South Korea says it has fired warning shots to repel a North Korean merchant ship that violated their disputed western sea boundary. South Korea’s military says it believes the North Korean ship crossed the sea boundary on Wednesday due to bad weather and an engine problem. It says it’s the second time that South Korea has fired warning shots to drive back a North Korean ship in the area since South Korea’s current liberal government took office in 2017. The first incident happened in September. Ties between the two Koreas are strained amid a stalemate in U.S.-led diplomacy on ending the North Korean nuclear crisis. North Korea said Monday its troops conducted artillery firing drills near the sea boundary, drawing formal protests from South Korea. …

Top Russian officials decried the recommendations by a World Anti-Doping Agency committee to suspend Russia from international competition over tainted athlete doping probes — the latest in a drawn out saga over accusations of Russian state sponsored doping that has roiled global sport since 2014. Russian athletes, unsurprisingly, joined in expressing bitterness about the WADA recommendations. But while some argued the suggested WADA penalties were unduly harsh, others blamed a failure in Russian sport leadership for risking their chance to compete in the next two Olympic Games and perhaps beyond. The recommendations, issued by WADA’s Compliance Review Committee on Monday, alleged evidence of tampering of some 2000 athlete probes at Moscow’s RUSADA testing facility, and called for a four-year suspension of Russia from international competition, including the Olympic Games. Reacting to the pronouncement at a news conference on Tuesday, Russia Minister of Sport In this file photo dated Wednesday, July 24, 2019, Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Russia has sent a formal response to the World Anti-Doping Agency, Tuesday Oct. 8, 2019. The charges, argued Lavrov, were carried out by those who “wish to show Russia as guilty in anything and everything.” The …

Donald Trump on Tuesday followed a White House Thanksgiving tradition by pardoning “Butter,” the turkey, and his alternate, “Bread.” The president also honored his own tradition of cracking jokes while granting clemency to the poultry. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story. …

U.S. prosecutors have arrested a Hawaii man they accuse of sending hundreds of unwanted service providers and others to a Utah home, including plumbers and prostitutes. Loren Okamura was arrested Friday in Hawaii following his indictment last month on charges of cyberstalking, interstate threats and transporting people for prostitution, court documents show. Okamura, 44, targeted a father and her adult daughter, sending the woman threatening messages and posting her picture and address online, authorities said. One posting said the homeowner wanted drugs and prostitutes at the house in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood in a Salt Lake City suburb. The Gilmore family was “tormented” during the year-plus that the “extreme cyberstalking” endured, U.S. Attorney John Huber said Tuesday at a news conference. Investigators had been focused on Okamura as the suspect since January when the Gilmores were granted a protective injunction in Utah. It took investigators time to gather enough evidence to charge Okamura because of his use of encryption and apps that made him appear anonymous, Huber said. “For all the good that technology offers us in our modern lifestyles, there is also a darker, seedier side to it,” Huber said. “That’s what you have here.” Huber declined to disclose …

Pennsylvania enacted legislation Tuesday to give future victims of child sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits and to end time limits for police to file criminal charges. Gov. Tom Wolf signed new laws he said will help repair “faults in our justice system that prevent frightened, abused children from seeking justice when they grow into courageous adults.” The legislative package was based on recommendations in last year’s landmark grand jury report about the cover-up of hundreds of cases of child sexual abuse in six of Pennsylvania’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses over much of the 20th century. However, Republicans with majority control of the state Senate blocked the two-year window, which was a top priority of victim advocates, victims and state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. They all want the state to temporarily lift time limits that currently bar now-adult victims of child sexual abuse from suing their perpetrators and institutions that may have helped hide it. About two dozen states have changed their laws on statutes of limitations this year, according to Child USA, a Philadelphia-based think tank that advocates for child protection. Wolf, a Democrat, signed bills to invalidate secrecy agreements that keep child sexual abuse victims from talking …

Rescuers were pulling survivors and dead bodies from piles of rubble in Albania on Tuesday after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s coastal area. The U.S. Geological survey placed the quake’s epicenter about 30 kilometers north of the capital Tirana and at a depth of about 20 kilometers. The earthquake was followed by about 100 aftershocks, including three with preliminary magnitudes of about 5. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the death toll is rising. …

