The United States no longer has an adversarial relationship with the Sudanese government and is working with its counterparts on the possibility of removing it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a senior State Department official said Friday. But Tibor Nagy, assistant secretary for African affairs, cautioned that doing so was a process with conditions. “It’s not an event, it’s not flipping a light switch. It’s a process and we are heavily, continuously engaged with our Sudanese interlocutors on how we can go about doing that,” he told reporters in a briefing. Asked if the United States was committing to lifting sanctions, Nagy said “No” but added: “There are conditions to such an event. Everybody is hoping that it will happen, everybody is hoping that it happens as quickly as possible, we all understand the hardships that it is causing,” he said. The U.S. government added Sudan to its list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1993 over allegations that then-President Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist government was supporting terrorist groups. The designation makes Sudan technically ineligible for debt relief and financing from the IMF and World Bank. Congress needs to approve a removal. Months of demonstrations over price hikes …

Somalia’s National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) has announced plans to register millions of Somalis to participate in what would be the country’s first popular elections in more than a half-century. NIEC Chairperson Halima Ismail Ibrahim told VOA that the commission would start registering voters in March 2020 in a campaign that could last months to reach voters in Mogadishu and the regions. She said hundreds of registration centers would be open to biometrically register voters. “At minimum, we want to register 2 [million] to 3 million Somalis,” Ibrahim said in an interview this week. The Somali population is estimated at 12 million, but realistically only half can be reached and registered, according to Ibrahim. “Many people are living outside the country. Many are in refugee camps. Somaliland is separate. There are areas where [militant group] al-Shabab is present where significant number of people live,” she said. Registering voters to directly elect their parliament representatives would be a major departure from recent elections in the country. In the 2017 election, 14,000 electoral delegates chose the current parliament, while in the 2012 election only 135 clan elders were given the power to select the MPs. Women wait to cast their votes in the presidential election …

Iraqi security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas in renewed clashes with anti-government protesters in central Baghdad on Friday, killing three people, while Iraq’s top Shi’ite religious leader warned its government to heed calls for sweeping political reforms. Separately, a bomb placed under a car exploded near a central square, killing two protesters and wounding 10 others, police and hospital officials said. They said the blast, which damaged several cars in the area, occurred between Tayaran and Tahrir squares, the latter being the epicenter of anti-government protests in the capital. It was the first such incident in the capital since the demonstrations began in early October, although it was not immediately clear whether the explosion targeted the protesters. Earlier, protesters repeatedly regrouped from under clouds of tear gas as they fought to tear down a concrete wall blocking access to Khilani Square. Security forces erected the barrier to keep the demonstrations from crossing a bridge that leads to the fortified Green Zone, the seat of government and many foreign embassies. A protester holds a stuffed bear during clashes between Iraqi security forces and anti-government demonstrators, at Khilani Square in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 15, 2019. Tuk-tuk drivers ferried the injured …

President Donald Trump on Friday released the summary transcript of his April congratulatory call with Ukraine’s president-elect, the latest salvo in the White House effort to blunt Democratic allegations that Trump abused his power by pressuring a foreign leader to get involved in U.S. politics. The new account of Trump’s call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy differs significantly from the initial summary of the conversation that the White House released in April. While the first readout of the call said Trump had expressed his commitment to help Ukraine “root out corruption,” there is no mention of corruption in the rough transcript released Friday. The release of the April call came as the House held a second day of public impeachment hearings with U.S. diplomats who have raised concerns that Trump may have misused his presidential powers by withholding military aid to Ukraine as he called on Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a top political rival. The 16-minute call, placed from Air Force One as Trump flew back to Washington after a weekend in Florida, is filled with flattery for Trump from Zelenskiy, and invitations from the new Ukrainian leader for Trump to visit Kyiv. There is no reference to …

Taiwan and the United States have sent their first joint trade delegation to one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies as tiny, often impoverished countries keep turning instead to China, a source of aid for the developing world but a perceived threat to both delegation organizers.   In the first week of November, the delegation visited Saint Lucia, one of just 15 nations that recognize Taiwan diplomatically instead of China. They assessed ways offshore businesses could help the Caribbean country with infrastructure, trade and investment, the government-run Central News Agency in Taipei said.   “The way to consolidate diplomatic relationships is multi-dimensional,” Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou said. “It should be an effort across different domains, and investment is one of them. We hope that it will help. We do hope that through this joint delegation, it can play an important role.”   Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry hasn’t announced plans for future visits to other Taiwan diplomatic allies but doesn’t rule out the idea. FILE – From left, the World Bank’s Erik Bethel, Saint Lucia Gov. Nancy Charles, Taiwan Amb. to Saint Lucia Shen Cheng-tsung, and U.S. Department of State official Corey Johnston visit a U.S.-owned firm, in Saint Lucia, Nov 6. …

