Marketing consultant Bhuwan Kathuria was among those who had flashed victory signs outside the Supreme Court in September last year when homosexuality was legalized in India. But along with the celebrations came the sobering realization that creating safe and liberal spaces for the community would not be easy in a country where the 157-year-old ban on gay sex had forced many to live in the shadows. The Indian capital hosted its first queer literature festival nearly a year and a half after a law banning homosexuality was scrapped in the country. (Anjana Pasricha/VOA) That is why 16 months after the landmark judgment, Kathuria joined the first ever queer literature festival hosted at an upscale venue in the Indian capital, New Delhi. As the Rainbow Lit festival turned the focus on stories and experiences of the community, he and other gay rights activists hoped to create bridges between different identities of society. “Festivals like these help us figure out the common ground and also talk about the challenges that lie ahead of us,” he says. Festival Director Sharif Rangnekar says he organized the meet because he found that queer art and literature did not get enough attention in literary festivals held …

As Kenya marks the anniversary of the end of British colonial rule more than five decades ago (Dec 12, 1963), two communities in the Great Rift Valley want the United Nations to investigate a colonial-era land grab.  The Kipsigis and Talai communities accuse the British of collective punishment by forcefully evicting them off their land, which was turned into profitable tea farms. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Kericho, Kenya.   …

Nearly a year and a half after India scrapped controversial legislation criminalizing homosexuality, the Indian capital has hosted its first ever queer literature festival. Turning the focus on stories and experiences of the community, the two day meet explored common ground between different identities of society. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi. …

U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg Thursday, suggesting she has problems controlling anger. “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem,” Trump tweeted, and added she should “then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill.” Twitter screenshot Criticism of a minor by a sitting U.S. president is unusual, and it came one day after Thunberg was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019. Trump was a candidate for the Person of the Year designation. Trump’s comments apparently did not go unnoticed by Thunberg. The 16-year-old responded to his tweet by changing her Twitter bio to say: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.” Screenshot of Greta Thunberg’s Twitter profile page. The backlash to Trump’s criticism of Thunberg was swift on social media, with many Twitter users accusing him of bullying. Others, however, came to Trump’s defense. Thunberg is the youngest person to win the prestigious Time magazine designation after quickly evolving into one of the world’s most prominent climate change activists. Editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal made the announcement Wednesday during an …

Human Rights Watch says tens of thousands of Burundian refugees face mounting pressure to involuntarily leave Tanzania amid efforts by authorities there to reduce the number of Burundians in the country. The rights group in a statement Thursday charged that the fear of violence, arrest and deportation from Tanzania is driving many of the 163,000 Burundians out of the country. Some of the refugees have since sought shelter in neighboring Uganda. Burundi fell into instability in 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would seek a disputed third term. The election was marked by violence and allegations of rigging. Nearly 350,000 of Burundi’s 11 million people fled. Tanzanian authorities have expressed frustration over what they say is the U.N.’s slow pace in repatriating refugees back to Burundi. More than 70,000 refugees have returned to Burundi since December 2017, and rights groups say it is hard to tell how many of those returned voluntarily.   …

Israelis grappled Thursday with the confounding reality of unprecedented third national elections in less than a year, after Parliament was dissolved and the date for the next vote was set — further extending months of political paralysis that has gripped the country. Legislators passed a motion earlier to hold elections on March 2, hours after the deadline to form a coalition government expired. The motion passed with a 94-0 vote in the house. That now triggers a nearly three-month-long campaign ahead of the vote that most polls predict will not produce dramatically different results than those that led to the current logjam. “This nightmare, in which we’re heading into elections once again, the third within the space of a single year, is neither a parable nor a dream. It is completely real,” wrote Sima Kadmon in the leading Yediot Ahronot daily. “There aren’t words left that can express the public’s disgust with and mistrust towards its elected representatives. As in each previous round, the largest parties, Likud and Blue and White, blamed each other for the impasse and tried setting the narrative for what is likely to be a grueling and caustic campaign. “The politicians were unable to decide and …

As the International Criminal Court faces criticism in the U.S. and on the African continent, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, president of the ICC, said he is hopeful relationships can be repaired. In an interview with VOA, Eboe-Osuji urged the U.S. government to remember the role it has played in supporting war crimes courts dating back to the post-World War II Nuremberg Tribunal and more recent tribunals in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. “Lots of Americans support the court and wish us well. And the only thing now is for the government to also pay heed to the role America has played in this sort of endeavor in the past,” he told VOA.     The U.S. has never ratified the Rome Statute that created the court in 1998. More recently, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow went to the headquarters of the ICC along with attorneys from the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal organization advocating for religious freedom and freedom of speech.  Their trip was part of an effort to stop an investigation into allegations that American forces in Afghanistan committed war crimes in 2003 and 2004. Sekulow filed a “friend of the court” brief stating his case. “Our …

