A Pennsylvania appeals court rejected Bill Cosby’s bid to overturn his sexual assault conviction Tuesday over issues including the trial judge’s decision to let five other accusers testify. The Superior Court ruling was being closely watched because Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the (hash)MeToo era. The same issue was hard-fought in pretrial hearings before movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial. Cosby’s lawyers in his appeal said the suburban Philadelphia judge had improperly allowed the five women to testify at last year’s retrial although he’d let just one woman testify at the first trial in 2017. But the Superior Court said Pennsylvania law allows the testimony if it shows Cosby had a “signature” pattern of drugging and molesting women. “Here, the [prior bad act] evidence established appellant’s unique sexual assault playbook,” the court said, noting that “no two events will ever be identical.” The court went on to say that the similarities were no accident. “Not only did the [prior bad act] evidence tend to establish a predictable pattern of criminal sexual behavior unique to appellant, it simultaneously tended to undermine any claim that appellant was unaware of or mistaken about victim’s failure to consent to …

Roughly 300 Saudi Arabian military aviation students have been grounded as part of a “safety stand-down” after a Saudi Air Force lieutenant shot and killed three people last week at a U.S. Navy base in Florida, U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday. The FBI has said U.S. investigators believe Saudi Air Force Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, acted alone when he attacked a U.S. Navy base in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday, before he was fatally shot by a deputy sheriff. The shootings have again raised questions about the U.S. military relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has come under heightened scrutiny in Congress over the war in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi last year. Still, U.S. military leaders have sought to portray this as a localized issue which would not affect the overall U.S.-Saudi relationship. “A safety stand-down and operational pause commenced Monday for Saudi Arabian aviation students,” said Lieutenant Andriana Genualdi, a Navy spokeswoman. FILE – An Air Force carry team loads the remains of Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters into a vehicle at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Dec. 8, 2019. Walters was among those killed in the shooting at Naval Air …

Another border tunnel from Mexico to the United States has been discovered in Arizona after the U.S. Border Patrol arrested four migrants. Agents in Nogales, Arizona, found the tunnel on Sunday after a camera operator for the Border Patrol spotted the migrants. The agents who made the arrest traced the migrants’ trip and came across the tunnel from Nogales, Mexico to Nogales, Arizona. It was just 50 yards (46 meters) away from another tunnel discovered last week, although that one was incomplete. The Border Patrol said it worked with Mexican authorities to trace the tunnel to Mexico and has since destroyed it. It was the fifth tunnel discovered this year in the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, which covers large areas of Arizona.   …

Guineans took to the streets en masse on Tuesday, in the latest round of mass anti-government protests to hit the fragile West African state. Around one million people protested against embattled President Alpha Conde in the capital Conakry, opposition MP Fode Oussouba said. AFP could not independently verify the figure, however. The poor former French colony country of some 13 million has seen rolling demonstrations since mid-October over suspicions that the 81-year-old president is maneuvering to seek a third term in office. At least 20 civilians have been killed since protests began, and one gendarme has also been killed. Scores of people have also been arrested and detained in the unrest. There were no reports of violence on Tuesday, however, which also saw thousands of people protest in regional cities in the center and north of the country, according to witnesses. “Today, our thoughts are with the dead, with our friends who are in court,” said Abdourahmane Sanoh, the coordinator of the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), an alliance of opposition groups. Sanoh was temporarily freed from prison last month, pending an appeal, after originally being jailed for his role in staging demonstrations. Conde, whose second …

A man who served as secretary of public security in Mexico from 2006 to 2012 has been indicted in New York City on drug charges alleging he accepted millions of dollars in bribes to let the Sinaloa cartel operate with impunity in Mexico. Genaro Garcia Luna, 51, a resident of Florida, was charged in Brooklyn federal court with three counts of cocaine trafficking conspiracy and a false statements charge, authorities said in a release. Garcia Luna was arrested Monday by federal agents in Dallas. Prosecutors in Brooklyn said they will seek his removal to New York. The arrest and charges were announced Tuesday. U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue said Garcia Luna took millions of dollars in bribes from the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, “while he controlled Mexico’s federal police force and was responsible for ensuring public safety in Mexico.”  “Today’s arrest demonstrates our resolve to bring to justice those who help cartels inflict devastating harm on the United States and Mexico, regardless of the positions they held while committing their crimes,” he said. Garcia Luna received millions of dollars in bribes from 2001 to 2012 while he occupied high-ranking law enforcement positions in the …

