American Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in world championship history on Sunday when she won the beam and floor finals to take her career tally to 25 medals.

Soon after securing a convincing victory on the beam in Stuttgart to overtake Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo’s record tally of 23 world medals, the 22-year-old Biles successfully defended her floor title to win medal number 25.

The four-time Olympic champion is now the owner of 19 gold medals across four championships against 12 for Scherbo, who competed in five world events between 1991 and 1996.

Making her final appearance of the week in front of a raucous crowd, Biles wasted no time as she landed a superb triple-twisting double back flip — known as the Biles II – on her first pass.

Biles’s double layout with a half turn — another skill named after her — put her out of bounds for a 0.1 penalty but she did enough to post a winning score of 15.133.

“Honestly, I just couldn’t move. I was so tired,” Biles said of her final pose on the stage.

“This is really the best worlds performance I have ever put out.”

The Americans took a one-two finish as Sunisa Lee finished with 14.133 for the silver medal, while Russian Angelina Melnikova came third.

Olympic Champ Simone Biles Says She was Abused by Doctor

Simone Biles watched as her friends and former Olympic teammates came forward to detail abuse at the hands of a now-imprisoned former USA Gymnastics team doctor.Drawing in part from their strength, the four-time gold medalist acknowledged Monday she is among the athletes who were sexually abused by Larry Nassar.Biles, who won five medals overall at the 2016 Olympics, released a statement via Twitter outlining that abuse.

BEAM BRILLIANCE

Earlier, Biles delivered a polished routine on the beam before a full twisting double tuck dismount for an impressive 15.066.

Although Biles had twice before won the world beam title, in 2014 and 2015, it has not always been plain sailing for her on the apparatus.

Her slip on the landing of a front tucked somersault at the 2016 Rio Olympics meant she had to settle for a bronze in the event. Last year again, she dropped off the beam during the women’s all-around final at the world championships.

But she has regained her swagger this week, under the watchful eyes of balance beam coach Cecile Landi, and posted top scores in all four attempts — qualifying, the team and all-around finals and Sunday’s apparatus final.

“It meant a lot because Cecile has really been working on bringing my confidence back up to where it used to be on the beam,” Biles said.

“To go out there and nail the routine, just like I do in practice, it felt really good and I knew she was really proud.”

As another title-winning score was announced in the arena, Biles punched the air in jubilation before joining celebrations with the U.S. team.

“I was really excited,” she added. “I thought it was going to be at least 14.8, 14.9, but to see 15, I was like well that’s pretty crazy, so I was very proud.”

Last year’s winner Liu Tingting of China took silver with 14.433, while team mate Li Shijia won the bronze.

Biles finished her campaign in Stuttgart with five gold medals from six events to mark ideal preparations for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Her barnstorming run included a record fifth all-around gold, an individual vault title, as well as helping the U.S. to a fifth straight world team title.

 

Parents of the British teen killed when his motorcycle collided with car allegedly driven by an American diplomat’s wife are on their way to the U.S. hoping to seek justice.

Harry Dunn, 19, died in August in near the Croughton Royal Air Force base in Northhamptonshire, which is used by the U.S. Air Force as a communications center.

Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, told the BBC the family hopes to meet with the suspected driver, identified by British police and Prime Minister Boris Johnson as Anne Sacoolas, wife of an American intelligence officer based at Croughton.

Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity and returned to the United States while the case was still being investigated. She has since written a letter of apology to Dunn’s family.

But Charles said Sunday, “It’s nearly seven weeks now since we lost our boy, sorry just doesn’t cut it.

“That’s not really quite enough,” she told Sky News. “But I’m still really open to meeting her, as are the rest of us. I can’t promise what I would or wouldn’t say, but I certainly wouldn’t be aggressive.”

Charles also said the family was thankful to receive a letter Saturday from the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab that said since Sacoolas had left Britain, “immunity is no longer pertinent”.

The family is hoping Sacoolas will return to Britain.  They have even called on U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene on their behalf.

But Trump told a news conference Wednesday that Sacoolas would not return. Harry Dunn’s death was a “terrible accident,” the president said but he noted that driving on the worn side of the road “happens”.

