The publisher of Barack and Michelle Obama has pledged to donate 300,000 children’s books to a leading educational organization, adding to the 1 million copies already given.

Penguin Random House announced Tuesday that it had joined with the former president and former first lady in contributing to First Book in the Obama family’s name.

For every $3 donated to First Book between now and the end of the year, Random House will give two new books to First Book, up to 300,000 books. First Book distributes books and other resources to schools and programs serving children from low-income communities.

The initial First Book contribution was announced by Penguin Random House upon acquiring memoirs by the Obamas in 2017. Michelle Obama’s million-selling “Becoming” came out last year. Barack Obama is currently working on his book about his years in the White House.

“When children have greater access to our books and stories, we, together with President and Mrs. Obama, are helping to shape a literate, educated, and democratic society that will become the next generation of readers and leaders,” Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle said in a statement.

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Tens of millions of people in southern and eastern Africa are facing emergency food insecurity partly caused by climate change – with half of them children, according to the charity Save the Children. The area has been hit by extreme cyclones, flooding and drought in recent months – and scientists warn the region is warming much faster than other parts of the world. As Henry Ridgwell reports, aid agencies are calling on world leaders meeting at the climate conference in Madrid to commit to bigger cuts in greenhouse gases.

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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was admitted to a hospital in the southern U.S. state of Georgia over the weekend with a urinary tract infection.

The 95-year-old statesman “is feeling better and looks forward to returning home soon,” Deanna Congileo, a spokeswoman for The Carter Center said Monday.

Carter was released from the hospital last week after undergoing surgery to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from a fall.

Carter has overcome several health challenges in recent years.

He was diagnosis with melanoma in 2015 but recovered after receiving radiation and immunotherapy.

A fall last spring required him to get hip replacement surgery. Two separate falls last month required 14 stitches and caused a pelvic fracture.

Carter, who was in the White House from 1977 to 1981, is now the longest-living former president in U.S. history.

Despite the health concerns, Carter has been active building homes for Habitat for Humanity and teaching Sunday school twice monthly at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains in southwest Georgia.
 

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The United Nations Security Council called on all countries on Monday to implement an arms embargo on Libya and to stay out of the conflict after U.N. sanctions monitors accused Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey of repeated violations.

The 15-member council urged all states “not to intervene in the conflict or to take measures that would exacerbate the conflict” and expressed concern at “the growing involvement of mercenaries.” Such statements are agreed by consensus.

The council “called for full compliance with the arms embargo,” but any action over reported sanctions violations is unlikely, diplomats said.

Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have repeatedly violated an arms embargo on Libya and it is “highly probable” that a foreign attack aircraft is responsible for a deadly strike on a migrant detention center, U.N. experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions on Libya reported last month.

The U.N. missions of Jordan and Turkey did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment at the time on the accusations. The United Arab Emirates said it was “firmly committed to complying with its obligations under the Libya sanctions regime and all relevant Security Council resolutions.”

“The transfers (of military material) to Libya were repeated and sometimes blatant with scant regard being paid to compliance with the sanctions measures,” the independent U.N. experts wrote in the confidential report, due to be published this month.

Libya descended into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising that overthrew leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Thousands of people have been killed in sporadic fighting since 2014 between factions in the east and west. The violence has allowed militants and migrant smugglers to flourish, hit Libya’s oil industry and divided the country’s key institutions.

Earlier this year commander Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive against the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and its forces in Tripoli. But the war has reached an impasse.

The U.N. experts accuse Jordan and the United Arab Emirates of supplying military material to Haftar’s forces, which they said then prompted Libya’s Government of National Accord to ask Turkey for help.

Haftar is also backed by Egypt and more recently Russian mercenaries, according to diplomats and Tripoli officials. The LNA denies it has foreign backing. The United States has pushed Haftar to end his offensive.

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The United States reportedly flew a reconnaissance plane over South Korea on Monday, marking the second intelligence-gathering flyover this week, according to an aviation tracker cited by several South Korean news sources.

The aircraft — thought to be an RC-135W — was first reported on Twitter flying west to east across South Korea at an altitude of around 31,000 feet at approximately 8:26 a.m. The spy plane was spotted by Aircraft Spots, an account that monitors military aircraft movements. 

The same account reportedly identified a U.S. Air Force U-2S plane flying over Seoul on December 1, while South Korean media reported similar recent flights by U-2S, EP-3C, E8C and RC-135V jets. The United States’ most recent reconnaissance flight took place just days after North Korea launched its 13th projectile this year — “a super large multiple rocket launcher” — on Nov. 28.

“Monitoring like this is routine, and we can assume that the U.S. military is surveilling North Korea at all times,” C. Harrison Kim, a North Korea expert and professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, told VOA. “But at the same time, the recent missile launches from North Korea are seen as a provocation and so, given the situation, the U.S. has to respond on some level.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has given an end-of-year deadline for further nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

“The United States has to do some form of [military surveillance] to do its part as a military power in East Asia,” C. Harrison Kim said. “But I think the bigger situation at hand is that North Korea is sending a message to the world that it is ready to negotiate, and wants a concrete step forward with the United States.”

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Clashes sparked by suspected cartel gunmen in a northern Mexican town killed 20 people this weekend, authorities said, putting more pressure on Mexico’s president to curb gang violence after the United States vowed to label the gangs terrorists.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, mindful of efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to designate Mexican drug gangs as terrorist groups, repeated on Sunday that he would not accept any intervention from abroad, while doubling down on his strategy of trying to contain the cartels.

But the killings clouded celebrations marking Lopez Obrador’s first year in office, which were buffeted by a march in Mexico City by thousands of people protesting the violence.

