The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a case that would allow cities to make it a crime to sleep on the streets. The court let stand a ruling by a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, which struck down a couple of local laws in Boise, Idaho that made it a crime for homeless people to sleep on the streets when no alternative shelter is available. The Ninth Circuit includes various western states that have a problem of astronomical real estate prices resulting in growing homelessness. Several major cities have tried to curb homelessness by passing strict local legislation. Boise had appealed the ruling arguing it would allow homelessness to proliferate leading to public health issues. “As long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter,” the appeals court said in its ruling. …

Amnesty International says its documented death toll from Iran’s recent anti-government protests will rise again from the group’s latest report that at least 304 demonstrators were killed by security forces. “That is not a final figure by any means,” said Amnesty’s Middle East research director Philip Luther in a VOA Persian interview on Monday. Hours earlier, the An Iraqi demonstrator shows a bullet that was used during ongoing anti-government protests in Najaf, Iraq December 2, 2019. The group said it had carried out interviews with dozens of people inside Iran, who described how authorities have held the detainees incommunicado and subjected them to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment. Iran has declined to published any official data on those killed, wounded and arrested in the November protests, which the government sparked by raising the subsidized price of gasoline by 50%. The gas price hike further strained the finances of Iranians facing high unemployment and inflation in a shrinking economy under heavy U.S. sanctions. Tens of thousands of angry Iranians took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide to denounce government corruption and mismanagement. Initial street protests were peaceful, but quickly turned violent as some people looted stores and set …

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday North Korea would likely carry out unspecified tests if they “don’t feel satisfied” amid fears the two countries could return to the collision course they had been on before launching diplomacy. Tension has been rising in recent weeks as Pyongyang has conducted a series of weapons tests and waged a war of words with U.S. President Donald Trump. “We have seen talk of tests. I think that they will be likely if they don’t feel satisfied,” Esper told reporters traveling with him from Europe back to Washington. He did not provide details on what type of tests may be likely but added he was hopeful about diplomatic efforts. Experts say North Korea could restart intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing suspended since 2017, a move that would be seen as highly provocative in Washington. “I’ve been watching the Korean Peninsula for maybe a quarter of a century now. So I’m familiar with their tactics, with their bluster and I think we need to get serious and sit down and have discussions about a political agreement that denuclearizes the Peninsula,” Esper said. The U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, urged Pyongyang on Monday …

Thousands of university students flooded the streets of India’s capital, while a southern state government led a march and demonstrators held a silent protest in the northeast on Monday against a new law giving citizenship to non-Muslims who entered India illegally to flee religious persecution in neighboring countries. The protests in New Delhi followed a night of violent clashes between police and demonstrators at Jamia Millia Islamia University. People who student organizers said were not students set three buses on fire and police stormed the university library, firing tear gas at students crouched under desks. Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said opposition parties were using the students as pawns. Modi’s government says the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which was approved by Parliament last week, will make India a safe haven for Hindus and other religious minorities in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But critics say the legislation, which for the first time conditions Indian citizenship on religion, violates the secular constitution of the world’s largest democracy. FILE – The library of the Jamia Millia Islamia University that was stormed by police Sunday, in New Delhi, India, Dec.16, 2019. At Jamia Millia Islamia University on …

A three-day summit on tackling the world’s refugee crisis got under way Monday in Geneva, Switzerland. Thousands of delegates — including around 100 government ministers — are attending the United Nations’ Global Refugee Forum to discuss how to help the tens of millions of people who have been forced to flee their homes, many through conflict. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

Boeing Co. said Monday that it will temporarily stop producing its grounded 737 Max jet starting in January as it struggles to get approval from regulators to put the plane back in the air. The Chicago-based company said production would halt at its plant with 12,000 employees in Renton, Washington, near Seattle. But it said it didn’t expect to lay off any workers “at this time.” The move amounts to an acknowledgement that it will take much longer than Boeing expected to win approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and other global regulators to fly the planes again. Grounded since March The Max is Boeing’s most important jet, but it has been grounded since March after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed total of 346 people. The FAA told the company last week that it had unrealistic expectations for getting the plane back into service. Boeing has missed several estimates of a return date for the plane, and the company didn’t give a date on Monday. Even if no employees are laid off, ceasing production still will cut into the nation’s economic output because of Boeing’s huge footprint in the nation’s manufacturing sector. Through October of this year, …