 

 

California has become the first U.S. state to ban all production and sale of animal fur products.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill that will make it illegal to make, sell and even donate any new item made using animal fur starting in 2023.

The bill excludes used items, taxidemy products, fur taken with a hunting license and fur used by Native American tribes for religious purposes.

Violators of the ban will face fines of up to $500, or even $1,000 for repeat offenses.

“The signing of AB44 underscores the point that today’s consumers simply don’t want wild animals to suffer extreme pain and fear for the sake of fashion,” Kitty Block, the head of the Humane Society of the United States said in a statement.

But the Fur Information Council of America condemned the ban as being part of a “radical vegan agenda” and has threatened a court challenge.

Along with the fur ban, Newsom also approved a ban on the use of most animals in circuses. Exceptions will be made for dogs and horses.

“California is a leader when it comes to animal welfare, and today that leadership includes banning the sale of fur,” Newsom said in a statement. “But we are doing more than that. We are making a statement to the world that beautiful wild animals like bears and tigers have no place on trapeze wires or jumping through flames.”

Hunter Biden, the son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, on Sunday defended his work in Ukraine and China after calls by President Donald Trump that the two countries investigate his business dealings, pleas that have engulfed Trump in an impeachment inquiry.

The younger Biden, whose father is one of the leading Democratic candidates seeking to face Trump in the 2020 presidential election, said in a statement issued by his lawyer that despite Trump’s accusations of improprieties while he was a board member of the Burisma energy company in Ukraine for five years, no foreign or domestic law enforcement agency has accused him of any wrongdoing.

Hunter Biden left the Burisma board last April and said, without giving an explanation, that he would leave the board of China’s BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company at the end of October.

Published accounts say that he was paid as much as $50,000 a month to serve on the Burisma board, although his Sunday statement did not mention the salary he received. The younger Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, said the position with the Chinese investment firm was unpaid, but that Hunter Biden two years ago invested $420,000 for a 10% equity stake in the firm, which he still holds, although has not received any return on his investment.

“Hunter undertook these business activities independently,” Mesires said. “He did not believe it appropriate to discuss them with his father, nor did he.”

But Trump in a late July call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked for “a favor,” that Ukraine investigate the younger Biden’s business activities there and Joe Biden’s efforts while he was President Barack Obama’s second in command to get a Ukrainian prosecutor dismissed, a demand that by numerous accounts did not relate to Burisma’s activities and at the time was supported by other Western countries. Trump subsequently publicly asked China to investigate the younger Biden.

With disclosure of Trump’s demands by an U.S. intelligence community whistleblower, and the White House’s subsequent release of a rough account of the Trump-Zelenskiy call confirming the U.S. leader’s call for a Ukrainian investigation, Democrats in the House of Representatives opened an impeachment inquiry against Trump. The elder Biden says Trump “has convicted himself,” and “should be impeached.”

Mesires said that when Hunter Biden “engaged in his business pursuits, he believed that he was acting appropriately and in good faith. He never anticipated the barrage of false charges against both him and his father by the president of the United States.”

The lawyer said that if Joe Biden is elected president, Hunter Biden “will readily comply” with any White House strictures on “purported conflicts of interest, or the appearance of such conflicts,” along with refraining from serving on any boards of foreign companies or working for them.

Until Sunday, the younger Biden had remained silent as Trump called him “a loser” with few business skills and assailed him at a political rally last week for being kicked out of the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2013 for cocaine use.

“Hunter, you know nothing about energy,” Trump said. “You know nothing about China. You know nothing about anything, frankly. Hunter, you’re a loser.”

On Sunday, Trump tweeted, “Where’s Hunter? He has totally disappeared! Now looks like he has raided and scammed even more countries!”

Where’s Hunter? He has totally disappeared! Now looks like he has raided and scammed even more countries! Media is AWOL.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2019

 

Syrian government forces will deploy along the Turkish border to help repel the Turkish military incursion against Syrian Kurds, Kurdish officials announced Sunday.

The extraordinary deal between the Kurds, Syria, and Russia — Syria’s main ally —  comes four days after Turkish forces moved against the Kurds in northern Syria after nearly all U.S. forces pulled out.

Turkey regards the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces as terrorists aligned with separatists inside Turkey.

