Iran has imposed punitive measures on individuals associated with a London-based TV channel that aired videos of anti-government protests. The judiciary’s website said it imposed “judicial and legal restrictions” on property held by individuals associated with Iran International, without elaborating. The channel is believed to be linked to Saudi Arabia. Iran has accused Saudi Arabia and Western nations of fomenting the unrest. The Persian language channel had aired several videos of the anti-government protests that erupted across Iran last week in response to a fuel price hike. Amnesty International says at least 143 people were killed and that security forces fired on unarmed protesters. In 2017, BBC filed a complaint to the United Nations over Iran freezing the assets of more than 150 people linked to its Persian service.   …

The majority of Americans, including a growing share of moderate Republicans, are dissatisfied with U.S. government efforts to curb global warming, researchers said on Monday. In a survey by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based non-partisan think-tank, two-thirds of Americans said U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration was “doing too little” to reduce the effects of climate change. Since taking office, Trump has rolled backed Obama-era rules limiting planet-warming emissions from sectors of the economy such as electricity, transport, and oil and gas. The Trump administration filed paperwork this month to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, while his opponents have championed a “Green New Deal” that seeks to slash U.S. emissions within a decade. In the Pew survey, the proportion of people who said the government was taking too little action to tackle climate change was unchanged from a year ago – but unease among moderate Republicans grew significantly, noted the report. “Previous analysis showed that concern about climate change has gone up over the past several years (since 2013) among Democrats but not Republicans,” said Cary Funk, director of science and society research at Pew. But the new survey, which polled more …

Russia faces a four-year ban from global sporting events, including next year’s Tokyo Olympics, because of a continued failure to cooperate with anti-doping investigators. The ban recommendation made Tuesday by the compliance panel of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), came after investigators found evidence of a further drug cover-up by Russian officials, who are alleged to have deleted and tampered with positive drugs tests from a database at a Moscow laboratory earlier this year. The executive committee of the anti-doping agency will decide at a meeting in Paris scheduled for December 9 whether to approve the sanction, including stripping Russia of sporting events already awarded to the country “unless it is legally or practically impossible to do so.” Russian government officials would also be barred from attending events for the next four years and the country’s flag wouldn’t be flown at World sporting tournaments for the ban’s period. Russia was banned from sending a team to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea but individual athletes from the country were allowed by the International Olympic Committee to compete, if they passed strenuous doping tests. The new ban recommendation is the latest twist in a saga of state-sponsored doping stretching …

A strong earthquake struck the area of Albania’s capital early Tuesday, killing at least six people and injuring hundreds. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was a magnitude 6.4 with an epicenter 30 kilometers northwest of the capital, Tirana. Rescue crews worked to find and free people from damaged and destroyed buildings. A Defense Ministry spokeswoman said the bodies of three people were found in the rubble of an apartment building in the city of Durres. Crews found the bodies of two other people in the remains of a collapsed building in the village of Thumane, while another person died after jumping out of a building in Kurbin. …

Pakistan’s highest court has temporarily suspended a government notification that allowed the country’s powerful military chief to serve another full three-year term. Tuesday’s unprecedented move by the Supreme Court came several months after Prime Minister Imran Khan issued the extension order for the chief of army staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who is due to retire later this week.   The court will hear the case again on Wednesday to determine whether the government’s action was in line with legal requirements. Khan’s aides have been defending Bajwa’s extension citing, among other security challenges, heightened military tensions with rival India over the disputed Kashmir region. However, Tuesday’s temporary court order has surprised many in Pakistan  which has experienced several military coups and where extensions given to army chiefs in the past have been overlooked by the judiciary. The Supreme Court had sided with and provided legal cover to the last military coup in 1999 that ousted the elected government of former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.  …

Women across Europe and elsewhere demonstrated on Monday to demand government action against widespread abuse of women and girls. The United Nations says one-third of all women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Half of the women killed by violence are victims of their partner or family member. The world organization has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports some governments marked the day by announcing measures to protect women, while others sought to silence their voices. …

Israel’s attorney general Avichai Mandelblit says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can stay on as head of government even after he was indicted last week for alleged corruption. Although Cabinet ministers are required to step down after an indictment, the laws about a prime minister are not explicit. Mandelblit says Netanyahu can stay in office unless he is convicted and all his appeals are exhausted. Netanyahu is facing pressure from the opposition to resign after Mandelblit announced his indictment last week. Netanyahu is charged with allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, cigars, champagne, and jewelry from billionaire friends in exchange for personal favors, including helping one wealthy friend get favorable newspaper coverage. He also is accused of doing favors for a newspaper editor so the prime minister himself would receive positive stories. In this Nov. 20, 2019 photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during an extended meeting of the right-wing bloc members at the Knesset, in Jerusalem. Netanyahu has vowed not to resign, calling the indictment a “coup” bent on toppling a right-wing government. Mandelblit, who was appointed by Netanyahu, denied any political motivation, saying he acted strictly according to the law. Netanyahu’s legal woes comes as …

