GUATEMALA CITY — Conservative Alejandro Giammattei could prevail in Guatemala’s presidential runoff Sunday if misgivings about his opponent among urban voters outweigh her support in the Central American nation’s poor Mayan highlands.  Whoever takes office in January will face a testy relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, who last month strong-armed the outgoing government into signing an agreement that will turn Guatemala into a buffer zone for U.S.-bound migrants.  Giammattei and his center-left rival, former first lady Sandra Torres, both criticized the deal, but Trump’s threats of economic sanctions are unlikely to leave either of them much room to maneuver if the next administration does not honor it.  Potentially complicating such tough decisions, neither candidate is hugely popular.  Torres, 63, has high negative ratings in the densely populated urban areas, in part because of her connections to an investigation being conducted into alleged illicit electoral financing in a previous campaign.  Her base is in rural areas such as the highlands where she is remembered for social programs during her former husband’s administration.  Turnout is expected to be low and the winner is unlikely to command a strong mandate, especially after electoral authorities excluded other popular candidates from the first round in June — conservative candidate Zury Rios on the ground that close relatives of coup leaders are barred from top office, and anti-corruption crusader Thelma Aldana because of an arrest warrant against …

The Democratic-led U.S. House Judiciary Committee asked a federal court on Wednesday to compel former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify about President Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to impede the federal probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, the committee contends that McGahn’s testimony is needed to decide whether to move forward with impeachment proceedings against the Republican president over actions that Democrats view as criminal attempts to obstruct then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month investigation. Latest step by Democrats The move represents the latest step toward impeachment by Democrats in the House of Representatives, who last week cited their impeachment drive in a court petition seeking access to Mueller’s grand jury evidence. Democrats predict that the lawsuit, if successful, will dismantle a White House strategy to stonewall congressional probes by directing current and former Trump aides not to testify or provide documents to investigators. McGahn, who emerged as the star witness in the 448-page Mueller report released in April, is viewed by Democrats as a potentially devastating witness against Trump similar to former White House Counsel John Dean, who testified against President Richard Nixon, in the Watergate era. …

Lyft Inc posted a jump in revenue on Wednesday in its second-quarter results, allowing the ride-hailing company to lift its forecasts as more riders used the service and price competition with rival Uber eased. The company boosted its revenue outlook for the year to above Wall Street estimates and estimated third-quarter sales would exceed expectations, sending shares up as high as 11% after hours before they came down to a 1.8% increase. A loss of $2.23 per share in the quarter was worse than the $1.74 per-share loss expected, on average, by analysts, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Lyft also said its lock-up period — the time after a public offering in which large shareholders are prohibited from selling shares — would come early, Aug. 19 instead of Sept. 24. Shares of Uber Technologies Inc rose after Lyft posted results, rising 2.6% in after-hours trade. FILE – A man rides a Lyft Scooter near the White House in Washington, March 29, 2019. Lyft’s 72% jump in revenue was fueled by more active riders, who spent about a quarter more than they had a year ago. “Wall Street has been eager for us to demonstrate our path for profitability,” Chief …

One month after then-President Boris Yeltsin plucked a security agency official named Vladimir Putin from obscurity and made him prime minister, an explosion leveled a nine-story apartment building on Moscow’s outskirts. The predawn blast on Sept. 9, 1999, reduced the building to a smoking pile of rubble, killing more than 100 people. A second building, less than 6 kilometers away, was rocked by an explosion on Sept. 13, killing 119. Days earlier, a car bomb exploded in a small town bordering the war-ravaged region of Chechnya, where reignited fighting was already spilling into neighboring regions. That blast, outside the apartment building in the town of Buynaksk, killed dozens. It was followed seven days later by a truck bomb that destroyed a nine-story building in another southern city, Volgodonsk, killing 17. On Sept. 23, Putin asserted terrorists in Chechnya were to blame and ordered a massive air campaign within the North Caucasus region. When asked a day later about the campaign targeting what he called terrorists, Putin responded with the phrase that inaugurated his rise to preeminence. “We will pursue them everywhere,” he said, using a crude slang expression. “Excuse me for saying so: We’ll catch them in the toilet. We’ll …