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday creating a task force to investigate the unsolved cases of missing or murdered Native Americans and Native Alaskans. Surrounded by leaders of four Indian nations or tribes, Trump said Operation Lady Justice is something that previous administrations should have approved years ago. “The statistics are sobering and heartbreaking … more than 5,000 Native American women and girls were reported missing in a single year, Trump said.” While the majority return home or are found, too many are still missing … and they usually don’t find them.” The president said studies show that Native American women in certain tribes are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the average American. “We’re taking this very seriously … we will bring new hope to Native American communities … we will deliver justice for the victims, closure for the families, and safety to those in harm’s way,” he said. Attorney General William Barr said the task force would include more than $1 million for special investigators in 11 separate U.S. Attorneys offices to look into the backlog of cases. The Native American representatives who watched Trump sign the executive order say they feel as if …

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has agreed to expand its anti-bias training and expressly forbid anti-Semitism in campus policies as part of an agreement with the U.S. Education Department following complaints about a March conference featuring a rapper accused of anti-Jewish bias. The university announced the changes Monday after reaching a resolution with the department’s Office for Civil Rights. The deal puts an end to the inquiry without any admission of wrongdoing on the school’s part, and without any official finding from the department on the allegation of illegal discrimination. Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz reiterated that the university will not tolerate any form of harassment, and he encouraged students and faculty to report any problems. “I reaffirm the university’s commitment to creating a place where every member of our community feels safe and respected and can thrive in an environment free from anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination and harassment,” Guskiewicz wrote in a letter that was sent across campus Monday. Under the agreement, the university must add a statement to its policies saying that anti-Semitic harassment is prohibited and may violate federal law. The school’s current rules prohibit discrimination based on religion or ethnic ancestry but …

Many new refugees in America experience culture shock when they first arrive in the United States.  Many have to deal with a new language, culture, and even holidays. But settled refugees can play a big role in helping new arrivals adapt to life in the U.S. One example is the Ethiopian Community Center, which hosts a Thanksgiving meal every year for new refugees.  VOA’s Shahnaz Nafees has more on the event. …

Critics say the widespread African tradition of giving cash and gifts to a bride’s family before marriage, known as a “bride price,” degrades women by putting a required, monetary value on a wife. In Nigeria, the financial pressure in a recent case ended in suicide, underscoring those concerns. But supporters of the bride price tradition uphold it as a cherished cultural and religious symbol of marriage, as Chika Oduah reports from Yola, Nigeria. …

The House Judiciary Committee has invited President Donald Trump to attend its first impeachment hearing next week. The Intelligence Committee wrapped up its role in the inquiry last week and will send its report to the Judiciary Committee, which holds its first hearing Dec. 4. The Judiciary Committee hearing will look into what it calls the “Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment.” FILE – Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jerrold Nadler waits to speak during a media briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 31, 2019. The rules say Trump and his lawyers would be given the chance to question the panel of still-to-be-named legal experts who will appear as witnesses. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler sent a letter to the White House inviting Trump to attend, calling it “not a right, but a privilege or a courtesy.” “The president has a choice he can make: he can take this opportunity to be represented in the impeachment hearings, or he can stop complaining about the process,” Nadler said in a separate statement. “I hope that he chooses to participate in the inquiry, directly or through counsel as other presidents have done before him.” Nadler assured Trump that he “remains committed …

The top U.S. diplomat is refusing to rule out allegations it was Ukraine, not Russia, which was responsible for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Despite repeated findings by U.S. intelligence agencies, which puts the blame on Russia, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday if there is any information “that so much suggests” a Ukrainian attempt to interfere, it deserves attention. “Anytime there is information that any country has messed with American elections, we not only have a right but a duty to make sure we chase that down,” Pompeo told reporters during a State Department briefing. “To protect our elections, America should leave no stone unturned,” he added. U.S. intelligence officials contacted by VOA declined comment, pointing to previous reports concluding Russia was responsible. But allegations that Ukraine sought to interfere and sway the result in favor of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton have been gaining momentum among a handful of U.S. lawmakers and prominent supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump. House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., leaves Capitol Hill, Nov. 15, 2019, in Washington. During impeachment hearings last week, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Devin Nunes, raised the theory, saying …

A United Nations report accuses South Sudanese rebel and government military commanders of illegally logging and selling teak and mahogany trees in the former Central Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria States. A rebel spokesman denies the allegation, while a spokesperson for the South Sudan Peoples Defense Forces declined to comment. A Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition spokesman denies rebels loyal to Riek Machar are doing business selling ecologically sensitive trees. “If there are still forces of IO in Kajo-Keji area, they are still waiting for the second phase [cantonment] and it is not that they are doing business as put across [in the U.N. report]. One thing the U.N. is doing is to put confusion when peace is moving on well like that,” Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel told South Sudan in Focus. In a 33-page, Nov. 22 report, the U.N. Panel of Experts said they received “credible information” indicating Major General Moses Lokujo of SPLA-IO Division 2B was “directly involved in the taxation of teak and mahogany” being illegally harvested in Liwolo, Kariwa, Kendire, Kala, Ajio, Lora Manglotore, Bori, Lowili and Katire payams, all of which are under the control of opposition forces. The report also said Lokujo has been active in transporting …

