Canada’s opposition Conservative leader said Thursday he will resign as party leader after weeks of infighting and a disappointing performance in parliamentary elections. Andrew Scheer, 40, called resigning “one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made.” He will stay on until a new leader is elected. “Serving as the leader of the party that I love so much has been the opportunity and the challenge of a lifetime,” Scheer said on the floor of Parliament. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won a second term in Canada’s October elections despite losing the majority in Parliament. It was an unexpectedly strong result for Trudeau following a series of scandals that had tarnished his image as a liberal icon. The vote led several Conservative officials to call for Scheer to step aside. Even members of his own party said Scheer is bland. They once touted it as a virtue, the antidote to Trudeau’s flash and star power. In the words of Canada’s former Conservative foreign minister, John Baird: “He’s not the sizzle, he’s the steak.” But Scheer was criticized during the campaign for embellishing his resume by saying he had worked as an insurance broker when, in fact, he was never licensed. …

The World Health Organization warns that gains made in tackling the Ebola epidemic in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are being threatened by ongoing insecurity in the region. As of Dec. 10, WHO reported 3,340 cases of Ebola, including 2,210 deaths.  Over the last week, 27 new confirmed cases of Ebola were reported from four health zones in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. This marks a substantial increase over the weekly average of seven new cases recorded during the previous three weeks, according to WHO.   FILE – This handout picture released by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Nov. 14, 2019, shows a man receiving his first injection of the new Ebola vaccine, at the MSF facilities in Goma, North Kivu province, DRC. Michel Yao, head of WHO’s on-the-ground operations for the Ebola outbreak, blames the rise in cases on attacks by armed groups, which are preventing health care workers from reaching vulnerable communities. “This is due to the fact that when we cannot access the community … we cannot perform surveillance activities including vaccination, that has been one of the key innovations that help us really to stop the spread out of this country toward the others,” he said. …

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce Friday that a near-term trade deal with China has been reached, according to media reports. Trump approved the first phase of the agreement on Thursday, nudging the two countries closer to the deal Trump initially announced in October. China has not made any public statements indicating an agreement is imminent, a reminder about whether Washington and Beijing can reach a long-term deal that can survive intense political scrutiny in both countries. At a regular briefing with reporters Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying limited her remarks about trade only to say how speculation about a deal has helped raise stock prices in the United States, China and Europe. The proposed agreement would reduce existing tariffs on Chinese imports and waive $160 billon in new levies that are set to take effect on Sunday. In exchange, the proposal calls for a number of concessions, including a commitment from China to purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. farm products.     …

Britain looks certain to leave the European Union by the end of January after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson secured a big majority of 78 seats in Thursday’s general election. His Conservative Party seized control of dozens of constituencies that had voted to leave in the 2016 referendum, vindicating Johnson’s decision to call an election. However,  as Henry Ridgwell reports, the country remains deeply divided – and the prime minister will face big challenges early on in his new term. …

Thai opposition party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit called on supporters to mobilize in Bangkok on Saturday, days after the national election body called for the dissolution of his party. Thanathorn, 41, has emerged as the most prominent opponent of the government headed by former junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, 65, after his progressive Future Forward Party came a surprise third in an election in March. The opposition Pheu Thai Party, which was ousted in 2014, won the most seats in the 500-member House of Representatives lower house. Palang Pracharat, the pro-military party formed last year by members of the junta’s cabinet, came second. Although Pheu Thai is the biggest opposition party, Future Forward has taken a higher profile in challenging the government. In a Facebook video, Thanathorn called on people who were “fed up with a society like this” to take to the street on Saturday. It is the first time he has made such a call. “This is the time for the people to make a noise,” Thanathorn said. “If you agree with me that now is the time for people to stand up to fight, demand legitimacy, justice and equality, come out on Dec. 14.” His tweet calling for mobilization …

America’s chief negotiator for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, visited Pakistan on Friday, a day after he briefly suspended peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar in retaliation to this week’s attack by the insurgent group on the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan. Khalilzad met Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad and briefed him on the U.S.-Taliban discussions in the Qatari capital of Doha, said a Pakistani statement. “We hope the U.S.-Taliban negotiations will resume soon,” Qureshi was quoted as saying, apparently in reference to the disrupted talks that had only recently restarted. Qureshi reaffirmed Pakistan’s resolve to continue to play its “facilitating” role in the Afghan peace process and emphasized again the conflict in the neighboring country had no military solution. Taliban leaders maintain close contacts with Islamabad, and their families also live in Pakistan among nearly three million Afghan refugees the country still hosts. Wednesday’s suicide car bomb-and-gun attack on the Bagram base mostly caused Afghan civilian casualties in nearby civilian localities and did not harm U.S. and NATO forces. The Taliban swiftly took credit for staging the assault. “When I met the Talibs today, I expressed outrage about yesterday’s attack on Bagram, which recklessly killed …