Observers say in just the last four days, as many as 60 civilians have been killed with thousands of others fleeing.

“In order to prevent and block this assault, agreement has been reached with the Syrian government whose duty is to protect the borders and Syrian sovereignty, for the Syrian army to enter and deploy along the length of the Syrian-Turkish border,” a Kurdish statement said.

Kurds say Syrian forces will start spreading out along the border Sunday and should be totally deployed within two days.

The Kurdish statement came shortly after the official Syrian news agency reported that the army was sending in troops to “confront Turkish aggression.”

Syrian Kurds say they feel totally forsaken by the United States after fighting side-by-side with U.S. forces against Islamic State extremists in Syria. They also believe much of the Arab world and the U.N. Security Council are ignoring them.

“We had to find a solution…now you see what has happened to us and they don’t want to support us,” the defense minister of the Kurdish city of Kobani, Ismat Sheikh Hassan, said Sunday. “Again, we should not trust anybody. We should rely on ourselves. Every Kurd should carry a gun and prepare himself.”

Trump said he was working with congressional leaders, including opposition Democrats, to impose “powerful” economic sanctions against Turkey for its cross-border attacks.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint news conference that Turkey is risking an “unbearable humanitarian situation.”

Even Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci spoke out against the operation Turkey calls “Peace Spring.”

“It is blood that is spilling, not water,” he wrote on Facebook.

Trump is defending his decision to pull out of Syria, saying those who want American forces to stay support “endless wars.”

“Those that mistakenly got us into the Middle East Wars are still pushing to fight,” Trump tweeted. “They have no idea what a bad decision they have made. Why are they not asking for a Declaration of War?”

Along with the civilian casualties, Kurdish prison guards are needed to confront the Turks, leaving captured IS fighters unguarded.

Syrian Kurdish officials say hundreds have already escaped, along with their families who were housed in a displacement camp.

 

 

…

Things are tough all over, so some red-nosed, seltzer-spraying, pie-tossing lovers of fun said: Let’s find some joy.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi tells us what it’s all about

Weekend protests in Hong Kong were smaller and more peaceful than previous actions, but the thousands of people who marched and held sit-ins on the 19th straight week of unrest say their convictions have only strengthened in the past four months. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Hong Kong on how residents are not backing down, with reporting from Yihua Lee and Paris Huang.

Syrian Kurdish officials says hundreds of suspected Islamic state supporters and family members have escaped from a displacement camp in northern Syria, as Turkey continues its military operation in the area.

Jelal Ayaf, co-chair of the Ayn Issa Camp, estimated 850 foreigners linked to IS escaped and had help from sleeper cells that infiltrated part of the camp. Escaped IS family members and supporters are thought to include those from Britain, Ireland, Russia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Turkey launched its long-planned military operation last Wednesday aimed at taking out the Kurdish forces in northern Syria that it sees as terrorists, but which most of the West views as key partners in the fight against Islamic State militants.

The military operation began days after a surprise and widely criticized White House announcement that U.S. forces would withdraw from the region.

Speaking to VOA Persian, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces Mustafa Bali said people in northern Syria were “frustrated and disappointed” that President Donald Trump withdrew dozens of U.S. troops that had been stationed in northern Syria, shortly before Turkey launched the offensive. The troops were part of a U.S. military deployment that has partnered with the SDF in the fight against IS.

The World Food Program has said  more than 100,000 people have been displaced so far by the Turkish invasion of northern Syria.

The agency said those displaced have come from the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad.

 

 

Humanitarian groups on Sunday said they have rescued 74 migrants on a rubber boat in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya while Tunisian authorities reported blocking a smuggling boat carrying 110 migrants from setting off for Italy.

Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee said their Ocean Viking ship rescued the migrants Sunday morning about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Libyan coast near an oilfield. The groups said six children were among those rescued.

Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said three coast guard boats pursued the smuggling boat after it left Friday night from the city of Sfax. Officers shouted through loudspeakers at the boat and passengers threw projectiles that injured two officers and broke windows.

The coast guard eventually forced the boat back toward Tunisia and rescued 25 migrants who had jumped into the sea.