There senior officials in Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s government stepped down Tuesday in connection with a probe into the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Press reports have linked Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, Economy Minister Chris Cardona and Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri to the Caruana Galizia investigation. All three deny any wrongdoing. Their resignations follow the arrest last week of Maltese hotelier and power company director Yorgen Fenech in relation with the case. In her blog, Caruana Galizia wrote boldly about corruption and investigated the affairs of Maltese politicians and business figures, as well as those doing business with the European Union member. Eight months before she was killed by a car bomb in October 2017, Caruana Galizia alleged in her blog that a company called 17 Black Ltd., listed in the Panama Papers, was connected to Maltese politicians. The company belonged to Fenech, the businessman. Economy Minister Cardona said Tuesday he was stepping down pending the investigation and the ongoing proceedings related to Caruana Galizia’s case. He was summoned by police for questioning last Saturday. Cardona said he had “absolutely no connection with the case,” but added that after police asked for further clarifications, he …

Colombian unions and student groups will hold another protest on Wednesday in honor of a teenage demonstrator who died after being injured by a tear gas canister, as President Ivan Duque announced changes to his unpopular tax reform proposal. Other demonstrations are expected to continue on Tuesday, the sixth straight day of protests following a 250,000-person march last week organized by the National Strike Committee. The largely peaceful protests have attracted thousands of marchers to reject economic reforms, police violence and corruption. The committee said in a statement early on Tuesday it would demand “a permanent negotiation” with Duque, but talks lasted only about two hours, with committee leaders demanding Duque meet only with them, sans business leaders or other sectors. The committee has demanded the tax reform, which includes a cut in duties on businesses, be rejected. Shortly after the meeting, Duque told journalists the proposal will be modified to return value added tax to the poorest 20% of Colombians and lower contributions to healthcare by minimum wage pensioners – half of the retired population – from 12% to 4% over three years. There will also be three days each year without VAT. The proposals will cost some 3.2 …

In September 1789, members of America’s first Congress approached the nation’s first president, George Washington, and asked him to call for a national Thanksgiving. That seemingly benign request ignited a furor in Congress over presidential powers and states’ rights. Critics had two main concerns with the idea of a presidential proclamation to declare a national Thanksgiving.  First, some viewed Thanksgiving as a religious holiday, which put it outside of the purview of the president. Secondly, opponents of the measure believed the president did not have the authority to call a national Thanksgiving because that was a matter for governors. It was a challenging time for the young nation. America had won the Revolutionary War but the country — made up of the 13 former colonies — was not fully unified yet. Calling a national Thanksgiving was a way to bring Americans together.  Painting of George Washington with his family, wife Martha and her grandchildren, by artist Edward Savage. In the end, Washington did issue a proclamation, the first presidential proclamation ever, calling for a national “day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” He also came up with a solution designed to appease the opposition.  “When he issued the proclamation, he sent …

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order creating a White House task force on missing and slain American Indians and Alaska Natives.         The task force will be overseen by Attorney General William Barr and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. It is tasked with developing protocols to apply to new and unsolved cases and creating a multi-jurisdictional team to review cold cases.         Trump on Tuesday called the scourge of violence facing Native American women and girls “sobering and heartbreaking.”         The National Institute of Justice estimates that 1.5 million Native American women have experienced violence in their lifetime, including many who are victims of sexual violence. On some reservations, federal studies have shown women are killed at a rate more than 10 times the national average. …

On this episode of Healthy Living, what is autism and how does it affect the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills? Dr. Usifo Edward Asikhia, Clinical Director of the International Training Center for Applied Behavior Analysis, tells us more. Also, we head to the Democratic Republic of Congo for a look at how one school is providing care for children with disabilities, a recent study has the answer to how humans get infected with Malaria, and in our “What’s New?” segment, bioengineers are working to create human organs from a 3D printer. Tune in for these topics and more this week on Healthy Living. …