Turkish riot police used force to break up a march by thousands of women calling for what they call an “end to impunity” for men guilty of violence against women. Police stopped more than 2,000 from marching up Istikal Street in Istanbul’s main shopping district. Police fired pepper spray at the protesters with some witnesses reporting the use of tear gas and plastic bullets. No casualties or arrests were reported. March organizers say they are tired at what they believe are the relatively light sentences handed out to husbands and boyfriends who murder or abuse women. Women at the front of Monday’s march spread out a banner reading “We cannot tolerate the loss of one more woman.” A Turkish women’s rights group says nearly 380 women have been killed so far this year. A Turkish court recently sentenced a man to life in prison for slashing his ex-wife’s throat in front of their 10 year-old daughter in August. The murder was caught on video and sickened nearly everyone who saw it. …

A Lebanese-born business tycoon says he is donating Hitler’s top hat and other Nazi memorabilia he won at an auction to an Israeli Jewish group to keep the stuff out of the hands of neo-Nazis. Abdallah Chatila, who made his fortune in diamonds and Swiss real estate, paid $660,000 for the items last week. He says he bought the the hat and memorabilia intending to destroy it, but decided it was better to hand it over to the Keren Hayeson-United Israel Appeal. Along with the Nazi dictator’s hat, the items include a silver plated edition of “Mein Kampf,” and a typewriter used by Hitler’s secretary. Although Chatila says some Lebanese are criticizing him for helping the so-called enemy, his act was totally non-political. He said he “wished to buy these objects so that they could not be used for the purpose of neo-Nazi propaganda.” The European Jewish Association, which had originally protested the auction, is now applauding Chatila. “Such a consequence, such an act of selfless generosity to do something that you feel strongly about is the equivalent of finding a precious diamond in an Everest of coal,” Rabbi Menachem Margolin wrote in a letter to Chatila. It is unclear …

Officials in India say troops have destroyed a live mortar shell that villagers discovered in their Kashmiri border town. Indian police in the Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir said Monday they coordinated with the army after villagers alerted them to the live mortar. They said army troops brought in a bomb-disposal squad to set off a controlled explosion to deactivate the device. Mortars are often fired in the region between troops of neighboring rivals India and Pakistan. If the mortars do not explode on impact they can lie hidden in fields or hills and will pose a danger to passerby, especially children. Indian-administered Kashmir remains tense and continues to have a heavy military presence three and-a-half months after India’s central government abruptly stripped the region of its autonomy, cut off internet service and censored media coverage of the situation. Pakistan, which also lays claims to Kashmir, protested the move, downgrading its diplomatic ties with India and suspending trade. New Delhi blames Islamabad for fomenting a violent three-decade separatist insurgency in the Himalayan region.   …

More college students are turning to their schools for help with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and many must wait weeks for treatment or find help elsewhere as campus clinics struggle to meet demand, an Associated Press review of more than three dozen public universities found. On some campuses, the number of students seeking treatment has nearly doubled over the last five years, while overall enrollment has remained relatively flat. The increase has been tied to reduced stigma around mental health, along with rising rates of depression and other disorders. Universities have expanded their mental health clinics, but the growth is often slow, and demand keeps surging. Long waits have provoked protests at schools from Maryland to California, in some cases following student suicides. Meanwhile, campus counseling centers grapple with low morale and high burnout as staff members face increasingly heavy workloads. “It’s an incredible struggle, to be honest,” said Jamie Davidson, associate vice president for student wellness at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which has 11 licensed counselors for 30,000 students. “It’s stressful on our staff and our resources. We’ve increased it, but you’re never going to talk to anyone in the mental health field who …