The rapid rise of tiny loans aimed at helping poor Cambodians has led to more debt, with many borrowers forced to sell land, migrate or put their children to work, human rights groups said on Wednesday. The Southeast Asian nation has about 2.4 million borrowers with $5.4 billion in outstanding microloans, and among the world’s biggest average loan sizes, according to a report from human rights groups Licadho and Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT). High interest rates, the use of land titles as collateral, and pressure to repay loans have led to a “predatory form of lending” by microfinance institutions (MFIs), they said. “MFIs, as they currently operate, pose a direct threat to the land tenure security of millions of people in Cambodia,” they said in the report. “In most cases, the land that was lost was income-generating. Loss of land therefore jeopardizes a family’s livelihood and identity.” The National Bank of Cambodia did not respond to emails seeking comment. An official at industry group the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) said all members followed the law, as well as CMA’s lending guidelines to check over-indebtedness. “CMA and other stakeholders watch the growth in the sector carefully and take appropriate measures to …

Moscow’s children’s rights ombudsman and other public figures have reacted with outrage to Russian prosecutors’ moves to remove a 1-year-old boy from his parents because they allegedly took him to an unauthorized protest. Prosecutors claimed that Dmitri and Olga Prokazov endangered the child by taking him to the July 27 rally in the Russian capital that was violently dispersed by police, and that they handed him to another man who is now being sought on charges of organizing mass riots. The case against the parents follows a tough police crackdown on rallies protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from September’s city council election. Police detained more than 1,400 people during the July 27 protest and rounded up a further 1,001 during another demonstration on Saturday, according to an independent monitoring group. Children’s rights ombudsman Yevgeny Bunmovich harshly criticized the prosecutors’ action, denouncing what he called “political blackmail involving children.” He said he has written to Moscow’s prosecutor urging him to drop the charges. Members of the presidential human rights council also criticized the prosecutors’ action, which comes amid a slew of criminal cases launched in the wake of protests that challenged the Kremlin. Most of those detained were released within …

A Myanmar court on Wednesday sentenced a veteran Australian media publisher to 13 years in jail after a police raid uncovered a stash of drugs at his home last year. Ross Dunkley, 60, has long had links with the media industry across Southeast Asia, co-founding English language newspaper The Myanmar Times when the country was in the tight grip of a military dictatorship. He also used to be a co-owner of Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Post. Police arrested him, his business partner John McKenzie and seven Myanmar nationals during a June 2018 raid on his home in the commercial capital Yangon. Officers uncovered a stash of crystal methamphetamine, low-grade “yaba” pills, three opium cakes, marijuana and a small amount of heroin, police said. One man and one woman, who were working as house helpers for Dunkley, were later released. “Ross Dunkley and John McKenzie are sentenced to 13 years,” judge Myint Myint Maw told Yangon’s Western District court Wednesday. Five Myanmar women also on trial broke down in tears as they were each sentenced to 11 years, while watching relatives shouted out in anger. Dunkley appeared shaken and declined to speak to reporters as he was led away from the court …

Eid Al Salwaawi, 69, paints murals of the rituals of the haj pilgrimage on the walls of a house in Cairo’s Sayeda Zainab neighbourhood. Sometimes he volunteers to paint scenes that celebrate the haj and religious stories and lessons, other times he is paid. Every year, Muslims travel from around the world to the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to complete the haj, one of the five pillars of their faith. This year’s haj will conclude on Sunday. The artist Eid Al Salwaawi paints murals about the holy Kaaba and the rituals of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, in Cairo, Egypt, July 17, 2019. Salwaawi said the haj scenes he saw on the walls of houses in his home village as a child in northern Aswan captured his imagination. “So I draw camel caravans and soldiers wearing traditional hats guarding them,” he said. He uses simple tools like a handmade palm frond brush and a mixture of paint, vinegar, rosewater, gum Arabic and glue. One mural depicts women as they embark on the pilgrimage, dressed in bright colours, another shows a caravan carrying the tapestry that covers the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam. It was built by the …

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper is in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, as part of his first international tour since accepting the Cabinet post last month.   Mongolia is not a traditional destination of U.S. defense secretaries. Chuck Hagel was the last defense secretary to visit in 2014. The nation, sandwiched between China and Russia, is located in a “neighborhood that has a lot of mischief going on around its perimeter,” Rudy deLeon, a defense policy expert with the Center for American Progress and a former deputy secretary of defense, told VOA. That is, in part, a major reason why Mongolia has had a “pretty consistently upward” trajectory of importance to the United States in recent years, according to a senior U.S. defense official. “Given its location, given its interest in working more with us…all those things are a reason why I want to go there and engage,” Defense Secretary Esper told reporters traveling with him this week. Since January 2018, the Pentagon has been implementing a National Defense Strategy (NDS) which prioritizes U.S. protection from near-peer competitors China and Russia. One of the key action items of the NDS is to cultivate more robust partnerships to expand the United States’ network of …

