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.”

Samoa ordered a government shutdown to help combat a devastating measles outbreak Monday, as five more children succumbed to the virus, lifting the death toll in the tiny Pacific nation to 53.

The government said almost 200 new measles cases had been recorded since Sunday, with the rate of infection showing no sign of slowing despite a compulsory mass vaccination program.

The scheme has so far focussed on children but Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said it was time to immunize everyone in the 200,000 population aged under 60.

To achieve the goal, he said government services and departments would close on Thursday and Friday this week in order to allow all public servants to assist with the mass vaccination campaign throughout the country.

He said only electricity and water utility workers would be exempt and called on the nation to stand together to contain the outbreak.

“In this time of crisis, and the cruel reality of the measles epidemic, let us reflect on how we can avoid recurrence in the future,” Malielegaoi said in a national address.

Since the crisis began in mid-October, there have been 3,728 measles cases, accounting for almost two percent of the population.

Infants are the most vulnerable and form the bulk of infections, with 48 of the fatalities aged four or less.

A state of emergency was declared in mid-November, with schools closed and children banned from public gatherings, such as church services, to minimize the risk of contagion.

The outbreak has been exacerbated by Samoa’s low immunization rates, which the World Health Organization blames on overseas-based anti-vaccine campaigners.

Malielegaoi was unequivocal in his message, telling his people “vaccination is the only cure… no traditional healers or kangen (alkaline) water preparations can cure measles”.

“Let us work together to encourage and convince those that do not believe that vaccinations are the only answer to the epidemic,” he said.

“Let us not be distracted by the promise of alternative cures.”

Officials say the anti-vaccination message has resonated in Samoa because of a case last year when two babies died after receiving measles immunization shots.

It resulted in the temporary suspension of the country’s immunization program and dented parents’ trust in the vaccine, even though it later turned out the deaths were caused when other medicines were incorrectly administered.

What does Brexit have to do with Vietnam? It seems a strange question, but there are several ways that Britain’s planned divorce from the European Union would be likely to affect the Southeast Asian nation.

These effects can be put in three broad categories. First, Vietnam has finished negotiating a trade agreement with the EU, but Brussels appears too preoccupied to ratify the agreement until it has tied up Brexit once and for all. Second, if Britain is out of the EU, then some European products would become more expensive, so British consumers would look for cheaper alternatives, such as from Vietnam. And third, Britain has been looking for new trade agreements to join if it is no longer in the EU bloc, and that includes joining a major agreement already signed by Vietnam.

That agreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, formerly known as the TPP, includes nations around the Asia Pacific and used to include the United States until President Donald Trump pulled the country out in 2017. When Britain first suggested the idea of joining the TPP, in 2018, it was met with a lot of raised eyebrows — Britain is not a Pacific power, after all. However, the idea subsequently received support from Japan, the TPP member with the biggest gross domestic product, which said it would welcome Britain with open arms. Vietnam is the TPP member with the lowest GDP per capita.

It makes sense that Vietnam would want to do more trade with Britain, Frederick Burke, who is the managing partner of Baker & McKenzie, a law firm in Ho Chi Minh City, said at a company conference last month.

“It’s a good market, it’s a good opportunity,” he said.

Brexit would mean that some European products would no longer have preferential access to the British market, so Vietnam could step in and compete with those products. For instance some British business interests in Vietnam believe Vietnamese tennis shoes and garments would become competitive against Romanian products, Burke said.

“The UK is not the same as the American economy but it’s about a third of that, and so it’s very substantial, second biggest economy in Europe,” he said. “So it’s a very good opportunity for Vietnam.”

Finally, the third impact may not be quite as favorable to Vietnam. Efforts to finalize the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, or EVFTA, have dragged on for years. The same can be said of Brexit, which was approved in a British referendum in 2016 but has yet to happen. Brussels is far more preoccupied with Brexit than with the Vietnam agreement, so it appears that Hanoi will have to wait.

Most recently, analysts expected the vote on the pact with Vietnam to happen this coming January — then again, Brexit has also been pushed to the same month. And if Brexit does not end up taking place in January, it does not look like the Vietnam vote will take place either.

“Things could be delayed eventually with the delay of the Brexit, which has been extended to the end of January,” Alain Cany, who is the country chairman of Jardine Matheson Vietnam, a conglomerate that covers areas from restaurants to engineering, as well as a former chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, said. “So it [EVFTA ratification] might be postponed.”

