The White House offered additional assurances late Monday about what it said was the routine nature of an unexpected visit President Donald Trump made Saturday to a military hospital that sparked some suspicions about his health. Trump’s official physician, U.S. Navy Commander Sean Conley, issued a memo saying the president underwent “a little more than an hour of examination, labs and discussions,” but no “specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations.” Conley characterized the visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as a “planned interim checkup as part of the regular, primary preventative care” Trump receives during the year.  He said the president would have a “more comprehensive examination after the New Year.” The visit did not appear on Trump’s daily schedule of activities released by the White House, unlike when he went for his annual physical exam in February.  Conley wrote that was because of “scheduling uncertainties.” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham released an earlier statement saying Trump had begun “portions of his annual physical exam” Saturday because he had a free weekend and was anticipating “a very busy 2020.” In a separate statement to VOA Sunday she said “We’re not going to get into security and movement protocols …

The last time Vararunee Khonchanath was in the presence of a pope was before she was born just over 35 years ago, but when Pope Francis visits Bangkok later this week to bless Thailand’s tiny Catholic minority she will be singing in the choir. A sixth-generation Catholic of Portuguese-Thai ancestry, Vararunee lives in a 250-year-old community that is as old as the Thai capital itself. During the previous papal visit, back in 1984, Vararunee’s pregnant mother was among the congregation. “I was in my mum’s tummy as she attended the mass when His Holiness John Paul II visited Thailand the last time,” Vararunee said, adding how honored she felt to be in the choir this time, when Pope Francis offers mass at the National Stadium. During his visit from Nov. 20-23, Pope Francis will also celebrate mass at Assumption Cathedral in central Bangkok. In overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand, Catholics number just a little more than 380,000 in a country of more than 65 million. Missionaries, traders Historians say more than 70 percent of Catholics in Thailand, like Vararunee, have foreign ancestry. Catholicism first arrived in Siam, the old name for Thailand, in the mid 1500s with Portuguese missionaries and traders. The …

Novel drugs may offer fresh ways to reduce heart risks beyond the usual medicines to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. One new study found that heart attack survivors benefited from a medicine long used to treat gout. Several experimental drugs also showed early promise for interfering with heart-harmful genes without modifying the genes themselves – in one case, with treatment just twice a year. The research was featured at an American Heart Association conference ending Monday in Philadelphia. “There’s a lot of excitement” about the new gene-targeting medicines, especially because they seem to last so long, said Dr. Karol Watson, of the University of California, Los Angeles. Scientists have been exploring gene therapy – altering DNA – to attack the root cause of many diseases. The new drugs essentially accomplish the same thing without tampering with genes, said the University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Daniel Rader, who has consulted for some makers of these drugs. The medicines work by silencing or blocking messages that genes give to cells to make proteins that can do harm, such as allowing cholesterol to accumulate. The first few of these “RNA-interference” drugs recently were approved for other conditions, and research is also targeting heart disease. Farthest …

The Taliban has released two long-time Western captives Tuesday, fulfilling its side of a prisoner exchange that involves the release of three of its high-ranking commanders.   Sources with the insurgent group say American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks were released in southern Zabul province.  King and Weeks, both professors at the American University in Kabul, were kidnapped in August 2016 outside the university’s campus. The pair’s release came hours after the three Taliban commanders were flown to Qatar as part of the prisoner swap.  The trio includes Anas Haqqani, whose older brother is the leader of the notorious Taliban-affiliated terror network that bears their name. Anas Haqqani, along with Taliban commanders Haji Mali Khan and Hafiz Rashid, have been detained by the Afghan government since 2014.   Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced the prisoner swap last week, in order to facilitate direct peace talks with Afghanistan’s former hardline rulers.  The Taliban has waged a deadly insurgent campaign since the Taliban was overthrown by U.S.-led forces for harboring al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.   …

