Interim Bolivian President Jeanine Anez agreed to withdraw the military from protest areas and repeal a law giving them broad discretion in the use of force as part of a preliminary “pacification” deal struck early on Sunday with protest leaders. In exchange for the concessions, more than a dozen leaders of indigenous groups, farmers and unions who took part in the talks agreed to order their followers to end their demonstrations. The 12-point pact follows the unanimous passage of legislation by Bolivia’s Congress on Saturday to annul contested elections and pave the way for a new vote without former President Evo Morales, a major breakthrough in the political crisis. Anez signed the bill into law on Sunday. At least 30 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces since the Oct. 20 election, which was dogged by allegations of vote-rigging. Most have died since Morales stepped down on Nov. 10. Social leaders blame the military for the deaths. Anez’s government denies the charge. “If there’s no need for the army to be in the streets, it won’t be,” Anez said in comments broadcast on state TV at the end of the talks at the presidential palace. “It’s due …

Michael Bloomberg is running for president of the United States. The former New York City mayor, one of the richest men in the world, formally joined the Democratic presidential field on Sunday. The 77-year-old former Republican announced his plans on a campaign website. He wrote: “I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America.” Bloomberg’s entrance, just 10 weeks before primary voting begins, reflects his concerns that the current slate of candidates is not well-positioned to defeat Trump. Bloomberg’s massive investments in Democratic priorities like climate change and gun control, backed by his extraordinary personal wealth, could make him a force. He’s already reserved more than $30 million in television ads across several states, although he’s bypassing the first four on the primary calendar.   …

Emergency officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say at least 18 passengers and crew members died when an airplane crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday.   The Dornier-228 aircraft, operated by local company Busy Bee, crashed into a residential area near Goma airport. The flight was headed to Beni, 350 kilometers north of Goma. It was not immediately clear if people on the ground were killed or injured in the incident.     …

A French naval base in Abu Dhabi will serve as the headquarters for a European-led mission to protect Gulf waters that will be operational soon, France’s defense minister said on Sunday. France is the main proponent of a plan to build a European-led maritime force to ensure safe shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after tanker attacks earlier this year that Washington blamed on Iran. Tehran has denied being behind the attacks on tankers and other vessels in major global shipping lanes off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in May and which increased tensions between the United States, Iran and Gulf Arab states. “This morning we formalized that the command post will be based on Emirati territory,” Defense Minister Florence Parly told reporters at a French naval base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. The command center will host around a dozen officials representing the countries involved, she said. In a speech to French military personnel, she said the next time she visited the base she hoped the mission would be operational and thanked the UAE for supporting it. The UAE has tempered its reaction to the attacks and has called for de-escalation and dialogue …

Voters in Guinea-Bissau are casting their votes for president Sunday. Incumbent Jose Mario Vaz is among the 12 candidates vying to lead the West African country.   He is the first democratically elected president in Guinea-Bissau’s history to finish his term. He is up for re-election but is facing stiff competition from several opponents, including former Prime Ministers Carlos Gomes Junior and Domingos Simoes Pereira. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, another vote will be held next month. Guinea-Bissau  has been plagued with political instability, poverty, corruption, and  drug trafficking. When the president fired Pereira from the prime minister post in 2015, a political stalemate between Vaz and the majority party PAIGC ensued. The country went through years with no new legislation being passed. Regional bloc ECOWAS stepped in as mediator for the crisis.   The French news agency AFP says Guinea-Bissau’s 1.8 million population also has “to contend with a political elite that systematically loots the country’s wealth.” The former Portuguese colony is one of the poorest countries in the world.   …

Security forces opened fire on protesters in southern Iraq, killing at least five people and wounding dozens others, police and medical sources said, as weeks of unrest in Baghdad and some southern cities continue. Protesters had gathered overnight on three bridges in the city, and security forces used live ammunition and tear gas canisters to disperse them, killing three, police and hospital sources said. More than 50 others were wounded, mainly by live bullets and tear gas canisters, in clashes in the city, they added. Two more people were killed and over 70 wounded on Sunday after  security forces used live fire to disperse protesters near the  country’s main Gulf port of Umm Qasr near Basra, police and medical sources said. Hospital sources said the cause of death was live fire, adding that some of the wounded are in critical condition. The protesters had gathered to demand security forces open roads around the port town blocked by government forces in an attempt to prevent protesters from reaching the port’s entrance. On Friday, Iraqi security forces dispersed by force protesters who had been blocking the entrance to the port and reopened it, port officials said. Umm Qasr is Iraq’s largest commodities …

