The New York police department has fired a white police officer who used a fatal chokehold during the 2014 arrest of a black man.

James O’Neil, the New York Police Commissioner, made the announcement Monday concerning officer Daniel Pantaleo and the actions surrounding the death of Eric Garner.

His death led to protests over abusive treatment of African-Americans by law enforcement.

Garner, who was 43, collapsed and stopped breathing when he was being arrested for allegedly selling untaxed loose cigarettes on a street. Panteleo put Garner in a chokehold and other uniformed officers wrestled him to the ground.

In a cellphone video taken of the incident, Garner could be heard saying “I can’t breathe” 11 times before he lost consciousness.  

The New York police department prohibits officers from using chokeholds because of the risk of suffocation.

Garner’s death was ruled a homicide by the city’s medical examiner, but a grand jury declined to bring charges against any police officers.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department also declined to bring any criminal charges against Pantaleo.

 

Carrie Underwood, who has hosted the Country Music Association Awards since 2008 with Brad Paisley, is losing her partner-in-crime.
 
But she won’t be on her own: The CMAs announced Monday that “special guest hosts” Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire will join Underwood during the Nov. 13 event. The organization says the show will celebrate “legendary women in Country Music throughout the ceremony.”
 
The CMA Awards will air live on ABC from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
 
Though female acts are finding success on the country music scene, they’ve received little love on country radio as male acts continue to dominate. The last time a woman won CMA’s top prize, entertainer of the year, was in 2011 when Taylor Swift won the honor.
 
Nominees for the CMA Awards will be announced Aug. 28.

Greenland is not for sale and U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea of buying the semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic from Denmark is “an absurd discussion,” Denmark’s prime minister said.

Mette Frederiksen, who was visiting the world’s largest island to meet Premier Kim Kielsen, told reporters: “Greenland is not Danish. Greenland is Greenlandic. I persistently hope that this is not something that is seriously meant.”

Frederiksen said Sunday that the Arctic, with resources that Russia and others could exploit for commercial gain, “is becoming increasingly important to the entire world community.”
 
Retreating ice could uncover potential oil and mineral resources in Greenland which, if successfully tapped, could dramatically change the island’s fortunes. However, no oil has yet been found in Greenlandic waters, and 80 percent of the island is covered by an ice sheet that is up to 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) thick, which means exploration is only possible in coastal regions.
 
Even there, conditions are far from ideal due to the long winter with frozen ports, 24-hour darkness and temperatures regularly dropping below minus 20 Fahrenheit (minus 30 Celsius) in the northern parts.

Trump is expected to visit Denmark Sept. 2-3 as part of a trip to Europe.

Trump said Sunday that he is interested in the idea, but it’s not a priority of his administration.

“Strategically it’s interesting and we’d be interested, but we’ll talk to them a little bit. It’s not No. 1 on the burner, I can tell you that,” the president said.
 
It wouldn’t be the first time an American leader has tried to buy the world’s largest island. In 1946, the U.S. proposed to pay Denmark $100 million to buy Greenland after flirting with the idea of swapping land in Alaska for strategic parts of the Arctic island.

Under a 1951 deal, Denmark allowed the U.S. to build bases and radar stations on Greenland.

The U.S. Air Force currently maintains one base in northern Greenland, Thule Air Force Base, some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) south of the North Pole. Formerly military airfields in Narsarsuaq, Kulusuk and Kangerlussuaq have become civilian airports.

The Thule base, constructed in 1952, was originally designed as a refueling base for long-range bombing missions. It has been a ballistic missile early warning and space surveillance site since 1961.
 
Frederiksen, who became prime minister June 27, was on a planned two-day trip to Greenland before traveling to nearby Iceland for a meeting of the Nordic prime ministers.

“Thankfully, the time where you buy and sell other countries and populations is over. Let’s leave it there. Jokes aside, we will of course love to have an even closer strategic relationship with the United States,” Frederiksen said.

 

Almost a year and a half ago, President Donald Trump famously tweeted that ‘trade wars are good and easy to win.’  But shortly after he announced another ten-percent increase in tariffs on 300-billion-dollars’ worth of Chinese goods, global stock markets dropped and economists warned of a looming recession.  Trump’s top trade official and a Democratic presidential hopeful shared their views Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week.’  Arash Arabasadi has more.