Waves of student protesters attempted daring escapes past police lines, while less than 200 others remain barricaded inside a Hong Kong University, which has been surrounded by riot police since Sunday. VOA Cantonese Service reporter Iris Tong, who was with students inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, described scenes of desperation, with at least two young teenagers threatening suicide.  “I saw one boy (threaten) to use a knife on his neck,” Tong says. “I didn’t see any blood from his neck, but he just talked about how he wanted to kill himself. But other people said it wasn’t necessary for him to do that and told him to put down the knife.”  “I can feel they are hopeless,” she said. “It’s quite sad.” Since Sunday, police have ordered the protesters to drop their homemade weapons and leave the campus via a single exit, where they likely would face riot-related charges. As of early Tuesday, hundreds had agreed to leave the school following negotiations by local officials and community leaders. Many other students have attempted to escape to freedom — some by sliding down ropes to waiting motorcycles, which tried to zoom past the security cordon that surrounds the campus. Police …

South Korean and U.S. officials broke off talks on Tuesday aimed at settling the cost burden for Seoul of hosting the U.S. military, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, amid a public backlash over a U.S. demand for a sharp increase in the bill. Officials had resumed a planned two-day negotiation on Monday, trying to narrow a $4 billion gap in what they believe South Korea should contribute for the cost of stationing U.S. troops in the country for next year. “Our position is that it should be within the mutually acceptable Special Measures Agreement (SMA) framework that has been agreed upon by South Korea and the U.S. for the past 28 years,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, referring to the cost-sharing deal’s official name. “The U.S. believes that the share of defense spending should be increased significantly by creating a new category,” the ministry said in a statement. Negotiators left the table after only about one hour of discussions while the talks were scheduled throughout the day, South Korean media reported, citing unnamed foreign ministry officials. South Korean lawmakers have said U.S. officials had demanded up to $5 billion a year, more than five times the 1.04 trillion won ($896 …

The union representing U.S. diplomats said on Monday it has raised tens of thousands of dollars in the last week alone to help defray the legal costs of foreign service officers who have testified in U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry. The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) also issued a statement defending U.S. diplomats after Trump criticized several of those who have appeared before Congress and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said nothing specific in their support. “These patriots go abroad to every corner of the world and serve the interests of the American people,” AFSA President Eric Rubin said in a statement. “They do so with integrity and have no partisan or hidden agenda.” “We should honor the service of each and every one of them.” Separately, Rubin said: “We have raised tens of thousands of dollars in the past week alone” in the union’s Legal Defense Fund to help defray lawyers’ bills. He did not provide details. One person caught up in the inquiry said he had already run up a legal bill of more than $25,000. Neither the State Department nor the White House responded to requests for comment. A State Department spokesperson has previously said …

Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to gradually move the country to a government-funded health care system has further inflamed the debate over “Medicare for All,” likely ensuring the issue will play a significant role in this week’s Democratic presidential debate. The Massachusetts senator announced Friday that her administration would immediately build on existing laws, including the Affordable Care Act, to expand access to health care while taking up to three years to fully implement Medicare for All. That attempt to thread the political needle has roiled her more moderate rivals, who say she’s waffling, while worrying some on the left, who see Warren’s commitment to a single-payer system wavering. The divide could complicate plans by Democrats to turn health care into a winning issue in 2020. The party successfully took back control of the House last year by championing programs that ensure that people with preexisting medical conditions keep their insurance coverage while arguing that Republicans want to weaken such provisions. But the Medicare for All debate is more delicate as advocates including Warren grapple with concerns that a new government-run system won’t provide the same quality of coverage as private insurance – and would be prohibitively expensive. “The Medicare for All proposal …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday the U.S. is changing its position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, dismissing the State Department’s 1978 legal opinion that civilian settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are “inconsistent with international law.”  The announcement is the latest in the Trump administration’s moves that weaken Palestinian claims to statehood. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

