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For many years, the United States has been issuing advisories, warning potential travelers about countries plagued by terrorism or armed conflict.  But now, Amnesty International, Japan, Uruguay and other countries are warning about the danger of travel to the U.S., citing gun violence. This sparked a response from President Donald Trump, as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.   …

This story originated in FILE – Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, right, argues with a man in a military uniform, left, as opposition activist Leonid Volkov, center, listens during a rally in Novosibirsk, Siberia’s biggest city, Russia, June 7, 2015. Russian ‘projection’ Shortly after Thursday’s court ruling was announced, Navalny’s web site posted security camera footage of Russian Investigative Committee officials, Moscow’s equivalent of the FBI, entering FBK headquarters accompanied by masked guards in tactical gear. Other investigators raided the homes of FBK attorneys Vyacheslav Gimadi, Alexander Pomazuyev, Evgeny Zamyatin and Vladlen Los. Agents also searched the homes of FBK video-producer Vitaly Kolesnikov and regional manager Anastasia Kadetova, and called in other FBK representatives for questioning. “Everything is done according to this logic,” Volkov told VOA, explaining that just as a pro-Kremlin legislator who stands accused of murder would call for murder charges against an opposition figure, it was members of the State Duma’s financial crimes committee who filed the motion to bring money laundering charges against Navalny’s group. “Allegations we’ve ‘laundered a billion rubles’ are being levied by the very officials whose homes we’ve proven are worth literally millions of dollars,” he said. “Thieves make accusations of theft; murderers make …

Prosecutors on Friday filed a terrorist threat charge against a 20-year-old man who said he walked into a Missouri store wearing body armor and carrying a loaded rifle and handgun to test whether Walmart would honor his constitutional right to bear arms. The incident, just days after 22 people were killed during an attack at another Walmart in El Paso, Texas, caused a panic at the Springfield, Missouri, store. Dmitriy Andreychenko walked through filming himself with his cell phone Thursday afternoon. No shots were fired and Andreychenko was arrested after he was stopped by an armed off-duty firefighter at the store. “Missouri protects the right of people to open carry a firearm, but that does not allow an individual to act in a reckless and criminal manner endangering other citizens,’’ Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said in a statement announcing the charge. Patterson compared the man’s actions to “falsely shouting fire in a theater causing a panic.” Dmitriy Andreychenko, 20, panicked shoppers fled a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri, after Andreychenko, carrying a rifle and wearing body armor walked around the store. If convicted, the felony charge of making a terrorist threat in the second degree is punishable by up …

The suspect accused of carrying out last week’s mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, told police after the shooting that he had been targeting Mexicans, according to authorities. A police affidavit released Friday said the suspect, Patrick Crusius, confessed to the shooting after getting out of his car and surrendering to police, saying, “I’m the shooter.” The affidavit from Detective Adrian Garcia said Crusius waived his right to remain silent and, after being taken into police custody, “The defendant stated his target (was) Mexicans.” Crusius is accused of shooting and killing 22 people and wounding two dozen others last Saturday. Online post Shortly before the attack, authorities believe Crusius posted online, expressing anger about a “Hispanic invasion” of the United States. Authorities said Crusius drove more than 10 hours from his hometown near Dallas, Texas, to the predominantly Hispanic border city of El Paso to carry out the shootings. Eight of the dead were Mexican nationals. Family members of the victims gathered at funerals on either side of the border Friday to remember their loved ones. Also Friday, top Trump administration officials met with social media giants, including Facebook, Twitter and Google to discuss ways to reduce …

NEW YORK — Confronted with allegations that he orchestrated a sex-trafficking ring that delivered girls to him and his high-profile acquaintances, financier Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly refused to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself, according to court records released Friday.    Epstein’s responses emerged in a partial transcript of a September 2016 deposition stemming from a defamation lawsuit. The transcript was included in hundreds of pages of documents placed in a public file by a federal appeals court in New York.    The deposition happened almost three years before Epstein’s July 6 arrest on sex-trafficking charges in a case that has brought down a Cabinet secretary and launched fresh investigations into how authorities dealt with Epstein over the years. The 66-year-old has pleaded not guilty.    Epstein was asked in the videotaped deposition whether it was standard operating procedure for his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, to bring underage girls to him to sexually abuse.    Epstein replied “Fifth,” as he did to numerous other questions, citing the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment that protects people against incriminating themselves.    He also was asked whether Maxwell was “one of the main women” he used to procure underage girls for sexual activities.  “Fifth,” he replied.  …