Supporters of Lebanon’s two main Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal clashed with security forces and set fires to cars in the capital early Tuesday, apparently angered by a video circulating online that showed a man insulting Shi’ite figures. Police used tear gas and water cannons trying to disperse them. It was the third consecutive night of violence, and came hours after Lebanon’s president postponed talks on naming a new prime minister, further prolonging the turmoil and unrest in the Mediterranean country. President Michel Aoun postponed the binding consultations with leaders of parliamentary blocs after the only candidate — caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri — failed to win the backing of the country’s largest Christian groups amid a worsening economic and financial crisis. FILE – Riot police officers beat anti-government protesters during a protest near the parliament square, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 15, 2019. The postponement followed a violent weekend in the small nation that saw the toughest crackdown on demonstrations in two months. Lebanese security forces repeatedly fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters in downtown Beirut in the worst violence since demonstrations against the political elite erupted in mid-October. On Monday night, …

They keep on coming — fleeing the killing fields of war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa, escaping the random violence of vicious drug gangs in Central America, and running from repressive regimes in Asia. A world in crisis means more refugees, and the trend lines are not promising. There are now more than 70 million refugees and displaced people around the world — nearly 26 million outside the borders of their own countries, according to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. Speaking ahead of the UNHCR’s first Global Refugee Forum, which formally started Monday in Geneva, U.N. officials say they expect those numbers will climb when they have concluded the final troubling tally for 2019. FILE – Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, speaks during a news conference in Bogota, Colombia, Oct. 6, 2018. Opening the forum, Filippo Grandi, UNHCR’s top official, said the three-day meeting needs to see “very concrete commitments” made by governments, businesses and relief organizations. “The purpose of this meeting, this conference, is not just to talk but to rally international support for countries hosting refugees in a spirit and with the objective of sharing the burden more equitably,” Grandi said. Organized …

One of the young Navy sailors killed in a Saudi gunman’s attack at a Florida base had boundless energy and a fierce loyalty to family and friends in Georgia that will make him “the most amazing guardian angel,” some of those closest to the slain sailor told hundreds at his funeral Monday. Roughly 400 people, including dozens of uniformed service members, gathered at a Savannah church to remember 21-year-old Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters of neighboring Richmond Hill. His casket, draped with an American flag, stood at the front of a stage adorned with Christmas trees. Walters was among three sailors killed Dec. 6 when the gunman opened fire at Pensacola Naval Air Station. Federal authorities said the gunman also wounded eight other people in the rampage before a sheriff’s deputy killed him. The slain sailor’s father, Shane Walters, has said his son had recently arrived in Florida after completing boot camp and was standing watch at the entrance of a classroom building where the attack occurred. Mourners in the front row at Walters’ funeral in the large sanctuary at Compassion Christian Church included Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff at all statewide buildings to honor …

People will get more time to sign up for “Obamacare” health insurance, the Trump administration announced Monday, following a spate of computer glitches over the weekend. The new HealthCare.gov deadline is 3 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a statement. Coverage takes effect Jan. 1. It was the second round of problems with online sign-ups for the agency in weeks. Senior lawmakers of both major parties are urging the administration to publicize the availability of a redo for seniors who got inaccurate or confusing results using the Medicare Plan Finder. A redesign of the Medicare site produced search results that didn’t automatically rank the prescription drug plan with the lowest total cost first. The problems with HealthCare.gov happened Sunday, which was the original sign-up deadline. The last day of open enrollment is always the busiest, with hundreds of thousands of people going online or trying to reach the call center. A group founded by former Obama administration officials said people using the website and the call center ran into delays and other problems. Get America Covered, as the group is known, urged the Trump administration to extend the sign-up period by 48 …