Over the past few days, VOA Mandarin service reporter Suli Yi has spoken to Hong Kong residents at peaceful protests. Any one of them could be your neighbor — law-abiding, family-focused, worried about the future of their community.

VOA Persian’s Katherine Ahn contributed to this report.

An Iranian supertanker caught in a diplomatic standoff off the coast of the British overseas territory Gibraltar remained in port Friday despite a court ruling that it can be released. 

It is not clear when the Iranian supertanker Grace 1, which is at the center of the standoff between Iran and the West, will be able to set sail. 

A lawyer for the ship’s captain told the Associated Press on Friday that the ship’s Indian captain no longer wanted to maintain command of the vessel.

The Supreme Court in Gibraltar ruled Thursday that the tanker could be released from detention, shortly after the United States had launched a new, last-minute legal bid to hold it.

A delay of the vessel’s departure could give the United States another opportunity to mount further legal action to again try to prevent the tanker from leaving Gibraltar.

The Grace 1 had been carrying 2.1 million barrels of Iranian oil when Gibraltar police and British Special Forces seized it on July 4. It was believed to be transporting oil to Syria in violation of both European Union and U.S. sanctions.

On Thursday, Gibraltar’s government said it had received assurances from Tehran that it would not send the crude oil cargo to Syria. 

Gibraltar chief minister Fabian Picardo said in a statement: “We have deprived the Assad regime in Syria of more than $140 million worth of crude oil.”

However, an Iranian official later disputed that any assurances had been given.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi was quoted by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency Friday as saying, “Iran has given no assurances over the Grace 1 not going to Syria to secure its release,” and that Gibraltar was only seeking to “save face.”

After the Iranian tanker was seized, Tehran retaliated by taking control of a British tanker, the Stena Impero, on July 19 in the strategic Strait of Hormuz — the shipping lane for about a fifth of the world’s crude — for breaking “international maritime rules.” Iran still holds the Stena Impero.

Iran had repeatedly called for the release of the Grace 1, saying it had been in international waters and was not headed to Syria.

Tehran condemned Thursday’s U.S. bid to block the release of the ship.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter, “Having failed to accomplish its objectives through its #EconomicTerrorism — including depriving cancer patients of medicine — the U.S. attempted to abuse the legal system to steal our property on the high seas. This piracy attempt is indicative of Trump admin’s contempt for the law.”

In a Thursday interview with VOA Persian, Brookings Institution foreign policy research director Michael O’Hanlon said he did not see Gibraltar’s decision on the tanker as a significant failure for U.S. policy. 

“I think this is in the category of ‘win a few, lose a few.’ We decided to make a run at [the tanker]. Apparently, we have been unsuccessful,” O’Hanlon said. “It doesn’t change the overall situation, which is that we are squeezing Iran harder and harder economically. They are getting less and less oil out, even as they get some sanctions evasion and avoidance. You don’t have to necessarily win every single engagement of this type for the overall strategy to succeed.” 

The dispute over the tanker is part of the ongoing confrontation between U.S. President Donald Trump and the Iranian government over its nuclear program, ballistic missile development and involvement in regional conflicts. The confrontation escalated last year when Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 international agreement in which Iran agreed to curb activities that could be diverted to making nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions. 

Trump said the 2015 deal did not do enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons or engaging in other perceived malign behaviors. By withdrawing from it, he unilaterally reimposed U.S. sanctions against Iran, hobbling its economy in a so-far unsuccessful effort to force Iran to negotiate a new deal. 

Trump has said such a deal should cover not just Iran’s nuclear program but also its activities related to ballistic missiles and support for Islamist militant groups hostile toward the U.S. and U.S. allies.

This week on #VOAOurVoices, there are two sides to the fierce debate on abortion, pro-life and pro-choice. But can these two sides meet in the middle? In Africa, this debate goes to the heart of people’s culture, family planning and the modernization of societies. According to the World Health Organization, 25 million unsafe abortions were performed each year from 2010 to 2014. With the highest risk of death from an unsafe abortion in Africa. Our team looks into the Mexico City policy, also known as ‘Global Gag Rule,’ which places abortion-related restrictions on non-governmental organizations. We are also joined by Ann Kioko, campaigns director for Africa with CitizenGo, a pro-life organization to tackle this debate. 