With U.S.-Turkish relations at their lowest ebb in decades, the future of a critical American air base in Turkey is increasingly in the spotlight.   The vast Incirlik Air Base, located in southern Turkey close to Syria, has been a longstanding symbol of U.S.-Turkish cooperation. At the height of the Cold War, it underscored America’s commitment to its NATO partner against the Soviet Union. “We have to underline the Incirlik is one of the most important bases in the Middle East with the placement of tactical nuclear weapons at the base,” said professor Mesut Casin, a Turkish presidential foreign policy adviser. “This shows Turkey continues to support the value of the NATO organization.” It’s widely reported that the United States retains around 50 nuclear free-fall bombs at the facility. During the Cold War, the weapons were relied on to deter vast Soviet ground forces massed on the Turkish border. However, with Ankara and Washington at loggerheads over a myriad of issues, including Turkey’s deepening ties with Russia and the removal of Turkey from a U.S. jet fighter program, the future of Incirlik is increasingly murky. The Countering Turkish Aggression Act, a bipartisan bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate, would …

This week on Healthy Living, a look at epilepsy, a neurological disorder that causes seizures. Dr. Steve Owens, the Vice President Of Programs and Services with The Epilepsy Foundation, joins us to discuss the causes and symptoms of the disorder. We also discuss the signs for pink eye, the best age to take your child to the dentist for the first time, and is there a new option for treatment when it comes to breast cancer? These topics and more on this episode of Healthy Living. S1, E18 …

Ebola responders are on lockdown in the eastern Congo city of Beni after angry residents attacked a United Nations base to protest repeated rebel assaults, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. At least four protesters were killed, a local official said. Every day that health workers don’t have full access to Ebola-affected areas is a “tragedy” that prolongs the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter. Almost 50 “non-critical” staffers with the U.N. health agency were evacuated to the city of Goma while 71 remain, spokesman Christian Lindmeier said. He said the violence is not directed at WHO or the Ebola response at large Instead, Beni residents are outraged that rebels continue to carry out deadly attacks despite the presence of U.N. peacekeepers and Congolese forces. Some demand that the U.N. mission act or leave. The bodies of four young protesters were found near the U.N. base after Monday’s attack, Kumbu Ngoma with Beni’s military court told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Investigations continued into the cause of their deaths. Six Congolese soldiers were wounded by gunfire near the base, Ngoma added. Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi after an emergency meeting Monday decided to allow …

Clashes broke out early Monday in Beirut, as supporters of Hezbollah ambushed an ongoing anti-government protest. In Iraq, officials say an anti-government protester was been killed Tuesday by security forces and 21 others wounded amid ongoing clashes with security forces in Baghdad.  Analysts say mass protests such as these and elsewhere have persisted longer and with more intensity than at any time in recent history. VOA’s Heather Murdock has this report from Beirut …

A Philippines legislator said Tuesday she has asked the senate to conduct an inquiry into the potential threat of China shutting off the country’s electricity supply. A Chinese state firm has a substantial stake in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, which has been operating power transmission facilities since 2009. Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros, the sponsor of the resolution calling for a senate inquiry, alleged there are reports Chinese engineers are illegally operating them and that the Philippine government, which owns the facilities, no longer has access to them. The two countries have rival claims on strategic and resource-rich South China Sea waters and islands, though Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has put the dispute on the backburner in favor of courting Chinese trade, aid and investment. “We need to know for certain if our energy systems and infrastructure fully remain under Filipino control, and if we have implemented the technical safeguards needed to prevent foreign interference in or sabotage of our national electricity grid,” Hontiveros said in a statement. She said hiring Chinese engineers would violate the constitution, which requires executive and managing officers of public utilities to be Filipino citizens. The State Grid Corporation of China has a …

A protester was shot dead Tuesday in the Iraqi capital and dozens more were wounded across the country’s south, where burning tires blocked highways and thick black smoke blanketed its restive cities. The casualties in clashes with security forces were the latest episode of violence in the nearly two-month-old grassroots movement demanding the total overhaul of Iraq’s political class. At least 350 people have been killed and around 15,000 wounded since the protests broke out on October 1 in Baghdad and the Shi’ite-majority south. The latest victim fell in Baghdad, shot by a rubber bullet near Al-Ahrar bridge, which leads to a cluster of government buildings on the west bank of the river Tigris. Fearing protesters would cross it to storm those offices, security forces have sealed off Al-Ahrar and used volleys of tear gas, rubber bullets and live fire to keep crowds back. Demonstrators — most of them teenagers — throw rocks from behind their own makeshift barricades in daily skirmishes that have transformed the historic heart of Baghdad into a flashpoint. The clashes left another 18 demonstrators wounded near Al-Ahrar on Tuesday, according to a medical source. Many of the young men had been there for days or …