Unknown gunmen opened fire on a church in eastern Burkina Faso Sunday, killing at least 14 people.

Officials say the attack took place in the town of Hantoukoura, near the border with Niger.

Soldiers are hunting for the attackers who fled on motor scooters after gunning down worshipers during a Sunday mass.

No one has claimed responsibility, but Islamic extremists are suspected.

Christians and others had lived peacefully in the Muslim majority country until a series of attacks blamed on jihadists spilled over from neighboring Mali last year, leaving hundreds dead.
 

An Irish citizen, who converted to Islam, traveled to Syria to join Islamic State and ended up marrying a British militant, has been arrested on arrival at Dublin airport Sunday.

Lisa Smith, 38, who served in the Irish Defense Forces before going to Syria, had been deported from Turkey with her 2-year-old daughter.

“On her arrival in Dublin, Lisa Smith was met by An Garda Síochána,” Irish Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said, using the Irish name for the national police force.  “This is a sensitive case and I want to reassure people that all relevant state agencies are closely involved.”

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney told Irish national broadcaster RTE that officials had been trying to repatriate Smith since learning of her presence in a refugee camp in March. He said the primary concern was for the toddler who is an Irish citizen because of her mother’s nationality. The child is now with Smith’s relatives in Dundalk.

Authorities plan to question Smith extensively before deciding on what action to take. She has denied fighting for IS or training female soldiers for the militancy.

Many European countries and the United States have resisted bringing back their citizens who joined Islamic State.

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.”

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.

New Orleans police say 11 people were wounded in a shooting early Sunday on the edge of the city’s famed French Quarter.

A police news release said two people were in critical condition. No arrests were announced by midday Sunday.

Police Supt. Shaun Ferguson told The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune that a person of interest has been detained, but it was not immediately clear whether the person had any connection to the shooting.

Police said 10 people were taken to two hospitals and another walked in. Further details haven’t been released.

The shooting happened about 3:20 a.m. on a busy commercial block of Canal Street that has streetcar tracks and is near many hotels.

Ferguson said police quickly responded to the scene as patrols were heightened for this weekend’s Bayou Classic, the annual Thanksgiving weekend rivalry football game between Grambling State and Southern University at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Kenneth Culbreth told The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune that he had gone into a CVS pharmacy in the early morning hours to make a quick purchase. Moments later, he walked out to a crime scene.
 “On my way out of the CVS, I heard pops,” Culbreth said. “It was so many, I couldn’t keep count.”

Culbreth spent the rest of the morning watching the scene, with law enforcement and several emergency vehicles moving in and out at a rapid pace.

A passenger bus plunged off a bridge onto a frozen river in Siberia on Sunday, killing 19 of the more than 40 people on board, authorities said.

A tire on the bus burst as it was crossing the bridge over the Kuenga river in eastern Siberia’s Zabaikalsky region.

The vehicle, which was traveling from Sretensk to Chita and carried 40 passengers, skidded off the road and onto the ice.

“Nineteen people died and 21 received various injuries,” the office of the governor of the Zabaikalsky region said in a statement.

Two preschool-aged children were reportedly among the dead.

National television broadcast footage of the mangled wreckage of the bus, which lay upside down on the snow-covered ice surrounded by ambulances and fire engines.

Nineteen people including a 12-year-old girl were hospitalized.

More than 70 people and two helicopters with medics were involved in the rescue operation, officials said.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told his deputy Tatyana Golikova to do everything to help the families of the victims, the government said.

“The head of government expressed condolences to the families of those who died,” the government said in a statement.

The Investigative Committee, which probes serious incidents, said it had opened a criminal inquiry into a possible violation of traffic safety rules.

The head of the powerful Investigative Committee, which reports directly to President Vladimir Putin, demanded a “detailed investigation” into the deadly accident.

Officials said the driver — who died in the crash — had years of experience.

Local authorities launched a crowd-funding campaign to help the victims and their families.

Road accidents are common in Russia, often due to alcohol, the poor state of roads and failure to observe traffic rules.

However, the number of road deaths has gone down in recent years, to around 20,000 per year.

This week at a summit in Britain, world leaders mark the 70th anniversary of NATO.  President Donald Trump, who has bashed the military alliance and made comments about slashing U.S. backing for it, will attend.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that, meanwhile, back in the United States, the impeachment inquiry into accusations of presidential misconduct moves to a new phase.