A busy week in the public impeachment hearings into U.S. President Donald Trump begins early Tuesday with the first of three witnesses and what they know about Trump’s alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rivals. In total, House committees will hear from nine witnesses during five separate hearings taking place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The most anticipated testimony will come from U.S. ambassador to the European Union and million-dollar Trump inaugural donor Gordon Sondland. Sondland appeared to be in the center of dealing with Ukraine over Trump’s alleged demand that Ukraine investigate 2020 presidential rival and former Vice President Joe Biden for corruption. Another witness expected to draw a lot of attention is David Holmes — a U.S. diplomat in Kyiv who apparently overheard Trump asking about the investigations during a phone call between Sondland and the president. David Holmes, a career diplomat and the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ukaine leaves the Capitol Hill, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, in Washington. Some witnesses have already testified behind closed doors. They include Sondland, who had to amend some of his testimony when other witnesses seemed to contradict what he told lawmakers. President Trump …

Heavy winds stirred dozens of fires across Australia’s east coast on Tuesday, blanketing Sydney in hazardous smoke and prompting health warnings for the country’s most populous city. Wildfires have destroyed about 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of farmland and bush over the past couple of weeks, fuelled by tinder-dry conditions after three years of drought that experts say has been exacerbated by climate change. Strong winds fanned around 60 fires still ablaze across New South Wales (NSW) state and officials said smoke that stretched across Sydney was measured at 10 times above hazardous levels in some parts of the city. The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) said the smoke would linger for most of Tuesday as strong winds exacerbated the threat of more fires across Australia’s east coast. The state’s health department said people should stay inside as much as possible. “For most people, smoke causes mild symptoms like sore eyes, nose and throat. However, people with conditions like asthma, emphysema and angina are more likely to be sensitive to the health effects of smoke,” said Dr. Richard Broom, Director of Environmental Health at NSW Health. Australia’s bushfires are a common and deadly threat but the early outbreak of …

At least four people were shot and wounded during a small protest in Haiti’s capital Monday after a speech by embattled President Jovenel Moise. Several hundred people were marching from the Delmas to Petionville neighborhoods when shots were fired from nearby. Associated Press journalists didn’t see the source of the shooting, but saw a local journalist, a police officer and two protesters rushed away with apparent bullet wounds. No information was immediately available about the condition of the wounded people or their identities. Monday was the anniversary of a key battle of the Haitian Revolution, and earlier in the day Moise rejected calls to resign. The president said he would continue to try to negotiate with his opposition. Opponents say Moise should leave office over economic mismanagement and failure to investigate corruption. Leaders of the opposition including members of Haiti’s Senate organized months of protests that have paralyzed the country but demonstrations have been slackening in recent days, with some sections of the capital returning to near-normal activity. Opposition members had called for mass marches Monday but they did not materialize. Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise, right, stands with resigning prime minister Jean Michel Lapin, at the national palace during a …

Sixteen Nicaraguan opposition activists, including 13 social leaders who were arrested as they tried to deliver water to hunger strikers protesting the incarceration of relatives they say are political prisoners, were charged Monday with allegedly transporting weapons. The charges, which carry a minimum sentence of five years in prison, are based on a police report saying authorities confiscated handguns, a shotgun and gasoline bombs. Police presented the detainees before government media, handcuffed, wearing prison uniforms and guarded by masked officers. They smiled but did not speak in video images released by authorities. Police also showed the weapons allegedly seized from those arrested. Relatives, opposition leaders and journalists massed outside the court but were not allowed in to witness the proceedings. The Organization of American States has expressed “concern and condemnation” of the arrests. Among those arrested is Amaya Coppens, a Nicaraguan-Belgian dual citizen who was imprisoned for nearly a year for taking part in protests last year against the government of President Daniel Ortega. Defense attorney Maria Oviedo said the judge on the case is the same one who found Coppens and numerous other protesters guilty of “terrorism” last year. The 13 were detained Thursday in Masaya when they tried …

