Nigerian authorities this week launched the first nationwide register of sex offenders and held a candlelight procession in the capital, Abuja, to raise awareness and work to prevent violence against women. While they welcomed these as steps forward, women’s rights activists and victims of gender-based violence note Nigeria has a poor record of prosecution. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.

London police are defending the decision not to pursue a full investigation of allegations made against Prince Andrew by a woman who says she was trafficked by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Police acknowledged Thursday that they received a complaint in 2015 from a woman alleging she was the victim of trafficking for sexual exploitation.

The woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said she was trafficked by Epstein and had sex three times with Prince Andrew starting in 2001, including once in London. She says she was 17 when they first had sex.

Metropolitan Police Commander Alex Murray said police concluded in 2016 after looking into the matter and consulting prosecutors that the London-based force was the wrong agency to investigate.

“Following the legal advice, it was clear that any investigation into human trafficking would be largely focused on activities and relationships outside the U.K.” he said.

The London police, he added, would not be the “appropriate authority” to investigate.

Epstein, a wealthy financier, died in prison in August in what the New York City coroner ruled as a suicide. He faced trafficking charges.

The Met’s Murray said police reviewed its decision after Epstein’s death and decided not to change policy.

Andrew, 59, has repeatedly denied the allegations, most recently during a televised interview broadcast nearly two weeks ago in which he lost public support by defending his friendship with Epstein and by not expressing sympathy for Epstein’s many young female victims. The prince has since stepped down from royal duties because of the scandal.

A television interview with Giuffre is scheduled to be broadcast Monday in Britain. She has said Andrew must take responsibility for what he’s done.

Murray also said that London police have not received a formal request for assistance from other law enforcement agencies investigating the case.

U.S. officials are still looking into the case and a number of civil lawsuits against Epstein’s estate are in progress.

President Donald Trump is making a surprise visit to Afghanistan to spend time with U.S. troops on Thanksgiving.

Trump says US and Taliban have been engaged in ongoing talks, says he believes Taliban open to ceasefire.

Trump arrived at Bagram Air Field shortly after 8:30 p.m. local time and spent more than two-and-a-half hours on the ground. Reporters were under strict instructions to keep the trip a secret to ensure his safety.
       
The visit comes more than two months after Trump abruptly broke off peace talks with the Taliban after a bombing in Kabul killed 12 people, including an American soldier.
       
And it comes at a pivotal moment in Trump’s presidency, with the impeachment inquiry moving quickly.
       
The president and first lady made a similar trip last year to Iraq on Christmas night -their first to an active conflict zone.
       
Vice President Mike Pence also visited troops in Iraq this week.

NATO leaders are preparing to gather in London for a two-day meeting Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the alliance. The war in Syria  and the ongoing threat from Russia  will serve as the backdrop to the summit. But as Henry Ridgwell reports, growing tensions between members could overshadow the anniversary celebrations.

Flash flooding has hit the small but strategic East African nation of Djibouti, where the government and United Nations said the equivalent of two years’ rain fell in a single day. Several regional countries including Kenya are struggling after heavy rains, with more to come.

A joint Djibouti-U.N. statement on Thursday said up to a quarter-million people have been affected in recent days in the country on the Red Sea that’s home to military bases for the United States, China and others. With heavy rains forecast through the end of the month that number could grow.

Djibouti has been called one of the world’s most vulnerable non-island nations in the face of climate change as sea levels rise. Neighboring Somalia has been hit hard by recent flooding as well.

In Kenya, East Africa’s economic hub, the government said 120 people have been killed in flooding and mudslides during an unusually severe rainy season. More than 60 died over the weekend in West Pokot county.
More than 18,000 people across Kenya are displaced, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society. Infrastructure has been damaged, making aid delivery more difficult.

Doctors are worried that diseases, especially waterborne ones, might spread.
                 

Pakistan’s Supreme Court limited the tenure extension of the sitting army chief to six months Thursday, as opposed to the three years the government wanted to grant him. In addition, the court has asked the government to use the time to amend laws to clarify the terms and conditions of the post, including the length of tenure and whether that tenure could be extended.
 