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – Puerto Rico’s streets have remained so quiet since Wanda Vazquez took over as governor following weeks of turmoil that one can again hear the island’s famous coqui frog singing at night.    The protests that led to the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rossello a week ago and continued on a smaller scale until the Supreme Court removed his chosen successor have dissipated. Also gone are the sounds of cowbells and whistles, as well as most of the angry graffiti that covered streets in the colonial district of Puerto Rico’s capital that was ground zero for the demonstrations.    People who took to the streets to express disgust with government mismanagement and corruption were united in focusing their anger on Rossello, but now he is gone and there isn’t a common thread on how to proceed. Some Puerto Ricans are urging more protests. Others say people should take a step back and analyze what they want from officials. Yet others wish for stability and say Vazquez should be given a chance. Some worry about who might replace her.  Coming weeks are key   “Many people rose up, and after they accomplished what they did, they’re asking, …

GARDEN GROVE, CALIFORNIA – The suspect in a Southern California stabbing rampage that left four people dead and two injured pleaded not guilty Friday to murder, attempted murder and other counts.  Zachary Castaneda was arrested Wednesday by police responding to two hours of slashing and stabbing attacks in Garden Grove and Santa Ana.  Authorities said Castaneda, 33, was covered in blood when he was taken into custody after walking out of a 7-Eleven store and dropping a knife and a gun that he’d cut from the belt of a security guard he’d just killed.  The 11 felonies filed against Castaneda also included assault with a deadly weapon to cause great bodily injury, aggravated mayhem, robbery and burglary.  He was arraigned in his jail cell instead of court. Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney, could not immediately say why.  Castaneda had been kept in restraints when detectives tried to interview him.  “He remained violent with us through the night,” Garden Grove Police Chief Tom DaRe said. “He never told us why he did this.”  Information about his defense attorney was not immediately available.  Neighbors killed Authorities on Friday said Gerardo Fresnares Beltran, 63, was fatally stabbed in his Garden Grove apartment. His …

A federal judge in Virginia ruled Friday that a school board’s transgender bathroom ban discriminated against a former student, Gavin Grimm. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen in Norfolk is the latest of several nationwide that have favored transgender students facing similar policies. But the issue remains far from settled in the country as a patchwork of differing policies governs the nation’s schools. The Gloucester County School Board’s policy required Grimm to use girls’ restrooms or private bathrooms. The judge wrote that Grimm’s rights were violated under the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause as well as under Title IX, the federal policy that protects against gender-based discrimination. “There is no question that the Board’s policy discriminates against transgender students on the basis of their gender noncomformity,” Allen wrote. “Under the policy, all students except for transgender students may use restrooms corresponding with their gender identity,” she continued. “Transgender students are singled out, subjected to discriminatory treatment, and excluded from spaces where similarly situated students are permitted to go.” Similar claims Allen’s ruling will likely strengthen similar claims made by students in eastern Virginia. It could have a greater impact if the case goes to an appeals court …

An Iranian woman has pleaded guilty in the United States of trying to illegally export technology to her home country.    Negar Ghodskani, 40, entered her guilty plea Friday in federal court in the northern state of Minnesota.      According to court documents, Ghodskani worked for a Tehran company, Fana Moj, from 2008 to 2011 and established with a co-defendant another company in Malaysia that operated as a front for Fana Moj.      As part of the conspiracy, Ghodskani falsely represented herself as an employee of the Malaysian company in order to acquire export-controlled technology from the United States. In her guilty plea, Ghodskani said she concealed the ultimate destination for the technology.    The U.S. Department of Justice said Fana Moj was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2017 as a company “providing financial, material, technological or other support for, or goods or services in support of,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.     Ghodskani was arrested in Australia in 2017 and had fought her extradition for several years.      A co-defendant in the case, Alireza Jalali, pleaded guilty in November 2017 and was sentenced in March 2018.  …