The government of the northern state of Coahuila said local security forces killed 14 gunmen on Saturday and Sunday, after a major gunfight broke out in the small town of Villa Union near the Texas border. Earlier, the state government had said police had shot dead 17 cartel members.

Four police were also killed in the shootouts, which broke out around midday on Saturday, sparking fresh criticism of the government’s approach to handling the powerful gangs.

The bodies of two unarmed civilians apparently murdered by the gunmen were also recovered, the government said.

Riding into town in a convoy of heavily armed pickups, gunmen sprayed the offices of the mayor of Villa Union with bullets and fought police for more than 1 1/2 hours as gunfire echoed through the streets.

More than 60 gunmen took part in the fight and 17 of their vehicles were seized, Coahuila’s government said.

A number of the gunmen, who were suspected members of the Cartel of the Northeast from Tamaulipas state, were killed by state police in pursuit of the raiding party after it fled the town, authorities said.

The events in Villa Union add to a series of recent security lapses that have raised questions about Lopez Obrador’s policy.

During a speech in front of tens of thousands of supporters on his first anniversary as president, Lopez Obrador again said Mexico would handle its security problems, after Trump’s comments.

“We won’t accept any kind of intervention, we’re a sovereign, free country,” the veteran leftist said in Mexico City’s Zocalo central square. Trump’s remarks have stirred concerns in Mexico that Washington could try to take unilateral action to crush the drug cartels. U.S. Attorney General William Barr is due to visit the country next week to discuss cooperation on security.

Criticism at home and abroad has focused on the Nov. 4 massacre by suspected cartel gunmen of nine women and children of U.S.-Mexican origin from Mormon communities in northern Mexico, and the armed forces’ release of a captured son of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman under threats from his gang in the city of Culiacan.

Critics accuse Lopez Obrador of caving in to the cartels, but he defended the release of Ovidio Guzman, saying it had prevented unnecessary bloodshed.

“Our adversaries can say we showed weakness, but nothing is more important than people’s lives,” he said. 

The protest march united opposition politicians with grieving members of the U.S.-Mexican LeBaron family, who lost loved ones in the killings in the state of Sonora.

“We’re not against the president, we’re against the security policies that have been used until now, because they haven’t worked,” said Julian LeBaron, a relative of the victims.

Overnight, law enforcement agents captured several people suspected of involvement in those murders, the attorney general’s office of Sonora said.

Homicides reached record levels in Mexico last year and are on track to surpass that total this year.

Lopez Obrador has also presided over a slowdown in the economy, which has stagnated in 2019.

Yet while there has been some erosion of support for him, most recent opinion polls show he remains popular.

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The White House says it will not participate in Wednesday impeachment hearing by the House Judiciary Committee.

Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler invited U.S. President Donald Trump and his counsel to attend the committee’s first hearing as the impeachment inquiry moves into its next phase.

While no one expected Trump to attend – he plans to be at a NATO summit near London this week – White House counsel Pat Cipollone is also declining the invitation.

“We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the president a fair process through additional hearings,” Cipollone said in a letter to Nadler late Sunday.

Cipollone said he will reply by the end of the week on whether the White House would appear at future hearings.

Nadler assured Trump and his counsel in his invitation letter last week that he “remains committed to ensuring a fair and informative process.”

He said Trump has the “opportunity to be represented in the impeachment hearings, or he can stop complaining about the process.”

Next Phase of Trump Impeachment Begins This Week video player.

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Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing will focus on the constitutional grounds surrounding impeaching a president. The yet-to-be-named witnesses will be legal experts.

The Intelligence Committee, which held a series of public and closed-room hearings last month, will send its findings to the Judiciary Committee, whose members will decide whether to draw up articles of impeachment against Trump.

Possible charges that could lead to his impeachment include bribery and high crimes and misdemeanors.

Trump is accused of holding up nearly $400 million in badly-needed military aid to Ukraine in exchange for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s public commitment to investigate Trump’s 2020 presidential rival Joe Biden for alleged corruption.

Biden’s son, Hunter, sat on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Trump alleges that when Biden was vice president, he threatened to hold up U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine unless the government fired a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma.

Trump also insists it was Ukraine, not Russia that interfered in the 2016 U.S. election on behalf of Democrats.

No evidence against the Bidens has ever surfaced and the charge against Ukraine was based on a debunked conspiracy theory that originated in Russia.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and calls the impeachment inquiry a hoax.

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Albania’s prime minister is asking the international community for financial aid and expert assistance following last week’s earthquake.

Edi Rama said at a Cabinet meeting Sunday, “Simply, this is humanly impossible to do this [reconstruction] alone.”

He said the budget is being reshaped to deal with the earthquake’s aftermath, but Albania still needs international support.  

Rama said he has written to U.S. President Donald Trump to ask for help.

U.S. and European Union civil engineers are working with local experts in Albania to assess the damage.  

The mayor of Durres, one of the hardest hit towns, resigned Sunday after public outcry about remarks she made that she was “pleased” that only 50 people had died in the earthquake.  Valbona Sako said she was “hurt by the overwhelming negative reaction to a statement I made under stress that exceeds my strength.”

The search and rescue operation for earthquake survivors in Albania ended Saturday, the prime minister said.

The small town of Thumane, experienced the highest death toll from Tuesday’s quake with 26 people killed, six of whom belonged to one family, and all but one under age 30. They were buried Friday.

In the port city of Durres — 30 kilometers west of the capital, Tirana — the quake killed 24.  One person also died in Kurbin.

In all, 51 people died, including seven children. Nine-hundred were injured.  More than 5,000 people are without shelter; and 1,200 buildings were destroyed in the 6.4-magnitude quake and the aftershocks that followed.  
 