“[I]nspite of the assistance rendered by the learned Attorney-General, we could not find any provision relating to the tenure of COAS [Chief of Army Staff] or of a General and whether the COAS can be reappointed or his term can be extended or his retirement can be limited or suspended under the Constitution or the law,” the court wrote in its order.
 
Once the new legislation is enacted, the court said, it would determine the future of army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure and other conditions of service.
 
On Tuesday, the court suspended a government notification extending General Bajwa’s term for three years.
 
The decision sent shock waves through a country that has been ruled by the military for more than half of its existence and where the military is considered to be the most powerful institution, widely believed to be secretly wielding influence over other institutions like the executive, the parliament, and the judiciary.
 
Bajwa is not the first army chief to receive an extension. Several army chiefs in the past, some of them dictators, served multiple terms. However, no one ever challenged such actions in court. In the last two decades, only one army chief, Raheel Sharif, stepped down at the end of his term of three years.
 
For the last three days, the case has received almost non-stop coverage in local media. Television news channels have repeated the judges’ words in court almost verbatim.
 
Many in the country, including the top court, were surprised by the fact that the terms of service of the army chief’s office, considered to be one of the most powerful in the country, were not clearly described in the law.
 
“In the proceedings before us during the last three days the Federal Government has moved from one position to another referring to it as reappointment, limiting of retirement or extension of tenure,” the court said in its judgment, also noting that the government also kept changing its position on whether it drew the authority to grant an extension from the constitution or from a particular set of laws governing the army.
 
The court’s proceedings, particularly because of the possibility that the judges might strike down the extension completely, threatened to pit the judiciary against the military. Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed relief that it did not happen.
 
“Today must be a great disappointment to those who expected the country to be destabilized by a clash of institutions. That this did not happen must be of special disappointment to our external enemies & mafias within -,” he tweeted.
 
At a press conference Thursday evening, Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan, who represented the government, called it a historic judgment.
 
“The interpretation of the constitution in this judgment will help us in the future as well,” he said, explaining that the laws ruling the army dated back to a time when the British ruled the region, before 1947, and were being used with minor changes.
 
 
 
 

Farmers across France are protesting poor economic and social conditions in the farming community. Hundreds of tractors disrupted traffic in Paris and other major cities in a demonstration organized by the National Federation of Agricultural Holders’ Unions and the union of young farmers. Farmers unloaded tires to block some roads and scattered hay bales across the Champs-Elysées, the central avenue in Paris. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports farmers demand a response from President Emmanuel Macron.
 

The Department of Homeland Security lacked a technology system to efficiently track separated migrant families during the execution of the zero tolerance immigration policy in 2018, a report released Wednesday by the agency’s inspector general found.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) was not able to confirm the total number of families DHS separated under the zero tolerance policy, in which every adult who crossed the border illegally, including those who came with their children, was criminally prosecuted.

The result was a widespread practice of separating families at the border.

“DHS also did not provide adequate guidance to personnel responsible for executing the zero tolerance policy,” the report found.

According to OIG, DHS estimated that border patrol agents separated 3,014 children from their families while the policy was in place.

Yet, OIG investigators were able to identify about 1,400 cases where separations may have occurred but were not documented in the various methods to record and track family separations used by DHS and border patrol officials.

‘Policy designed … to inflict pain’

In response to the OIG report, Jess Morales Rocketto, chair of Families Belong Together, said in a statement that family separation is an “intentional, white nationalist policy designed to inflict the maximum amount of trauma, pain and suffering.”

The Trump administration has said the zero tolerance policy was crafted at a time when migrant border arrivals were skyrocketing. The administration has said the policy was needed to deter an even greater exodus from mostly Central American nations.

The internal DHS watchdog also found Trump administration officials expected to separate 26,000 children in case the zero tolerance policy continued. It also said the agency knew it lacked the technology as early as 2017 to track and reunite children with parents.

“Although DHS spent thousands of hours and more than $1 million in overtime costs, it did not achieve the original goal of deterring ‘catch and release’ through the zero tolerance policy. Instead, thousands of detainees were released into the United States. Moreover, the surge in apprehended families during this time resulted in children being held in CBP facilities beyond the 72-hour legal limit,” the report found.