Joe Darby, a South Carolina pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, pondered a sensitive question that he knew was on the mind of his congregation. Would black voters be able to reconcile their conservative religious doctrine with voting for a gay candidate for president?

“It’s a heavy lift in the black church,” says Darby, who is also a Charleston-area NAACP leader. “Just as nobody who is racist likes to say, ‘I’m a racist,’ nobody who is homophobic in the black community likes to say, ‘I’m homophobic.’”

In South Carolina, the first state with a predominantly African American electorate, part of the dialogue focuses on a conflict between a cultural openness for same-sex marriage and the deeply held religious convictions that could impede support for the 2020 race’s only gay candidate — Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

The historically diverse field of Democratic presidential hopefuls is overflowing with options. But it is also forcing conversations about the roles — if any — that gender, race and, for the first time, sexuality should play in voters’ decisions.

Black voters comprise more than 60% of South Carolina’s Democratic electorate. But an overwhelming majority of African Americans — 79%, according to a recent Pew study — also identify as Christians, which some church leaders note can contribute to internal strife between their religious convictions and how they feel about a gay candidate, if they think doctrine says it’s wrong.

“I’m interested to see how Buttigieg is going to play,” said Darby, saying that the mayor “does the best job of articulating his faith of any of the candidates” but is inherently running up against barriers with those to whom he’s still an unknown. “The most damning comment was at a clergy breakfast, and when his name was brought up another guy said, ‘Yeah, that’s the guy who kissed his husband on TV.’”

Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, has not traveled to South Carolina to campaign. Chris Meagher, Buttigieg’s spokesman, said voters are still getting acquainted with the mayor, who this month became the first 2020 Democratic candidate to hire a faith outreach director.

“Pete is focused on meeting folks where they are,” Meagher said. “It just means quantity of time and spending time with folks and making sure that he’s listening to their concerns and that they’re hearing his plans and his policies and his values.”

Besides his overt expressions of his faith, Buttigieg also has offered a broad policy agenda for African Americans and has been outspoken on the issue of race. But he consistently polls in the low single digits among black voters.

Buttigieg, 37, has acknowledged he has ground to make up in terms of making his case to African American voters in South Carolina, where he also attended a Black Economic Alliance forum this summer. On Friday, he’ll sit down for an interview with black church leaders at an Atlanta event expected to attract 5,000 black millennials. This weekend, he’ll return to South Carolina, planning a series of town halls and attending an AME church service.

With six months until South Carolina’s vote, Buttigieg, like many others in the field, is still working to introduce himself to the electorate. But in some corners of South Carolina’s faith community, according to Darby, first impressions may have already hampered Buttigieg’s on-the-ground debut efforts.

Jon Black, an AME pastor along South Carolina’s coast in Bluffton, said that he presumes the church will ultimately move past any divisions over homosexuality and same-sex marriage, as it did previously with divorce.

“If we can get in a time machine and go down the road 25 years, I think the issue would be resolved,” Black said. “It may take us 25 years to make that turn, but we’ve always supported the disinherited, disenfranchised. … We’ve got to stand with those people who may be the most threatened.”

The church as a whole may not make that change anytime soon, but Black said he didn’t feel that the issue of Buttigieg’s sexuality would override his support if his policy positions prove strong.

“If it gets down to two or three candidates and one happens to be gay, I don’t think that would be a problem for black communities,” Black said.

The attempt to square a willingness to hear all candidates out with a faith-based attitude toward issues of homosexuality is surfacing in conversations in some church communities. Seated in a basement fellowship hall, as Wednesday night services boomed in the sanctuary above, several members of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, mulled over the intersection of sexuality and what many of them agreed should be 2020’s top imperative.

In some circles of faith, LaVelle Pitts said, relying on biblical crutches like the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as a condemnation of homosexuality can be convenient, but it’s not the full story.

“Am I my brother’s keeper? Of course I am,” Pitts, 52, said. “He’s still a person. If his politics are on target, I have no problem voting for him. … If you judge him, you may find yourself in that same situation.”