Seismologist Rexhep Koci told VOA that while there is the likelihood for more aftershocks, but they would be weaker.

Neighboring countries provide assistance
 
EU Ambassador to Albania Luigi Soreca said Friday that the European Union and its member states are standing with Albania and working nonstop to provide assistance “in this very difficult moment.”
 
“It is a week of deep sorrow and tragedy for Albania,” Soreca said in a statement. “Our heartfelt condolences go once again to the Albanian people and especially to the families, friends and communities of those who have lost their lives.”

More than 200 military troops from Albania, Kosovo, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, France, Turkey, Switzerland, Romania, North Macedonia, the EU and the United States, participated in the search and rescue operation.

People spontaneously came from Kosovo, operating mobile kitchens, gathering donations and opening their homes. About 500 homeless Albanians are staying in a camp set up by Kosovo’s government in the city of Prizren. On Friday alone, individuals and businesses from Kosovo delivered 100 tons of much needed necessities.

Remembering victims

Tirana residents turned out in the city center to honor the victims, placing candles in a makeshift memorial near the statue of Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg.
 
The state of emergency declared Wednesday for Durres and Thumane was extended to the heavily damaged town of Lac. Prime Minister Rama said he made the decision after opposition leader Lulzim Basha suggested it. Rama appeared to put on hold the acrimony often on display between the two political rivals.

“In this case, our concerns and ideas converge,” Rama said, inviting the opposition to participate in the Committee for Earthquake Relief.
 
For Rama, the tragedy hit close to home as his office confirmed that among the dead was his son Gregor’s fiance, Kristi Reci, whose entire family — both parents and her brother — died in Durres.

Physician Shkelqime Ladi said doctors are on hand to help with immediate needs.
 
“We are focusing more on the psychological aspect of the affected. Their psychological state is aggravated,” she told VOA in Lac.

Armand Mero reported from Tirana, Ilirian Agolli reported from Durres, Pellumb Sulo reported from Lac.

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Britain’s political leaders sparred Sunday over who is responsible for the early release of a convicted extremist who launched a stabbing attack in central London that left two dead and injured three.

The argument centers over the early release from prison of Usman Khan, who served roughly half his sentence before being set free. He was able to stab five people before being shot dead by police despite conditions imposed on his release that were supposed to protect public safety.

After a one-day pause out of respect for victims, the Friday attack is dominating the political scene as the Dec. 12 election nears, shifting the focus, at least for the moment, from Brexit and the National Health Service to issues of security and criminal justice.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday blamed Khan’s freedom on changes in sentencing rules made by the last Labour Party government before Johnson’s Conservatives took power in 2010. He promised to toughen sentencing laws.

 “I think it is repulsive that individuals as dangerous as this man should be allowed out after serving only eight years and that’s why we are going to change the law,” he told BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

Marr repeatedly challenged the prime minister by pointing out that the Conservatives had been in power for nearly a decade and not taken any steps to change the situation Johnson was complaining about.

The accuracy of Johnson’s claim was challenged by Ed Davey, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, who told Sky News that the prime minister was misleading the public about the current law regarding early release of prisoners.

“Either he’s incompetent and doesn’t know the law, or he’s deliberately misleading people when we’ve got a tragedy on our hands, and I’m afraid, either way, it does not look good for the Prime Minister,” Davey said.

Other rivals complained that Johnson was trying to score political points in the aftermath of the extremist attack.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the Conservatives of trying to provide security “on the cheap” and said he does not necessarily agree that all terrorist prisoners should be required to serve their full terms.

He said it depends on the circumstances and called for the Parole Board and the probation service to be more actively involved.

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Algeria’s presidential campaign is in trouble. Candidates are struggling to fill rally venues, campaign managers have quit, voters have pelted campaign headquarters with tomatoes and eggs, and the country’s 9-month-old pro-democracy movement calls the whole thing a sham.

The five candidates seeking to replace President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the Dec. 12 election have failed to captivate a disillusioned public. Bouteflika was pushed out in April after 20 years in power amid an exceptional, peaceful protest movement, and now demonstrators want a wholesale change of political leadership.

Instead, the election is managed by the long-serving power structure of this oil- and gas-rich country with a strategic role in the Mediterranean region. Instead of new faces, two of the candidates are former prime ministers and one is a loyalist of Algeria’s influential army chief.

The Hirak protest movement held their 41st weekly demonstrations Friday, denouncing the presidential election. But for the first time, thousands of pro-government supporters held their own rally Saturday.

The candidates have tried to convince voters that taking part in the election is the only alternative to chaos, an allusion to the civil war that ravaged Algeria in the 1990s. But that argument falls flat among the protesters, who have been overwhelmingly peaceful, with demonstrators calming each other down and ensuring that no one provokes police. It’s a sharp contrast to the sometimes deadly protests and security crackdowns shaking Iraq, Lebanon and other countries in recent weeks.

The candidates

Former Prime Minister Ali Benflis, considered a leading candidate, was heckled in Tlemcen, Guelma, Oued Souf, Annaba, while he had to cancel a meeting altogether in Maghnia on Algeria’s western edge.

His campaign director in the important region of Kabylie resigned, citing pressure from his family. Many in Kabylie oppose holding the election at all.

Candidate Abdelamdjid Tebboune, considered the candidate of army chief Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah, had to cancel his first rally in Algiers because not enough people signed up.

His campaign manager also resigned, without explanation. And then one of his leading campaign funders was jailed on corruption charges.

Another candidate, Abdelakder Bengrina, began his campaign on the esplanade of the central post office in Algiers — the emblematic site of the protest movement. He had to interrupt his speech to dive into his car under police cover to escape a crowd of angry demonstrators. The portrait on the balcony of his campaign headquarters has been bombarded with eggs and tomatoes.