A new rehab technology company helps patients maximize physical therapy and regain movement after paralysis – through gaming. Deana Mitchell checks it out. …

When can a U.S. intelligence community worker “blow the whistle?” VOA Explains.   …

The Supreme Court appeared likely Tuesday to rule that insurance companies can collect $12 billion from the federal government to cover their losses in the early years of the health care law championed by President Barack Obama.  Several justices indicated their agreement with arguments from the insurers that they are entitled to the money under a provision of the “Obamacare” health law that promised the companies a financial cushion for losses they might incur by selling coverage to people in the marketplaces created by the health care law. The program only lasted three years, but Congress inserted a provision in the Health and Human Services Department’s spending bills from 2015 to 2017 to limit payments under the “risk corridors” program. Both the Obama and Trump administrations have argued that the provision means the government has no obligation to pay.   “Are you saying the insurers would have done the same thing without the promise to pay?” Justice Elena Kagan asked Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler. Kneedler said the health care law created a “vast new market” of customers, most of whom would qualify for subsidies. “The primary point was to encourage companies to go on the marketplace,” Kneedler said. Paul …

The president of the United States is terming as a “witch hunt” the two impeachment counts unveiled against him Tuesday morning by House Democrats. Trump referred to that often used term again in a two-word tweet following the announcement by House committee chairs to proceed with the punitive legislation process against him. WITCH HUNT! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at her weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 5, 2019. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the other Democrats in Congress of having planned to oust Trump since he was inaugurated in January 2017. “The announcement of two baseless articles of impeachment does not hurt the President, it hurts the American people, who expect their elected officials to work on their behalf to strengthen our Nation. The President will address these false charges in the Senate and expects to be fully exonerated, because he did nothing wrong,” says Grisham. Trump is also criticizing the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation following the release of the Justice Department’s inspector general’s report examining the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 election …

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday, one day after the U.S. Justice Department’s independent inspector general said it did not uncover any evidence of political partisanship when the FBI started investigating communications between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia in 2016. Wray said in an ABC News interview on Monday that the inspector general found the investigation “was opened with appropriate predication and authorization,” but noted the inspector general found the FBI made numerous mistakes during its inquiry. FILE – FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 30, 2019, during a hearing on domestic terrorism. Trump attacked Wray early Tuesday, tweeting, “I don’t know what report the current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but I’m sure it wasn’t the one given to me.” Trump added: “With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!” The Justice Department’s inspector general said in the report the FBI was justified in opening an investigation in 2016 into suspected ties between Trump’s election campaign and Russia, saying …

American billionaire and Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg says that the next U.S. president should halt fossil fuel subsidies altogether. Bloomberg, who launched his campaign less than three weeks ago, is attending a United Nations global climate conference in Madrid that is kicking into high gear. Ministers from nearly 200 countries are arriving on Tuesday to tackle some of the tough issues that negotiations couldn’t resolve over the past week, including finalizing the rules for international carbon markets that economists say could help drive down emissions and help poor countries to cope with the effects of rising temperatures.      Opening an event on sustainable finances organized by the summit host, Spain, Bloomberg said that “the next president of the United States should end all subsidies for fossil fuel companies and fossil fuel extraction, and that includes tax breaks and other special treatment.” “He or she should reinvest that funding into clean energy, which will also create a lot of new jobs,” he added. The 77-year-old businessman and former New York mayor is expected to share the results of his private push to organize thousands of U.S. cities and businesses to abide by the terms of a global climate treaty that …

Finland’s parliament chose Sanna Marin as the country’s new prime minister Tuesday, making the 34-year-old the world’s youngest sitting head of government. Marin is heading a five-party, center-left coalition. The four other parties in the coalition are headed by women _ three of whom are in their early 30s. The Nordic country’s Parliament, the 200-seat Eduskunta approved Marin in a 99-70 vote. The government has a comfortable majority of 117 seats. President Sauli Niinisto will formally hand Marin her mandate later Tuesday, after which she will officially become prime minister. The appointment of Marin and her new government on Tuesday allows Marin to represent Finland at the European Union summit in Brussels later this week . Finland currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency until the end of the year.             …