A lawyer presenting Gambia’s case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against Rohingya Muslims said Thursday that Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi ignored allegations of mass killings and rape as she led her country’s defense before the U.N.’s top court. Paul Reichler told the International Court of Justice in The Hague Myanmar was choosing to ignore the alleged sexual violence because “it is undeniable and unspeakable.” Aung San Suu Kyi told the court Wednesday the mass exodus of the Rohingya minority stemmed from “an internal conflict started by coordinated and comprehensive armed attacks.” She said that “Myanmar’s defense services responded” to the attacks, creating an armed conflict “that led to the exodus of several hundred thousand Muslims.”    William Schabas, a Canadian attorney defending Myanmar against genocide charges at the U.N.’s International Court of Justice and Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi attend a hearing in a case filed by Gambia, Dec. 11, 2019. Appearing before the court in her official role as Myanmar’s foreign minister, the Nobel Peace laureate reiterated her government’s claim that the military was targeting Rohingya militants who had attacked security posts in western Rakhine state in August 2017.    Myanmar’s military launched a …

Shares in Saudi Aramco gained on the second day of trading Thursday, propelling the oil and gas company to a more than $2 trillion valuation, where it holds the title of the world’s most valuable listed company. Shares jumped in trading to reach up to 38.60 Saudi riyals, or $10.29 before noon, three hours before trading closes. Aramco has sold a 1.5% share to mostly Saudi investors and local Saudi and Gulf-based funds. With gains made from just two days of trading, Aramco sits comfortably ahead of the world’s largest companies, including Apple, the second largest company in the world valued at $1.19 trillion. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the architect of the effort to list Aramco, touting it as a way to raise capital for the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, which would then develop new cities and lucrative projects across the country that create jobs for young Saudis. He had sought a $2 trillion valuation for Aramco when he first announced in 2015 plans to sell a sliver of the state-owned company. International investors, however, thought the price was too high, given the relatively lower price of oil, climate change concerns and geopolitical risks associated with Aramco. The …

Five candidates have their eyes on becoming the next president of Algeria — without a leader since April — as voting began in Thursday’s contentious election boycotted by a massive pro-democracy movement. The powerful army chief and his cohorts in the interim government have promised the voting will chart a new era for the gas-rich North African nation that is a strategic partner of the West in countering extremist violence. Those opposed to the voting fear the results will replicate a corrupt, anti-democratic system they are trying to level. Tension was palpable on the eve of the vote as protesters in at least 10 towns denounced the elections. In Bouira, east of Algiers, the capital, security forces used tear gas to push back protesters who had invaded a voting station in a high school, according to the online TSA news agency, citing witnesses. Several thousand people demonstrated in Algiers. Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) and are to close at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT). Results were not likely until Friday, to be announced by a newly created National Independent Electoral Authority overseeing the voting. The body was among the nods of authorities to protesters, like the decision for soldiers …

India sent thousands of troops into the northeastern state of Assam Thursday to quell violent protests triggered by a new law that would make it easier for non-Muslims from some neighboring countries to gain citizenship.   Angry protesters defied a curfew imposed in the capital of Guwahati and elsewhere across Assam, setting cars and tires ablaze before being dispersed by security forces.  Protesters also attacked the homes of members of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party. Critics say the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which passed the upper house of Parliament Wednesday, would lead to a flood of immigrants into Assam and other northeast states, and would marginalize India’s minority Muslims, which they claim is a goal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist government. “I want to assure my brothers and sisters of Assam that they have nothing to worry after the passing of #CAB,” Prime Minister Modi said in a statement posted on his Twitter account. “I want to assure them — no one can take away your rights, unique identity and beautiful culture. It will continue to flourish and grow.” I want to assure my brothers and sisters of Assam that they have nothing to worry after …

Voters in Britain are casting ballots Thursday in an early general election that may bring a long-awaited resolution to the departure from the European Union they approved in a 2016 referendum. Prime Minister Boris Johnson focused his campaigning efforts on a slogan to “Get Brexit Done.” He says a parliamentary majority for his Conservative Party would allow him to push through a previously rejected divorce deal with the EU and carry out Brexit by January 31. His challenger, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, said if he wins Britain will hold a new referendum to ask if people still want to leave the European Union, or would rather stay in the 28-member bloc. Johnson took office in July after his predecessor, Theresa May, failed in her repeated attempts to get parliament to approve the deal she reached with the EU. May also tried during her tenure to strengthen her Brexit negotiating position by calling an early election, but the move backfired with the Conservatives losing seats. Opinion polls ahead of Thursday’s voting suggested Johnson’s party was favored to win, but that the race appeared to tighten in the final days of campaigning. Official results are expected early Friday.   …