A massive car bomb exploded near a police compound in the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, Wednesday, causing a number of casualties and extensive damage to nearby buildings. The Taliban swiftly took responsibly for carrying out the attack against what it claimed was an Afghan police recruitment center in a western part of the capital. Local media reported at least 18 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded in the attack. The Afghan health ministry said mostly civilians, including women and children, were among more than 100 injured taken to hospitals from the site of the attack. The deadly violence comes a day after the Taliban warned Afghans against participating in the upcoming presidential election. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the bomber detonated his explosives-packed vehicle when security forces intercepted him at a checkpoint just outside the police station. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed civilians were neither present nor are they allowed to enter the high-security area where the recruitment center was located. Residents said a huge plume of smoke could be seen over the city following the powerful blast. Footage aired by Afghan television stations showed several buildings had been completely destroyed. IS cells busted in Kabul …

Papua New Guinea’s new leader has asked China to refinance its entire 27 billion kina ($7.8 billion) government debt and enter into free trading arrangements with Pacific island nations, even as competition for influence in the region intensifies between Beijing and Washington. PNG Prime Minister James Marape said in a statement issued out of Port Moresby on Monday that the requests were raised during a recent meeting with the Chinese Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Xue Bing. PNG, a country rich in natural gas, crude oil, gold and copper, among other commodities, has fallen into large budget deficits in recent years. The government said in a fiscal update earlier this year “cash became tight” due in part to delays over a proposed $300 million budget loan from China. The island nation’s total public debt accounts for just over 30% of its annual gross domestic product, according to a mid-year budget document, though it does not provide regular updates on how much of that is owed to China. The request to Beijing coincides with aggressive warnings from U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper who said on Sunday that China was using “predatory economics” to destabilize the Indo-Pacific. Reuters’ analysis of Pacific nation …

A quarter of the world’s people are just a few dry spells away from facing dangerous water shortages, a U.S. think tank warned on Tuesday, with India home to the bulk at risk of running dry. Seventeen countries face “extremely high water stress” because they consume 80 percent of their available water annually, a situation worsened by more frequent dry shocks tied to climate change, the World Resources Institute (WRI) said. “We’re currently facing a global water crisis,” said Betsy Otto, director of WRI’s global water program. New data in WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas showed the lion’s share of the most thirsty countries are located in the largely arid Middle East and North Africa region. Qatar is the most water-stressed country, followed by Israel and Lebanon. India ranked 13th among “extremely high” water-stressed nations. But with a population of more than 1.3 billion, it has over three times more people than the other 16 countries combined whose agriculture, industry and municipalities depend on avoiding water “bankruptcy.” In recent weeks, India’s sixth-largest city, Chennai, was the latest metropolis worldwide to warn its taps could run dry, as reservoir levels plunged. That followed similar countdowns to water “Day Zero” in South …

One day after the U.S. imposed a full economic embargo on Venezuela, National Security Advisor John Bolton says the U.S. can now sanction anyone who supports the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro’s government denounced the sanctions as a “grave aggression” that will lead to “the failure of political dialogue.” VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department. …

U.S. financial markets struggled to rebound Tuesday after their biggest drop since December. U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser says the White House has the upper hand in deepening trade and monetary disputes with China — an assertion made after Beijing announced it will no longer buy U.S. agricultural products. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports.   …

Ayaz Gul in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report. As Kashmir remained locked down for a second straight day, India’s parliament approved scrapping the special status that gave Kashmir significant autonomy, and passed a bill to split the state.  Plunged in a communications blackout and a virtual shutdown, it has been difficult to ascertain the reaction local residents to the radical steps. Curfew-like restrictions continued on Tuesday. Troops patrolled deserted streets with barbed wire barricades in the capital, Srinagar, while the internet, mobile and landlines remained suspended to stem protests in the region wracked by a violent separatist struggle for three decades.    The measures passed by an overwhelming majority in the lower house of parliament are being seen as a message that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take a tough stance on Kashmir and with rival Pakistan, with whom India has a long-running dispute over control of the Himalayan region.  After the vote, Modi called it a “momentous occasion in our parliamentary democracy.” In a tweet he said, “Together we are, together we shall rise, and together we will fulfill the dreams of 130 crore Indians!” The steps fulfill a long-standing pledge of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party …

