial inequalities.   Many Bolivians, such as Celestino Aguirre, a 64-year-old vendor, still identify with Morales, saying people shouldn’t criticize him so much. “It’s not against Evo, it’s against me, against the poor people, against the humble.”   But Morales …

For Jamal Ibrahim, whose sisters were raped by militiamen in Darfur, only the handover of Sudan’s ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court can bring peace to the restive Darfur region. “Two of my sisters were raped in front of my eyes by militiamen who stormed through our village, setting our houses on fire,” Ibrahim, 34, told AFP at Camp Kalma, a sprawling facility where tens of thousands of people displaced by the conflict in Darfur have lived for years. “Bashir and his aides who committed the crimes in Darfur must be handed over to the ICC if peace is to be established in the region.” Ibrahim, who is from Mershing in the mountainous Jebel Marra area of Darfur, said his village was attacked by Arab militiamen in March 2003 soon after conflict erupted in the region. The fighting broke out when ethnic African rebels took up arms against Khartoum’s then Arab-dominated government under Bashir, alleging racial discrimination, marginalization and exclusion. Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a group of mostly Arab raiding nomads that it recruited and armed to create a militia of gunmen who were often mounted on horses or camels. They have been accused of …

Saudi Aramco said Sunday the timing of its long-awaited stock market debut “will depend on market conditions,” after the latest delay in the blockbuster initial public offering. The IPO forms the cornerstone of a reform program conceived by the kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to wean the Saudi economy off its reliance on oil. Aramco was expected to launch the first part of a two-stage listing in the coming week, but the energy giant decided to push the trading date back to December or January, a person familiar with the situation told AFP last Thursday. Sources had told AFP in mid-September that the mammoth share offering could be delayed after an attack on Saudi oil facilities knocked out half of the output of the world’s top crude exporter. “The company continues to engage with the shareholders on IPO readiness activities,” Aramco said in a statement to AFP. “The company is ready and timing will depend on market conditions and be at a time of the shareholders’ choosing,” it said without giving further details. The prospect of the world’s most profitable firm falling short of a $2 trillion valuation sought by Saudi rulers is widely considered the …

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who rose from poverty and pledged to champion democracy, fight entrenched corruption and modernize the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, was sworn in Sunday for his second and final five-year term with a pledge to take bolder actions. Army troops and police, along with armored vehicles, firetrucks and ambulances, were deployed across Jakarta, the vast capital, and major roads were closed in a departure from the more relaxed atmosphere of the popular Widodo’s 2014 inauguration. An Oct. 10 knife attack by an Islamic militant couple that wounded the country’s security minister set off a security crackdown. Known for his down-to-earth style, Widodo, 58, opted for an austere ceremony at the heavily guarded Parliament without the festive parade that transported him after his inauguration five years ago on a horse-drawn carriage in downtown Jakarta, where he was then cheered on by thousands of waving supporters. On his way to the ceremony Sunday, Widodo got out of his convoy with some of his security escorts and shook the hands of supporters, who yelled his name, waved Indonesia’s red-and-white flag and called him “bapak,” or father. After taking his oath before the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in front …

Thousands of Rohingya living in Bangladesh refugee camps have agreed to move to an island in the Bay of Bengal, officials said Sunday, despite fears the site is prone to flooding. Dhaka has long wanted to move 100,000 refugees to the muddy silt islet, saying it would take pressure off the overcrowded border camps where almost a million Rohingya live. Some 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar in August 2017 in the face of a military crackdown, joining 200,000 refugees already in makeshift tent settlements at Cox’s Bazar. Relocations begin soon Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, Mahbub Alam, said officials overseeing the relocation would be posted to Bhashan Char island in the next few days. Approximately 6,000-7,000 refugees have  expressed their willingness to be relocated to Bhashan Char, Alam told AFP from Cox’s Bazar, adding that “the number is rising.” He did not say when the refugees would be moved, but a senior Navy officer involved in building facilities on the island said it could start by December, with some 500 refugees sent daily. Bangladesh had been planning since last year to relocate Rohingya to the desolate flood-prone site, which is an hour by boat from the mainland. Rights groups have warned the island, which …

One Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded Sunday after an attack by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northeast Syria’s Tel Abyad, the defense ministry said, despite a deal to pause military operations as militants withdraw from the area. Vice President Mike Pence meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace for talks on the Kurds and Syria, Oct. 17, 2019, in Ankara, Turkey. President Tayyip Erdogan agreed Thursday in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to a five-day pause in the offensive to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a safe zone Turkey aims to form in northeast Syria near its border. On Saturday, the truce was holding along the border, with just a few Turkish military vehicles crossing, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. But Sunday’s attack has underlined how fragile the agreement is. Ankara regards the YPG, the main component of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey. The YPG has been a close U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic State. In a statement, the defense ministry said an attack by the YPG …