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — The Trump administration says it won’t approve warning labels for products that contain glyphosate, a move aimed at California as it fights one of the world’s largest agriculture companies about the potentially cancer-causing chemical.    California requires warning labels on glyphosate products — widely known as the weed killer Roundup — because the International Agency for Research on Cancer has said it is “probably carcinogenic.”    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disagrees, saying its research shows the chemical poses no risks to public health. California has not enforced the warning label for glyphosate because Monsanto, the company that makes Roundup, sued and a federal judge temporarily blocked the warning labels last year until the lawsuit could be resolved.    “It is irresponsible to require labels on products that are inaccurate when EPA knows the product does not pose a cancer risk,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. “We will not allow California’s flawed program to dictate federal policy.”   State law California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, approved by voters in 1986, requires the government to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, as determined by a variety of outside groups that include …

Anjana Pasricha contributed to this report. India eased restrictions Friday in Kashmir to allow the Muslim-majority population to attend Friday prayers, but protests still broke out in the disputed region.    Kashmir has been in an unprecedented five-day lockdown, depriving the region of any communications access, since India’s government announced it was revoking Kashmir’s special constitutional status.    Officials in Kashmir said residents in Srinagar were allowed to pray Friday at area-specific mosques.   A man lies in a hospital bed after being shot with pellets during clashes between Indian police and those protesting the Indian government’s scrapping of Kashmir’s special status, in Srinagar, Aug. 9, 2019. Witnesses in the city’s Soura area said a large group of people tried to start a protest but were pushed back by security forces who used tear gas and pellets.     A police officer, who requested anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to reporters, told the Reuters news agency that 12 people were taken to a hospital with pellet injuries. He put the number of people trying to protest at 10,000.  Mosque off limits   Authorities in Kashmir did not allow residents to congregate at Srinagar’s historic Jama Masjid mosque, which usually draws thousands of people …

Updated: Aug. 9, 2019, 7:09 p.m. North Korea has launched another round of projectiles into the sea off its east coast, its fifth such test in just over two weeks, according to South Korea’s military. The launch came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he received another “beautiful letter” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and reiterated he isn’t concerned about Pyongyang’s short-range ballistic missiles tests. South Korea’s military says the projectiles were fired from near the Hamhung area in eastern North Korea. It isn’t clear how far the weapons traveled. North Korea has regularly launched short-range ballistic missiles into the sea the past two months. Pyongyang is angry about the resumption of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began Monday. Trump said Kim’s latest letter expressed displeasure about the “war games.” “And as you know, I’ve never liked it either,” Trump told reporters Friday. “I’ve never liked it. I’ve never been a fan. You know why? I don’t like paying for it. We should be reimbursed for it.” Trump earlier this week announced in a tweet that South Korea had agreed to pay “substantially” more for the cost of U.S. troops in South Korea. South Korea refuted …

For many teens, the last year of high school is a time of excitement filled with studies, athletics and dances. But young Eritreans spend the year at a military camp preparing for mandatory conscription and indefinite national service, where they face physical and mental abuse.    A new report by Human Rights Watch offers the most detailed look to date at Eritrea’s conscription system, which forces young people to complete their final year of high school in the desert town of Sawa at a facility that’s part school, part boot camp.    The report, They Are Making Us Into Slaves, Not Educating Us, draws on interviews with 73 former secondary school students and national service teachers to provide details on what happens in the camp.    HRW found that authorities at Sawa keep students under military command throughout the year, beat them for minor infractions and force them to perform labor. Teachers at the camp are not much older than the students. Since they are compelled to serve at the camp, they are often indifferent or absent.  Impossible ‘to be a student’   In an interview with VOA, Laetitia Bader, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the system makes young people …

An envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s unwillingness to boost defense spending might give the United States no choice but to move American troops stationed in Germany to Poland. The comments by Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, signal Trump’s impatience with Merkel’s failure to raise defense spending to 2% of economic output as mandated by the NATO military alliance. “It is offensive to assume that the U.S. taxpayers continue to pay for more than 50,000 Americans in Germany but the Germans get to spend their [budget] surplus on domestic programs,” Grenell told the dpa news agency. Germany’s fiscal plans foresee the defense budget of NATO’s second-largest member rising to 1.37% of output next year before falling to 1.24% in 2023. FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump greet U.S. troops at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Dec. 27, 2018. Eastern European countries like Poland and Latvia, fearful of Russia after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, have raised their military spending to the 2% target, drawing praise from Trump who wants Germany to do the same. Deteriorating relations U.S. complaints about Germany’s defense spending pre-date Trump …

