A senior official from Britain’s main opposition Labour Party says that leaks from a parliamentary report on Russian interference in British politics raises important questions about the fairness of next month’s general election. An 18-month-long investigation by the British parliament’s cross-party intelligence committee has concluded Russian meddling may have impacted Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, though the panel couldn’t decide how much it affected the vote. The leak of the report’s conclusion, published in Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, is adding to pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to publish the full findings of the inquiry before Britons head to the polls on December 12. Emily Thornberry, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson, said the disclosure that Russian meddling may have distorted the Brexit vote raises questions about how next month’s election can be safeguarded. “If it is correct that our security services have been unable to reach a conclusion about the extent or impact of Russian interference in the 2016 referendum, then it raises serious questions which require serious answers,” she said. If the report is not immediately published by Johnson “people will rightly continue to ask: what is he trying to hide from the British public and why,” she added. Opponents have …

The Women’s Self-Defense Forces recently opened its first academy in northeastern Syria with the aim of providing military and ideological training to female fighters who voluntarily join the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. VOA’s Zana Omar filed this report narrated by Sirwan Kajjo. …

Iran’s supreme leader backed Sunday a government decision to increase fuel prices which sparked deadly protests over the weekend. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed “thugs” for damaging property  in protests that left at least two people dead. His comments come as the government shut off internet across Iran in an attempt to quell protests over the raising of government-set gasoline prices by 50%. In this picture released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei talks to clerics in his Islamic thoughts class in Tehran, Nov. 17, 2019. In a televised address to the nation, Khamenei said “some lost their lives” without elaborating. The protests put renewed pressure on Iran’s government as it struggles to overcome the U.S. sanctions strangling the country after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Though largely peaceful, demonstrations devolved into violence in several instances, with online videos purporting to show police officers firing tear gas at protesters and mobs setting fires.  The demonstrations took place in over a dozen cities in the hours following President Hassan Rouhani’s decision early Friday to cut gasoline subsidies to fund handouts for …

The owner of a kebab shop targeted in a deadly far-right attack in the German city of Halle last month has gifted the eatery to the two brothers who were working there during the shooting. Siblings Ismet and Rifat Tekin received a framed letter transferring the ownership of the Kiez-Doener to them in a ceremony on Saturday as the restaurant reopened for the first time since the October 9 attack. “I wish my successors much strength in processing the terrible events of October 9, 2019 and hope they have many customers of different cultures and religions,” their former boss Izzet Cagac wrote in the letter, which was accompanied by a key. A 20-year-old customer was shot dead when a gunman opened fire on the kebab shop after earlier trying and failing to storm a synagogue. He also killed a female passer-by. The assailant, a suspected neo-Nazi, was arrested and later admitted that the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, fuelling concerns about an increasingly violent far-right scene in Germany. At the reopened kebab shop, a colorful memorial wall paid tribute to the victims and all customers could eat for free over the weekend, local media reported. Der Spiegel …

Yemen’s internationally recognized government was forced to delay its return to the port city of Aden, officials said Sunday, blaming southern separatists for stalling on the key point of a power-sharing deal signed early this month to end their infighting. Under the agreement brokered by Saudi Arabia between Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the separatists, the government was to have returned to Aden last Tuesday. The separatists pushed government forces out and captured Aden during clashes last summer. Their infighting added another complex layer to the country’s civil war, in which the government and the separatists, backed by the United Arab Emirates, are in a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia, against Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. Government officials told The Associated Press that the separatists are refusing to hand over Aden headquarters and the presidential palace. The separatist Southern Transitional Council insists instead on joint committees. The government officials, in turn, blame the separatists for inciting “limited clashes” and looting. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Addressing tribal leaders last week in the Yemen’s easternmost province of al-Mahra, Interior Minister Ahmed al-Maysari criticized the power-sharing agreement. “Does it make …