No shows

Many poster boards around Algiers meant to hold candidates’ portraits remain empty. In other sites, Algerians have covered the portraits with garbage bags and signs reading “candidates of shame.”

In some towns of the Kabylie region, protesters have blocked access to campaign offices by piling the entrances with bricks.

Tensions mounted last week when Algerians started holding evening marches to denounce the elections. Several demonstrators were arrested, and some have already been convicted to prison terms for disturbing election campaigns or destruction of public property, according to protest organizers.

Given troubles in the capital and Kabylie, the candidates are focusing on small campaign events in areas where the protest movement is less active.

The president of the body overseeing the election, Moahamed Charfi, has minimized the campaign troubles, saying the candidates are “accepted by the population.”

Army chief Gaid Salah has yet to publicly acknowledge the problems either, instead praising Algerians in a recent speech for “the adherence of the people around their army, chanting, with one voice, patriotic slogans expressing their collective the will to head massively to the polls on December 12, in order to make the presidential election succeed and thus contribute to build a promising future.”

If no candidate wins more than 50 percent in the first round, the election goes to a second round in the ensuing weeks.

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The U.N. refugee agency plans to cut the number of migrants staying at an overcrowded transit center in Libya’s capital, a spokesman said Saturday.

Libya is a major waypoint for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East to Europe.

“The situation is very difficult, and we do not have the resources” because the center in Tripoli is at about twice its capacity, with some 1,200 migrants, Charlie Yaxley, a UNHCR spokesman, told The Associated Press.

The UNHCR has asked those refugees not registered with the agency to leave the European Union-funded Gathering and Departure Facility, offering an assistance package that includes cash for an initial two months.

“You will not be considered for evacuation or resettlement if you stay at the GDF,” the agency warned the migrants, according to a document obtained by the AP. It added that those seeking registration with the agency could only do so “outside” the facility.

The UNHCR said it would phase out food distribution for the unregistered migrants, including dozens of tuberculosis patients, from Jan. 1.

Yaxley said the agency also offered to facilitate returning the migrants to their home country or to a country they previously registered as asylum-seekers.

Migrants, however, decried the move, fearing they would end up at detention centers or at the mercy of human traffickers.

“The migrants are reluctant and have their concerns about leaving the GDF,” one person seeking shelter at the facility said, who spoke on condition of anonymity for his safety. The surrounding areas of Tripoli have seen heavy fighting between armed factions since April.

The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, launched an offensive to capture the capital city in April, clashing with an array of militias loosely allied with the U.N.-supported but weak government there.

The fighting has stalled in recent weeks, with both sides dug in and shelling one another along Tripoli’s southern reaches. They have also carried out airstrikes and drone attacks.

In July, an airstrike hit a detention center for migrants outside Tripoli, killing more than 50 migrants held there. The Tripoli-based authorities blamed the LNA for the airstrikes. The LNA, however, said it was targeting a nearby military site, not the detention center.

After the airstrike, hundreds of former detainees made their way into the GDF, the agency said. They were followed by another group of around 400 people from Abu Salim detention center in late October, as well as up to 200 people from urban areas, the UNCHR said.

The gathering point, which was opened a year ago, has capacity for around 600 people.

“We hope that the GDF will be able to return to its original function as a transit facility for the most acutely vulnerable refugees, so we are able to evacuate them to safety,” said UNHCR’s Chief of Mission for Libya Jean-Paul Cavalieri.

There are some 40,000 refugees and asylum-seekers living in urban areas across Libya, some of whom are extremely vulnerable, face abuse in militia-run detention centers, and are in desperate need of support, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Separately, the Libyan coast guard said Saturday it intercepted at least 205 Europe-bound migrants off the western town of Zawiya. The African migrants, who included 158 men, 33 women and 14 children, were given humanitarian assistance and were taken to the detention center in Tajoura.

Libya’s detention centers are rife with abuse and Europe’s policy of supporting the coast guard has come under growing criticism.

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Climate activists protested at open-pit coal mines in eastern Germany, pouring onto the premises to urge the government to immediately halt the use of coal to produce electricity.

The news agency dpa reported that police estimated more than 2,000 people took part Saturday at sites near Cottbus and Leipzig and that some of the demonstrators scuffled with police. Three officers were reported slightly injured at the Janschwaelde mine near Cottbus. The mine operators, Leag und Mibrag, filed police reports asking for an investigation and possible charges.

Burning coal releases carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for global warming. The German government plans to end the use of coal by 2038 and spend 40 billion euros ($44 billion) on assistance for the affected mining regions.

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Three international organizations have ended an official visit to Cameroon with a call for efforts to restore security, justice and the conditions for the resumption of normal life in English-speaking northwest and southwest regions of the country hit by the separatist crisis that has killed over 3,000 people. The Commonwealth, African Union, and International Organization of La Francophonie delegation says it is convinced dialogue remains the preferred path for peace to return, but that the government should start implementing the recommendations of the last major national dialogue it organized. Some, however, have been critical of government efforts.

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Thousands Flee Violence in Cameroon’s English-Speaking Regions

The new violence has dashed hopes that schools would re-open this week, after being closed for three years

Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, says after exchanging views with Cameroonian President Paul Biya, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, representatives of the main political parties, religious leaders, youth representatives and a cross-section of Cameroonians,  the organizations are convinced that there is a yearning for peace to return to the restive English-speaking regions.