Meanwhile, three small boats carrying migrants reached Italian shores on Sunday. ANSA, the Italian news agency, said two boats – one carrying 15 people, the other 11 – landed on the island of Lampedusa. The agency says a third boat with 15 Tunisians aboard landed in southern Sicily.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump says he doesn’t know the two Soviet-born associates of his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who were indicted on charges of campaign finance violation Thursday.

“I don’t know those gentlemen,” Trump said Thursday, referring to Ukrainian-born Lev Parnas and Belarus-born Igor Fruman. “Now, it’s possible I have a picture with them, because I have a picture with everybody.”

In fact, records paint a much closer relationship, highlighting how the two Florida-based businessmen bought their way to the top echelons of the Republican party with hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to pro-Trump Republican campaigns.

As early as March 2018, Fruman attended a donor meeting with Trump at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida,

Poles are voting Sunday in a parliamentary election that the ruling party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski is favored to win easily, buoyed by the popularity of its social conservatism and generous social spending policies that have reduced poverty.

Law and Justice is the first party since the fall of communism to break with the austerity of previous governments. Those free-market policies took a moribund communist economy and transformed it into one of Europe’s most dynamic. 

However, many Poles were left out in that transformation and inequalities grew, creating grievances that Law and Justice has addressed skillfully. Its most popular program, called 500+, gives away 500 zlotys ($125) to families per month per child, taking the edge off poverty for some and giving more disposable income to all recipients.

However, many of the party’s liberal critics fear that another four-year term for Law and Justice will reverse the achievements made three decades ago in this Central European nation, long hailed as a model of democratic transformation. 

They cite an erosion of judicial independence, pluralism and minority rights since the party took power in 2015.

More than 30 million people in this nation of 37 million are qualified to vote. They are choosing lawmakers in the 460-seat lower house of parliament and in the 100-seat Senate.

Challenge in Hungary

One country away, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s dominant right-wing Fidesz party is facing a challenge from opposition parties who are backing a joint candidate in many cities in local elections nationwide.

Fidesz has been easily winning local, national and European Parliament elections since 2010, but a more unified opposition and the release of a video showing one of the party’s best-known mayors, former Olympic champion gymnast Zsolt Borkai, participating in an orgy on a yacht have shaken up the last days of the campaign.

More than 8 million people are eligible to vote Sunday for more than 3,000 mayors and 17,200 local council members elected for five-year terms.
 

Japan sent tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers Sunday to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history, which killed 19 people and briefly paralyzed Tokyo.

There were also more than a dozen people missing, public broadcaster NHK said, as Typhoon Hagibis left vast swaths of low-lying land in central and eastern Japan inundated and cut power to almost half a million homes.

Landing restrictions at Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports were lifted, but more than 800 flights were canceled for the day, NHK said, as were some Shinkansen bullet train services to the worst-hit areas.

Authorities lifted rain warnings for the Kanto region around a becalmed Tokyo, where stores reopened and many train lines resumed operations, but they warned there was still the risk of rivers in eastern Japan overflowing and inflicting fresh damage.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened an emergency meeting of relevant ministers and sent the minister in charge of disaster management to the affected areas. He offered condolences to the families of those who were killed and said the government was working to save people’s lives and property.

“The government will do everything in its power to cooperate with relevant agencies and operators working to restore services as soon as possible,” Abe said. The government had also set up a task force to deal with the damage, NHK reported.

About 27,000 members of Japan’s self-defense forces as well as firefighters, police and coast guard members were sent to rescue stranded people in central Japan’s Nagano prefecture and elsewhere, the government said.

NHK said the full extent of the widespread damage was only beginning to emerge because many areas remained under water.

Some 425,000 homes were without power, the government said, reviving fears of a repeat of the weekslong power outages suffered after another typhoon hit east of Tokyo last month.

In Fukushima, north of the capital, Tokyo Electric Power Co reported irregular readings from sensors monitoring water in its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant overnight. The plant was crippled by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Floods and landslides

Hagibis, which means “speed” in the Philippine language Tagalog, made landfall on Japan’s main island of Honshu Saturday evening and headed out to sea early Sunday, leaving behind cloudless skies and high temperatures across the country.