Hong Kong protesters flooded the city’s streets Sunday in defiance of a ban by the authorities on their march, setting up roadblocks and tossing firebombs amid the firing of tear gas by police.     Protest leaders carried a black banner at the front of the procession that read, “Five main demands, not one less,’’ as they pressed their calls for accountability and political rights. Police had beefed up security measures for the unauthorized rally, the latest in the unrest that has disrupted life in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory since early June.   Black-clad and masked protesters barricaded streets at multiple locations in Kowloon, where the city’s subway operator restricted passenger access. A firebomb was tossed at one subway station.  Police fired tear gas after gasoline bombs were thrown toward one subway station as tens of thousands of demonstrators marched down a main road with traffic at a standstill. They sang the protest movement’s anthem and held up placards depicting the Chinese flag as a Nazi swastika.  Anti-government demonstrators attend a protest march in Hong Kong, Oct. 20, 2019. Matthew lee, a university student, said he was determined to keep protesting even after more than four months.  “I can see …

Defense Secretary Mark Esper says that under current plans all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the military will continue to conduct operations against the Islamic State group to prevent its resurgence. Speaking to reporters traveling with him to the Middle East, Esper did not rule out the idea that U.S. forces would conduct counterterrorism missions from Iraq into Syria. But he said those details will be worked out over time. His comments were the first to specifically lay out where American troops will go as they leave Syria and what the counter-IS fight could look like. Esper said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift the more than 700 troops leaving Syria into western Iraq. Dr. Sophia Marjanovic participates with others at a rally to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria in front of the White House, Oct. 8, 2019. Troops not coming home The developments made clear that one of President Donald Trump’s rationales for withdrawing troops from Syria was not going to come to pass any time soon. “It’s time to bring our soldiers back home,” he said Wednesday. But they …

India said Sunday two soldiers and a civilian were killed in cross-border shelling with Pakistan in the disputed Kashmir region, while Islamabad said six died on its side, making it one of the deadliest days since New Delhi revoked Kashmir’s special status in August. Three Indian civilians were injured and some buildings and vehicles destroyed because of several hours of heavy shelling by both sides in the Tanghdar region in northern Kashmir late Saturday night, a senior police official said. Pakistan said six of its civilians were killed and eight wounded in the clash. The nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. There was an unprovoked cease-fire violation by Pakistan in Tanghdar sector, said Indian defense spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia. “Our troops retaliated strongly causing heavy damage and casualties to the enemy,” Kalia said. Indian forces in occupied Kashmir have gone “berserk,” Raja Farooq Haider, prime minister of Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir region, said in a tweet, adding that the civilian casualties and injuries were in the Muzaffarabad and Neelum districts. “This is the height of savagery. The world must not stay silent over it,” he said in his tweet with the hashtag #KashmirNeedsAttention. Tensions between the …

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the U.S., and numerous events are organized throughout the country to attract attention to the seriousness and scale of the issue. In the nation’s capital, the best restaurant chefs gathered to cook and eat for a cause. Karina Bafradzhian has the story.   …

While the internet has definitely made our lives easier, it has come at a cost. Studies show that internet addiction is on the rise, specifically among young people. In Turkey, a recent study shows that internet addiction has risen over the last two decades. For VOA, Yildiz Yazicioglu and Murat Karabulut report from Ankara, Turkey, in this story narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. …

The future of green energy just finished a 25-country tour. It moves as quietly as a whisper, uses the sun, wind and hydrogen for fuel, and emits zero greenhouse gases.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi sails us through this story. …

Chinese coast guard vessels spent 70% of the past year patrolling in a tract of the South China Sea claimed by Malaysia, an American think tank says. Malaysia did little to push back. The coast guard presence, especially long-term for a Chinese mission in the widely disputed South China Sea, followed by Malaysia’s muted response gives China an ever-stronger upper hand over the Southeast Asian country and more clout in a broader six-way maritime dispute that has grabbed attention as far away as Washington. China already has a military and technological edge in the dispute. In Malaysia, “they do monitor, but I don’t think they do the shooing them away kind of thing, because China is simply too powerful for doing so,” said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. FILE – China Coast Guard vessels patrol past a Chinese fishing vessel at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, April 5, 2017. Chinese coast guard At least one Chinese coast guard vessel was broadcasting from Luconia Shoals on 258 of the past 365 days, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report September 26. Most of …