As Iranian diaspora members rally around the world in solidarity with recent anti-government protests in Iran, they are getting a boost from another diaspora that sees Tehran as a threat — Canadian Jews. Hundreds of Iranian exiles have staged solidarity rallies in dozens of cities in North America, Europe and Australia since the demonstrations erupted across Iran on Nov. 15. In one notable rally, Iranian diaspora activists in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, co-organized their gathering with B’nai Brith Canada, a 144-year-old Canadian Jewish human rights group that strongly supports Iran’s main regional foe, Israel. B’nai Brith Canada told VOA Persian that at least 300 people attended Sunday’s rally in Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square. Among them were several prominent Jewish community members, such as B’nai Brith Canada’s chief executive Michael Mostyn and Canadian lawmaker Michael Levitt of the ruling Liberal party. Participants, most of them Iranian Canadians, waved Iran’s pre-1979 Islamic Revolution flag and chanted slogans and held signs denouncing the Islamic republic’s clerical rulers as brutal dictators. In a statement released Monday, London-based rights group Amnesty International said it had received credible reports of Iranian security forces killing at least 143 protesters in dozens of cities since Nov. 15, “almost …

More than 60 doctors have written to British authorities asserting that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange urgently needs medical treatment at a university hospital. The doctors said in a letter published Monday that Assange suffers from psychological problems including depression as well as dental issues and a serious shoulder ailment. Assange is in Belmarsh Prison on the outskirts of London in advance of an extradition hearing set for February. He is sought by the U.S. on espionage charges relating to his WikiLeaks work. The letter was sent to Home Secretary Priti Patel. Dr. Lissa Johnson of Australia said an independent medical assessment is needed to determine if Assange is “medically fit” to face legal proceedings. The letter was distributed by WikiLeaks.   …

A member of the United States Navy SEALs is at the center of a national political controversy after President Donald Trump intervened in his disciplinary hearings and ordered the Navy not to eject him from the elite military unit. Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was accused by men under his command of committing possible war crimes during his 2017 tour in Iraq. He was convicted of posing for photographs with the body of a teenage Islamic State captive in American custody and demoted from his position. However, Trump reversed the Navy decision and then ordered officials not to eject him from his unit. The U.S. Navy’s top civilian, Secretary Richard Spencer, was fired by the Defense Secretary over the matter on Sunday. Defense Chief Mark Esper said the secretary had been negotiating a secret deal over the SEAL’s fate with the White House. FILE – Acting Defense Secretary Richard Spencer listens during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, July 16, 2019. Pattern of behavior? Gallagher has served in the U.S. Navy since 1999. He was one of few Navy medics ever to complete the Marines’ demanding scout sniper school, according to the New …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday offered another conflicting account of a leadership shakeup at the Pentagon, while defending his decision to intervene on behalf of a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct during the fight against the Islamic State terror group in Iraq. FILE – Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer addresses graduates during the U.S. Naval War College’s commencement ceremony, in Newport, Rhode Island, June 14, 2019. Asked about Sunday’s firing of the U.S. Navy’s top civilian, Secretary Richard Spencer, Trump told White House reporters, “We’ve been thinking about that for a long time.” “That didn’t just happen,” he added during an appearance in the Oval Office with the Bulgarian prime minister. “I have to protect my war fighters.” U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper attends a press conference, Nov. 15, 2019. Trump also defended ordering Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday to cancel a review board hearing for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher. Gallagher was acquitted by a military jury earlier this year of charges he murdered a wounded Islamic State terror group fighter during his deployment to Iraq in 2017. But he was found guilty of posing with the teenager’s body and demoted. Earlier this month, Trump …

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren blasted billionaire Michael Bloomberg on Monday for launching his nascent White House bid with a $37 million TV advertising blitz, accusing the former New York City mayor of trying to buy American democracy. Bloomberg, 77, a media mogul who will use his personal fortune to spend freely on his campaign and has said he will not take donations, officially jumped into the White House race as a moderate Democrat on Sunday. Warren, 70, a liberal U.S. senator from Massachusetts and one of the leading Democratic contenders according to polls, has proposed a wealth tax on billionaires and frequently rails against corporate America, something Bloomberg has criticized. At an event with voters in Ankeny, Iowa, Warren opened her remarks denouncing Bloomberg’s tactics. FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks in Las Vegas, Oct. 2, 2019. “Michael Bloomberg is making a bet about democracy in 2020. He doesn’t need people, he only needs bags and bags of money. I think Michael Bloomberg is wrong,” Warren said. “That’s exactly what’s now in play in 2020 — which vision, which version of our democracy is going to win. If Michael Bloomberg’s version of democracy wins then …