He says they noted that a majority of Cameroonians welcomed the convening of the Grand National Dialogue from September 30 to October 4,  in which Cameroon’s government  consulted with political party leaders, activists, opinion leaders, traditional rulers, lawmakers and clergy, and are anxiously waiting for the government to implement its recommendations.  Those recommendations include establishing some sort of special status for the minority English-speaking regions, to be considered by the country’s parliament.  It also backed enforcement of the constitutional language giving English and French equal status and saying they must be used in all public offices and documents.  It also backed continuing the process of decentralization by giving more powers and resources to local councils.  

Mahamat participated in the tripartite mission with  International Organization of La Francophonie Secretary General Louise Mushikiwabo and Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland to encourage national peace efforts.

Mahamat said after their meetings in Yaounde, they observed that a large majority of Cameroonians supported the convening of the major national dialogue and believe it aided their quest for peace.  He said they were convinced that dialogue remains the only path to peace, and asked the government to implement the recommendations of the national dialogue.

After the national dialogue, hundreds of prisoners were freed when Biya ordered a halt to court proceedings against them, saying he was implementing the recommendations of the dialogue.

However, Albert Mvomo, an official of the opposition Cameroon United Party, says Biya’s government has not been doing enough to solve the crisis. He says the AU, OIF and Commonwealth delegation should have proposed sanctions to force Biya to solve the crisis.

He says the three organizations, like any international organization, should force the government in Yaounde to solve the crisis in the English-speaking regions through economic and diplomatic sanctions. He says Cameroon’s government shows no serious sign of wanting to stop the crisis.

Mvomo said the growing number of displaced people in towns and villages in the French-speaking regions showed the government has not been doing much to stop the separatist conflicts.

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Cameroon Opens Dialogue on Separatist Violence in English-Speaking Regions

President Paul Biya called for the national dialogue to resolve the crisis that has left at least 2,000 people dead in the past two years

Simon Munzo,  an Anglophone leader who took part at the national dialogue, says while some recommendations would require legislation, Cameroon should have started showing serious signs that it wants peace to return by restoring public infrastructure and villages and towns destroyed by the fighting for the population to return.  

“We expect the government to maintain the momentum through the implementation of the recommendations of the dialogue,” said Munzo. “Some of them require legislation. Others do not, for example rebuilding schools and bridges and all of that. You do not need legislation for that except in terms of budgeting. Now, there are other aspects that will require modifying the constitution.”

Separatists have insisted on social media that they do not recognize the outcome of the national dialogue and will be ready to negotiate with the Yaounde government only on the terms of the separation of the English-speaking and French-speaking parts of Cameroon.

…

U.S. border protection officials in San Diego said Friday that 20 people had been rescued from flooded drainage pipes west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. 

A Border Patrol agent found three people trying to enter the United States illegally late Thursday near a drainage tube about 3 kilometers west of the port of entry, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency.

In a release, CBP said the three people told agents there were people trapped inside the drainage tubes, with water rising because of heavy rain in the area. 

After a search, local emergency officials aided CBP agents in recovering 17 people, sending seven of them to a nearby hospital for medical care.

About an hour later, three more people were discovered in the drainage tubes and were taken into custody. One was sent to the hospital.

CBP said it apprehended 15 men, three women and one juvenile male from Mexico, and one Guatemalan man. It said all would be processed for illegally entering the United States. 

…

Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey has wrapped up of a trip to Africa by pledging to reside on the continent next year for up to six months. 

Dorsey tweeted this week: “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!). Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020.”

The CEO of the social media giant did not say what he planned to do on the African continent.

Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, did not offer more details on Dorsey’s plans. 

On Dorsey’s recent trip, he visited entrepreneurs in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. 

Dorsey, 43, co-founded Twitter with several other entrepreneurs in 2006. He ran the company until he was ousted in 2008 but was brought back seven years later to again lead the platform.

Dorsey also co-founded the payment processing app Square and is also CEO of that operation. The tech exec holds millions of stock shares in both companies, and Forbes estimates his net worth at $4.3 billion.

Twitter, along with other social media companies, has faced criticism of its handling of misinformation and has come under scrutiny ahead of next year’s U.S. presidential election. Dorsey announced in October that Twitter would ban political advertisements on the platform. 

…

The conflict in Syria created a global humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced and millions more fleeing to other countries. Turkish military operations that began in early October may be creating a new wave of displacement. Where are these Syrians going? VOA’s Turkish service filed this report, narrated by Ege Sacikara. 

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Southern Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts in years, with more than 40 million people expected to face food insecurity because of livestock and crop losses. Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe have declared it an emergency.

In semi-arid Botswana, the farmers are reeling after the worst drought in a decade wiped out entire harvests and left the land littered with dead livestock.

Two thirds of the crops planted last season failed, while Ngamiland, a rich beef producing region, has recorded nearly 40,000 cattle deaths.

Rancher Casper Matsheka says there was no food or water, so his animals starved to death.

“The goats died, as well as the cattle, as you can see the carcasses all over. We were really affected. If only the government could subsidize the prices of feed and vaccines for the livestock during such times,” he said.

Nor has the drought sparred wildlife.

National parks authorities have resorted to feeding starving hippos while hundreds of elephants have died.

Environmental nongovernment organization, Kalahari Conservation Society’s Neil Fitt says competition for food and water has increased the risk of human-wildlife conflict.

“The livestock are now putting pressure on the wildlife areas, so the wildlife are also getting pressure on their areas, and that is where the conflict zone is,” he said. “Why I am bringing this up? The… interconnected with the drought is this wildlife-human conflict.”

In Botswana, where drought is frequent, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said the government plans to stop calling it an emergency and instead make drought relief part of the national budget.

“Government has taken a decision to develop a Drought Management Strategy, which would classify drought as a permanent feature in our budget plans, rather than an emergency,” he said. “The strategy will be completed before the end of the financial year.”