The devastating impact of global warming that threatens humanity is a pushback from Nature under assault, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres warned Sunday ahead of a key climate conference.

“For many decades the human species has been at war with the planet, and now the planet is fighting back,” he said, decrying the “utterly inadequate” efforts of the world’s major economies to curb carbon pollution. “We must stop our war against nature, and science tells us we can do it.”

Guterres flagged a U.N. report to be released in a few days confirming the last five years are the warmest on record, with 2019 likely to be the second hottest ever.

“Climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent, more deadly, more destructive,” he said on the eve of the 196-nation COP25 climate change talks in Madrid.

Every year, air pollution associated with climate change kills seven million people, he noted, adding that human health and food security are at risk.

The U.N. chief’s comments were clearly aimed at the handful of countries responsible for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions, though he did not call them out by name.

President Donald Trump has set in motion the process that would see the United States withdraw from the Paris deal by the end of the year, and other major emitters — China, India, Russia and Brazil — have given scant indication that they will deepen their commitments.

Guterres singled out the European Union as playing a constructive role, saying the 28-nation bloc could help lead the way towards a net-zero global economy by 2050.

The Paris Agreement calls for capping global warming at under two degrees Celsius, and 1.5C if feasible.

But current national pledges — if carried out — would see global temperatures rise by at least 3C, a recipe for human misery, according to scientists.

Despite growing public pressure, the 12-day negotiating session is likely to remain technical in nature, focused on finalizing the “rulebook” for the Paris Agreement, which becomes operation at the end of next year.

Climate change is no longer a long-term problem, Guterres said.

“We are confronted now with a global climate crisis and the point of no return is no longer over the horizon — it is in sight and hurtling towards us.”

Joyous Congolese dancing and singing have enlivened St. Peter’s Basilica, as Pope Francis celebrated a special Mass for Catholics from the violence-wracked African nation and denounced arms suppliers for helping to fuel the conflict.

The whoops of joy and the chorus of rhythmically-swaying Congolese approaching the altar Sunday was a vivid contrast with the usual solemn religious ceremonies at the Vatican basilica.

In his homily, Francis prayed that conflict cease, noting peace was “gravely threatened in the east of the country.” He decried weapon suppliers, lamenting “conflicts fed by those enriching themselves with arms.”

Recently, rebels in eastern Congo have targeted Ebola response workers, compounding difficulties in containing the outbreak.

A Mass’ end, a Congolese nun urged Francis, who has expressed hopes in the past to visit Congo, to come.

Iraq’s parliament voted on Sunday to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, following weeks of violent anti-government protests that have rocked the country.

Abdul Mahdi’s decision to quit on Friday came after a call by Iraq’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani for parliament to consider withdrawing its support for Abdul Mahdi’s government to stem the violence.

“The Iraqi parliament will ask the president of state to nominate a new prime minister,” a statement from parliament’s media office said.

Lawmakers said Abdul Mahdi’s government, including the prime minister himself, would stay on in a caretaker capacity following Sunday’s vote until a new government was chosen.

Under the constitution, President Barham Salih is expected to ask the largest bloc in parliament to nominate a new prime minister to form a government, a move expected to trigger weeks of political wrangling.

Iraqi forces have killed nearly 400 mostly young, unarmed demonstrators since mass anti-government protests broke out on Oct. 1. More than a dozen members of the security forces have also died in clashes.

Abdul Mahdi’s resignation, though welcomed by protesters, is not expected to end the demonstrations, which have called for an overhaul of a political system accused of being corrupt and keeping most of the population in poverty, without opportunity.

Demonstrations are continuing in Baghdad and other southern regions and security forces killed one protester and wounded nine others near a key bridge in the capital on Sunday, police and a medical source said.

The unrest poses the biggest challenge for Iraq since Islamic State insurgents seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014.

It pits mostly young, disaffected Shi’ite protesters against a Shi’ite-dominated government backed by Iran and accused of squandering Iraq’s oil wealth while infrastructure and living standards deteriorate.

A huge crowd took to the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday, some driven back by tear gas, to demand more democracy and an investigation into the use of force to crack down on the six-month-long anti-government demonstrations.

Thousands turned out, from hardened youthful protesters in black outfits and face masks to parents with their children.