The World Health Organization is calling for stricter regulations on the marketing and sale of e-cigarettes as more information comes to light about the potentially harmful impact of these products.    Health officials are increasingly worried about the risks posed by e-cigarettes as reported cases of deaths and illnesses from these devices spread from the United States to Europe and beyond. They see the recent death of a young man in Belgium and reports of vaping-related illnesses in the Philippines and other countries in the world as a call to action.   The World Health Organization says it is disturbed that vaping devices continue to be marketed as products that are healthy and that can wean smokers off their nicotine addiction.  WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier tells VOA these industry health claims are unproven. “While these electronic nicotine delivery systems may be less toxic than conventional cigarettes, this does not make them harmless,” he said.  “They produce aerosols from the vapor that contain toxicants that can result in a range of significant pathological changes.  These ends pose health risks for nonsmokers, to minors, to pregnant women — all of those who should not use such systems.”   The U.S. Centers for …

A U.N. envoy met with Bolivia’s interim president Saturday to find a way out of the country’s political crisis while the world body expressed concern the situation could “spin out of control” amid a rising death toll. On leaving the meeting with interim leader Jeanine Anez, envoy Jean Arnault said the United Nations hopes it can contribute to an “accelerated pacification process” leading to new elections following the resignation and exile of Evo Morales. Meanwhile, another international body, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, condemned Anez’s government for issuing a decree it says “exempts from criminal responsibility” soldiers who took part in efforts to break up protests and unrest that have left at least 23 people dead. The norm was approved before the most violent day since the crisis began, when at least eight pro-Morales coca growers were killed when security forces opened fire during a demonstration. “It is not a license for the Armed Forces to kill,” Presidency Minister Jerjes Justiniano told a press conference. He said the decree is based on the Criminal Code, which states that “if one defends oneself in self-defense, there is no penalty.” Earlier Saturday, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet issued a statement …

A trove of leaked Chinese government documents reveals details of its clampdown on Uighurs and other Muslims in the country’s western Xinjiang region under President Xi Jinping, the New York Times reported Saturday. United Nations experts and activists say at least 1 million Uighurs and members of other largely Muslim minority groups have been detained in camps in Xinjiang in a crackdown that has drawn condemnation from the United States and other countries. The documents, which the newspaper said were leaked by “a member of the Chinese political establishment,” show how Xi gave a series of internal speeches to officials during and after a 2014 visit to Xinjiang following a stabbing attack by Uighur militants at a train station that killed 31 people. The report said Xi called for an “all-out ‘struggle against terrorism, infiltration, and separatism’ using the ‘organs of dictatorship,’ and showing ‘absolutely no mercy.’” The documents show that the Chinese leadership’s fears were heightened by terrorist attacks in other countries and the U.S. drawdown of troops from Afghanistan. It is unclear how the documents totaling 403 pages were gathered and selected, the newspaper said. Beijing denies any mistreatment of the Uighurs or others in Xinjiang, saying it …

Samoa declared a state of emergency this weekend, closing all schools and cracking down on public gatherings, after several deaths linked to a measles outbreak that has spread across the Pacific islands. The island state of about 200,000, south of the equator and half way between Hawaii and New Zealand, declared a measles epidemic late in October after the first deaths were reported. Since then, at least six deaths, mostly infants younger than 2, have been linked to the outbreak, the health ministry said in a statement late last week. Of the 716 suspected cases of measles, 40% required hospitalization. Worst yet to come As of the weekend, vaccination “for members of the public who have not yet received a vaccination injection, is now a mandatory legal requirement,” the government said in a statement. Only about two-thirds of the population has been immunized, according to the health ministry. “The way it is going now and the poor (immunization) coverage, we are anticipating the worst to come,” Samoa’s Director General of Health Leausa Take Naseri was cited in the health ministry statement as saying. He added that the children who died had not been vaccinated. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters …

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco announced Sunday it will sell a 1.5% stake in the company as it looks to raise as much as $25.6 billion from the sale. The newly released figures also revealed a valuation for the company that’s between $1.6 trillion and $1.7 trillion, a figure that fell short of the $2 trillion mark Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had sought. Still, a 1.5% flotation could raise between $24 billion and $25.6 billion to help fuel the Saudi economy. Saudi Aramco announced it will have 200 billion regular shares, selling 1.5% or what is 3 billion shares. Aramco set a stock price range of 30 to 32 Saudi riyals, or $8 to $8.50 a share for investors. The company is selling 0.5% to individual investors, which will include Saudi citizens, residents of Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab nationals, and 1% to institutional investors, which could include major Chinese and Russian buyers. Aramco will announce the final price for the stock when the book-building period ends Dec. 5. Trading on the local Tadawul exchange in Riyadh is expected to happen sometime in mid-December. Global buzz The highly anticipated sale of a sliver of the company has been …