Mexico’s president on Monday defended a plan to provide pensions to indigenous people starting at age 65, compared with 68 for other Mexicans. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was elected last year after campaigning to help marginalized people, said those who question the idea should visit poor indigenous communities to see how residents live. He said indigenous seniors in poor areas are often in worse health than city-dwelling counterparts due to decades of hard labor and poor nutrition. “It is painful that a senior in the city, age 65, is better preserved than an indigenous person of 65 because they work, they eat poorly, they have to walk for kilometers and they suffer greatly,” Lopez Obrador said. “How do we not give them special attention?” Some criticized his plan for considering race in the provision of social benefits. “Only a deeply racist government would parcel out a social program measuring aid according to people’s race,” tweeted Julen Rementeria, a senator representing the Gulf coast state of Veracruz for the conservative National Action Party. Lopez Obrador said he regrets that targeting indigenous people for aid would be considered discriminatory. “If giving preferential attention to indigenous people is racist, put me on …

The state of California on Monday sued e-cigarette maker Juul Labs, alleging the San Francisco company engaged in a “systematic” and “wildly successful” campaign to attract teenagers to its nicotine devices. The lawsuit draws on internal correspondence and other evidence, asserting the company did little to prevent sales to underage customers. It also claims that Juul used a “flawed” age-verification process for online sales. Filed in California state court in Alameda County, the lawsuit also cites passages from a recent Reuters investigation that documented how Juul disregarded evidence soon after its launch in 2015 that teenagers were attracted to the product. The Reuters story documented how Juul rarely mentioned nicotine in early consumer marketing, while at the same time pitching retailers on Juul’s unique addictive power. FILE – A woman buys refills for her Juul at a smoke shop in New York, Dec. 20, 2018. Juul spokesman Austin Finan said the company had not yet reviewed the complaint. “We remain focused on resetting the vapor category in the U.S. and earning the trust of society by working cooperatively with attorneys general, regulators, public health officials, and other stakeholders to combat underage use and convert adult smokers from combustible cigarettes,” he …

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko maintained his hold on power after results published Monday showed not a single opposition candidate had won a seat in a weekend parliamentary election. Lukashenko has governed the former Soviet republic with an iron fist for a quarter of a century and he announced on Sunday he would stand again in the 2020 presidential election. The 65-year-old has given more leeway to the opposition and released political prisoners in recent years in a bid to improve ties with the West after disputes with traditional ally Moscow. But official data on Monday showed, on a 77% turnout, no opposition figure won a seat. At the last election in 2016, two opposition members won seats for the first time in 20 years but neither was allowed to stand again this time around. FILE – Members of a local election commission sort ballots before starting to count votes after the parliamentary election in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 17, 2019. “The (election) result has long been determined. The authorities selected approved candidates. A change of power in Belarus is not possible through elections,” Nikolai Statkevich, a leading opposition figure, told Reuters. Western monitoring agencies have not judged a Belarus election to …

California said on Monday it will halt all purchases of new vehicles for state government fleets from GM, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler and other automakers backing President Donald Trump in a battle to strip the state of authority to regulate tailpipe emissions. Between 2016 and 2018, California purchased $58.6 million in vehicles from General Motors Corp, $55.8 million from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, $10.6 million from Toyota Motor Corp and $9 million from Nissan. Last month, GM, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and members of the Global Automakers trade association backed the Trump administration’s effort to bar California from setting tailpipe standards, which are more rigid than Washington’s proposed national standards. The automakers declined or did not immediately comment on California’s announced ban on purchases of their vehicles. FILE – California Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., July 23, 2019. Starting in January, the state will only buy from automakers that recognize California’s legal authority to set emissions standards. Those automakers include Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen, which struck a deal with California in July to follow revised state vehicle emissions standards. “Car makers that have chosen to be on the wrong side of history will be on the …

The African continent accounts for a whopping 90-percent of the world’s malaria cases.  Scientists in Burkina Faso recently deployed a new weapon in the war on malaria.  As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, their battle faces bioethical blowback. …