A small Singapore opposition party has corrected online posts critical of the government following an order by the labor ministry under a new “fake news” law that rights groups say is being used to chill dissent. Seeking to stir support ahead of a parliamentary election expected within months, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), which has no seats in parliament, posted articles in recent months on its website and Facebook arguing that an increasing number of white-collar workers were losing their jobs. SDP to appeal correction notice The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) ordered the SDP to place a correction notice on these posts because it said jobs for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) had been steadily rising since 2015. “CORRECTION NOTICE: This post contains a false statement of fact” was subsequently placed above the posts with a link to a government webpage where “the correct facts” could be found. The SDP said it had complied but would appeal the order, the most severe since the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) came into effect in October. The MOM said it would consider the grounds of SDP’s application when submitted. In the latest use of the law, the Ministry …

Philippine journalist Maria Ressa said Monday she would not be silenced as she launched her defense against a libel charge that press advocates call an attempt to curb her news site’s critical coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte. Her site Rappler has written extensively and often critically on Duterte’s policies, including his deadly drugs war that rights groups say may amount to crimes against humanity. “I can go to jail for 12 years for this (case), that is the maximum sentence,” she told reporters outside court after the hearing, noting government investigators had initially dismissed the case. “From track record you can see the political goals to shut Rappler up … but we haven’t shut up yet,” said Ressa, who is free on bail. Besides the libel case, Ressa and Rappler have been hit with a string of criminal charges in the span of roughly a year, prompting allegations that authorities are targeting her and her team for their work. Ressa, named a Time Person of the Year in 2018 for her journalism, did not testify in court. The case centers on a Rappler report from 2012 about a businessperson’s alleged ties to a then-judge of the nation’s top court. Government …

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham met with leaders in Pakistan Monday to discuss “a broader” bilateral relationship, with particular focus on economic cooperation and peace-building efforts in Afghanistan, official said. In his meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Graham, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, hailed Pakistan’s consistent support in the Afghan peace process, Khan’s office said. Officials quoted the U.S. senator as commending Pakistan’s unilateral installation of a fence to secure its long and traditionally porous border with Afghanistan.   While underscoring the importance of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan for his country, Khan reiterated that Pakistan would continue to play its facilitating role in the Afghan peace and reconciliation process. Graham also visited Pakistan in January, paving the way for a meeting between Khan and Trump at the White House in July. Senator Graham later traveled to the neighboring city of Rawalpindi and met with Pakistan’s military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, at the army headquarters there. The discussions focused on regional security and the Afghan peace process, said an army spokesman. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have long been marred by mistrust and suspicion. They stem from allegations that leaders and fighters of the Afghan Taliban …

Senegal is failing to prevent the abuse of thousands of students at the West African country’s Quranic schools, says Human Rights Watch, despite government promises to stop the exploitation.  The rights group analyzed the Senegalese government’s efforts to address abuses over the last two years and found them to be insufficient and ineffective.    Modou – not his real name – was just six years old when he says the abuse started.   After his parents died, the now 12-year-old boy says his uncle sent him to study and live at a Quranic school, where teachers forced him and other students to beg in the streets. Modou, 12, whose name has been changed to protect his privacy, describes the abuse he endured at his old Koranic school, Dec. 12, 2019, in Dakar, Senegal. (Annika Hammerschlag/VOA) If they didn’t return with adequate money and food, they were restrained for months at a time, he says. Pointing to the scars on his legs, Modou says if he misbehaved or didn’t recite the Koran properly, the teachers beat him and locked him in chains.   He says when he was beaten, he’d think of his mother and how, if she were still here, …

Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 16 signed amendments to the Administrative Violations Code that allow hefty fines for violating the controversial law on “foreign agents,” which critics say is used to muzzle dissent and discourage the free exchange of ideas and a free press. According to the changes, individuals who violate the law more than twice in a 12-month period will have to pay a fine of up to 10,000 rubles ($159) for the first violation, and up to 100,000 rubles ($1,590) or 15 days in jail for repeat violations. Organizations will be obliged to pay a penalty of up to 1 million rubles ($15,900) for the first violation, and up to 5 million rubles ($79,500) for subsequent violations of the law. The amendments were approved by lawmakers earlier this month. Two weeks earlier, Putin signed into law a bill that gives authorities the power to label reporters who work for organizations officially listed as foreign agents as foreign agents themselves. The tag will be applied to individuals who collaborate with foreign media outlets and receive financial or other material support from them. Russia passed the original foreign agent law — which requires all NGOs receiving foreign funding to …

Sharing the cockpit of a helicopter on sizzling tarmac, French and British air force chiefs vowed to pursue the joint fight against jihadists in the heart of the Sahel even as the shadow of Brexit looms over their countries. “We’ve got a long, fabulous history of working alongside each other, and I don’t expect anything to change anytime soon,” Royal Air Force (RAF) Chief of Air Staff Mike Wigston told AFP on a visit to the city of Gao with French counterpart Philippe Lavigne. “If anything, we are going to work stronger together,” he said. Backed by 100 British personnel, France has a 4,500-strong Sahel force supporting national armies struggling with a seven-year-old jihadist revolt. Thousands of civilians have been killed, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes. The two generals this weekend visited Mali, Niger and Chad, which with Burkina Faso and Mauritania form the so-called G5 Sahel, an anti-terror force. Wigston said Mali and its neighbors were “the front line of instability.” The priority of the Sahel deployment “is to stamp out the violent extremism which is making people’s lives a misery,” he said. “But there is a wider security issue here which affects Europe and the …

The Hallmark Channel, reversing what it called a “wrong decision,” said Sunday it will reinstate commercials featuring same-sex couples that it had pulled following a complaint from a conservative group. The earlier decision by Crown Media, Hallmark’s parent company, to pull several ads for the wedding planning site Zola featuring two brides kissing at the altar had launched a storm of protest. Celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner criticized the move and the hashtag (hash)BoycottHallmarkChannel was trending on Twitter at one point. “The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused,” said a statement issued Sunday evening by Hallmark Cards CEO Mike Perry. “Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision. … We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused.” Zola, the wedding planning site that made the ads, said it was relieved that the decision to pull them had been reversed. In an email to The Associated Press, the company said it would be in touch with Hallmark “regarding a potential return to advertising.” “We are humbled by everyone who showed support not only for Zola, but for all LGBTQ couples and  families …

Turkey has dispatched a surveillance and reconnaissance drone to the breakaway north of ethnically divided island nation of Cyprus amid tensions over offshore oil and gas exploration, Turkey’s state-run media said Monday. The Anadolu news agency said the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone took off from an airbase in Dalaman, Turkey, and touched down Monday at the airport in Gecitkale — known as Lefkoniko in Greek, on Cyprus. Kudret Ozersay, foreign minister of the self-declared Turkish Cypriot state, told reporters Sunday that the Turkish deployment would be limited to unarmed drones as there was “no need” for armed ones. Earlier, Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ersin Tatar said there was an “urgent need” to address the security concerns of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots in the eastern Mediterranean. It’s unclear what the drones will be specifically tasked to do. Cyprus Defense Minister Savvas Angelides called the move an “additional factor contributing to instability” in the region, hurting efforts aimed at reunifying the country. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week that Ankara could use its military forces to halt gas drilling in waters off Cyprus that it claims as its own. Cavusoglu said Turkey “has the right to prevent” any unauthorized …

The United Nations’ AIDS agency has fired two staffers for financial and sexual misconduct, including a whistleblower whose allegations of being sexually assaulted sparked months of turmoil at the organization. Last March, Martina Brostrom publicly accused a senior UNAIDS director of forcibly kissing her and trying to drag her out of a Bangkok elevator in 2015. She also said he had sexually harassed her on other occasions. But before those allegations became public, Brostrom herself and a supervisor were being investigated by U.N. officials for their own sexual and financial misconduct, as revealed in an Associated Press story  in April. Internal documents obtained by the AP showed U.N. officials had “evidence” Brostrom and a supervisor had taken part in “fraudulent practices and misuse of travel funds.” Among other charges, the two were reprimanded for “abusing U.N. privileges by requesting special U.N. rates for the purpose of booking hotels for sexual encounters.” Brostrom said that she was fired from UNAIDS last week in an act of retaliation. “I spoke up about what happened to me and what was happening in UNAIDS. As a consequence, I have suffered tremendously,” she said in a statement. Brostrom was credited by some for starting a …