“You have to completely love them more than you love yourself,” agreed Vanessa Young, a 24-year-old small-business owner. “I think that we just need to love them a little.”

Even when faith and sexuality seem in conflict, said Feliccia Smith, the prevailing sentiment should fall on the side of love and wanting someone to feel whole.

“Regardless of the topic, the church is supposed to be a helping and a healing voice,” said Smith, who declined to give her age. “You don’t accept the sin, but you love the person. … And at the end of the day, God’s word is God’s word.”

Nodding, Young agreed, saying she wouldn’t feel right passing judgment on Buttigieg solely based on his sexuality: “I definitely can’t place judgment on him because I’ve got to go to Judgment Day myself.”

For many, underlying any skepticism of Buttigieg’s personal life, though, remains a theme that has become a constant refrain among Democrats in this early voting state: If he can oust the current White House occupant, little else matters.

“If he’s got good politics, his personal life has nothing to do with what his job will be,” Pitts said. “We have got to have somebody who’s going to beat Trump.”

Analysts warn that tension could rise as a U.N. hearing nears on a Kenyan-Somali territorial argument. 

Kenya’s parliament recently called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to send troops to the Indian Ocean to protect the country’s territory from what it calls Somalia’s aggression. 
 
“In the event that diplomacy is going to fail and any other process fails, then our constitution permits the use of Kenya defense forces to protect our boundary, and the authority to use Kenya defense forces is vested in the parliament,” said lawmaker John Mbadi. “The president can declare war or use our forces to protect our boundary, but the deployment of those troops must be sanctioned by the parliament. We told the president … that parliament would support any means to protect our territory.” 

Court of Justice hearing
 
The threat by Kenya comes less than a month before the U.N.’s International Court of Justice holds a hearing on the dispute.  
 
Somali lawmaker Mohamed Omar Talha told VOA that his country would counter Kenya by sending troops of its own to the 100,000-square-kilometer (38,600-square-mile) area. 
 
“If they send their troops to Somalia, we, the parliament of Somalia, will also bring a motion that will counter such a threat and give permission to our soldiers to defend our people and territory,” Talhar said. 
 
The neighbors’ maritime dispute began in 2014 when Somalia filed a complaint against Kenya in the International Court of Justice saying it had exhausted all other avenues of finding a resolution. 
 
Kenya wants negotiations with Somalia, while Somalia insists the court process must stop before negotiations take place. 
 
Security expert Mwachofi Singo said a conflict between the countries would benefit the al-Shabab terrorist group. 

‘Fan the fires’
 
“Catastrophic. Nobody wants to worsen an already bad situation, because the security situation in the Horn [of Africa] is already not good,” Singo said. “You have al-Shabab roaming around everywhere. Kenya is part of the AMISOM [African Union Mission in Somalia] force that is fighting al-Shabab inside Somalia. Now, if you open another front … this can only fan the fires.  I think al-Shabab will celebrate, because chaos thrives in chaos.” 
 
Mumo Nzau, who teaches diplomacy and international studies at the University of Nairobi, said the military threats were political statements. 
 
“Those are kind of political statements by politicians, and they are normal,” Nzau said. “But that cannot be the official position of the country. It’s just positions that politicians take once in a while, but … there are no troops at the disputed area for any reason. This is a matter that the United Nations Security Council and the African Union are observing very closely, and they are working very closely with the two countries.” 
 
The hearing on the Indian Ocean dispute will begin Sept. 9 at International Court of Justice headquarters in The Hague. 

President Donald Trump said Thursday he supports meaningful background checks for gun buyers, but he told reporters that those responsible for recent mass shootings were mentally ill and the United States should build more mental institutions.

Trump said he had been speaking with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and many other Republicans about the problem of gun violence and that “they don’t want to have insane people, dangerous people, really bad people having guns.”

“We don’t want crazy people owning guns,” the president added. “It’s them. They pull the trigger. The gun doesn’t pull the trigger. They pull the trigger. So we have to look very seriously at mental illness.”

The president is under pressure to curb gun violence following mass shootings that killed dozens of people this month in Texas and Ohio. His comments came as he started a trip from New Jersey to speak to a campaign rally in New Hampshire.

“We’re looking at the whole gun situation,” Trump said when asked whether he was pressing Republicans on tougher background checks for gun buyers.