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera Saturday announced the suspension of a subway fare hike that had prompted violent student protests, less than a day after he declared a state of emergency amid rioting and commuter chaos in the capital. Soldiers patrolled the streets in Santiago for the first time since the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990, summoned to keep order following protests over a rise in subway fares from the equivalent $1.12 to $1.16. Subway service had been suspended in the capital since late Friday. “I have heard with humility the voice of my compatriots,” Piñera said before announcing that “we are going to suspend” the fare hike. It was unclear if the rollback would end the demonstrations and rioting. Santiago, Chile The protest by students began Monday when hundreds of young people mobbed several metro stations in Santiago, jumping over or dipping under turnstiles in a fare-dodging protest against the 4% increase in fares. Chile doesn’t produce its own oil and must import its fuel, leading to high prices for gasoline, electricity and elevated public transportation costs. The government said the fare increase was necessary because of rising energy costs, the devaluation of the country’s currency …

In a series of Tweets Saturday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was canceling plans to hold the next G-7 summit at a golf resort he owns in Miami, Florida. Earlier this week the president had confirmed plans to hold the summit at the Trump National Doral. Accused of using the presidency to enrich himself, it was a rare backtrack on Twitter Saturday night. He blamed the media and Democrats for opposing the Doral site. Trump tweeted “I thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 Leaders. It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have its own 50 to 70 unit building. Would set up better than other alternatives. I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY!” Some members of Trumps own party had also criticized the plan. Trump tweeted that other U.S. sites for the 2020 summit will be considered, possibly including …

A plan to use explosives to topple two giant cranes leaning precariously over a partially collapsed hotel has been delayed until Sunday, city officials said after determining the cranes were more damaged than previously thought. Officials said a demolition that had been planned Saturday will now take place no earlier than noon Sunday. Fire Chief Tim McConnell said the latest delay was caused by the new assessment of the cranes. “As they got up and got closer they found out some things about it that have changed the way they are going to take it down … and that’s going to take a little longer for them to accomplish,” he said at a news conference. “The cranes are more damaged than they thought.” Workers in a bucket hoisted by a crane begin the process of preparing the two unstable cranes for implosion at the collapse site of the Hard Rock Hotel, which partially collapsed while under construction, Oct. 12, 2019, in New Orleans. Hard Rock Hotel collapses The Hard Rock Hotel under construction at the edge of the historic French Quarter partially collapsed Oct. 12, killing three workers. Two bodies remain in the unstable wreckage and Mayor LaToya Cantrell said …

The mayor of riot-stricken Barcelona pleaded Saturday for calm after violent protests by Catalan separatists rocked Spain’s second largest city for a fifth consecutive night. “This cannot continue. Barcelona does not deserve it,” Mayor Ada Colau told reporters, adding that Friday’s violence was the worst so far. Protesters clashed with police again later Saturday despite efforts by some citizens to mediate by gathering between the two sides. There was also a skirmish between separatist supporters and police in a square in Spain’s capital, Madrid. Authorities are bracing for more protests in the coming days. Supreme Court verdict Radical separatists have fought with police every night in Barcelona and other Catalan cities following huge peaceful protests by people angered by Monday’s Supreme Court verdict that sentenced nine separatist leaders to prison for their roles in a failed 2017 secession attempt. Catalan pro-independence demonstrators pack the street in Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 19, 2019. Barcelona and the rest of the restive Spanish region of Catalonia are reeling from five straight days of violent protests. More than 500,000 people gathered in downtown Barcelona Friday in a massive show of support for the secession movement that is backed by roughly half of the wealthy northeastern …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Syrian government forces to move out of areas near the Turkish border so he can resettle up to 2 million refugees there, his spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday. The request will top Erdogan’s talks next week with Syria’s ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Arrangements along the Syrian-Turkish border were thrown into disarray after the U.S. pulled its troops out of the area, opening the door to Turkey’s invasion aiming to drive out Kurdish-led fighters it considers terrorists.  Abandoned by their American allies, the Kurds — with Russia’s mediation — invited Damascus to send troops into northeastern Syria as protection from Turkish forces. That has complicated Turkey’s plan to create a “safe zone” along the border, where it can resettle Syrian refugees now in Turkey. Most of those refugees fled Syria’s government.  Ibrahim Kalin, chief adviser to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaks during an interview in Istanbul, Oct. 19, 2019. Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said Ankara does not want either Syrian forces or Kurdish fighters in the border area because refugees would not go back to areas under their control.  Turkey has said it wants to oversee that area.  “This is one of the topics …