United Airlines is removing the grounded Boeing 737 Max from its schedule until March 4, two months longer than previously planned.                     The change follows similar moves by American and Southwest, and reflects further delays in Boeing’s work to fix the plane after two deadly crashes.                     United said Friday that without the planes, it will cancel 56 flights a day in January, February and early March, down from 93 a day this month.                     United has 14 Max jets. All Max planes have been grounded since March, after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people.                     Boeing is fixing flight-control software and computers that played a role in the crashes. Boeing expects regulators to approve changes in pilot-training in January, clearing the way for U.S. airlines to resume Max flights with passengers. …

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is on the ballot in New Hampshire, where he hopes his patience will pay off.                     The Democratic presidential hopeful signed up for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Friday, the final day of the filing period. Though he lags behind in polls, Booker says he’s not one to switch strategies or states to focus on, as some other candidates have done.                     Booker’s latest trip to New Hampshire comes a day after former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick jumped into the race. Booker says it’s good to have robust competition, and that he doesn’t take it personally that some of his close friends are also running. …

Britain’s ruling Conservatives are banking heavily on the star quality of their leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who’s had an uncanny ability in the past to connect with voters and to cheer them up. He’s struggled on the campaign trail for next month’s highly contentious election, however, and, surprisingly, he hasn’t prospered in several encounters with voters, prompting commentators to query whether the shine has worn off Boris or whether Britons are wearying of his knockabout style. His election earlier this year as leader by the Conservatives, who view themselves as the natural party of government, was partly driven by the idea that the ever-upbeat, mop-haired former London mayor and journalist could secure them a parliamentary majority by casting his political spell, dashing around the fractious country with an invigorating message and cheery rhetoric laden with quips and jokes and endearing gaffes. Hardline anti-European Union Conservatives also saw Johnson as the best bet to break the three-year logjam in Parliament over Britain’s planned and messy departure from the EU, and to be the one to actually “deliver Brexit.” However, the much-vaunted Johnson magic hasn’t so far been the spell-binding force of old in an election that’s the most unpredictable in …

Washington’s defense cost-sharing demand could hurt the U.S.-South Korean alliance, said a former military general, suggesting the demand seems to stem from “a new paradigm” the Trump administration has adopted. Bernard Champoux, a retired three-star general who served as commander of the Eighth Army in South Korea during the Obama administration, said he is “concerned about the impact” the increased cost-sharing demand “will have on the alliance.” The U.S. has been asking South Korea to pay more for keeping about 28,500 American troops in South Korea in the cost-sharing deal set to expire at the end of this year. In the last round of negotiations for the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) held in October in Honolulu, Washington asked Seoul to pay about $5 billion for next year, an amount that is more than five times the $924 million Seoul agreed to shoulder for this year. Incoming Commander General of the Eighth U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, second from left, ROK-US Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea Commander Curtis Scaparrotti, center, and outgoing Commander General of the Eighth U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. Bernard Champoux, second from right, during a change of command ceremony at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, South …

In a sharply divided country, here is something many Americans agree on: It’s hard to know what’s a true and honest fact. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts finds that regardless of political belief, many Americans say they have a hard time figuring out if information is true. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they often come across one-sided information and about 6 in 10 say they regularly see conflicting reports about the same set of facts from different sources. “It is difficult to get facts. You have to read between the lines. You have to have a lot of common sense,” said Leah Williams, 29, of Modesto, California. A Republican, Williams says she relies on like-minded friends and family to help sort through conflicting information. “There are wolves in sheep’s clothing everywhere.” The poll found that 47% of Americans believe it’s difficult to know if the information they encounter is true, compared with 31% who find it easy to do so. When deciding whether something is factual, there is widespread consensus on the importance of transparency in how the information was gathered and if it is based on data. While Democrats and …

With public hearings now under way in the House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, both sides have a key focus in mind: winning over public opinion. Support for the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry climbed quickly in the weeks following the announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At present, the country remains sharply split on the question of whether the president should be impeached by the House and the case sent to the Senate for a trial that would decide whether he remains in office. About 50 percent on average in national polls favor the president’s impeachment and removal from office if convicted in the trial, while slightly less oppose the idea. Democrats are counting on the public hearings to bolster support for impeachment, according to Georgetown University scholar Susan Low Bloch. “This is not a situation where the House and the Senate would remove someone because they don’t like him,” Bloch told VOA. “That would be wrong and that is not what is at issue here. But it is also at the same time a political process that has to have the public behind them.” New phase The public hearings represent a critical new phase in the impeachment probe, and …