Thick reindeer fur boots and a fur hat covering most of his face shielded Niila Inga from freezing winds as he raced his snowmobile up to a mountain top overlooking his reindeer in the Swedish arctic.                     His community herds about 8,000 reindeer year-round, moving them between traditional grazing grounds in the high mountains bordering Norway in the summer and the forests farther east in the winter, just as his forebears in the Sami indigenous community have for generations.                     But Inga is troubled: His reindeer are hungry, and he can do little about it.  Climate change is altering weather patterns here and affecting the herd’s food supply.                     “If we don’t find better areas for them where they can graze and find food, then the reindeers will starve to death,” he said.                     Already pressured by the mining and forestry industry, and other development that encroach on grazing land, Sami herding communities fear climate change could mean the end of their traditional lifestyle.                     Slipping his hand from a massive reindeer skin mitten, Inga illustrated the problem, plunging his hand into the crusted snow and pulling out a hard piece of ice close to …

The former mayor of Moscow and one of the founders of Russia’s ruling United Russia party, Yuri Luzhkov, has died at the age of 83.                     Russia’s Ren TV channel reported Tuesday that Luzhkov died in Munich, where he was undergoing heart surgery.                   Luzhkov, a political heavyweight of the Boris Yeltsin era, was the mayor of Moscow for 18 years and was one of the founders of the United Russia party, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s longtime political platform.                   In 2010, Luzhkov was dismissed from his post in the Moscow City Hall by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev despite his close ties to Putin. He moved to London, but remained very vocal about Russian domestic affairs. …

Police in the Czech Republic said Tuesday an attacker shot dead six people and wounded two others at a hospital in the eastern part of the country. The shootings happened around 7 a.m. local time in a waiting room at the hospital in the city of Ostrava. Police announced hours later the suspect in the attack, identified as a 42-year-old man, was dead after shooting himself in the head inside a car before officers reached him. There was no immediate word on a possible motive. …

Africa’s Sahel region emits considerably less greenhouse gasses than the U.S. and China, but with temperatures in the area rising 1.5 times faster than the global average, the region is still especially vulnerable to climate change. Mali’s Lake Wegnia, which provides food & water to thousands of residents, is shrinking due to rising heat and unpredictable rains. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. …

Russian and Ukrainian presidents are meeting in Paris in an effort to end five-and-a-half years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed rebels. The first face-to-face meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy is mediated by France and Germany and was preceded by a prisoner swap and the withdrawal of Ukraine’s military from key areas on the front line. But, as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, many Ukrainians back home are protesting what they see as Zelenskiy’s weakness. …

House Democrats laid out their impeachment case against U.S. President Donald Trump Monday while Republicans mocked  their allegations. The second House Judiciary Committee public hearing marked the formal presentation of findings in the inquiry, setting the stage for the unveiling of formal charges against Trump. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the final vote on those Articles of Impeachment could happen as soon as next week. …

French airport workers, teachers and others joined nationwide strikes Tuesday as unions cranked up pressure on the government to scrap changes to the national retirement system. Police ordered shops and restaurants closed across a swath of Paris, fearing violence on the fringes of what government opponents hope is another mass march in the afternoon. At least 800,000 people turned out for demonstrations around France when the strike movement kicked off last Thursday. Protests are also planned Tuesday in other cities, as the strike pushes on into a sixth straight day. Unions fear President Emmanuel Macron’s retirement reform will force people to work longer for smaller pensions, even though the government says it won’t raise the official retirement age of 62. Only about a fifth of French trains ran normally Tuesday, frustrating tourists who found train stations empty and trains canceled, and most Paris subways were at a halt. The Paris region registered double the number of traffic jams at morning rush hour than on a normal day. Overall the number of striking workers is lower than last week but travelers’ patience is wearing thin, as commuters struggle to squeeze on scarce regional trains to get to work. Air France, the …