Venetians are bracing for the prospect of another exceptional tide in a season that is setting records. Officials are forecasting a 1.6 meter (5 feet, 2 inch) surge of water Sunday through the lagoon city. That comes after Tuesday’s 1.87-meter flood, the worst in 53 years, followed by high tide of 1.54 meters Friday. Those two events mark the first time since records began in 1872 that two floods topped 1.5 meters in the same year, much less the same week. The city’s mayor says the flooding damage are in “the hundreds of millions” and Italian officials have declared a state of emergency for the area. Tourists with suitcases were rushing to grab the last water taxis to get to the mainland Sunday before service is interrupted in anticipation of the high tide.   …

A few Pakistani women friends, working for big tech companies in the U.S., decided they wanted to create the mentoring and professional network they wished they’d had when coming up in the business. The result is the Seattle based Pakistani Women in Computing or PWIC. VOA’s Nadeem Yaqub recently visited the Seattle chapter of PWIC and filed this report.   …

Sri Lanka’s former wartime defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa was set to become president after his main rival conceded defeat Sunday in an election that came months after bombings by Islamist militants threw the country into turmoil. Rajapaksa, who oversaw the military defeat of Tamil separatists under his brother and then president Mahinda Rajapaksa 10 years ago, has promised strong leadership to secure the island of 22 million people, the majority of whom are Sinhalese Buddhists. With half the votes counted from Saturday’s election, Rajapaksa led with 50.7 percent, while his main rival Sajith Premadasa had 43.8 percent, the election commission said. Rajapaksa’s party claimed victory. Premadasa, a housing minister in the current government that has faced criticism for failing to protect Sri Lankans in the wake of the suicide bombings in April, conceded defeat. “At the conclusion of a hard fought and spirited election campaign, it is my privilege to honor the decision of the people and congratulate Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his election as the seventh President of Sri Lanka,” Premadasa said. Millions voted to elect a new president to lead the country out of its deepest economic slump in more than 15 years, dragged down by its tourism …

The United States and South Korea announced Sunday they will postpone upcoming military drills in an effort to bolster a stalled peace push with North Korea, even as Washington denied the move amounted to another concession to Pyongyang. The drills, known as the Combined Flying Training Event, would have simulated air combat scenarios and involved an undisclosed number of warplanes from the United States and South Korea. In deference to Pyongyang, the exercises had already been reduced in scale and scope from previous years, but North Korea still objected to them regardless. Effort to enable peace U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the U.S. and South Korean militaries would remain at a high state of readiness despite the move, and he denied that the decision to postpone the drills was a concession to North Korea. “I don’t see this as a concession. I see this as a good faith effort … to enable peace,” Esper told reporters, as he announced the decision standing alongside South Korean counterpart Jeong Kyeong-doo in Bangkok, where Asian defense chiefs are gathered for talks. The drills were meant to begin in the coming days. Earlier this month, a senior North Korean diplomat blamed the U.S. …

Prince Andrew offered a detailed rebuttal Saturday to claims he had sex with a woman who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, providing an alibi for one of the alleged encounters and questioning the authenticity of a well-known photograph that shows him posing with the woman. In a rare interview with BBC Newsnight, Andrew categorically denied having sex with the woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, saying, “It didn’t happen.” He said he has “no recollection” of ever meeting her and told an interviewer there are “a number of things that are wrong” about Giuffre’s account. Giuffre has said Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew in 2001 when she was 17. She says Epstein flew her around the world on his private planes to have sex with powerful men, and that she had sexual encounters with Andrew in London and New York and in the U.S. Virgin Islands. “I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened,” Andrew said. A request for comment was sent to Giuffre’s representative. Giuffre recently challenged the British royal to speak out, telling reporters in New York, “He knows exactly what he’s done.” “And the answer is nothing,” Andrew told BBC. High-stakes interview Andrew’s …