Marching near the waterfront on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour, they sought to keep the pressure on city leader Carrie Lam after pro-democracy candidates won district council elections a week earlier.

“If we don’t walk out, the government will say it’s just a youth issue, but this is a Hong Kong problem that affects all of us,” Lily Chau said as she pushed her toddler in a stroller. “If we are scared, the government will continue to trample on our rights.”

Many held up a hand to indicate the five demands of the movement and shouted “Five demands, not one less” and “Disband the police force.”

Riot gear and tear gas

Police in riot gear were out in force for the third march of the day — and the one where violence seemed most likely. They fired pepper spray and tear gas in some areas. Protesters dug up paving stones and threw them in the street to try to slow the police down.

Hong Kong’s protests have been relatively peaceful during the two weeks around the Nov. 24 election but could turn violent again if the government doesn’t bend to the demands.

Lam has said she’ll accelerate dialogue but has not yielded any ground since the vote. Her government has accepted one demand — withdrawing extradition legislation that could have sent suspects to mainland China for trial — but not the others.

Elaine Wong, an office worker, called the recent election an empty victory.

“We have in actual fact not won any concessions for our demands,” she said. “We must continue to stand out to remind the government of our unhappiness.”

Early Sunday marches

Earlier marches Sunday appealed to President Donald Trump for help and demanded that police stop using tear gas.

A group dressed in black and wearing masks carried American flags as it headed to the U.S. Consulate to express gratitude for legislation aimed at protecting human rights in Hong Kong that Trump signed into law last week.

Some held banners reading “President Trump, please liberate Hong Kong” and “Let’s make Hong Kong great again” — a riff on his 2016 campaign pledge to make America great again. One showed him standing atop a tank with “Trump” emblazoned on the front and side.

A peaceful crowd of about 200 adults and young children marched to government headquarters in the morning and chanted “No more tear gas.”

“A lot of parents are worried that their children are affected, because their children are coughing, breaking out in rashes and so forth,” said march organizer Leo Kong, a 40-year-old social worker.

A third march was called for late afternoon in the Tsim Sha Tsui district near Polytechnic University, the site of the last fierce clashes with police two weeks ago.

China protests Bachelet remarks

Meanwhile, China accused the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, of emboldening “radical violence” in Hong Kong by suggesting the city’s leader conduct an investigation into reports of excessive use of force by police.

Bachelet wrote in an opinion piece Saturday in the South China Morning Post that Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s government must prioritize “meaningful, inclusive” dialogue to resolve the crisis.

She urged Lam to hold an “independent and impartial judge-led investigation” into police conduct of protests. It has been one of key demands of pro-democracy demonstrations that have roiled the territory since June.

China’s U.N. mission in Geneva said that Bachelet’s article interferes in the internal affairs of China and exerts pressure on the city’s government and police, which “will only embolden the rioters to conduct more severe radical violence.”

It said Bachelet made “inappropriate comments” on the situation in Hong Kong and that the Chinese side had lodged a strong protest in response.

Donald Trump faces a process that could end with his removal as president of the United States. Impeachment hearings underway now in the House of Representatives represent the beginning part of what is prescribed by the U.S. Constitution. In today’s installment of American Impeachment, VOA’s Steve Redisch takes you through the responsibilities of the House of Representatives.
 

Environment ministers and experts from nearly 200 countries meet in Madrid Monday for annual United Nations climate talks. Presided by Chile and hosted by Spain, the so-called Cop 25 follows a raft of alarming studies — and real-life evidence — of climate change’s potentially catastrophic fallout. From the Spanish capital, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA this might be the last year the U.S. is part of the talks.
 

China accused the U.N. high commissioner for human rights of emboldening “radical violence” in Hong Kong by suggesting the city’s leader investigate reports of excessive use of force by police. 

The U.N. commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, wrote in an opinion piece Saturday in the South China Morning Post that Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s government must prioritize “meaningful, inclusive” dialogue to resolve the crisis. 

She urged Lam to hold an “independent and impartial judge-led investigation” into police conduct in the protests. It has been one of key demands of pro-democracy demonstrations that have roiled the territory since June. 

China’s U.N. mission in Geneva said that Bachelet’s article interferes in the internal affairs of China and exerts pressure on the city’s government and police, which “will only embolden the rioters to conduct more severe radical violence.” 

It said Bachelet made “inappropriate comments” on the situation in Hong Kong and that the Chinese side had lodged a strong protest in response. 