Acting director of Meteorological Services Radithupa Radithupa says a robust strategy is needed to deal with the recurring droughts.

“We are looking at climate change as an impact now, we are seeing the impact now in terms of heating, the dry spells and the excessive rains. Therefore, we really need to adapt as a nation,” Radithupa said.

Meanwhile, a forecast for rain has raised hopes among farmers and ranchers for recovery and that this season of severe drought won’t be a total loss.

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A former Buddhist monk has died in eastern Tibet after setting himself on fire this week to protest China’s repressive rule, a spokesperson for the monastery told VOA Tibetan Service.

Yonten, a 24-year-old former monk at Kirti Monastery in Amdo Ngaba, in the western China province of Sichuan, carried out his self-immolation Tuesday in Meruma township, spokesperson Kanyag Tsering said.

He said China had imposed restrictions in the area, including cellphone use, slowing the gathering and dissemination of information about the incident.

“We have no further information on whether the body of the deceased has been handed over to the family or not since all channels are now blocked,” the monastery said in a statement.

There have been 156 self-immolations across Tibet over the past decade, 44 of which took place in Amdo Ngaba.

Once a monk, Yonten later disrobed and settled as a nomad. Meruma township has been the scene of multiple self-immolation protests, most recently in March 2018.

In a statement, Free Tibet communications manager John Jones said, “Yonten lived his life under occupation. In his 24 years, he would have seen Chinese police and military suppress protests in his homeland, seen his culture, language and religion come under attack, seen people he knew arrested and made to disappear. Tibetans today grow up in a world of injustice.”

China maintains it has worked to modernize Tibetan society since “liberating” Tibetans in 1950.

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NATO leaders are preparing to gather in London for a two-day meeting Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the alliance, but growing tensions among members could overshadow the celebrations.

The war in Syria and the ongoing Russian threat will serve as the backdrop to the summit. Fellow NATO members the United States and Turkey came close to confrontation in northern Syria last month, rattling the alliance.

“The position of Turkey in the North Atlantic alliance is a difficult one,” said Jonathan Eyal of the Royal United Services Institute in London in an interview with VOA this week.

“Turkey’s decision to become involved in military operations in the Middle East against the wishes of most of its allies, including the United States, [and] Turkey’s decision to buy Russian military equipment … [are] riling with many countries in Europe.”

NATO members say it’s better to have Turkey inside than outside the alliance.

“NATO is about European security, it’s not about coordinating policies in the Middle East,” Eyal said.

Where American troops once kept the peace, Russian forces now patrol northern Syria. The U.S. withdrawal has fueled concerns over America’s commitment to NATO. French President Emmanuel Macron recently called the alliance “brain dead” and urged Europe to create its own security architecture. 

The comments elicited a sharp rebuke from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg this week.

“European unity cannot replace transatlantic unity. We need both. And we have to also understand that, especially after Brexit, the EU cannot defend Europe,” Stoltenberg told reporters.

Europe still sees Russia as the biggest threat following its 2014 forceful annexation of Crimea and ongoing campaigns of espionage, cyberwarfare and disinformation.

European concerns over the U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, on collective defense, are not borne out by facts on the ground, Eyal said.

“The reality is the Pentagon’s spending in Europe is increasing, the number of U.S. troops is increasing.”

The deployment of U.S. troops in Europe is seen differently in Moscow.

“Some of the Eastern European nations are trying to get American boots on the ground despite the fact that Article 5 should cover their security, which suggests that they trust the United States more than they trust NATO,” Andrey Kortunov of the Russian Council on International Affairs in Moscow told VOA in a recent interview.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded that European NATO members “share the burden.” Germany on Wednesday pledged to meet the NATO defense spending target of 2% of GDP, but only by the 2030s.

“The U.S. president should be credited with actually banging the table hard enough for the United States to be heard,” Eya said, “This is, and it’s important sometimes to repeat the cliché, the most successful alliance in modern history.”

NATO will hope that is cause for celebration as leaders gather for its 70th anniversary.

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China summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing Thursday to “strongly protest” President Donald Trump’s signing of bills on Hong Kong’s human rights.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told Ambassador Terry Branstad the move constituted “serious interference in China’s internal affairs” and described the action as a “serious violation of international law,” a statement from the foreign ministry said.  He urged Washington to refrain from implementing the bills to “avoid further damage” to U.S.-China relations.

Trump Wednesday signed two separate bills backing pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong, despite a trade deal in the balance and threats from Beijing.

The House and Senate passed both bills last week nearly unanimously.

One law requires the State Department to certify annually that China allows Hong Kong enough autonomy to guarantee its favorable trading status. It threatens sanctions on Chinese officials who do not.

The second bill bans the export of tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and other non-lethal ammunition to Hong Kong police.

It was not immediately clear if Trump’s decision might disrupt negotiations at easing the bilateral trade dispute. China’s foreign ministry said it will take “firm countermeasures” if the United States keeps interfering in Chinese affairs.

Hong Kong’s government expressed “extreme regret,” saying the U.S. moves sends the “wrong message” to the protesters.

But Trump, appearing on the U.S. cable news network Fox News late Tuesday, called Chinese President Xi Jinping “a friend of mine. He’s an incredible guy.”

“I signed these bills out of respect for President Xi, China and the people of Hong Kong,” Trump said in a later statement. “They are being enacted in the hope that leaders and representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to amicably settle their differences, leading to long-term peace and prosperity for all.”

Trump had twice called the large street protests in Hong Kong “riots” — a word the protesters say plays into the hands of Chinese authorities.