The impeachment inquiry involving President Donald Trump moved into an important new phase this week — public hearings. Opposition Democrats believe Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival, Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden. They hope the hearings will sway public opinion to support their case against the president, just as Republicans are counting on an aggressive defense to move the public to oppose impeachment. VOA national correspondent Jim Malone has more on the political stakes in the impeachment battle from Washington. …

A boy described as bright, quiet and “normal” pulled a gun from his backpack on his 16th birthday and opened fire at his high school before saving the last bullet for himself, authorities said. The shooting that killed two teenagers and wounded three others Thursday at Saugus High School in a Los Angeles suburb took 16 seconds and left the attacker hospitalized in critical condition with a head wound, authorities said. Investigators searched the boy’s home as they sought a motive for the attack, which seemed to target students at random, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Captain Kent Wegener said. Authorities said the teenager apparently acted alone. There was no indication he was affiliated with a group or ideology, said Paul Delacourt, the agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. D.J. Hamburger, center in blue, a teacher at Saugus High School, comforts a student after reports of a shooting at the school, Nov. 14, 2019, in Santa Clarita, Calif. Gunfire erupted about 7:30 a.m. as students were “milling around” and greeting each other in an outdoor quad area, Wegener said. Surveillance video showed the shooter standing still while “everyone is active around him.” “He just fires from …

The United States is promising not to abandon the fight to eradicate the Islamic State terror group, while pushing its coalition allies to take more responsibility for foreign fighters and rebuilding Iraq and Syria. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed visiting foreign ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS to the State Department Thursday to discuss the way forward, as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.   …

Australia’s national carrier Qantas Friday successfully completed a 19½-hour, nonstop flight from London to Sydney, which was used to run a series of tests to assess the effects of ultralong-haul flights on crew fatigue and passenger jetlag. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner took off from London’s Heathrow Airport Thursday morning and touched down at Sydney Airport 45 minutes behind schedule at 12:30 p.m. Friday. The 17,800-kilometer (11,060-mile) journey was part of Project Sunrise — Qantas’ goal to operate regular, nonstop commercial flights from Australia’s east coast cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York. Last month, Qantas completed the first nonstop flight from New York to Sydney, which took 19 hours and 16 minutes. Another New York to Sydney flight is expected next month to round out the project. Passengers are seen on board Qantas flight QF7879, flying direct from London to Sydney, Nov. 14, 2019. They took part in experiments to improve the experience of a long flight. Improving long flight comfort There were 52 people, mostly Qantas employees, on board. They participated in various experiments, including using wearable technology devices to track sleep patterns, food and drink intake, lighting and physical movement. A final decision on …

Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into Rudy Giuliani, the personal lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reports. The prosecutors are conducting an inquiry into possible finance violations against Giuliani and his failure to register as a foreign agent, according to the Bloomberg account. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, has emerged as a key figure in Trump’s impeachment inquiry where lawmakers are also examining what role Giuliani played in pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Trump’s rivals. Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York told Bloomberg, she “would not be surprised” if Giuliani is indicted as a result of the federal probe.  “It’s clear Giuliani is up to his ears in shady stuff,” she said. …

The founder of a Malawian maternity clinic for poor women says it has set a record – delivering more than 8,800 babies with not a single death of mother or child. For her efforts improving access to safe childbirth, Charity Salima has become known as “Malawi’s Florence Nightingale,” the English founder of modern nursing. Lameck Masina reports from Lilongwe.   …

The Hong Kong government condemned Friday an attack by a “violent mob” on the city’s justice secretary in London, the first direct altercation between demonstrators and a government minister during months of often violent protests. Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng, who was in London to promote Hong Kong as a dispute resolution and deal-making hub, was targeted by a group of protesters who shouted “murderer” and “shameful.” A statement by the Hong Kong government said Cheng suffered “serious bodily harm” but gave no details. Video footage of the incident showed Cheng falling to the ground. Hong Kong Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng walks as protesters surround her in London, Nov. 14, 2019, in this still image from video obtained via social media. Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said in a statement she strongly condemned what she described as an attack on Cheng. The Hong Kong government said in a separate statement: “The secretary denounces all forms of violence and radicalism depriving others’ legitimate rights in the pretext of pursuing their political ideals, which would never be in the interest of Hong Kong and any civilized society.” Street cleaned dies, city paralyzed The incident came amid escalating violence in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, …

Roughly one in 10 migrants pushed back to Mexico to await U.S. court hearings under a Trump administration program have been caught crossing the border again, a top border official said Thursday. Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said during a White House briefing that migrants returned to Mexico under a program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) have a 9% recidivism rate. Many of those migrants intend to seek asylum in the United States. “Unfortunately, some of the individuals in the MPP program are actually going outside the shelter environment,” Morgan said. “They’re re-engaging with the cartels because they’re tired of waiting. And that’s when we’re hearing that some of that further abuse and exploitation is happening.” Nearly 59,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico under the program, according to a CBP spokesman. Migrants, most of them asylum-seekers sent back to Mexico from the U.S. under the “Remain in Mexico” program, officially named Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), occupy a makeshift encampment in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Oct. 28, 2019. Program to deter Central Americans The administration of President Donald Trump launched the MPP program in January as part of a strategy to deter mostly Central American …