NHK showed fields and vast residential areas in parts of central and eastern Japan covered in brown water, with some of the worst damage caused by Chikuma River in Nagano prefecture.

Military helicopters airlifted stranded people from homes near the river, some cradling their children, after they were trapped by water reaching the roofs of their houses.

The first floor of a large care home for the elderly in Nagano city was shown under water.

Rescuers took residents from another flooded care facility by inflatable boats and carried them on their backs to safety. They also searched for survivors in homes destroyed in landslides near Tokyo’s suburbs and in Fukushima prefecture, NHK showed.

Evacuation orders

Authorities at one point issued evacuation advisories and orders for more than 6 million people across Japan as the storm unleashed the heaviest rain and winds in years. Close to 150 injuries have been reported so far, NHK said.

The storm, which the government said could be the strongest to hit Tokyo since 1958, brought record-breaking rainfall in many areas, including the popular resort town of Hakone, which received 939.5 mm (37 inches) of rain in 24 hours.

The Japan Meteorological Agency had issued the highest alert level for 12 prefectures, warning of the potential for once-in-decades rain totals, but lifted them early Sunday.

Just last month, another strong storm, Typhoon Faxai, destroyed or damaged 30,000 houses in Chiba, east of Tokyo, and caused extensive power outages.

The Rugby World Cup match between Namibia and Canada in Kamaishi on Sunday was canceled, although the crucial Japan-Scotland match was set to go ahead. Two matches were canceled Saturday.

Britain remains a long way from agreeing on a final Brexit deal and the next few days will be critical if it is to reach departure terms with the European Union, a Downing Street source said Saturday.

Negotiators for Britain and the EU entered intense talks over the weekend to see if they can break the Brexit impasse before a crucial summit next week and a deadline for Britain to leave the bloc Oct. 31.

News of progress in the talks sent financial markets surging Friday after Boris Johnson and his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar identified a pathway to a deal following months of acrimony.

But on Saturday the deputy leader of the Northern Irish party that holds a key role in the talks signaled his concern about the mooted proposal and the Downing Street source said Britain remained ready to leave without a deal if needed.

“We’ve always wanted a deal,” the person said, on condition of anonymity. “It is good to see progress, but we will wait to see if this is a genuine breakthrough.

“We are a long way from a final deal and the weekend and next week remain critical to leaving with a deal on Oct. 31. We remain prepared to leave without a deal on Oct. 31,” the source said.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that Johnson, the face of Britain’s 2016 campaign to leave the EU, was now desperate to secure a deal after security chiefs warned that leaving in a disorderly manner could inflame tensions in Northern Ireland.

Ireland has proved the toughest nut to crack in the Brexit talks, specifically how to prevent the British province of Northern Ireland from becoming a backdoor into the EU’s markets without having border controls.

Ireland fears controls on the 500-km (300-mile) border with Northern Ireland would undermine the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian and political conflict that killed more than 3,600 people.

Johnson is likely to talk to senior EU leaders Monday to reassess the situation, the source said.
 

A demonstration in central Mali Saturday turned from protests about the deployment of Malian troops to Burkina Faso to the looting of a nearby U.N. supply depot, VOA’s French to Africa service and the United Nations said.

About 1,000 people had been protesting outside the U.N. peacekeeping force (MINUSMA) camp near Sévaré, the French news agency AFP reported Saturday. But at some point, some protesters marched to the U.N. mission and began to ransack supply containers, including provisions and other items meant for the base.

“The protesters stole logistical and construction equipment,” the U.N. mission said, according to an AFP report. “Camp security was not impacted, but these acts of vandalism are totally unacceptable.”

The protest had calmed by early afternoon, VOA’s French to Africa service reported.

Deployment protest

The demonstrators, including some military spouses, were protesting the deployment of Malian forces to Boulkessi, Burkina Faso, VOA’s French to Africa service reported.

Earlier this month, 25 Malian soldiers were killed and dozens more went missing after an attack on G5 Sahel Force bases in Boulkessi and a Malian army base in Mondoro, Mali.

The attack ranks as the highest death toll this year for Malian troops, as they battle an insurgency in the country made up of militant groups linked to al-Qaida or Islamic State that have set up operations in parts of Mali.