Russia said on Friday it was alarmed after the United States tested a ground-launched ballistic missile that would have been prohibited under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the RIA news agency reported. The United States carried out the test on Thursday. Washington formally withdrew from the 1987 INF pact with Russia in August after determining that Moscow was violating the treaty, an accusation the Kremlin has denied. “It alarms us. Of course we will take this into account,” said Vladimir Ermakov, head of the foreign ministry’s arms control and non-proliferation department. It was the second test by the United States that would have been prohibited under the INF treaty and too place as the future of another major nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States is under question. New START, the last remaining major nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries, is due to expire in February 2021 and Moscow has warned there is already not enough time left to negotiate a full-fledged replacement. …

The U.S. special envoy for North Korea will arrive in South Korea on Sunday ahead of a year-end deadline set by Pyongyang for Washington to soften its approach to stalled denuclearization talks, Seoul said on Friday. Stephen Biegun will be in Seoul for a three-day stay and hold consultations with his counterpart Lee Do-hoon and other officials, South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Friday. “The two sides will exchange extensive views on the recent situation on the Korean peninsula and discuss ways to bring substantial progress on achieving a complete denuclearization and enduring peace,” the ministry said in a statement. 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, stoking fears the two countries could return to a collision course that they had been on before launching diplomacy last year. Biegun’s trip sparked speculation he might try to salvage negotiations by reaching out to North Korea, or by publicly sending a message. North Korea has vowed to take an unspecified “new path” if the United States fails to address its demands before the end of the year. On Thursday, it said Washington …

A senior U.S. official says Washington’s sanctions against Iran have sharply curbed Tehran’s access to foreign currency, leaving it only $10 billion of accessible reserves to “foment violence and suffering” at home and abroad. U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook shared what he said were newly declassified details of Iran’s foreign exchange reserves in a speech Thursday to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington.   “According to U.S. government analysis, Iran currently has around $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves. Of that, only about 10% is immediately accessible to Iranian authorities. That is $10 billion,” Hook said. FILE – ​U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook speaks at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies forum in Washington, Dec. 10, 2019. (VOA Persian) ​ In a question-and-answer session after his prepared remarks, Hook said the other $90 billion in Iranian foreign currency is “locked up” by other nations, much of it in escrow accounts that those nations have barred Iran from accessing because of unilateral U.S. sanctions on the Iranian financial system. Many international companies and banks have refused to engage in transactions with Iran for fear of being subjected to secondary U.S. sanctions that would cut them …

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has won a solid majority of seats in Britain’s Parliament — a decisive outcome to a Brexit-dominated election that should allow Johnson to fulfill his plan to take the U.K. out of the European Union next month. With just over 600 of the 650 seats declared, the Conservatives reached the 326 mark, guaranteeing their majority. Johnson said it looked like the Conservatives had “a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done.” The victory will likely make Johnson the most electorally successful Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher, another politician who was loved and loathed in almost equal measure. It was a disaster for left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who faced calls for his resignation even as the results rolled in. The party looked set to gain around 200 seats. Corbyn called the result “very disappointing” for his party and said he would not lead Labour into another election, though he resisted calls to quit immediately, Results poured in early Friday showing a substantial shift in support to the Conservatives from Labour. In the last election in 2017, the Conservatives won 318 seats and Labour 262. The result this time looked set to be the biggest …

Time Magazine’s selection of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as its Person of the Year underscores the growing clout of youth power—pushing governments to escalate the fight against what many consider a climate crisis. That is also happening in Africa, which is especially vulnerable to climate change. At the Madrid climate conference, Lisa Bryant reports on three young Africans who are making a difference …

Rwanda this week (Dec 9) co-hosted the annual Anti-Corruption Excellence Award summit to celebrate and encourage successes against graft, including at home.  Transparency International ranks Rwanda as the fourth-least corrupt country in Africa, behind the Seychelles, Botswana, and Cabo Verde.  Eugene Uwimana reports from Kigali …