Fresh violence erupted around a besieged Hong Kong university campus Sunday morning, as protesters braced for a possible final police push to clear them after fiery clashes overnight. Huge fires had lit up the night sky at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Kowloon district hours earlier as protesters hurled petrol bombs, some by catapult, and police fired volleys of tear gas to force them up onto the podium of the red-brick campus. After a few quiet hours as protesters slept on lawns and in the university library, police fired fresh rounds of tear gas shortly after 10 a.m. Activists hurled petrol bombs in return, some igniting trees outside the campus. Hours earlier, squads of Chinese soldiers dressed in shorts and T-shirts, some carrying red plastic buckets or brooms, emerged from their barracks in a rare public appearance to help residents clear debris blocking key roads. Protesters clash with police at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, Nov. 16, 2019. Campus turned fortress Parts of the campus looked more like a fortress Sunday morning, with barricades and black-clad protesters manning the ramparts with improvised weapons like bricks, crates of fire bombs, and bows and arrows at the ready. …

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has stunned Republicans again, narrowly winning a second term Saturday as the Deep South’s only Democratic governor and handing Donald Trump another gubernatorial loss this year. In the heart of Trump country, the moderate Edwards cobbled together enough cross-party support with his focus on bipartisan, state-specific issues to defeat Republican businessman Eddie Rispone. Coming after a defeat in the Kentucky governor’s race and sizable losses in Virginia’s legislative races, the Louisiana result seems certain to rattle Republicans as they head into the 2020 presidential election. Trump fought to return the seat to the GOP, making three trips to Louisiana to rally against Edwards. The president’s intense attention motivated not only conservative Republicans, but also powered a surge in anti-Trump and black voter turnout that helped Edwards. Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone speaks as he is endorsed by President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Bossier City, La., Nov. 14, 2019. Moderate candidate Democrats who argue that nominating a moderate presidential candidate is the best approach to beat Trump are certain to point to Louisiana’s race as bolstering their case. Edwards, a West Point graduate, opposes gun restrictions, signed one of the nation’s strictest …

The House Intelligence Committee overseeing the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump released transcripts of depositions Saturday from two officials who will be questioned in public hearings next week. Congressional investigators also met Saturday in a closed-door session with Mark Sandy, a longtime career official with the Office of Management and Budget, who could provide valuable information about the U.S. delay of about $400 million in aid to Ukraine last summer. The transcripts released Saturday were from previous closed-door depositions with former National Security Council official Tim Morrison and Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence. Morrison and Williams are scheduled to be questioned in public Tuesday by the House panel. At the heart of the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry against the president is whether Trump withheld needed military aid to Ukraine in an effort to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential opponent of Trump’s in the 2020 presidential election, and his son, Hunter Biden. No wrongdoing by either Biden has been substantiated. Former top national security adviser to President Donald Trump, Tim Morrison, arrives for a closed door meeting to testify as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says all Conservative Party candidates in the upcoming election have pledged to back his Brexit deal.  “All 635 Conservative candidates standing at this election — every single one of them — has pledged to me that if elected they will vote in Parliament to pass my Brexit deal so we can end the uncertainty and finally leave the EU,” Johnson told London’s Telegraph newspaper in an interview published late on Saturday.  “I am offering a pact with the people: If you vote Conservative you can be 100% sure a majority Conservative government will unblock Parliament and get Brexit done,” he said.  The December 12 election was called to end three years of disagreement over Brexit that has sapped investors’ faith in the stability of the world’s fifth-largest economy and damaged Britain’s standing since it voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.  Johnson, 55, hopes to win a majority to push through the last-minute Brexit deal he struck with the EU last month after the bloc granted a third delay to the divorce that was originally supposed to take place March 29. Voters in a 2016 referendum narrowly voted in favor of leaving the EU.  Johnson’s Conservatives lead Labour by sizable margins, four polls published Saturday show.  A YouGov poll …