Twenty-two people have died from measles in Samoa. All the deaths, except one, were of children younger than five years old, according to Reuters. The South Pacific island has declared a state of emergency, with nearly 2,000 cases of measles reported. The government has initiated a mass mandatory vaccination program.   Samoa said Saturday that 153 cases had been reported in the last 24 hours.   One mother who lost her two-year-old son to the disease told an Australian Broadcasting Company crew that her three oldest sons had been inoculated against the disease, but she was too poor to afford to have her two year old inoculated.   …

As climate change ramps up weather extremes, good forecasts are increasingly important. A new system makes weather predictions anywhere in the world with the same high resolution that previously was only available in wealthy countries. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more. …

Hong Kongers voted in record numbers Sunday in a local election that is widely seen as a de facto referendum on recent pro-democracy protests. Voters formed long lines that snaked around city blocks outside polling stations across the territory, many waiting more than an hour to vote in local elections that are usually viewed as relatively inconsequential. District Council members who are being elected by Hong Kong voters have no power to pass legislation. But the election is the first chance for Hong Kongers to vote since a wave of anti-government protests erupted in June, creating bitter divides in Hong Kong society. A record 4.1 million Hong Kongers registered to vote, and it appears a record number will turn out. By midday Sunday, the number of voters had surpassed that of the previous District Council election in 2015, according to government figures. By 3:30 p.m., nearly 2 million had cast their ballots. Disqualified candidate and pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong stands in line to vote in the district council elections in Hong Kong, Nov. 24, 2019. “This amount of people I’ve never seen. There are so many people,” said Felix, who works in the real estate industry and voted in the …

Romanians went to the polls Sunday for a presidential election runoff expected to reelect centrist president Klaus Iohannis, who has pledged to restart a judicial reform slowed by successive Social Democrat (PSD) governments. While there have been no recent opinion polls, local bookmakers make Iohannis the short-odds favorite to beat former PSD prime minister Viorica Dancila comfortably in Sunday’s runoff. Under a succession of PSD governments, Romania rolled back anti-corruption measures and weakened the independence of the courts. Along with ex-communist peers Poland and Hungary, it has been heavily criticized by Brussels for its actions. Protector of rule of law However, the 60-year-old Iohannis has been credited by Western allies and the European Union with trying to protect the rule of law, in particular by challenging attempts to limit judges’ independence. “I will vote for a president to represent us, one that is respected both at home and abroad. This is the one we need,” said retired army staff Ioan Banu, while heading to a Bucharest college to cast his ballot, after polls opened at 0500 GMT. The president’s powers are mostly limited to nominating a prime minister on the basis of who can command a majority, challenging laws in …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will promise to bring his Brexit deal back to parliament before Christmas when he launches his manifesto Sunday, the cornerstone of his pitch to voters to “get Brexit done.” Voters face a stark choice at the country’s Dec. 12 election: opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist vision, including widespread nationalization and free public services, or Johnson’s drive to deliver Brexit within months and build a “dynamic market economy.” Opinion polls show Johnson’s Conservative Party commands a sizeable lead over the Labour Party, although large numbers of undecided voters means the outcome is not certain. “My early Christmas present to the nation will be to bring the Brexit bill back before the festive break, and get parliament working for the people,” Johnson will say, according to excerpts of his speech that he will make at an event in the West Midlands region of England. Contrasting with Labour Contrasting with Labour’s unabashed tax-and-spend approach, Johnson’s manifesto, titled “Get Brexit Done, Unleash Britain’s Potential,” will pledge to freeze income tax, value-added sales tax and social security payments. Johnson will also announce a 3 billion pounds ($3.85 billion) National Skills Fund to retrain workers and an extra 2 billion pounds …