Spain’s High Court on Monday ordered the extradition of Venezuela’s former military intelligence chief to the United States, reversing an earlier decision to refuse the request. Hugo Carvajal, an ally of Venezuela’s late Socialist leader Hugo Chavez, is wanted by U.S. authorities on allegations of drug trafficking. He has previously denied accusations that he collaborated with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to help smuggle cocaine into the United States. The High Court said in a written ruling there was “sufficient evidence to justify the extradition”. It said there was “continued and organized conduct in relation to drug trafficking carried out during 20 years that… constitutes the crime of belonging to a criminal organization and collaboration with a terrorist organization.” Carvajal was arrested in Spain at the request of U.S. authorities in April, but freed in September after the High Court initially rejected the U.S. extradition request. Spanish media reported last week that Carvajal had gone missing, and police confirmed that they were searching for him, without commenting on why or for how long. His lawyer, Maria Dolores de Arguelles, told Reuters on Monday she had “no idea” where he was, but said she planned to use all legal means …

The United States on Monday granted another 90 days for companies to cease doing business with China’s telecoms giant Huawei, saying this would allow service providers to continue to serve rural areas. President Donald Trump in May effectively barred Huawei from American communications networks after Washington found the company had violated US sanctions on Iran and attempted to block a subsequent investigation. The extension, renewing one issued in August, “will allow carriers to continue to service customers in some of the most remote areas of the United States who would otherwise be left in the dark,” US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. “The department will continue to rigorously monitor sensitive technology exports to ensure that our innovations are not harnessed by those who would threaten our national security.” American officials also claim Huawei is a tool of Beijing’s electronic espionage, making its equipment a threat to US national security — something the company denies. Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the company’s founder and CEO, was arrested in Canada last year and is now fighting extradition to the United States on fraud and conspiracy charges tied to US sanctions. The battle …

The Ukrainian journalist Oleg Sentsov, who was jailed in Russia for reporting on the country’s illegal annexation of Crimea, and murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi were among those honored at the recent Magnitsky Awards ceremony in London. The awards pay tribute to those who risk their lives to stand up for human rights. Henry Ridgwell reports from the ceremony …

What’s eating yogurt? Despite shelves full of new varieties — from Icelandic to Australian to coconut-based — U.S. yogurt sales are in a multiyear slump. Yogurt companies are confident that more new products can boost sales. But some analysts are skeptical, saying larger trends — like growing sales of protein bars — will be hard to turn around. “Consumers are just not eating as much yogurt as they once did,” said Caleb Bryant, associate director of food and drink reports for Mintel, a market research company. U.S. sales of yogurt and yogurt drinks peaked at nearly $9 billion in 2015. In 2019, they’re expected to hit $8.2 billion, down 3.6% from 2018, Mintel says. They’re expected to fall another 10% to $7.4 billion by 2024. Chobani — the second-biggest yogurt maker by U.S. market share — thinks innovation can halt that slide. On Monday, the company introduced its first oat-based yogurts, capitalizing on booming sales of oat milk and consumer interest in plant-based eating. The move follows market leader Danone’s introduction last July of oat-based yogurts under its So Delicious brand. “If we stay close to the consumer and continue to give them the food they want from a trend …

A House of Representatives committee on Monday told the U.S. Supreme Court it would agree to a 10-day hold – but not a longer delay – on a lower court ruling directing President Donald Trump’s accounting firm to hand over his financial records to the Democratic-led panel. The case represents an important showdown pitting the powers of the presidency against the authority of Congress, with Trump fighting doggedly to keep details of this finances private. The delay agreed to by the House Oversight Committee would give the nine justices a chance to decide whether to grant Trump’s emergency request, filed on Friday, seeking to block the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling. Trump turned to the justices after the lower court last week refused his request to reconsider its October decision backing the House committee’s authority to subpoena the records from Mazars LLP, Trump’s longtime accounting firm. The Republican president had asked the justices for at least a temporary hold on the enforcement of the subpoena. Trump’s lawyers would also want the matter to be put on hold for a longer period while the litigation is resolved. In a letter to the court, the committee’s …