New Zealand officials now say they will send crews to White Island on Friday to recover the bodies of eight people killed in Monday’s volcanic eruption. Authorities had been holding off on sending search crews to retrieve the bodies because of the volcano’s continued instability.  Seismologists with New Zealand’s GeoNet seismic monitoring agency said Wednesday there remains a 40-to-60 percent chance of another major eruption.  Poisonous gas continues to vent out of the volcano’s crater and the island is covered in acidic ash.   The death toll rose Wednesday to eight, as two more victims who had been rescued from the island after the eruption died in hospital.  At least 27 survivors suffered burns over more than 71 percent of their bodies; of that number, 22 are on airway support due to the severity of their burns.  Health officials have said they need an extra 1.2 million square centimeters of skin to provide grafts for the victims. Authorities say about 47 people were touring the island at the time of the eruption, including 24 Australians, with the rest from the United States, Britain, Germany, China, Malaysia and New Zealand.  Some of the victims were passengers from a cruise ship operated …

Environmentalists and climate change activists worldwide are hailing Time magazine’s decision to make Greta Thunberg its 2019 Person of the Year. The teenage activist has attracted the world’s attention with her eloquent calls on political and industrial leaders to make courageous decisions on climate change. Her actions have inspired young people worldwide to fight for the protection of the planet. But as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, there are critics who say Thunberg’s mission and her celebrity status are all wrong …

For the first time since the early 20th century, more Americans are choosing to die at home rather than in a hospital. A report published in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday found deaths in nursing homes also have declined. Researchers studied data on natural deaths complied by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics from 2003 to 2017. In that period, the number of people dying at home increased from 543,874 (23.8%) to 788,757 (30.7%).   At the same time, the number of deaths in a hospital fell from 905,874 (39.7%) in 2003 to 764,424 (29.8% ) in 2017. “It’s a good thing. Death has become overly medicalized over the last century,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Haider Warraich of the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.   The rise of home hospice services has helped more people spend their last days at home, Warraich said. “I have met many patients who just want to spend one day at home, around their dog, in their bed, able to eat home food,” he said. Hospice provides terminally ill patients with end-of life care, including pain management and emotional support for the …

The leaders of Russia and Ukraine met for the first time in three years in an attempt to end the conflict in eastern Ukriane. In the wake of that meeting earlier this week in Paris, attention now shifts to renewed peace efforts to stem the violence between Ukrainian government forces and Moscow-backed separatists. Yet in interviews and comments online, analysts warn that while important gestures were made, Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on key aspects of the five-year conflict, which has killed at least 13,000 people, and shows no signs of abating. One well-accepted view holds that the mere fact that Monday’s Paris talks took place was reason enough for French President Emanuel Macron to smile. “The fact that we sat side by side today … is an achievement,” Macron told reporters.     The French leader, with backing from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been the driving force behind renewed European efforts to persuade Ukraine and Russia to return to the negotiating table. “Macron showed that Paris is ready to play a bigger role in European politics,” Alexey Pushkov, a Kremlin ally and former member of Russia’s Federation Council, wrote in a tweet that praised the meeting. Left …

Top American officials say Washington is hopeful that a recent prisoner exchange with Iran will lead to a broader discussion.  In an interview with VOA on Wednesday, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook recalled some of the emotional moments of witnessing the release of Chinese American academic Xiyue Wang, saying Wang will be working with the U.S. to help secure the release of all American detainees from Iran.  State Department correspondent Nike Ching has the story …

Y.C. Jao was a respected Chinese correspondent working for The Associated Press in April 1949 when Mao Zedong’s Red Army stormed into Nanjing, defeating the Nationalist forces of leader Chiang Kai-shek and paving the way for the Communist takeover of China. A family man in his late 40s, tall and erudite with liberal views, Jao was an intellectual deeply committed to news, and to modernizing journalism in China. He had studied at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism in the 1920s, before returning after 10 years to teach journalism and to start an English-language paper. He was recommended to the AP as a local correspondent by the then U.S. ambassador to China, and worked under the supervision of Seymour Topping, the head of the AP bureau in Nanking, which was the capital city of the Nationalist Chinese government. Jao’s passion for journalism led to his death. The new authorities ordered his execution in April 1951. They accused Jao of spying and of counterrevolutionary activities, all owing to his work for AP. Sixty-eight years later, the AP on Wednesday recognized his sacrifice by installing Jao’s name on its memorial Wall of Honor for journalists who have fallen because of their …