President Donald Trump said Friday he believes he has influence to rally Republicans around stronger federal background check laws as Congress and the White House work on a response to last weekend’s mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. At the same time, Trump said he had assured the National Rifle Association that its gun-rights views would be “fully represented and respected.” He said he was hopeful the NRA would not be an obstacle to strengthening the nation’s gun laws. Trump has promised to lead on tougher gun control measures before, including after the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, but little has come of it. He said Friday he now is looking for “very meaningful background checks” but is not considering a resurrection of an assault weapons ban. He said he also believes lawmakers will support “red flag” laws that allow guns to be removed from those who may be a danger to themselves and others.  “I see a better feeling right now toward getting something meaningful done,” Trump told reporters when asked why the political environment was different now. “I have a greater influence now over the Senate and the House,” he said at the White House.  Democrats and others …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday unveiled a proposal that would curb state powers to block pipelines and other energy projects, as part of the Trump administration’s effort to boost domestic oil, gas and coal development. The move, swiftly criticized by an organization representing progressive states, comes four months after President Donald Trump ordered the EPA to change a section of the U.S. Clean Water Act that states like New York and Washington have used in recent years to delay pipelines and terminals. “When implemented, this proposal will streamline the process for constructing new energy infrastructure projects that are good for American families, American workers, and the American economy,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a press release announcing the move. The EPA’s proposal is centered on changes to Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, which allows states and tribes to block energy projects on environmental grounds, it said. David Hayes, director of the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, part of the New York University Law School, which coordinates policy with state attorneys general, said the proposal runs counter to the Trump administration’s promises to support so-called “cooperative federalism” in which states are given broad authority to …

Shortly after the top military leaders in the U.S. and South Korea preached closer cooperation on multiple issues confronting Asia, U.S. President Donald Trump sided with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his opposition to U.S.-South Korean war games. Speaking to reporters Friday outside the White House, Trump said he received a “very beautiful letter” from Kim that said the North Korean leader “wasn’t happy with the war games.”  Trump added, “You know, I’ve never liked it [them] either.” U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to New York and New Jersey from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Aug. 9, 2019. The U.S. president said Kim explained in the letter that the ongoing war games are the reason Pyongyang has been conducting missile tests, despite a June 30 meeting between Trump and Kim, during which the two agreed to revive denuclearization talks, which have yet to resume.  Trump said Friday, before embarking on his annual August vacation at his New Jersey golf club, that he could meet again with Kim in an attempt to resolve North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, but did not say when a meeting would occur. Esper …

Nearly half of all Americans expect another mass shooting will happen soon in the United States, according to a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll released on Friday, as the nation reels from rampages in California, Texas and Ohio. The Aug. 7-8 survey found that 78% of Americans said it was likely that such an attack would take place in the next three months, including 49% who said one was “highly likely.” Another 10% said a mass shooting was unlikely in three months and the rest said they did not know. The poll was conducted after two mass shootings earlier in August in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and a third in Gilroy, California, last month that left 36 people dead. The attacks have rattled the country and renewed calls for tougher gun laws. “You are on guard because you never know when it’s going to happen and where,” said Suzanne Fink, 59, a Republican from Troutman, North Carolina. “It has been happening much too often and it’s like a copycat effect.” There is no set definition of a mass shooting, but the nonprofit organization Gun Violence Archive has tallied more than 250 such incidents so far this year alone – …

Israelis and Palestinians are bracing for an expected new peace plan announcement from Washington, which President Donald Trump has called the Deal of the Century. Yet there is deep mistrust on both sides and little hope that a deal can be made. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem. …