Report’s five recommendations

OIG made five recommendations to DHS to improve its systems to track and reunify separated families.

Among them: more training so officials at the United States Border Patrol improve “field personnel abilities to track separated migrant family members,” necessary modifications in CBP’s IT system to “limit user error and improve data quality,” and a better coordination between ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and the Department of Health and Human Services to “outline roles” to create a standard operating process for migrant family reunification.

Officials at DHS and its subagencies had not responded to requests for comment by VOA by Wednesday afternoon.

DHS sent comments to OIG on the draft report and said the agency has been taking measures to improve its processing, tracking and management systems at the border, while continuing to confront the border crisis and “fulfilling its humanitarian and security obligations.”

This week is Thanksgiving in the United States, a national holiday during which people celebrate their blessings over the past year. Traditionally a large meal is shared with friends and family. Not everyone can afford to do that, though, so some food banks are providing special Thanksgiving meals to low-income families. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to the largest food bank in northern Virginia, where Thanksgiving packages are being handed out so everyone can enjoy the holiday.
 

Appeals court judges put on hold a ruling by a lower court that would require former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify to lawmakers as part of the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

McGahn, who left his post in October 2018, last May defied a House Judiciary Committee subpoena to testify about Trump’s efforts to impede former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that detailed Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

The hold on the case comes as the judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit consider a longer stay. They scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 3 on the underlying appeal, according to a court order.

Hours earlier, Washington-based U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed to impose a temporary delay on her ruling, saying in an order it would give her time to rule on whether to put the case on hold longer-term so the Justice Department can appeal.

Pivotal figure

The Justice Department filed a second emergency application earlier to the appeals court, asking that court to put the litigation on hold after Jackson did not immediately act on its earlier request.

Justice Department lawyers said the filing was “in an abundance of caution” in order to ensure that they could then turn to the Supreme Court in a timely fashion if their request is rejected.

McGahn emerged as a pivotal figure in a 448-page report completed in March by Mueller.

According to the report, McGahn told investigators that Trump repeatedly instructed him to have Mueller removed and then asked him to deny having been so instructed when word of the action emerged in news reports. McGahn did not carry out either instruction.

House Democratic leaders have since focused their impeachment inquiry on Trump’s actions concerning Ukraine, but have discussed pursuing a broader count of obstruction of Congress among any articles of impeachment — formal charges — brought against the president. McGahn’s testimony could bolster that part of their inquiry.

Officials told not to testify

In Monday’s ruling, Jackson rejected the Trump administration’s claim of broad immunity protecting current and former senior White House officials from being compelled to testify before Congress, saying no one is above the law.

Justice Department lawyers wrote in the new filing that the appeals court should block the ruling before Trump is “irreparably injured by the compelled congressional testimony of a former close advisor.”

The administration wants the ruling to be put on hold while the Trump administration appeals it, which means McGahn would not have to testify in the meantime. The White House has directed current and former officials not to testify or provide documents sought in the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry.

More international students who said they were attending a university that was actually a shell created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have been arrested in Michigan on immigration charges in recent months.

DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) created the University of Farmington to expose weaknesses in the student visa immigration process, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Helms wrote in a sentencing memo, as reported by the Detroit Free Press. The paper broke the story last spring.

“While ‘enrolled’ at the university, 100 percent of the foreign citizen students never spent a single second in a classroom. If it were truly about obtaining an education, the university would not have been able to attract anyone, because it had no teachers, classes or educational services,” the memo said.

While the students were granted student visas to enter the U.S., they were in violation when they did not actually attend the school, federal agencies said. Of about 250 people arrested, more than 200 students voluntarily left the U.S., and 50 stayed until being arrested or deported, the Free Press reported. ICE officials said many of the students were from India.

The paper reported that some students — claiming they were entrapped by the U.S. government, which operated the fake university — hired attorneys to defend their right to stay.

It remains unclear what happened to the tuition and fees paid by the students. It cost approximately $12,000 to enroll in the fake school, the Free Press reported.

Last winter, eight people were arrested and indicted for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harboring aliens for profit. Federal agencies said those charged helped at least 600 “foreign citizens to illegally remain, reenter and work in the United States and actively recruited them to enroll in a fraudulent school as part of a ‘pay to stay’ scheme.”