But Trump took credit for thwarting Beijing’s threat to send in 1 million soldiers to put down the marches by saying such a move would have a “tremendous negative impact” on trade talks.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong police entered Polytechnic University on Thursday after a two-week siege and said they were searching for evidence and dangerous items such as petrol bombs, according to the assistant commissioner of the police.

Police officials said they were not searching for any protesters that may be still holed up on campus.

Protests erupted in Hong Kong in June over the local government’s plans to allow some criminal suspects to be extradited to the Chinese mainland.

Hong Kong withdrew the bill in September, but the street protests have continued, with the demonstrators fearing Beijing is preparing to water down Hong Kong’s democracy and autonomy, nearly 30 years before the ex-British colony’s “special status” expires

Some of the protests have turned violent, with marchers throwing gasoline bombs at police, who have responded with live gunfire.

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Iran on Thursday condemned the burning of its consulate in southern Iraq hours earlier, which came amid an escalation in Iraq’s anti-government protests that erupted nearly two months ago.
                   
Violence across southern Iraq had continued throughout the night, with security forces killing 16 protesters and wounded 90 since Wednesday. Protesters closed roads while a large number of police and military forces were deployed across key oil-rich provinces. Protesters had set fire to the Iranian consulate in the holy city of Najaf late Wednesday. The Iranian staff were not harmed, and escaped out the back door.
                   
Anti-government protests have gripped Iraq since Oct. 1, when thousands took to the streets in Baghdad and the predominantly Shiite south. The largely leaderless movement accuses the government of being hopelessly corrupt, and has also decried Iran’s growing influence in Iraqi state affairs.
                   
At least 350 people have been killed by security forces, which routinely used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds, sometimes shooting protesters directly with gas canisters, causing several fatalities.
                   
Separately, the U.S. Embassy denounced a recent decision by Iraq’s media regulator to suspend nine television channels, calling for the Communications and Media Commission to reverse its decision. Thursday’s statement from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also condemned attacks and harassment against journalists.
                   
Local channel Dijla TV had its license suspended on Tuesday, and its office was closed and its equipment confiscated, according an official from one of the channels under threat. Other channels have been asked by the regulatory commission to sign a pledge “agreeing to adhere to its rules,” said the official, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
                   
The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s coordinated bombings in three Baghdad neighborhoods, which killed five people. That was the first apparent coordinated attack since anti-government protests began. The bombings took place far from Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of weeks of anti-government protests that have posed the biggest security challenge to Iraq since the defeat of IS.
                   
Tehran called for a “responsible, strong and effective” response leadership to the incident from Iraq’s government, said Abbas Mousavi, a foreign ministry spokesman, in statements to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
                   
Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the torching of the consulate, saying it was perpetrated by “people outside of the genuine protesters,” in a statement, adding that the purpose had been to harm bilateral relations between the countries.
                   
One demonstrator was killed and 35 wounded when police fired live ammunition to prevent them from entering the Iranian consulate building. Once inside, the demonstrators removed the Iranian flag and replaced it with an Iraqi one, according to a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with regulations.
                   
A curfew was imposed in Najaf after the consulate was burned. Security forces were heavily deployed around main government buildings and religious institutions on Thursday morning. The province is the headquarters of the country’s Shiite religious authority.
                   
The consulate attack comes after days of sit-ins and road closures with protesters cutting access to main thoroughfares and bridges with burning tires. Protesters have also lately targeted the state’s economic interests in the south by blocking key ports and roads to oil fields.
                   
In the oil-rich province of Nassiriya, sixteen protesters were killed overnight and 90 wounded by security forces who fired live ammunition to disperse them from a key bridge, security and medical officials said Thursday. Demonstrators had been blocking Nasr Bridge leading to the city center for several days. Security forces moved in late Wednesday to open the main thoroughfare. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
                   
In Basra, security forces were deployed in the city’s main roads to prevent protesters from staging sit-ins, with instructions to arrest demonstrators if they tried to block roads.
                   
Basra’s streets were open as of Thursday morning, but roads leading to the two main Gulf commodities ports in Umm Qasr and Khor al-Zubair remained closed. Schools and official public institutions were also closed.
                   
Protesters had brought traffic in the oil-rich province to a halt for days by burning tires and barricading roads.

…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump have signaled their affection for each other so regularly it might be easy to miss rising fears that the head-spinning diplomatic engagement of the past two years is falling apart.
                   
Pyongyang has issued increasingly dire warnings to Washington to mind a year-end deadline to offer some new initiative to settle the nations’ decades-long nuclear standoff.
                   
Failure could mean a return to the barrage of powerful North Korean weapons tests that marked 2017 as one of the most fraught years in a relationship that has often been defined by bloodshed, deep mistrust and regular threats.
                   
As the deadline approaches, and as the North’s propaganda machine cranks up its warnings, here’s a look at how high-stakes diplomatic wrangling in one of the most dangerous corners of the world might play out:
                   
THE DEADLINE: HOW SERIOUS IS IT?
                   
North Korea has previously issued deadlines it doesn’t follow through on as a way to try to get what it wants in negotiations.
                   
But despite the usual skepticism, there are signs that Pyongyang means business this time.
                   
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency has reported that Seoul is taking the year-end deadline seriously and is working on “contingency plans” with the United States, which has been trying, and failing, to get North Korea back into serious talks before time runs out.
                   
The chief U.S. nuclear negotiator warned recently that the North could turn to provocations if the deadline is unmet.
                   
When diplomacy broke down at a Trump-Kim summit last February after North Korea didn’t win broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities, it began staging a series of short-range weapons tests. On Thursday, North Korea fired two projectiles likely from a multiple rocket launcher, South Korea’s military said, the first such major weapons test in about a month.
                   