Security forces in Burkina Faso have sealed off an Avesoro gold mine after a security guard killed an intruder and local people attacked the site in retaliation, security sources said on Friday. The Youga gold mine, in the south of the country, was shut down following the incident on Thursday, three employees told Reuters. Local and foreign staff have fled the site, they said. “A security guard in the Youga mine…opened fire on an outsider to the mine, killing them. Following this incident, the population retaliated, injuring several people and causing significant material damage,” a government statement said on Thursday. On Thursday, mine owner Avesoro Resources said an armed group of artisanal miners had attacked the site, but that mining and processing had continued throughout the incident in the early hours of Thursday. It did not mention the man who was killed. The victim was an artisanal gold miner from a nearby village, two workers at the Avesoro mine told Reuters, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. That prompted residents to burn buildings and vehicles and injuring an unknown number of people. No staff were seriously injured and the material damage was superficial, the company said in its …

Russia on Friday accused the U.S. Embassy of having meddled in Russia’s internal affairs when it published a map online showing the route of an unauthorized anti-government protest earlier this month. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned a senior U.S. diplomat over what it said was a post on Twitter and the embassy’s website containing a map drawn up by Russia’s opposition ahead of the Aug. 3 rally in Moscow.   #Moscow#Russia: March planned for August 3 beginning at 1400. Gathering points along Moscow’s Boulevard Ring include Pokrovskiye Vorota, Nikitskiye Vorota, Trubnaya Square, Turgenevskaya Square, and Novopushinsky Park. Heavy police presence expected. Avoid the protest route. pic.twitter.com/5BMArRwLtr — Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) August 2, 2019 Russian police detained over 1,000 people at the protest, the latest in a series of opposition rallies ahead of a Moscow city election next month that have led to the biggest standoff between the authorities and the opposition in years. The U.S. Embassy warned U.S. nationals in an English-language statement on its website on Aug. 2 to avoid the protest route, noting that the rally had not been sanctioned by Moscow authorities. The statement contained a map of the planned route …

A Canadian citizen held in Syria since last year was released in Lebanon on Friday and broke down in tears at a news conference, saying he thought he would be held forever. Kristian Lee Baxter, who was detained in Syria last year, appeared alongside Lebanese security chief Abbas Ibrahim, who last month mediated the release of U.S. citizen Sam Goodwin from Syria, and Canadian Ambassador Emmanuelle Lamoureux. Ibrahim said Baxter had been detained “for reasons related to breaking Syrian law.” Lamoureux thanked Ibrahim but said she could not give any details about the case. “I thought I would be there forever,” Baxter said, thanking the Canadian Embassy and Lebanese authorities for helping him get out of Syria. “I didn’t know if anyone knew if I was alive,” he added, and then began to sob, cutting short his comments. It was unclear what Baxter was doing in Syria at the time of his detention. Several Western citizens have been held in Syria since the civil war began there in 2011, including some by jihadist groups such as Islamic State. The United States has said it believes U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who has been held in Syria since 2012, is alive and …

The World Food Program says it’s planning to nearly quadruple the number of people that the U.N. agency helps in four central American countries affected by drought, seen as one of the drivers of migration through the region. WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel says the agency aims to provide food assistance to 700,000 people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua — up from 160,000 helped already this year. Five years of drought have affected more than 2 million people and increased food insecurity of subsistence farmers and their families. Governments as well as WFP and the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization recently reported that 8 percent of families indicated that they would resort to migration. “Migration is not a solution,” Verhoosel said Friday, but “longer-term food security systems” are. …

China issued its top warning for coastal areas of Zhejiang province Friday ahead of a strong typhoon carrying heavy rain and winds and expected to send an intense storm surge up the mighty Yangzte River.   Heavy rain was expected in Zhejiang, Shanghai and nearby provinces on Friday before Typhoon Lekima hits land on Saturday morning, then weakens as it moves north.   Parts of northern Taiwan closed offices and suspended classes at schools on Friday as the storm passed northeast of the island. The same area was hit by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake Thursday that caused minor damage but no deaths or injuries.   The red alert China issued is the most serious in its four-tired alert system, prompting authorities to prepare evacuations, suspend train and air travel and require vessels to return to port. In Zhejiang, ferry service had been cancelled and more than 200 tourists evacuated from popular Beiji island.   The National Meteorological Center said Lekima was gusting at 209 kph (130 mph) and traveling northwesterly at 13 kph (8 mph). Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau put its sustained winds at 173 kph (108 mph) and said the bands of wind and rains around the storm’s eye …