Residents in parts of eastern Australia evacuated their homes on Tuesday as soaring temperatures and strong winds threatened to fan bushfires in a giant blaze north of Sydney, the country’s biggest city. Air quality in parts of Sydney plunged as the city awoke to another thick blanket of smoke, disrupting transport services and prompting health warnings from authorities. More than 100 fires are ablaze in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria states in eastern Australia, many of which have been burning since November. The fires have killed at least four people, destroyed more than 680 homes and burned more than 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of bushland. After a brief respite over the weekend, conditions are set to worsen on Tuesday as temperatures top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and winds pick up, stoking fears that fires could spread to more populated areas. Such forecasts have heightened worries about a so-called megablaze burning north of Sydney. Stretching for more than 60 km (37.2 miles), the firefront in the Hawkesbury region, about 50 km north west of Sydney, could grow if the forecasted winds arrive, authorities have warned. While there is no official evacuation order, many locals have decided to …

The Pentagon has denied intentionally misleading the public about the 18-year war in Afghanistan, after The Washington Post published a trove of government documents revealing that officials made overly optimistic pronouncements they knew to be false and hid evidence that the conflict had become un-winnable.  “There has been no intent by DoD to mislead Congress or the public,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell wrote to VOA on Monday.  “The information contained in the interviews was provided to SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) for the express purpose of inclusion in SIGAR’s public reports,” he added. The Post said the documents contain more than 400 interviews with senior military and government insiders who offered unrestrained criticism of what went wrong in Afghanistan and how the United States became mired in nearly two decades of war. According to the Post, U.S. officials, most of whom spoke on the assumption that their remarks would not be made public, acknowledged that the strategies for fighting the war were flawed and that the U.S. wasted hundreds of billions of dollars trying to make Afghanistan into a stable, democratic nation.  “If the American people knew the magnitude of this dysfunction,” Douglas Lute, a three-star Army general who …

Experts say North Korea appeared to have conducted a fuel engine test on the ground, potentially for a long-range missile, in what Pyongyang claimed as “the test of great significance.” Michael Elleman, director of the Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said it is safe to assume North Korea conducted “a static engine test” but cannot conclude the type of engine tested based on currently available information. A static engine test means the engine was tested on the ground with a missile component but without launching an actual missile into the air. “The size of the engine, whether it was based on liquid or solid fuel, or the success of the test are impossible to know without more evidence, photographs,” said Elleman.  He added that it is also difficult to determine if the engine tested was “a new type or a test of an existing model.” North Korea said “a very important test took place at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground” on Saturday afternoon, according to a statement issued on Sunday by the country’s official People watch a TV screen showing a file image of the North Korean long-range rocket at a launch …

The U.N. General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution Monday urging all nations to observe a truce during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan, saying sports can play a role in promoting peace and tolerance and preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism. Diplomats burst into applause as the assembly president announced the adoption of the resolution by the 193-member world body. The resolution recalls the ancient Greek tradition of “ekecheiria,” which called for a cessation of hostilities to encourage a peaceful environment, ensure safe passage and participation of athletes in the ancient Olympics. The General Assembly revived the tradition in 1993 and has adopted resolutions before all Olympics since then calling for a cessation of hostilities for seven days before and after the games. But member states involved in conflicts have often ignored the call for a truce. Yoshiro Mori, head of the Tokyo organizing committee for the 2020 games, introduced the resolution calling on U.N. members states to observe the truce around next year’s Summer Olympics, being held July 24-Aug. 9, and the Paralympics, following on Aug. 25-Sept. 6. The resolution also urges nations to help “use sport as a tool to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation in areas …

New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg launched his campaign less than three weeks ago, but he is already making his first foreign trip as a presidential candidate. The Democrat will appear Tuesday at a United Nations global climate conference in Madrid, where he’ll share the results of his private push to organize thousands of U.S. cities and businesses to abide by the terms of a global climate treaty that the Trump administration is working to abandon. The appearance comes as Bloomberg, a former Republican whose dedication to the environment earned him the designation of special U.N. envoy for climate action, tries to find his footing in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary election. It’s rare for a presidential candidate to step onto the international stage before securing the nomination, and virtually unheard of for a candidate to do so in the first month of his or her candidacy. Earlier this year, Bernie Sanders appeared in Canada to highlight his fight to lower prescription drug costs, while former candidate Beto O’Rourke met with asylum seekers in Mexico. Both men represented states that bordered those countries, however, and there were no formal talks with foreign leaders involved. Bloomberg shared his plan to appear at …