In 2013, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced legislation to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law that authorizes the FBI to undertake secret electronic surveillance of terror suspects and foreign spies. Among other reforms, the bill proposed the creation of a special advocate to represent the interests of surveillance targets before a secret intelligence court in Washington. But Blumenthal’s legislation never gained traction. While 18 Democrats co-sponsored it, not a single Republican signed on, Blumenthal said Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Justice Department inspector general’s report about the FBI’s investigation of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. FILE – Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., responds to questions from reporters. “Unfortunately, a great many of those proposed reforms did not become law,” Blumenthal said. In the wake of the report’s release on Monday, Blumenthal has found plenty of unexpected company. Angry at the FBI’s alleged abuse of its authority to monitor former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, Republicans are clamoring the loudest for reform. “I hate to lose the ability of the FISA court, but after your report, I have serious concerns about whether the FISA court can continue unless there is fundamental reform,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican …

A divided federal appeals court spent more than three hours Thursday sparring over whether President Donald Trump is illegally profiting from the presidency through his luxury Washington hotel. The state of Maryland and the District of Columbia asked 15 judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling by a three-judge panel directing a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss their lawsuit against the president. The two jurisdictions allege Trump has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by accepting profits through foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and District Attorney General Karl Racine have argued that hotels in their jurisdictions suffer “competitive injury” because officials hoping to curry favor with the president are more likely to stay at his hotel. A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit ruled in July that the two jurisdictions lack standing to pursue their claims against the president and granted a rare writ of mandamus, directing U.S. District Court Judge Peter Messitte to throw out the lawsuit. The three judges on the panel who ruled in Trump’s favor were all nominated by Republican presidents. But on Thursday, in arguments before …

Chilean authorities announced Thursday that rescue workers had found debris and human remains from the military transport plane that went missing on a regular flight to Antarctica. The head of the Chilean air force, General Arturo Merino, told reporters that based on the condition of the remains, it would be “practically impossible’ that any survivors would be found. “Remains of human beings that are most likely the passengers have been found among several pieces of the plane,” Merino said. “I feel immense pain for this loss of lives.” The C-130 Hercules was carrying 17 crew members and 21 passengers, including members of the Chilean air force, army and three civilians.   The wreckage was found 30 kilometers from the plane’s last-known position. …

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has arrived in Argentina, where he has been granted asylum by the new left-wing government. Morales had fled to Mexico after nationwide protests over election fraud forced him to resign early last month. “He feels better here than in Mexico, which is far away,” Argentine Foreign Minister Felipe Sola said Thursday. The two countries are neighbors. Morales will live in the capital, Buenos Aires, with his two children. Sola said four former high-ranking officials in his administration had accompanied Morales and had also requested asylum. Morales fled Bolivia after the Organization of American States concluded that the October elections had been rigged to grant him a fourth term in office. “We expect the Argentine government to comply with international norms of political asylum,” Bolivian Foreign Minister Karen Longaric warned. “We don’t want to see what happened in Mexico, where Evo Morales had an open microphone and a stage.” Interim Bolivian President Jeanine Anez has said Morales will not be allowed to run in new presidential elections that are expected to be held early next year. But on Sunday, Morales’ Movement Towards Socialism (Mas) party named him its campaign manager. “Thank you for not abandoning me. …

The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution that recognizes as genocide the mass killings of Armenians a century ago, a historic move that infuriated Turkey and dealt a blow to the already problematic ties between Ankara and Washington.  Turkey condemned the measure, which passed a month after an official visit to the White House by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who enjoys a special rapport with President Donald Trump, amid mounting issues that have soured the relationship between the two NATO allies.  Trump had cast his November 13 meeting with Erdogan as “wonderful” despite no concrete breakthrough on deep disagreements about issues such as Ankara’s purchase of Russian weapons systems and diverging views on Syria policy.  The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed the resolution by an overwhelming majority in October. But Republican senators had blocked a vote in the Senate since the Erdogan meeting.  ‘Tribute’ “This is a tribute to the memory of 1.5 million victims of the first #Genocide of the 20th century and bold step in promotion of the prevention agenda. #NeverAgain,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tweeted.  FILE – Two people walk at the Tzitzernakaberd memorial to the victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks, in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Oct. 30, 2019. The resolution, which is nonbinding, asserts that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from …