Armed conflict in the West African nation and the neighboring Sahel region has been going on for years and is causing an unprecedented humanitarian emergency in the region.

In a statement, the Mali government condemned the looting, while regional Governor General Abdoulaye Cisse held a crisis meeting about the incident.
 

Armed men stormed a mosque in the volatile north of Burkina Faso as worshippers were at prayer, killing 16 people and sending residents fleeing, security sources and locals said Saturday.

The attack on the Grand Mosque in the town of Salmossi on Friday evening underscores the difficulties faced by the country in its battle against jihadists.

One source said 13 people died at the scene and three succumbed to their injuries later. Two of the wounded are in critical condition.

“Since this morning, people have started to flee the area,” one resident from the nearby town of Gorom-Gorom said.

He said there was a “climate of panic despite military reinforcements” that were deployed after the deadly attack.

Although hit by jihadist violence, many Burkinabes oppose the presence of foreign troops — notably from former colonial ruler France — on their territory.

Terrorism, foreign military

On Saturday, a crowd of about 1,000 people marched in the capital Ouagadougou “to denounce terrorism and the presence of foreign military bases in Africa.”

“Terrorism has now become an ideal pretext for installing foreign military bases in our country,” said Gabin Korbeogo, one of co-organizers of the march.

“The French, American, Canadian, German and other armies have set foot in our sub-region, saying they want to fight terrorism. But despite this massive presence … the terrorist groups … are growing stronger.”

Jihadists arrive in 2015

Until 2015, the poor West African country Burkina Faso was largely spared violence that hit Mali and then Niger, its neighbors to the north.

But jihadists, some linked to Al-Qaida, others to the so-called Islamic State group, started infiltrating the north, then the east, and then endangered the southern and western borders of the landlocked country.

Combining guerrilla hit-and-run tactics with road mines and suicide bombings, the insurgents have killed nearly 600 people, according to a toll compiled by AFP.

Civil society groups put the number at more than 1,000, with attacks taking place almost daily.

Burkina’s defense and security forces are badly equipped, poorly trained and have shown themselves to be unable to put a halt to the increasing violence.

France has a force of 200 in Burkina Faso but also intervenes frequently as part of its regional Barkhane operation.

Almost 500,000 people have fled their homes because of the violence, according to the U.N. refugee agency, which has warned of a humanitarian crisis affecting 1.5 million people.

Almost 3,000 schools have closed, and the impact on an overwhelmingly rural economy is escalating, disrupting trade and markets.

Xi Jinping on Saturday became the first Chinese president in more than two decades to visit Nepal, where he is expected to sign agreements on several infrastructure projects.

Xi arrived Saturday from India, where he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nepal is expected to tread cautiously while building relations with big neighbors India and China.

India has extensive influence on Nepal’s economy and politics, while China and Nepal share a border covered with high mountain peaks.

Jiang Zemin had been the last Chinese president to visit Nepal, making the trip in 1996, but other Chinese leaders — including premiers and foreign ministers — have since paid official visits to the Himalayan nation.

Tanka Prasad Karki, a former Nepalese diplomat, said that a Chinese president had not visited Nepal in such a long time because “China was waiting for a strong government in Kathmandu, as the last few decades were marked by a Maoist war, frequent changes of government and political instability.”

Xi was received by Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli at the Kathmandu airport.

Trans-Himalayan connectivity and an extradition treaty will be high on the agenda during official talks on Sunday, said Narayan Kaji Shreshta, a spokesman for the ruling Nepal Communist Party. He said the countries are also expected to sign a project report on constructing a rail link between Kathmandu and Keirung in Tibet.

Nepalese officials ruled out the possibility of any immediate agreement on the extradition issue. China has been pressing Nepal to sign the treaty for some years to improve administration of border areas and fight against illegal border crossing and transnational crimes like banking fraud, trafficking and the smuggling of gold and wildlife parts, Nepalese officials said.

Police said they had arrested 22 people, including some Tibetan refugees, since Friday to prevent any protests during Xi’s visit.

Xi’s two-day visit to India came at a time of tensions over Beijing’s support for Pakistan, India’s archrival, in opposing New Delhi’s downgrading of Kashmir’s semi-autonomy and continuing restrictions in the disputed region.