The Buddhist enclave of Ladakh cheered India’s move to break it away from Jammu and Kashmir state, a change that could spur tourism and help New Delhi counter China’s influence in the contested western Himalayas. Beijing, though, criticized the announcement, made on Monday by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of a wider policy shift that also ended Jammu and Kashmir’s right to set its own laws. In a statement on Tuesday, China said the decision was unacceptable and undermined its territorial sovereignty. Ladakh is an arid, mountainous area of around 59,146 square kilometers (22,836 square miles), much of it uninhabitable, that only has 274,000 residents. The rest of Jammu and Kashmir is roughly 163,090 square kilometres (62,969 square miles) with a population of some 12.2 million. China and India still claim vast swaths of each other’s territory along their 3,500 km (2,173 mile) Himalayan border. FILE – The sun sets in Leh, the largest town in the region of Ladakh, nestled high in the Indian Himalayas, India, Sept. 26, 2016. The Asian rivals had a two-month standoff at the Doklam plateau in another part of the remote Himalayan region in 2017. “The fact that India …

Small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab announced on Tuesday a plan to recover the core booster of its Electron rocket using a helicopter, a bold cost-saving concept that, if successful, would make it the second company after Elon Musk’s SpaceX to reuse an orbital-class rocket booster. “Electron is going reusable,” Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said during a presentation in Utah, showing an animation of the rocket sending a payload into a shallow orbit before speeding back through Earth’s atmosphere. “Launch frequency is the absolute key here.” The Auckland, New Zealand-based company is one of a growing cadre of launch companies looking to slash the cost of sending shoebox-sized satellites to low Earth orbit, building smaller rockets and reinventing traditional production lines to meet a growing payload demand. Electron, which has flown seven missions so far, can send up to 496 pounds (225 kg) into space for roughly $7 million. Medium-class launchers such as Los Angeles-based Relativity Space can send up to 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) into space for $10 million while Cedar Park, Texas-based firm Firefly can do it for $15 million. FILE – A SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center …

Advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday in an effort to block a rule published last month that expands the number of migrants who can be subject to a sped-up deportation process without oversight by an immigration judge. The rule, published in the Federal Register on July 23, broadened the practice of “expedited removal” to apply to anyone arrested anywhere nationwide who entered the United States illegally and cannot prove they have lived continuously in the country for at least two years. Previously, only migrants caught within 100 miles of a U.S. border and who had been in the country for 14 days or less were subject to the fast-track process. Under expedited removal, migrants are not entitled to a review of their cases in front of an immigration judge or access to an attorney. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Immigration Council on behalf of three immigration rights groups, claims the government did not go through the proper procedures in issuing the rule and says it violates due process and U.S. immigration laws. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the filing. President …

Tunisia’s biggest political party Ennahda named a candidate for presidential elections on Tuesday, the first time the moderate Islamist party has put up a nominee for the post since the country transitioned to democracy after the 2011 revolution. Party vice president Abdel Fattah Mourou, 71, a lawyer, will run in elections due to be held two months early on Sept. 15 following the death of president Beji Caid Essebsi last month. Liberal Prime Minister Youssef Chahed will also stand, his Tahaya Tounes party said last week, making him one of the likely frontrunners to succeed Essebsi. Other candidates who have announced their intention to run include liberal former Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa and Moncef Marzouki, who served as interim president for three years after autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled. Essebsi was chosen in the first democratic presidential election in 2014. FILE – Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi gestures during a press conference in Tunis, Oct. 25, 2018. One of Ennahda’s most moderate leaders, Mourou has long demanded reforms to the party to make it more open and to distance it from the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries. Critics say Mourou is two-faced, however, and holds contradictory …