European Union leaders on Thursday will push to agree to make their bloc climate neutral by 2050, luring reluctant eastern member states with promises of extra money for their heavily-polluting economies. The bloc’s 27 national leaders will meet in Brussels from 1400 GMT, a day after the bloc’s executive proposed a Green Deal to mobilize 100 billion euros worth of investment to help the bloc’s economies move away from fossil fuels. With floods, fires and droughts wrecking millions of lives around the world, the EU’s new executive cast the plan as the bloc’s “man on the moon moment,” kindling hopes among campaigners that other big emitters may follow suit. But coal-reliant Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were not on board, saying a draft decision must spell out in more detail the scale and scope of financing available, and pushing to include nuclear in the EU’s fresh push to cut emissions. “There will certainly be an amount of arm-wrestling,” said a senior EU diplomat from a country more enthusiastic about the 2050 goal. “There will have to be new money … but some member states will be less than enthusiastic about the target of raising 100 billion euros.” Underlining divisions …

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that he has a possible skin cancer, after a medical visit where he had a mole removed from his ear. The presidential office, however, said there is no sign that Bolsonaro has a cancer, adding that the president had been to a hospital in Brasilia in the afternoon. “The president is in good health, without any indication of a skin cancer and is keeping his appointments for this week,” said the statement. Earlier, Bolsonaro also said he had been advised to cancel a trip to Salvador, in the state of Bahia, due to suffering from exhaustion. …

Debris believed to be from a military transport plane carrying 38 people that vanished two days ago en route to the Antarctic has been discovered in the frigid, treacherous waters between the icy continent and South America, Chile’s Air Force said Wednesday. Air Force Gen. Eduardo Mosqueira said “sponge” material, possibly from the plane’s fuel tank, was found floating roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the place the C-130 Hercules last had radio contact. The debris will be analyzed to see if it corresponds to the missing plane, he said, adding that the process could take up to two days. The C-130 Hercules took off Monday afternoon from a base in far-southern Chile on a regular maintenance flight for an Antarctic base. Radio contact was lost 70 minutes later. The debris was spotted by a private plane assisting in the search, and officials said a Brazilian ship in the area equipped with instruments will next scan 3,200 meters (10,499 feet) underwater at the site. “We estimate that the debris may in fact be from the C-130 fuel tank,” Mosqueira said. The discovery came as Chilean officials had expanded the search for the missing military plane. Mosqueira said the search area …

The House on Wednesday passed its annual defense policy measure, which combined a $738 billion Pentagon price tag with legislation to provide federal employees with 12 weeks of paid parental leave. The sweeping 377-48 vote followed weeks of arduous House-Senate negotiations that finally yielded a traditionally bipartisan measure, stripped of many add-ons sought by Democrats controlling the House. The result came over outnumbered protests by some of the chamber’s most liberal members, who said Democratic negotiators should have fought harder for House-passed liberal policies. They are also unhappy about the spiraling defense budget. The compromise between the Democratic-controlled House and the GOP-held Senate broke free after Republicans agreed to accept a Democratic demand — endorsed by Trump in end-stage negotiations — for the landmark parental leave provision. Negotiators also endorsed Trump’s call for a new “space force” — a provision previously backed by the House on a bipartisan basis. U.S. President Donald Trump listens as U.S. Air Force Gen. John Raymond, commander of SPACECOM, speaks during an an event to officially launch the United States Space Command in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Aug. 29, 2019. Trump has said he’ll sign the measure, which is expected …

An executive order issued by President Donald Trump interpreting members of the Jewish religion as part of a distinct nationality is intended to help battle growing anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses.    Some major Jewish organizations hailed Wednesday’s action because it means universities could lose federal funding if they do not stop discrimination against Jews on their campuses. Others said they were uncomfortable with government action to create an ethnic categorization, and they also worried about its potential to suppress free speech at schools.    “This is a very critically important move made by the president of the United States that will set an environment wherein Jewish students who were targeted with anti-Semitism on university campuses in America will actually have some semblance of protection and recourse,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a major Jewish human rights organization.   A participant wears a Trump “Make America Great Again” yarmulke at a White House Hanukkah reception in Washington, Dec. 11, 2019. “President Trump has done more for the American Jewish community than any other president in history,” said Matt Brooks, president of the Republican Jewish Coalition, hailing the executive order.    “This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue,” Cooper told VOA, noting that Trump’s order “is …