The North has also suggested it will not hold another summit with Trump unless it gets something substantial for its efforts.
                   
“The U.S. only seeks to earn time, pretending it has made progress in settling the issue of the Korean Peninsula,” Kim Kye Gwan, a senior adviser to the North’s foreign ministry, said last week. “As we have got nothing in return, we will no longer gift the U.S. president with something he can boast of.”
                   
A RETURN TO ICBMs?
                   
If North Korea makes the determination that it can win little from Trump, amid congressional impeachment proceedings and 2020 presidential election jockeying, it might return to the nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests that made 2017 such a dangerous year.
                   
Some outside observers, however, believe that Kim, despite his frustration with the Trump administration, has yet to give up on negotiations that have won a level of U.S. engagement that has eluded North Korean leaders for decades.
                   
“As we enter 2020, the strategic window to make some kind of compromise with the U.S. will close rapidly, making sanctions more permanent” and hampering Kim’s promise of economic relief for his people, according to Stephen Robert Nagy, an Asia expert and professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo.
                   
Kim may also try to further bolster ties and secure aid from China, North Korea’s most important ally and economic lifeline, and Russia while testing shorter-range missiles, according to Moon Seong Mook, an analyst at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul.
                   
But more powerful tests aren’t out of the question.
                   
If the North decides to give up on talks and launches an ICBM, for instance, it will most likely be at “a time that would inflict the biggest pain on Trump,” said Go Myong-Hyun, an analyst at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
                   
ANY HOPE?
                   
Sue Mi Terry, a former senior CIA analyst on Korea, wrote earlier this month that amid unrealistic expectations in Pyongyang, the U.S. might have “only two bad options” _ give the North massive sanctions relief up front in return for little in return, or watch Pyongyang return to more powerful weapons tests after the expiration of the year-end deadline.
                   
“The North Koreans’ plan is to stall: show up, talk, break off talks,” Terry wrote. “And while they play this game, they are improving and expanding their nuclear and missile programs.”
                   
Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea in the George W. Bush administration, said he feels that Pyongyang is “going to really press (Trump) to get something by the end of the year.”
                   
“And if the Trump administration holds firm, then they’re going to have to recalibrate. And they will recalibrate, because they know they need Trump,” Hill said.
                   
Moon Jae-in, the liberal South Korean president who has held summits with Kim and who yearns for deeper engagement, might be the last best hope for diplomacy, according to Robert Kelly, a Koreas expert at South Korea’s Pusan National University.
                   
Moon, Kelly wrote, must strike “a deal which re-engages Trump’s interest at a busy time for him and finally pulls a concession out of the North which is meaningful enough to silence the growing chorus of conservative criticism in Seoul and Washington, yet simultaneously offers North Korea enough to halt its countdown.“
                   
But, Kelly added, “it is unclear if Moon or anyone can thread such a narrow needle.”

…

At least three workers were injured in an early morning explosion on Wednesday that sparked a blaze at a Texas petrochemical plant, the latest in a series of chemical plant accidents in the region.

An initial explosion at a TPC Group complex in Port Neches, Texas, was followed by secondary blasts, shattering windows, blowing locked doors off their hinges and prompting officials to evacuate homes within a half-mile radius of the facility, which about 90 miles east of Houston.

Toby Baker, head of the state’s pollution regulator, criticized the “unacceptable trend of significant incidents” in the region and pledged to review the state’s compliance efforts.

The fiery blast follows others at petrochemical producers and storage facilities in Texas. A March blaze at chemical storage complex outside Houston burned for days and was followed a month later by a fire at a KMCO LLC plant northeast of Houston that killed one worker and injured a second. A fire at an Exxon Mobil Corp chemical plant in Baytown, Texas, in July injured 37.

People more than 30 miles away from the complex, which supplies petrochemicals for synthetic rubber and resins and makes a gasoline additive, were shaken awake by the 1 a.m. CT (0700 GMT) explosion, sources familiar with the fire-fighting and rescue operations said.

Some homes close to the plant sustained heavy damage and local police were going door-to-door to check if residents were injured, said the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

One of the three wounded workers was flown by helicopter to a Houston hospital’s burns unit, the sources said.

Peyton Keith, a TPC spokesman, said fire officials were determined to let the fire in a butadiene processing unit burn itself out, and were focused on keeping the flames from spreading. He could not say when the fire could be extinguished.

All three of the workers taken to hospital were treated and released.

There was no immediate information on possible emissions from the blaze, pollution regulator Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said. No impacts to water were reported.

The plant employs 175 people and routinely has 50 contract workers on site. The company said the explosion occurred in a processing unit.

“We cannot speak to the cause of the incident or the extent of damage,” the company said.

TPC processes petrochemicals for use in the manufacture of synthetic rubber, nylon, resins, plastics and MBTE, a gasoline additive. The company supplies more than a third of the feedstock butadiene in North America, according to its website.

“Right now, our focus is on protecting the safety of responders and the public, and minimizing any impact to the environment,” TPC Group added.

…

A U.S. judge on Wednesday delayed the planned Dec. 18 sentencing hearing of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, but did not set a new date.

Judge Emmett Sullivan had been expected to put off sentencing after both Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents, and the United States filed a joint motion to request the delay, citing the expected December release of the Justice Department inspector general’s report on the origins of investigations into alleged Russian election interference. The inspector general said last week he expects to release the report on Dec. 9.

“The parties expect that the report of this investigation will examine topics related to several matters raised by the defendant,” they wrote in the joint filing.

Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to agents about his 2016 conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then-Russian ambassador to the United States. The retired Army lieutenant general is one of several Trump aides to plead guilty or be convicted at trial in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

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