President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered a review of foreign aid that critics fear could lead to sharp cuts in funds for global health, peacekeeping, narcotics control and other programs despite their having been approved by Congress. The review was disclosed in an administration letter and confirmed by congressional aides. Members of Congress, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, have been pushing back against repeated Trump administration efforts to cut the amount of money Washington spends on foreign aid. In April, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, often a close Trump ally, called the administration’s proposal for a 23 percent cut in the budget for foreign aid and diplomacy “insane” and said it would not pass. FILE – Sen. Lindsey Graham, speaks to reporters after a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 21, 2019. But the administration has pushed ahead, seeking to pare back funding as the fiscal year nears its end on Sept. 30 by asking for accounting of money that has not yet been spent. One congressional aide said the amount potentially affected ranged from $2 billion to $4 billion. In a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday, the White House Office of Management and …

The head of the U.S. agency that maintains the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal said Tuesday the country is facing the most complex and demanding global security environment since the Cold War. National Nuclear Security Administration chief Lisa Gordon-Hagerty outlined the challenges while speaking to hundreds of people gathered for a small business expo in New Mexico. She said Russia and China are investing significant resources to upgrade and expand their nuclear capabilities while trying to undermine U.S. alliances around the world. North Korea’s intentions remain unclear and in the Middle East, Iran is enriching uranium and has increased its nuclear stockpile beyond limits set by a 2015 accord. “Amidst this increasing international turmoil, the effectiveness and credibility of our nuclear deterrent reassures our friends and our allies and serves as the ultimate insurance policy against a nuclear attack, deterring those who would wish to harm us,” she said. This marks the latest in a series of visits by Gordon-Hagerty to New Mexico as her agency faces pressure to resume the production of plutonium pits, which are key components for nuclear weapons. The work is being split between Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico and the Savanna River Site …

Two Latin American countries are warning their citizens against travel to the United States after mass shootings killed 31 people last weekend.  Venezuela and Uruguay warned their residents about violence and hate crimes in the United States. Uruguayans were told to take “extreme precautions” when traveling go the U.S. because local authorities are unable to stop mass shootings, the foreign ministry said.  “Due to factors such as the indiscriminate possession of firearms by the population, it is especially advisable to avoid places where large concentrations of people occur,” the statement said. The Venezuelan foreign ministry recommended its citizens “postpone travel” to America in light of “violence and indiscriminate hate crimes.” The Japanese consulate in Detroit also warned Japanese residents and visitors to  “be aware of the potential for gunfire incidents everywhere in the United States.” The warnings come days after a gunman opened fire at a shopping center in El Paso, Texas, killing 22. Hours later, hundreds of miles away, another gunman began shooting in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine.  In the past, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, China and the Bahamas have also issued travel warning for the U.S.  …

Armed robbers broke into a Mexican government coin manufacturer Tuesday and filled a backpack with more than $2 million worth of gold coins from a vault that had been left open, security officials said. The daylight robbery was the latest high-profile crime to hit Mexico City, where crime has increased during record lawlessness plaguing the country. Two people, one wielding a firearm, broke into a Casa de Moneda branch in the morning after throwing a security guard to the ground and taking his gun, Mexico City police said. A police officer stands guard as he speaks on his cellphone after armed robbers stole gold coins worth more than $2 million, outside Casa de Moneda in Mexico City, Mexico, Aug. 6, 2019. One of the robbers then went to the vault, which was open, and filled a backpack with 1,567 gold coins, police said. The coins, known as “centenarios,” have a face value of 50 pesos, but trade for 31,500 pesos ($1,610) apiece, according to Mexican bank Banorte. That makes the total value of the haul at least $2.5 million. The coin was first minted in 1921 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain, according to the central …

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday proposed a “red flag” law that would take guns away from people who may harm themselves or others, responding to pressure for him to “do something” after a mass shooting in Dayton that killed nine people. The Republican governor said he would ask the General Assembly to pass a law that would allow judges to temporarily confiscate guns from individuals believed by police or their relatives to be a danger, and to provide them with mental health treatment. “We have an obligation to each other,” DeWine said at a news briefing. “If someone is showing signs of trouble or problems, we must help and we must not turn away.” DeWine spoke three days after a gunman wearing body armor and a mask opened fire early Sunday in a crowded Dayton, Ohio, neighborhood known for its nightlife. It was the second deadly U.S. mass shooting in less than a day. The governor, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association when he was elected last year, was heckled Sunday night as he spoke at a vigil for the victims of the rampage. FILE – People shout “Do Something!” as Ohio Governor Mike DeWine speaks during …