Israel became a major energy exporter for the first time on Monday after signing a permit to export natural gas to Egypt. The announcement comes just days before a lucrative Israeli gas field in the Mediterranean Sea is expected to go online. Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz called the permit a “historic landmark” for Israel. He said it’s the most significant economic cooperation project between the neighboring countries since they signed a peace deal in 1979. With the expected gas boon, Israel plans to wean itself off coal and potentially revolutionize its economy. The European Union, seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, has encouraged the formation of new delivery routes, including through the eastern Mediterranean. These routes could also curtail Iranian ambitions to use Syria as a gateway to the Mediterranean. “The natural gas revolution turns us into an energy power and affords us not just huge income for the country but also a dramatic decrease in air pollution,” Steinitz said. But Israel’s focus on its newfound gas reserves over the past decade has faced stiff domestic criticism from environmental and social welfare activists. They say the government has been too generous toward the gas tycoons behind the exploration, …

Former FBI Director James Comey acknowledged Sunday that a Justice Department  inspector general report  identified “real sloppiness” in the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide and said he was wrong to have been “overconfident” about how the Russia investigation was handled. But Comey also insisted he was right to feel some measure of vindication because the report did not find evidence for the most sensational of President Donald Trump’s claims, including that he had been wiretapped and illegally spied on and that the FBI had committed treason in investigating ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign. “Remember how we got here,” Comey said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “The FBI was accused of criminal misconduct. Remember, I was going to jail, and lots of other people were going to jail.” The inspector general, he added, “did not find misconduct by FBI personnel, did not find political bias, did not find illegal conduct.” The significant mistakes the inspector general identified are “not something to sneeze at” but also not evidence of intentional misconduct, Comey said. In a tweet Sunday, Trump called for an apology from Comey, now that he “got caught red handed.” “So now Comey’s admitting he …

At least 10 people died in a factory fire outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, officials said Sunday, the second deadly industrial blaze in four days. The flames engulfed a small fan factory in the Gazipur industrial district on Sunday evening, with firefighters extinguishing the blaze after a two-and-a-half hour battle. They found 10 bodies in the charred structure and were searching for more possible casualties, fire service spokesman Zillur Rahman told AFP. Officials do not yet know how many people were in the factory when the blaze took hold. The cause of the fire is not yet known. The latest incident followed the death of at least 17 people when an illegal plastic factory outside Dhaka went up in flames on Thursday. Industrial fires are common in Bangladesh, especially in the dry winter season, due to lax enforcement of safety codes. In February this year, a blaze in a historic Mughal building in an old part of Dhaka killed at least 70 people and injured dozens. In November 2012, at least 111 people died after a fire at a garment factory making apparel for Western retailers, in one of the country’s most devastating fires. …

China on Monday urged the United States to correct its “mistake” of expelling Chinese officials. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said U.S. accusations against the officials went against the facts and that the United States needs to properly protect the rights of diplomats. Geng spoke to reporters in response to questions about a New York Times report that said the United States secretly expelled two Chinese officials after they drove onto a military base in the state of Virginia. The report, citing people with knowledge of the situation, said the incident took place in late September with the two officers and their wives driving to a base checkpoint, then being told to go through the gate so they could turn around and exit.  The officials instead continued further into the base and were stopped only when they reached a road blocked by fire trucks. The Times said the officials, at least one of them an intelligence officer, explained they had misunderstood the instructions to turn around at the gate and had become lost. The report said U.S. officials dismissed that explanation, and viewed the incident as a potential test of the base’s security. …