Ninety-eight percent of The Weinstein Co.’s creditors are joining a tentative settlement that plaintiffs say includes $25 million for over two dozen actresses and former employees who claim Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed them, a lawyer said Thursday.  The attorney, Karen Bitar, provided the estimate to U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer as she said the deal would cover “the overwhelming“ number of individuals and entities potentially owed money.  Additional money, she said, would be set aside for anyone who did not accept the terms of the settlement. The agreement, which would be limited to $500,000 per person, would require court approval that is unlikely to come before the spring.  The Weinstein Co. is currently proceeding in bankruptcy court, where any deal would face review.  Canosa lawsuit The discussion of the deal revealed by lawyers a day earlier arose during a hearing in Manhattan pertaining to a lawsuit filed against the company and the disgraced movie mogul by former Weinstein consultant Alexandra Canosa.  Canosa, who has not joined the proposed settlement, has alleged that Weinstein on multiple occasions from 2010 to 2017 raped, sexually abused, intimidated and harassed her during what he maintained were business meetings in New York, Los Angeles, Malaysia and …

The Pentagon on Thursday flight-tested a missile that had been banned under a treaty that the United States and Russia abandoned last summer. Some U.S. arms control advocates said the test risks an unnecessary arms race with Moscow. The prototype missile was configured to be armed with a non-nuclear warhead. The Pentagon declined to disclose specifics beyond saying thew missile was launched from a “static launch stand” at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and landed in the open ocean. The Defense Department said the ballistic missile flew more than 500 miles. Future of arms control The test comes amid growing uncertainty about the future of arms control. The last remaining treaty limitation on U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons — the New Start treaty of 2010 — is scheduled to expire in February 2021. That treaty can be extended for as long as five years without requiring a renegotiation of its main terms. The Trump administration has indicated little interest in doing so. The Pentagon declined to reveal the maximum range of the missile tested. Last spring, when U.S. officials disclosed the testing plan, they said it would be roughly 3,000 kilometers to 4,000 kilometers (1,860 miles to 2,480 miles). …

Ukrainian police have detained several people suspected of involvement in the slaying of journalist Pavel Sheremet, who died in a car bomb blast in 2016, the country’s leadership announced Thursday.    “Probable killers were detained today,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a press briefing in Kyiv with the interior minister and general prosecutor.  “But there is another question: Who ordered it?” he added.  Five accused Two women and three men, all former veterans of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, are accused of murdering Sheremet with the aim of “destabilizing the situation in the country by killing a famous person,” National Police chief Yevgen Koval said.    Sheremet, 44, an acclaimed Belarus-born journalist with pro-European views, died in July 2016 when his car exploded while he was driving to work in central Kyiv.    The investigation had considered four possible scenarios for the killing: a personal conflict, a killing by mistake, Sheremet’s professional activities and the destabilization theory.   Andriy Antonenko, suspected of involvement in the killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet, is seen outside his house as law enforcement officers prepare to search his apartment, Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec. 12, 2019. The two main suspects in the planting of the explosive device under Sheremet’s car are an ex-serviceman in the Ukrainian army, Andriy Antonenko, and a woman named Yuliya Kuzmenko.    Footage from the crime scene that was released …

Russia’s only aircraft carrier suffered a massive fire Thursday that killed one crew member, injured another 11 people and significantly damaged the ill-fated ship that has been haunted by incidents throughout its service.  The fire on the Admiral Kuznetsov broke out during welding work at a shipyard in the Arctic port of Murmansk and spread quickly through the carrier’s internal compartments. The ship’s crew and emergency teams spent the day battling the blaze.  The military said one crew member died while battling the fire, and another one was missing.  Authorities in Murmansk said 11 people were injured and 10 of them were hospitalized in intensive care.  The Investigative Committee, the nation’s top state investigative agency, opened a probe into a possible violation of safety rules.  Russian state television showed the carrier near its berth, next to a snow-covered hill, engulfed by smoke. The Defense Ministry said the fire was localized.  Breakdowns, setbacks The Admiral Kuznetsov has been plagued by breakdowns and setbacks since its launch in 1985. The massive blaze followed the crash of a 70-ton crane onto the Admiral Kuznetsov’s deck in October 2018 when a mammoth floating dock holding the ship sank.  The crane left a hole of 20 square meters (215 square feet), and the loss of the dock significantly slowed …