The last living worker who helped construct Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota’s Black Hills has died. Donald “Nick” Clifford of Keystone, South Dakota, was 98. His wife, Carolyn Clifford, says he died Saturday at a hospice in Rapid City. At 17, Nick Clifford was the youngest worker hired to work at Mount Rushmore. He operated a winch that carried workers up and down the mountain where the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were carved, and he drilled holes for dynamite. The Rapid City Journal reports that Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln, decided in 1938 to field a baseball team and hired Clifford, who already was a veteran pitcher and right fielder. Clifford worked on Mount Rushmore from 1938-40, earning 55 cents an hour.   …

The Danish government has repatriated an 11-month-old boy after his mother, who was linked to the Islamic State terrorist group, was killed in the Syria conflict. The child arrived in Copenhagen on Nov.  21 from Irbil in northern Iraq after a nearly nine-month effort by relatives and the Danish government, authorities say. They also say the child, identified as Bay T, was being held at the Al-Hol refugee camp in northern Syria since March of this year, when his mother died. Baby T’s grandfather, who could not be named, told VOA Somali that the child was now being treated at a hospital for vomiting and diarrhea. “The boy has gone through a lot; he is a child without a mother, without a father, he needs a lot of assistance, and he is in a difficult condition.” “He is the son of my late daughter,” said the grandfather during a telephone interview. FILE – An Islamic State flag flies over a building in Syria’s Jarablus as seen from the Turkish town of Karkamis, Turkey, Aug. 1, 2015. The boy’s mother left Denmark in October 2015 to join Islamic State. While in Syria, she met the father of her child, who also …

Thanksgiving in the U.S. is right around the corner ((November 28)).  Historically, it’s meant big profits for cranberry farmers as the fruits of their labor appeared on traditional Thanksgiving tables across the country.  Crashing prices over the past decade have sent farmers looking elsewhere to make ends meet.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi bogs down in this holiday story. …

On this episode of Healthy Living, an update on theEbola outbreak in the DRC. The President of Concern Worldwide U.S. Aine Fay joins us in studio for more on what is being called an international emergency. We also discuss with the Former Prime Minister Of Togo Gilbert Houngbo about hunger being on the rise in Africa. And, whether or not spicy foods can cause stomach ulcers in our “True or False” segment and how researchers in Brazil are inventing traps to catch mosquitos that cause illness. All these topics and more on Healthy Living this week. S1, E6 …

Activists on Monday criticized as insufficient new French government efforts to fight one of Europe’s highest rates of so-called femicides, or the killing of women by their partners. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Monday announced millions of dollars in measures to protect women from spousal killings. They include beefing up shelters and the national hotline for victims, electronic bracelets and firearms seizures targeting abusers, educational programs and stiffer penalties for those convicted. The announcement coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Philippe said he hoped the measures will create an “electric shock” that he says French society needs to fight so-called femicides. Activists say nearly 140 women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners in France so far this year — one of Europe’s highest rates. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Paris Saturday, in the latest protest against femicides. The new measures come after weeks of discussions between authorities and women’s rights groups on the problem. But, some activists say both the measures and the funds to realize them are not enough. Camille Bernard is a member of #NousToutes, a women’s rights group which organized the demonstrations. “We are really disappointed …

Got secrets? They’ll be safe in here. VOA Explains what a SCIF is. …

Kosovo prosecutors have filed terrorism charges against three women repatriated from Syria for allegedly joining terror groups there.                     Prosecutors said Monday that the three women had left Kosovo in 2013, 2014 and 2015 to join the Islamic State group in Syria and Al-Nusra in Iraq. Spouses of two of them had died, apparently in fighting there.                     The three women were among 110 Kosovo citizens repatriated from Syria in April.                     If convicted, they could face a prison sentence of up to 15 years.                     Kosovo authorities say 30 of the country’s citizens are still actively supporting terror groups in Syria. …

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Maryland man’s bid for a new trial based on information uncovered by the hit podcast “Serial.” The justices did not comment in leaving in place a 4-3 ruling by Maryland’s highest court that denied a new trial to Adnan Syed, who was convicted of strangling a high school classmate he had once dated. Syed is serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 2000 of killing 17-year-old Hae Min Lee and burying her body in a Baltimore park. Prosecutors said during his trial that Syed killed her after she broke off their relationship. Syed’s lawyers had argued that his trial lawyer’s failure to investigate an alibi witness violated his right to competent legal representation. “We are deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court but by no means is this the end of Adnan Syed,” defense attorney C. Justin Brown told The Associated Press. “There are other legal options and we are exploring each and every one of them.” Millions of people learned about Syed when the hit podcast “Serial” dedicated its entire first season to the case in 2014. The show shattered podcast-streaming and downloading records, shining a spotlight that led to renewed …