Indian Prime Minister Modi told Xi on Saturday that relations between their countries had attained stability and momentum in the past year, and that it should enable them to manage their differences and avoid disputes.

The two leaders avoided the vexed Kashmir dispute from clouding their summit in the seaside temple town of Mamallapuram. Modi said both countries agreed to be sensitive to each other’s concerns as they held delegation-level talks.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said the two countries decided to set up a group at the finance ministers’ level to discuss trade and investment issues, especially India’s whopping $63 billion trade deficit with China.

According to India’s Commerce Ministry, India’s exports to China amounted to $13.33 billion in the 2018 financial year, compared with imports of $76.38 billion.

Tensions in Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed by both in its entirety, have escalated since August, when India downgraded the semi-autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir and imposed a security and communications lockdown.

China supported Pakistan in raising India’s actions at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. China said India should not act unilaterally in Kashmir, a portion of which China also controls.

Xi arrived in India two days after hosting Pakistani Prime Minister Khan in Beijing.

India accuses neighboring Pakistan of arming and training insurgent groups fighting for Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan. Pakistan denies the charge. The two countries have fought two wars over the region’s control since they won independence from British colonialists in 1947.

Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno announced a military-enforced curfew starting in Quito and the surrounding valleys that started at 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) as the highland capital was rocked by unrest triggered by opposition to his austerity plan.

“We’re going to restore order in all of Ecuador,” Moreno said in a televised address to the nation. 

“We’re starting with the curfew in Quito. I’ve ordered the Joint Command of the Armed Forces to immediately take steps necessary to reestablish order in all of Ecuador.”

Moreno also thanked indigenous protest leaders for accepting talks, and blamed the unrest on radical instigators.
 

Firefighters have made progress containing wind-driven wildfires in the western U.S. state of California that has claimed one life, destroyed or damaged dozens of structures, and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Branden Silverman said Saturday morning the blaze in Los Angeles County, named the Saddleridge fire, had been 19-percent contained overnight, thanks to slightly cooler temperatures and lighter winds. The blaze damaged or destroyed at least 31 structures, including homes.

The fire, located in the San Fernando Valley in Northwestern Los Angeles County, was only 13-percent contained on Friday, after burning more than 3,000 hectares, officials said.

Authorities ordered mandatory evacuations Saturday of some 23,000 homes in an area covering about 100,000 residents.

The cause of the Saddleridge fire has not been determined, but investigators said they were following up on a report of flames from a power line when the fire started Thursday night.

To the east of the Saddleridge fire, another blaze swept through a Riverside County mobile home park, destroying dozens of homes. Authorities said that fire, which has burned about 330 hectares, had been 25 percent contained Saturday.

Red flag warnings remain in effect until 6 p.m. local time Saturday, even though the dry Santa Ana winds from nearby mountains that fueled the fires have died down and were expected to continue to weaken throughout Saturday.

Officials said one man died of a heart attack while speaking with firefighters who were battling the Riverside fire early Friday.

In Northern California, electricity has been restored to 98-percent of the nearly 2 million customers who had their power cut off earlier this week by Pacific Gas & Electric in an effort to prevent wildfires.

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared emergencies Friday for Los Angeles and Riverside counties because of the fires. The governor’s office said it has received a federal grant to help with firefighting costs.

More than 1,000 firefighters from numerous departments were battling the fires from the air and ground.

HASAKEH, SYRIA — The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Saturday urged its U.S. allies to assume their “moral obligations” to protect them from a cross-border Turkish offensive, now in its fourth day.

“Our allies had guaranteed us protection … but suddenly and without warning they abandoned us in an unjust decision to withdraw their troops from the Turkish border,” it said in a statement.

“We call on our allies to fulfil their duties and assume their moral obligations,” to protect us by “closing the air space to Turkish warplanes”.

The SDF were the main ground partner in the protracted US-led campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria, losing 11,000 fighters before finally overrunning its self-proclaimed “caliphate” in March.

The Turkish offensive began after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday ordered U.S. troops to pull back from the border.

He stands accused of giving Turkey’s operation a green light.

But Trump has since toughened his policy towards Ankara and on Friday threatened crippling sanctions if the operation goes too far.