On Aug. 13, 2018, Bobi Wine was in campaign mode. The popular musician-turned-parliamentarian was attending a rally for Kassiano Wadri, a politician from Uganda’s Arua region, in the north of the country. There, Wine says, government forces ambushed, arrested and tortured him. On his Facebook page, Wine later shared his ordeal. “The marks on my back, ankles, elbows, legs and head are still visible. I continued to groan in pain and the last I heard was someone hit me at the back of the head with an object — I think a gun butt or something,” Wine wrote. “That was the last time I knew what was going on.” Wine’s driver, Yasin Kawuma, was fatally shot during the violence that day.  FILE – Uganda’s prominent opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi known as Bobi Wine, center, walks ahead of appearing at the general court martial in Gulu, northern Uganda, Aug. 23, 2018. Wine, a vocal critic of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, is certain security forces knew where he’d be and meticulously planned their attack. Reporting by The Wall Street Journal this summer confirms his claims and shows that Ugandan intelligence officials, with the help of employees of Chinese tech giant Huawei, hacked into Wine’s …

The parents of an American journalist who has been missing in Syria for the past seven years told VOA in an interview that they are convinced he is still alive and that the U.S. government should do what it can to reveal his whereabouts and ensure his safe return home. The 38-year-old journalist, Austin Tice, went to Syria in May 2012 to cover the war as it was entering its second year. He was arrested three months later in August at a checkpoint in Darayya suburb, south of the capital Damascus, and has been missing since. “In the event that Austin sees this interview, [we want him to know] that his mother and father love him very much and his siblings can’t wait to see him again,” Tice’s father, Marc Tice, told VOA. “We know he is strong and we know he will hang in there, and we can’t wait to hold him in our arms.” Marc Tice said he and his wife, Debra Tice, believe their son is apprehended in Syria, most likely in areas currently under the Syrian government control. The couple have been trying relentlessly for years to secure the release of their son, albeit with no …

Cigarette smoking among American adults fell to an all-time low last year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report, out Thursday, said 13.7% of adults smoked cigarettes in 2018, a dramatic drop from the 42% adult smoking rate in 1965, when the CDC began keeping records. “This marked decline in cigarette smoking is the achievement of a consistent and coordinated effort by the public health community and our many partners,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said. “Yet, our work is far from over.” Overall, the report found, nearly 1 in 5 or some 49 million U.S. adults used some form of tobacco product in 2018, with cigarettes being the most common. While the number of cigarette smokers declined, the share of those using e-cigarettes jumped to 3.2% from 2.8% in 2017. That increase was attributed to young adults between the ages of 18 and 24. The report found tobacco use was the highest among men; minorities, including those who are LGBTQ; people living in the Midwest or the South; and those earning less than $35,000 per year. …

The U.S. House of Representatives continues with public hearings on the impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump with testimony Friday by Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. William Taylor, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official in charge of U.S. policy toward Ukraine, testified Wednesday. All three diplomats have previously testified behind closed doors about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and probe a discredited conspiracy theory regarding the 2016 presidential election. Democrats say the open hearings will allow the public to assess the credibility of the witnesses and their testimonies. Republicans are likely to attempt to discredit the impeachment proceedings and poke holes in the witnesses’ testimony. Here is what you need to know about Yovanovitch and her role in the Ukraine affair. Marie Yovanovitch A career diplomat, Yovanovitch was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from July 2016 to May 2019, when she was unceremoniously recalled to Washington after Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, and his allies waged what her colleagues and Democrats have described as a smear campaign against her. Two Giuliani associates recently arrested on charges of campaign finance violations are accused …

North Korea on Thursday said the United States has proposed a resumption of stalled nuclear negotiations in December as they approach an end-of-year deadline set by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the Trump administration to offer an acceptable deal to salvage the talks. In a statement released by state media, North Korean negotiator Kim Myong Gil didn’t clearly say whether the North would accept the supposed U.S. offer. North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Myong Gil is seen outside the North Korean embassy in Stockholm, Oct. 5, 2019. He said North Korea has no interest in talks if they are aimed at buying time without discussing solutions. He said the North isn’t willing to make a deal over “matters of secondary importance,” such as possible U.S. offers to formally declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which was halted by a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, or establish a liaison office between the countries. “If the negotiated solution of issues is possible, we are ready to meet with the U.S. at any place and any time,” said Kim Myong Gil, who called for Washington to present a fundamental solution for discarding its “hostile policy” toward North Korea. …