Pope Francis, speaking in one of only two cities hit by atomic bombs in history, appealed Sunday for the abolition of nuclear weapons, saying their mere possession was perverse and indefensible. He restated his support for a 2017 treaty to ban nuclear weapons agreed by nearly two-thirds of U.N. members, but opposed by big nuclear powers who say it could undermine nuclear deterrence, which they credit with averting conventional war. “The possession of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction is not the answer (to longings for peace),” Francis said, after having closed his eyes in prayer and lighting a candle in memory of the victims. “Our world is marked by a perverse dichotomy that tries to defend and ensure stability and peace through a false sense of security sustained by a mentality of fear and mistrust,” he said in a somber voice, amid driving rain and strong wind. Pope Francis greets wellwishers at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park in Nagasaki, Japan, Nov. 24, 2019. “Peace and international stability are incompatible with attempts to build upon the fear of mutual destruction or the threat of total annihilation,” he said. Francis, who was speaking at Nagasaki’s Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, ground …

Ukrainian officials are warily watching the U.S. impeachment inquiry as they prepare for a crucial four-way negotiation with Russia, France and Germany next month. The meeting of the so-called Normandy Contact Group, set for Dec. 9 in Paris, is aimed at easing the conflict in the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists. More than 13,000 people have died in the fighting, which began in April 2014. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has outlined four issues he wants to raise at the meeting — an exchange of prisoners, a ceasefire, a restoration of Ukraine’s control over the Ukraine-Russia border, and holding local elections in rebel-held territories. Ukraine and the separatists have already withdrawn their forces at three sites in Donbas as a precondition for the meeting. Analysts contacted by Voice of America’s Ukrainian Service say the novice leader who came to power promising to bring peace to his country will be hard-pressed to emerge with a deal that doesn’t leave the nation weaker than it is now. FILE – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump face reporters during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly …

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized after experiencing chills and fever, the court said Saturday.  In a statement, the court’s public information office said Ginsburg was admitted Friday night to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was initially evaluated at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington before being transferred to Johns Hopkins for further evaluation and treatment of any possible infection.  With intravenous antibiotics and fluids, her symptoms abated and she expected to be released from the hospital as early as Sunday morning, the statement said.  Earlier this month Ginsburg, 86, suffered what the court described as a stomach bug. She was absent from arguments on November 13 but returned for the court’s next public meeting, on November 18.  She has been treated for cancer twice in the past year and two other times since 1999. Over the summer she received radiation for a tumor on her pancreas. Last winter she underwent surgery for lung cancer.  …

Read more at https://projects.voanews.com/mosul-library/?break-cache-and-show-edits …

With billions in federal aid and seats in Congress at stake, some states are dragging their feet in carrying out one of the Census Bureau’s chief recommendations for making sure everyone is counted during the 2020 census.  Five states — Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas — have not set up “complete count committees” that would create public awareness campaigns to encourage people to fill out the questionnaires.  In some of those states, politicians argued that a statewide body would be unnecessary, since local committees, cities and nonprofit organizations are already working to publicize the census. In others, state leaders didn’t see any urgency to act.  The once-a-decade count of the U.S. population starts in January in a remote area of Alaska. The rest of the nation takes part starting in the spring.  ‘The clock is ticking’ “We are encouraging others to join in,” Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham said this month. “The clock is ticking, and the time to join is now.”  Six states — Iowa, Maine, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin — only got on board in the past several weeks.  Officials say the committees can separate census winners from losers.  “Complete count committees are extremely …

Bolivia’s Senate on Saturday unanimously approved a measure calling for new presidential elections that would exclude ousted leader Evo Morales — a key step toward pacifying a nation since an October 20 vote marred by reported irregularities.  The measure forbids reelection of anyone who has served the last two terms consecutively as president, effectively ruling out Morales, whose refusal to accept such term limits was a key issue in protests against him.  The bill now goes to the lower house, which like the Senate is dominated by Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party.  The measure did not set a date for the vote.  Resignation Morales’ claim of victory and a fourth term in the October 20 election prompted massive protests that led him to resign on November 10 at the army’s suggestion. An audit by a team from the Organization of American States found widespread irregularities in that election.  After Morales left for asylum in Mexico, his own supporters took to the streets in protest.  Officials say at least 32 people have died in demonstrations since the presidential election, which would be annulled by Saturday’s vote.  An agreement on elections between Morales’ party and the interim government helped pacify the country. Street blockades …