A federal judge on Saturday ordered that a German citizen arrested on her return to the country on suspicion of being a member of Islamic State should remain in custody, prosecutors said.    Authorities said the suspect, identified only as Nasim A., left Germany for Syria in 2014, married a fighter and moved with him to Iraq. There she was paid to maintain an IS-controlled house and carried a weapon.    She and her husband later moved to Syria, where she also maintained a house, prosecutors said. Kurdish security forces arrested her in early 2019.    The woman was arrested Friday evening in Frankfurt upon her return to Germany.    The judge determined Saturday that she remain in detention because of “suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization in a foreign country,” prosecutors said.  …

A recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court has upended a long-standing legal roadblock that has given the gun industry far-reaching immunity from lawsuits in the aftermath of mass killings.    The court this week allowed families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre to sue the maker of the AR-15 used in the attack. The case against Remington will now proceed in the Connecticut courts.    Remington is widely expected to win the case, but critics of the gun industry are eyeing what they see as a significant outcome even in the face of defeat: getting the gunmaker to open its books about how it markets firearms.    Lawyers for the plaintiffs are certain to request that Remington turn over volumes of documents as part of the discovery phase. Those materials might include company emails, memos, business plans and corporate strategies, or anything that might suggest the company purposely marketed the firearm that may have compelled the shooter to use the weapon to carry out the slaughter.  Message to gun companies   The plaintiffs also believe the ruling will put gun companies on notice about how they conduct business, knowing they could wind up in the courts …

The United Nations warned Saturday that violence in Bolivia could “spin out of control,” following a night of skirmishes between security forces and coca farmers loyal to ousted President Evo Morales that left at least eight dead.  Morales resigned under pressure from Bolivia’s police and military last Sunday after evidence of vote rigging tainted his October 20 election victory. He fled to Mexico.  The leftist and charismatic former coca farmer has since called his ouster a “coup” and decried growing allegations of heavy-handed repression by security forces under interim President Jeanine Anez, a former conservative lawmaker.  “The coup leaders massacre indigenous and humble people for asking for democracy,” Morales said on Twitter late Friday, following reports of mounting deaths.   Anez has blamed Morales for stoking violence from abroad, and has said her government wishes to hold elections and meet with the opposition to mend fences.   FILE – Coca growers, supporters of former President Evo Morales, run from tear gas as one of them kicks a gas canister during clashes with riot police in Sacaba, on the outskirts of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nov. 15, 2019. The rising body count prompted Morales to strike a more conciliatory tone with the government of Anez in recent days.  “For the sake of democracy … I have no problem not taking part …

Guatemala could send asylum seekers to some of the country’s most remote regions, a top official said on Saturday, as the Central American country and the United States move closer to finalizing details of a controversial migration agreement. Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart, who met officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Friday, told Reuters in an interview that he wanted to finalize the agreement before President-elect Alejandro Giammattei takes office in January. A representative for the incoming government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Degenhart said the regions could include, but would probably not be limited to, the Peten jungle, a sweltering area in northern Guatemala that borders Mexico and is known to be frequented by drug cartels. He declined to give further details on the scope of the agreement before finalizing discussions with his U.S. counterparts. Migrants whose asylum claims were rejected by the United States could be transported to airports across the country, Degenhart said. “All airports are being analyzed,” he said. “There are some that’ll qualify but others that won’t.” The United States pressured Guatemala to accept more asylum seekers under a “safe third country” agreement signed in July, but it has …

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Saturday called on supporters to lead a new wave of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, who has held on to power despite an economic crisis and aggressive U.S. sanctions. Guaido won broad international backing in January after declaring Maduro’s 2018 re-election a fraud and assuming a rival interim presidency. But momentum since then has waned as repeated efforts to force him from office have failed. Speaking at a rally in Caracas meant to usher in a new phase of activism, Guaido said the opposition should stage frequent protests to boost pressure on the deeply unpopular Maduro. “Every Venezuelan has the obligation to carry on the fight, to go into the streets to demand their rights,” Guaido said at rally in eastern Caracas before cheering demonstrators who waved Venezuela’s red, yellow, and blue flag and waved signs denouncing Maduro as a dictator. “Today we have to continue advancing the protests until we obtain the freedom of all Venezuela.” In the coming days, groups including students, teachers and nurses plan to hold protests, he said. Demonstrations have in the past galvanized the opposition and left the ruling Socialist Party isolated. But the economic crisis has made …