The SDF on Saturday down-played the impact sanctions would have on the ground, saying they would not prevent Turkey from pressing ahead with its operation.

Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish-held towns and intense artillery exchanges have caused mounting casualties on both sides of the border since Wednesday.

On the Syrian side, 28 civilians and 74 SDF fighters have been killed by Turkish bombardment, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.  

On the Turkish side, 17 civilians have been killed by cross-border artillery attacks, according to Turkish reports.

The United Nations says 100,000 people in northeast Syria have been displaced by the violence.

 

Cambodian authorities have launched a crackdown on activists in a move observers say is an attempt to intimidate opposition supporters ahead of the planned, but uncertain return next month from self-exile of Sam Rainsy, the acting head of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, and other opposition leaders.

Rainsy, who faces a range of charges and convictions in absentia and multiple arrest warrants, and others who fled the country following the 2017 dissolution of the CNRP, plan to return Nov. 9, which is Cambodian Independence Day and the anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall fell.   

According to a CNRP list, as of midday Oct. 9, 37 activists affiliated with the party and former officials have been arrested this year and placed in pre-trial detention. Thirteen of those were arrested in September. Since then, four more members have been arrested.

More than a dozen others have been charged over the past week with incitement to commit a felony or with conspiracy to topple the government for attempts to mobilize citizens for the return of the opposition leaders.

Phay Siphan, a spokesman for Cambodia’s Council of Ministers, said the arrests were justified as those arrested had indicated they would join Rainsy on his return to stage a coup.

“Sam Rainsy ordered the army to turn the guns against the elected government,” he told VOA. “They call everyone to stand up against the government.”  Meanwhile, should the opposition return to Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen threatened Oct. 7 to deploy armed forces to prevent an armed rebellion as the opposition party had called for armed forces to defect.

CNRP Vice President Mu Sochua rejected allegations that her group would take up arms.

The party “resolutely rejects the notion that the return from exile of the CNRP leaders can be treated as ‘intention to commit armed rebellion’ as such charges have no relation neither to reality nor to legality,” she wrote on Twitter, adding, “We have No arms!”  

In a message to VOA, she said that the CNRP called on soldiers to lay down their arms and “walk across to the civilian side.”

Deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch Phil Robertson called the idea that the CNRP would return to Cambodia and mount a coup “frankly laughable.”

“The Cambodian government, and particularly the prime minister, with his bodyguard unit, have such overwhelming force that any effort to protest on the streets against the government in a way that the government really is unhappy about could lead to an immediate violent crackdown,” he said.

“He’s manufacturing charges as fast as the Cambodian courts will pump them out to try to deter Rainsy and others from returning,” Robertson said.

Sochua told VOA she would return on Nov. 9 despite a March warrant issued against her and seven others based on charges of “plotting an incitement to commit felony.” She said she expected arrests to follow “every day,” until Nov. 9, but that this would not serve the interests of Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

“The crackdown is [Hun Sen’s] miscalculation,” she said. “It makes people more angry.”

Sochua would not provide an estimate of the number of returning opposition members but said a list of returning opposition members would be posted October 26.

Political analyst Meas Nee said arresting CNRP supporters could be harmful to Cambodia’s government, calling the arrests “too extreme.”

“I think all these things, including the arrests, just ruin the reputation of the ruling party … Maybe until then [the return of Sam Rainsy], it could be possible that people’s anger will be built up inside the country,” he said, adding that this anger could lead to political unrest and violence if Rainsy were arrested.

Nee added that if Rainsy were imprisoned, “the next question would be whether this could be a final success of the government.”

Hun Sen last month requested assistance from other Southeast Asian nations in arresting Rainsy and his supporters if they entered those countries’ territories.

Robertson said Thailand might extradite opposition leaders in exchange for Thai activists who had fled to Cambodia. In addition, he said, airlines might bar Rainsy from flights into Cambodia out of fear of government retribution.

 “It’s quite clear that Cambodia is also enlisting its neighbors to go after overseas dissidents, and try to make it more difficult for Rainsy and the CNRP to enter these countries,” he said.

Rainsy’s return, Robertson said, was therefore unlikely. “It’s hard to see how he could physically do it,” he said.