Since the unrest began, protesters have disrupted traffic, smashed public facilities and pro-China shops, and hurled gasoline bombs in pitched battles with riot police, who have responded with volleys of tear gas and water cannons. 

The occupation of several universities by protesters earlier this month after fiery clashes with police capped one of the most violent chapters in the turmoil, which has contributed to the city’s first recession in a decade. 

Lam appealed for the current calm to continue but has refused to bow to protesters’ demands, which include free elections for her post and the legislature as well as the independent probe into police conduct. 

Hong Kong police have arrested 5,890 people as a result of the protests. 

On Saturday, hundreds of silver-haired activists joined young protesters for a unity rally, vowing that their movement will not fade away until there is greater democracy. 

The rally at a park downtown was among several peaceful gatherings by protesters this week to keep up pressure on the government following a local election victory by the pro-democracy bloc and the gaining of U.S. support for their cause. 

“The government is still stubborn. Every one of us, young and old, must contribute in our own way. The movement will not stop,” said a 63-year-old woman who identified herself as Mrs. Tam. 

Some protesters returned to the streets Saturday night, using metal fences, cartons and bricks to block traffic in the Mong Kok area in Kowloon. Dozens had gathered there to mark three months since police stormed a subway car in the area and hit passengers with batons and pepper spray. Most left after police reportedly fired pepper balls and issued warnings. 

More rallies are planned Sunday, including an anti-tear gas protest and a gratitude march to the U.S. Consulate. 

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael party failed to win any of the four by-elections held to fill parliamentary vacancies Saturday, a blow ahead of a general election he plans to hold in the next six months.

The governing center-right party had held one of the seats left empty after four lawmakers successfully ran for European elections in May. Its main rival Fianna Fail captured two of the seats, a gain of one, while left-wing Sinn Fein and the Green Party added a lawmaker each in the 158-seat Irish parliament.

The Fine Gael-led minority government has ruled through a cooperation deal with Fianna Fail that they extended last year as the uncertainty created by Britain’s protracted exit from the European Union kept either side from calling an election.

Both have identified the second quarter of 2020 as their preferred date to go to the polls again and, with the two dominant parties of Irish politics closely matched in most opinion polls, whoever edges it will likely lead another minority government.

A boost for rivals

While a gain was good news for center-right Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein’s win in one of two Dublin contests was also a welcome boost for Ireland’s third-largest party whose political ascent suffered a major setback at local elections in May. 

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail both refuse to govern with Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), meaning the resurgent Greens could decide whether Varadkar or Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin heads up the next minority administration if little divides their parties.

The Green Party’s first-ever by-election win followed a strong showing at European and local polls in May, part of a growing trend for environmental parties around many parts of Europe with climate change becoming a top concern.

Not a fatal day

“All round it’s probably not a good day for the government but not fatal, governments do tend to lose these by-elections but it does call into question the wisdom of having four by-elections possibly just a few months before a general election, because the momentum is with other parties now,” said Theresa Reidy, a politics lecturer at University College Cork.

“In a general election, though, we will still be looking at Leo Varadkar versus Micheal Martin for who will be Taoiseach (prime minister).”
 

EU antitrust regulators are investigating Google’s collection of data, the European Commission told Reuters Saturday, suggesting the world’s most popular internet search engine remains in its sights despite record fines in recent years.

Competition enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic are now looking into how dominant tech companies use and monetize data.

The EU executive said it was seeking information on how and why Alphabet unit Google is collecting data, confirming a Reuters story Friday.

“The Commission has sent out questionnaires as part of a preliminary investigation into Google’s practices relating to Google’s collection and use of data. The preliminary investigation is ongoing,” the EU regulator told Reuters in an email.

A document seen by Reuters shows the EU’s focus is on data related to local search services, online advertising, online ad targeting services, login services, web browsers and others.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has handed down fines totaling more than 8 billion euros to Google in the last two years and ordered it to change its business practices.

Google has said it uses data to better its services and that users can manage, delete and transfer their data at any time.

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.

Nearly a third of Uganda’s new HIV infections occur among 15-to-25-year-olds, who say that despite progress, stigma is still a problem. To raise awareness ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1, Uganda holds an annual fashion and a beauty pageant for young people infected with HIV and calls them the Young Positives. Halima Athumani reports from Kampala.