“I do want people to remember the words mental illness. These people are mentally ill. … These are mentally ill people and people have to start thinking about it. I think we have to start building institutions again,” he said, adding that many U.S. mental institutions were closed in the 1960s and ’70s and their patients released onto the streets.

“A lot of our conversation has to do with the fact that we have to open up institutions,” Trump added. “We can’t let these people be on the streets.”

This story originated in

About 650 million girls worldwide were married before age 18. That is about 17% of the world’s female population, according to UNICEF. These marriages often keep girls from completing their education and can lead to devastating psychological and physical consequences. In a yearlong project, Voice of America met with child brides from Albania to Pakistan to Tanzania.Jesusemen Oni has more.
 

Guatemala’s President-elect Alejandro Giammattei says he wants to change an immigration agreement between his country and the United States because Guatemala does not have the resources to care for asylum-seekers from other countries. The deal made in July between the outgoing administration of President Jimmy Morales and U.S. President Donald Trump would require migrants from other countries who cross into Guatemala to apply for asylum from there. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
 

Criminal justice activists have long complained that in the United States, routine traffic violations can turn poor people into criminals. The inability to pay fines leads to more fines and penalties, often turning communities against law enforcement. In Ferguson, Missouri, the unrelated shooting death of an unarmed black man five years ago led the community and the police to reassess these practices, sparking a national conversation.  Masood Farivar reports.
 

Police in the U.S. city of Philadelphia arrested a suspect early Thursday after an hourslong standoff that left six officers with gunshot injuries that were not life threatening.

A spokesman said after police took the suspect into custody, officers worked to clear the house in the city’s Nicetown neighborhood where the gunman had barricaded himself.

The situation began Wednesday when an officer went to the address to serve a warrant.

Two police officers were trapped inside the house with the gunman for more than four hours before being safely evacuated.

Authorities attempted to communicate with the gunman, including making multiple phone calls, but said that while he did answer the calls, he did not say anything.

The police spokesman said all six officers who sustained gunshot wounds had been released from local hospitals by late Wednesday. One other officer was admitted for treatment of injuries that came in a vehicle crash related to the barricade around the scene.

The shooting prompted a lockdown at the nearby Temple University Health Sciences Center Campus, which issued a warning via Twitter:

Lockdown is in effect for Health Sciences Center Campus. Seek shelter. Secure doors. Be silent. Be still. Police are responding.

— Temple University (@TempleUniv) August 14, 2019

U.S. regulators Wednesday approved a new tuberculosis drug that when taken with two other medicines shows dramatic results.

The new drug, Pretomanid, was developed by the nonprofit TB Alliance.

A study shows that when taken with taken with two other drugs. Pretomanid cured 90% of patients suffering from a strain of TB that is resistant to other treatments.

The study shows the three-drug cocktail can cure TB in about six months and can also stop patients from spreading the disease in just a few days.

Most current TB treatments require patients to take multiple numbers of pills and months of very painful daily shots. This treatment of pills and shots can last as long as two years. Doctors say many patients either give up first or die.

Tuberculosis generally attacks the lungs and is spread when someone with the infection sneezes or coughs. It kills about 1.6 million people every year worldwide.

Hong Kong braced Thursday for more mass demonstrations through the weekend, with the weekslong crisis escalating after pro-democracy protests forced the cancellation of nearly 1,000 flights this week and world leaders urging calm.

China reiterated Wednesday that Hong Kong’s protest resembled terrorism and more street clashes followed ugly and chaotic scenes at the airport two days ago, when protesters set upon two men they suspected of being government sympathizers.

Police and protesters faced off again on the streets of the financial hub overnight, with riot officers quickly firing tear gas as their response to demonstrators hardens.

Ten weeks of increasingly violent confrontations between police and protesters have plunged Hong Kong into its worst crisis since it reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

The protests represent one of the biggest populist challenges for Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012 and show no immediate signs of abating.

U.S. President Donald Trump tied a trade agreement with China to a humane resolution of the protests that have disrupted the city for the past 10 weeks, even suggesting he was willing to meet Xi to discuss the crisis.

“I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi (Jinping) wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?” Trump said on Twitter.