After conviction, the eight were sentenced to between 12 and 24 months. They face deportation after they serve their terms.

Europe is taking on propaganda videos and social media accounts that glorify terrorism and extremism in an effort to limit the space for extremist groups to recruit people online, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, known as Europol, said this week.

The decision was made following two days of meetings last week by Europol’s European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU), at its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, the agency said in a statement Monday.

“This coordinated action focused on the dissemination of online terrorist content. Among the items referred were propaganda videos and social media accounts glorifying or supporting terrorism and violent extremism,” the agency said in a statement.

The crackdown came after meetings between law enforcement and judicial authorities in Europe aimed at launching a joint effort to disrupt Islamic State’s online activities, the agency said, adding that they have been addressing this issue since 2015.

“Since July 2015, the EU IRU of Europol has been working with law enforcement authorities and online service providers to address the terrorist abuse of the internet in the framework of the EU Internet Forum,” the statement added.

Telegram

In an operation last week, Europol and law enforcement authorities in 12 European countries removed more than 26,000 items supporting Islamic State’s ideology.

“They have disappeared from an important part of the internet,” Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesperson for the Belgian prosecutor’s office, said at a news conference at Europol headquarters in The Hague.

For the operation, the agency had been collaborating with nine online service providers, including Telegram, Google, Files.fm, Twitter, Instagram and Dropbox.

Among them, Telegram was the online service provider that contained the most extremism-related material, according to Europol, which praised Telegram for “its efforts to root out … malicious content.”

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov responded Tuesday to Europol’s appreciation via his official Telegram channel.

“After the ISIS attacks in Europe, we have zero tolerance for their propaganda on our platform,” Durov said, using an acronym for the militant group.

“At the same time, we’ll continue to defend our users’ absolute right to privacy like no other service, proving that you don’t have to sacrifice privacy for security,” he added.

Telegram has been used by IS members because the app provides encryption for private communications.

Online recruitments

According to a report released this summer by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, Telegram serves “as a stable online platform for pro-IS content, an ecosystem for building extremist networks, an effective and secure internal communications tool, and a forum for recruiting new IS members.”

Experts charge that Islamic State’s online recruitment strategy, with the use of encrypted apps and automated bots, poses a challenge for European law enforcement units that want to monitor its online activities.

“Research shows that European policymakers and companies alike often focus on the restriction and removal of internet content to contain the spread of extremist messaging. But that censorship can lead extremists to focus their recruitment activities elsewhere,” Kate Cox, a senior analyst at RAND Europe, told VOA.

“What is needed are approaches that are grounded in intelligence collection involving close partnerships between law enforcement and social media companies in order to map extremist networks, identify capabilities and highlight potential targets,” Cox added.

Some experts point out that even though a lot has been done to exert more control over the online space to prevent the IS propaganda, there are many “offline” networks that could pose a threat of terrorist recruitment in Europe.

“I think over the last two years, there has been a lot of effort to exercise more control on the online space [IS online presence] both with active takedown measures and regulatory measures … but it’s not the primary channel of recruitment,” Raphael Bossong, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told VOA.

“All research shows that it is also and much more importantly the social ties, more contacts that people have, and then once they have a certain environment, a certain personal involvement, they may be going further into the online world,” Bossong said.

Free speech

According to experts, Europe’s anti-terrorism measures are broadly defined, and efforts by tech companies to counter the problem of extremist material online are faced with obstacles because it overlaps with free speech and people’s ability to express themselves online.

“The European Union’s own Directive on Combating Terrorism has a vague definition of terrorism that risks negative consequences for free expression, particularly online, and could have a range of downstream impacts, such as on the right to public protest and demonstration,” according to a report released this month by the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford.

“Free expression is at risk when governments pass counterterrorism laws that use imprecise and unclear passages criminalizing the ‘glorification of terrorism and its provocation,’ ” the report added.

There is also the debate among free speech advocates and experts over issues pertaining to people’s privacy and the broader security implications of allowing jihadist groups like Islamic State to operate on these platforms.