The insect-eaten money fluttered in pieces to the floor. For global music star Angelique Kidjo, that image of her grandmother having to use a closet as a bank is driving her desire to see African women leap the many obstacles to obtaining credit — and respect. The Benin-born singer, one of Africa’s iconic artists and a collaborator with Philip Glass and others, is the voice of a new project aimed in part at rewriting laws across the continent that prevent millions of women from becoming a more powerful economic force. In an interview with The Associated Press, Kidjo described what she has seen over decades of travel in Africa during which women in vibrant marketplaces wished they had the means to do more. “Why do banks give more loans to men versus women? That’s the question I have,” she said. “Millions of women entrepreneurs in Africa, they lack loans versus the men. Once again, we come back to this patriarchy. And we know men pay less back than women.” Women invest 90% Every time credit is refused to African women, who invest some 90% of what they earn in educating their children and supporting families and communities as opposed to …

Protesters wearing the colors of both Harvard and Yale on Saturday staged a sit-in at midfield of the Yale Bowl during halftime of the 136th edition of the annual football rivalry known as The Game. Most left after about an hour when they were escorted off by police; about two dozen who remained were told by police they were under arrest.  A few dozen protesters initially trickled onto the field as the Yale band finished performing its halftime routine. Some  held up banners asking the schools’ presidents to divest from the fossil fuel industry, while other signs raised issues of Puerto Rican debt and the treatment of the Uighurs.  Largely of college age but with a few older protesters mixed in, the group chanted: “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Fossil fuels have got to go!” One banner read, “This is an emergency.”  Defense of free expression In a statement distributed to reporters in the press box during the fourth quarter, Yale said it “stands firmly for the right to free expression.”  “While I respect the rights of Harvard and Yale students to protest, their efforts should not impact their fellow students’ ability to pursue their passions as athletes on the field of play, and those …

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Paris on Saturday to demand a national wake-up call and more government investment to prevent deadly domestic violence against women, a problem that President Emmanuel Macron calls “France’s shame.”  A wave of purple flags and signs snaked from the Place de l’Opera through eastern Paris amid an unprecedented public campaign to decry violence against women — and to honor the 130 women that activists say have been killed in France this year by current or former partners. That’s about one every two or three days.  While France has a progressive reputation and pushes for women’s rights around the world, it has among the highest rates in Europe of domestic violence, in part because of poor police response to reports of abuse. Many of the women killed this year had previously sought help from police.  ‘Femicide’ At Saturday’s march — one of the biggest demonstrations this year in Paris — French film and TV stars joined abuse victims and activists calling for an end to “femicide.” Many held banners reading “Sick of Rape.”  The protest came on the U.N.’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and was aimed at pressuring the …

Nkeze wasn’t home when Cameroonian militants came knocking, probably to deliver their signature ultimatum to join their separatist movement or have his writing arm cut off.    The 24-year-old economics student escaped to Douala, the country’s largest city, only to learn that the government wanted to arrest him for participating in a university protest. He then flew to Ecuador and traveled through eight countries to the U.S. border with Mexico, including a trek through Panamanian jungle where he saw corpses and refugees crying for shelter, food and water.    In his quest to settle with relatives in Houston, Nkeze now faces a potentially insurmountable obstacle: a new American ban that forbids anyone who travels through another country to the U.S.-Mexico border from applying for asylum there.  ‘Protected’ in U.S.   “When you find yourself on U.S. soil, you are well-protected,” Nkeze said, sounding upbeat as he waited in Tijuana for a chance to make his case. “You are protected by human rights.” He spoke to The Associated Press on the condition that he be identified only by his last name because of safety concerns.    The U.S. is increasingly aligning itself with wealthy countries in Europe and elsewhere to make asylum a more distant prospect.  …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s centrist rival Benny Gantz on Saturday urged leaders of the premier’s Likud party to join him in forming a government after their chief’s indictment on corruption charges.    “In light of the circumstances, I call for the formation of the largest possible government under my leadership,” Gantz told a news conference, addressing members of the right-wing Likud.    “I would be the prime minister for the first two years,” he said.    And if Netanyahu “is cleared [of any wrongdoing] he could return and become prime minister,” Gantz added.    Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced Thursday that he had charged Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, prompting speculation that the end of the premier’s decade-long tenure was nigh.    The indictment came as Israel edged closer to its third general election in a year, after two inconclusive polls in April and September.    On Wednesday, Gantz, a former army general whose party gained one more seat than Likud in the September poll, said he was unable to form a government and secure a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.    Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White coalition, was asked to form a government …