The U.S. State Department said earlier it was deeply concerned about reports that Chinese police forces were gathering near the border with Hong Kong and urged the city’s government to respect freedom of speech.

It also issued a travel advisory urging citizens to exercise caution when visiting Hong Kong. China has frequently warned against what it regards as outside interference in an internal issue.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called on Hong Kong authorities Wednesday to renew talks with protesters to find a peaceful solution, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged China to handle the protests with tact.

Airport reopens; protesters apologize

Hong Kong’s Airport Authority said normal flight operations would resume Thursday but heightened security would remain at the city’s international airport. It said Wednesday an application for protests to be held in the terminal must be made in advance with a “Letter of No Objection” from police.

Protesters have expressed remorse after a peaceful sit-in turned violent at one of the world’s busiest airports earlier this week.

It was not yet clear whether the violent clashes had eroded the broad support the movement has so far attracted in Hong Kong. The protests have also hit the city’s faltering economy.

Support eroding?

Business and citizens groups posted full page advertisements in major newspapers to support the government and denounce the violence.

The Chinese Securities Association of Hong Kong said the city’s international reputation would be seriously damaged if the violence and unrest were not stopped as soon as possible.

The head of Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment, Lui Che-woo, urged talks to rebuild a harmonious Hong Kong. The protests have affected the neighboring Chinese territory of Macau, with some visitors avoiding the world’s biggest gambling hub amid transport disruptions and safety concerns.

Several protests were planned across different districts of Hong Kong from Thursday, including a teachers rally and one organized by animal lovers upset that their pets were being tear-gassed. The Civil Human Rights Front, which organized million-strong marches in June, set another protest for Sunday.

Five requests

Protesters are still pushing for authorities to listen to their five requests, which include the complete withdrawal of a now-suspended extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent for trial in mainland Chinese courts.

The protests grew out of opposition to the extradition bill into wider concerns about the erosion of freedoms guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” formula put in place after the return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Their other demands include a halt to descriptions of the protests as “rioting,” the dropping of charges against those arrested, an independent inquiry, and the resumption of political reform.

This week on “Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren” for August 14, 2019: After the hottest July ever recorded, a new U.N. report outlines the impact and probability of more heat waves, bigger storms and rising sea levels in the very near future. Is it too late to change course or is there still time to save our planet? Plugged In seeks answers on Climate Change: The Growing Threat.” 

Russia said on Wednesday it had flown two nuclear-capable TU-160 bombers to a far eastern Russian region opposite Alaska as part of a training exercise that state media said showed Moscow’s ability to park nuclear arms on the United States’ doorstep.

The Tupolev TU-160 strategic bomber, nicknamed the White Swan in Russia, is a supersonic Soviet-era aircraft capable of carrying up to 12 short-range nuclear missiles and of flying 12,000 km (7,500 miles) non-stop without refueling.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the planes had covered a distance of over 6,000 km (3,728 miles) in over eight hours from their home base in western Russia to deploy in Anadyr in the Chuktoka region which faces Alaska.

It said the flight was part of a tactical exercise that would last until the end of this week and was designed to rehearse the air force’s ability to rebase to operational air fields and to practice air-to-air refueling.

Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta said on its website that the flight showed Moscow’s ability to base nuclear bombers within 20 minutes flight time from the United States, which it said was just over 600 km (372 miles) away.

TU-160s have flown from bases in Russia to Syria where they have bombed forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, one of Moscow’s closest Middle East allies.

The defense ministry said a total of around 10 TU-160 bombers and TU-95MS and IL-78 planes were involved in the exercise, suggesting it covered other areas too.

 

British investigators say Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala and his pilot were exposed to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide before their small plane crashed in the English Channel, killing them both.

A single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft carrying Sala and pilot David Ibbotson crashed in the Channel on Jan. 21.Sala was traveling from France to join his new team, Cardiff City in Wales.

His body was recovered from the wreckage two weeks later. Ibbotson’s body has not been found.

The Air Accident Investigations Branch said Wednesday that toxicology tests found “a high saturation level of COHb (the combination product of carbon monoxide and hemoglobin)” in Sala’s blood.
 
It said the level was 58%, above the 50% level “generally considered to be potentially fatal” in a healthy individual.