“There are obvious tensions — privacy and free speech on the one hand, and safety and security on the other,” Maura Conway, a Dublin-based academic who studies fighting online extremism and is coordinator of VOX-Pol, told VOA.

“The role of the internet, and social media in particular in this case, in violent extremism and terrorism was not something that internet companies wished to countenance early in their development, but is certainly an area that they now acknowledge is one in which workable solutions need to be found,” Conway added.

Rikar Hussein contributed to this report, and some information for this report came from Reuters.

Egypt’s government is using a secretive judicial agency designed to fight terrorism to detain peaceful protesters, journalists and critics on trumped-up charges without trial, Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday.

The 60-page report by the London-based rights group details how Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution, or SSSP, has become increasingly central to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s sweeping crackdown on dissent.

“In Egypt today, the Supreme State Security Prosecution has stretched the definition of `terrorism’ to encompass peaceful protests, social media posts and legitimate political activities,” said Philip Luther, the group’s Middle East and North Africa director.

Rainbow-colored flags

Concertgoers were accused of terrorism for waving rainbow-colored flags. A journalist charged with “broadcasting false news” was detained repeatedly for three years. A human rights lawyer was arrested for joining a protest he says he didn’t attend. Several Christians were imprisoned for “aiding a terrorist group,” a reference to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization.

“Ridiculous” prosecutions have proliferated, said report author Hussein Baoumi.

Citing these cases and over a hundred others, Amnesty International said the SSSP, a secretive agency comprised of just a few hand-picked judges, is abusing its legal powers as a counterterrorism branch to stifle political dissent.

“There’s no judicial oversight. We’re talking about a completely closed circuit,” Baoumi said. “If these cases were referred to trial, people would be acquitted at once,” as the state’s accusations are based on confidential police reports, he added.

Harsh crackdown

Egyptian security forces carried out a harsh crackdown in September to stamp out small but rare anti-government protests. The SSSP played a critical role in sweeping up thousands of people on charges of terrorism, the report said.

The prosecution agency renews people’s detentions for months and years without evidence, denying them access to lawyers and a fair chance to appeal, it added.

Amnesty said SSSP investigations into allegations of torture and enforced disappearance by the police intelligence division amount to a whitewash. The SSSP routinely buries evidence of police abuse and gives credence to confessions extracted with torture, it said, drawing on court documents and interviews with dozens of witnesses.

Under el-Sissi, Egypt has seen a “meteoric rise” in cases prosecuted by SSSP, according to Amnesty. The report drew attention to the expansion of the branch’s covert role since a court declared indefinite administrative detention unconstitutional in 2013.

There was no immediate comment from the government on Amnesty’s report, but authorities have repeatedly denied charges of violations or police brutality. Authorities say they are fighting terrorism and have accused rights groups of working with foreign entities to undermine the state.

Unprecedented political crackdown

El-Sissi led the military’s removal of the country’s first democratically elected president in 2013 after his one-year rule proved divisive, sparking nationwide protests.

The general-turned-president has overseen an unprecedented political crackdown, silencing critics and jailing thousands.

“Our goal with this report is to make it very clear that when someone is accused of terrorism in Egypt, the international community cannot take it at face value,” Baoumi told The Associated Press. “More likely, that person was arrested for peacefully expressing an opinion.”

Late on Tuesday, police made six new arrests — including three journalists — in central Cairo. Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafiz, a board member of Egypt’s journalists’ association, wrote a post on social media about the arrests, listing the journalists as Solafa Magdy, Hossam el-Sayyad and Mohamed Salah.

Journalists remain in detention

Prosecutors on Wednesday ordered the three journalists to remain in detention for 15 days pending an investigation into allegations of taking part and joining in activities of a terrorist group and disseminating false news, according lawyer Nabeh el-Ganadi. The remaining three were workers in a coffee shop and were released.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday that the United Nations is “obviously concerned” about the whereabouts of Magdy, who was recently at U.N. headquarters in New York participating in the U.N.-sponsored Reham Al Farra Fellowship for young working journalists from developing countries.

An Egyptian Christian activist, Ramy Kamel, was also arrested and accused of joining a “terror” group and spreading false news when security forces stormed his home early Saturday, his lawyer Said Fayez said.

The SSSP interrogated him for several hours before transferring him to temporary custody in Cario’s Tora prison, where he remains.

State Department reacts

In Washington, a senior State Department official called on Egypt “to ensure journalists can work without threats of imprisonment and intimidation.” Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told reporters Tuesday that “as part of our long-standing strategic partnership, we continue to raise the fundamental importance of respect for human rights.”

For decades, the U.S. has been Egypt’s largest weapons supplier, with over a billion dollars in military aid each year.

Islamic State militants have increased their activity in some northern Iraqi provinces. Local residents say IS recently kidnapped and threatened to kill civilians in the area, forcing many to flee their homes. VOA’s Dilshad Anwar filed this report narrated by Sirwan Kajjo.

It’s been a year since the deadliest fire in California history destroyed 90% of the town of Paradise, killing 85 people. Much of the burned debris has been removed and empty lots remain.  Most of the fire survivors are scattered, living in other towns and cities.  But there are a few who have moved back to Paradise, and dream of a day when the town is vibrant again.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the story of one family who is trying to rebuild the town.

As Zimbabwe’s healthcare system collapses amid medical worker strikes, some women are being forced to rely on midwives and give birth in unsanitary conditions, which experts say puts the mother and child at risk infections.

Zimbabwe’s clinics have often been forced to suspend operations since medical workers went on strike to push for better wages in September.

Pregnant women have been turning to midwives to deliver their babies, explains Esther Zinyoro-Gwenya, who is a midwife in one of Harare’s poorest townships, Mbare.

“I ask each expecting mother to bring a razor blade, a pin for the baby’s navel and cotton.  Nothing untoward has happened.  It’s an easy task after the baby is delivered, I ask the mother to go into my bedroom to rest while I take care of the next one,” she said.

The 74-year-old Zinyoro-Gwenya said she has already delivered about 250 babies in November.

While she said all mothers and babies survived, the lack of sanitation means a higher risk of infection.  

It is also a symptom of the ailing state of health care in the country, said Dr. Tawanda Zvakada from the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association. 

“It’s a sad situation that we find ourselves in whereby women are now giving birth in place that is not sterile, that does not meet the minimum World Health Organization’s requirements for a facility that suits for delivery of babies.  It is just a reflection of our health systems which is on the verge of a collapse; people seeking alternative health methods.  We call upon the responsible authorities to act on the situation with the urgency that it deserves,” said Dr. Zvakada.

Zimbabwe’s doctors and nurses want the government to provide modern equipment to clinics and hospitals, which have deteriorated along with the country’s economy. The World Bank expects Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product to shrink by 7.5% in 2019.

George Guvamatanga, secretary for Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, said Harare is aware of the healthcare problems and that the government is working to address the issues.

“We are very much on top of the situation within the health and education sectors.  We are working closely with the Ministry of Health to make sure that sustainable and adequate resources as required by the doctors are provided,” he said.

Meanwhile, expectant mothers in Zimbabwe are doing the best they can.

The death toll from the strongest earthquake to hit Albania in more than three decades rose to at least 27 on Wednesday, as the country observed a day of mourning.
 
Among the deaths, which included children, were at least 12 people killed in the coastal city of Durrës, at least 14 in Thumanë, and at least one in Kurbin. Officials say the death toll could increase further, with several people still unaccounted for. Hundreds of others were admitted to the hospital with injuries.
 
The government declared the state of emergency for the areas affected the most, as rescue crews continued to work to pull people from the rubble.

 
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was a magnitude 6.4 with an epicenter 30 kilometers northwest of the capital, Tirana. Three hours after the initial quake, a magnitude-5 aftershock struck in the Adriatic Sea.
 
Several buildings were also destroyed in Durrës and Thumanë.
 
“For the moment, when all energies are going towards search and rescue, it is impossible to have a detailed account of material damage,” said Defense Minister Olta Xhaçka, adding this was the worst earthquake to hit Albania, since 1979. Some 40 people were killed in that earthquake.

 
Escaped the worst
 
Prefect of Durrës Roland Nasto told VOA there are nine sites “in the city where crews continue to work to find people,” suggesting the toll might rise.
 
“[Tomorrow] we will start the process of finding shelter for people who today are under open skies and who will spend the night in tents, some of them – due to the trauma — even refusing to be sheltered in arenas or gyms, afraid to be somewhere with a ceiling,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Tuesday.
 
He later visited Thumanë to assess the damage.
 
“We want our loved ones to be dug out of the rubble as soon as possible,” said a Thumanë resident, who told VOA’s Albanian Service her cousin and his wife were missing.
 
Another resident said, “We are trying to find people that are dead or alive. We are afraid to go inside the buildings for fear that they will crumble.”
 
President Ilir Meta and opposition leader Lulzim Basha also visited areas affected by the quake.
 
Show of solidarity
 
Aid and support has poured into the affected areas, with people offering their homes and sending care packages from different parts of Albania. Kosovo’s outgoing government allocated $550,000 for relief efforts and Kosovo’s Security Force sent specialized teams and enlisted help from private companies.
 
Rescue teams and specialized crews were dispatched from neighboring Kosovo, Italy and Greece.
 
“Two groups of specialized crews have come from Kosovo, two from Greece, two from Italy, and we expect a specialized group of 40 from Italy,” Nasto said.
 
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who was visiting North Macedonia Tuesday, later in the day visited Albania to offer “any assistance needed to face the catastrophic situation.”
 
The European Commission said on Twitter that its stands by Albania “at this difficult time following the earthquakes.”
 
“We have mobilized immediate support to help local authorities, and rescue teams from Italy, Greece and Romania are already on their way,” a statement on Twitter said.
 
Help also arrived from France, Turkey, Serbia, and the United States.
 
The U.S. Embassy also sent a statement of condolence.
 
“The United States stands with our friends in Albania, just as Americans and Albanians have always stood by each other during difficult times. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and stand ready to offer our support,” the Embassy said.
 
On Wednesday, Pope Francis said he was praying for Albania.
 
“I would like to send a greeting and express my closeness to the dear Albanian people, who have suffered so much these days,” the pope said. “Albania was the first country in Europe that I wanted to visit. I am close to the victims, I pray for the dead, for the wounded, for the families, may God bless them, the people that I love.”
 
The Albanian diaspora also was rallying to help, holding several fundraisers to send money to one of the poorest countries in Europe.
 
“I am so heartbroken for my people back home, for those who have lost lives and loved ones,” New York City Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj, an Albanian American, told VOA.

The House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is focused on whether the White House delayed promised U.S. military aid to Ukraine until its leader agreed to do the president a political favor. While lawmakers investigate the president’s role in the matter, VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine takes a closer look at that military aid at the center of the controversy and why it’s so critical for Ukraine

South Korea says it has fired warning shots to repel a North Korean merchant ship that violated their disputed western sea boundary.

South Korea’s military says it believes the North Korean ship crossed the sea boundary on Wednesday due to bad weather and an engine problem.

It says it’s the second time that South Korea has fired warning shots to drive back a North Korean ship in the area since South Korea’s current liberal government took office in 2017. The first incident happened in September.

Ties between the two Koreas are strained amid a stalemate in U.S.-led diplomacy on ending the North Korean nuclear crisis.

North Korea said Monday its troops conducted artillery firing drills near the sea boundary, drawing formal protests from South Korea.

Top Russian officials decried the recommendations by a World Anti-Doping Agency committee to suspend Russia from international competition over tainted athlete doping probes — the latest in a drawn out saga over accusations of Russian state sponsored doping that has roiled global sport since 2014.

Russian athletes, unsurprisingly, joined in expressing bitterness about the WADA recommendations. But while some argued the suggested WADA penalties were unduly harsh, others blamed a failure in Russian sport leadership for risking their chance to compete in the next two Olympic Games and perhaps beyond.

The recommendations, issued by WADA’s Compliance Review Committee on Monday, alleged evidence of tampering of some 2000 athlete probes at Moscow’s RUSADA testing facility, and called for a four-year suspension of Russia from international competition, including the Olympic Games.

Reacting to the pronouncement at a news conference on Tuesday, Russia Minister of Sport