Three people were wounded in a stabbing in The Hague’s main shopping district Friday night, and police were searching for at least one suspect, authorities said.

Police spokeswoman Marije Kuiper told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that it was still too early to say where a terror motive was to blame for the attack. The area was busy at the time as shoppers looked for Black Friday holiday deals.

Kuiper said it was unclear whether any of the injuries were life-threatening.

The Hague police said in a statement that they were looking for a man, about 45 to 50 years old, in a grey jogging suit.

The stabbing happened in the heart of The Hague shopping district where supermarket chains and luxury shops were all lit up with early Christmas decorations. Adding to the festive spirit was the lure of Black Friday, when retailers offer consumers special discounts at a time when many are seeking family presents.

Police sealed off a wide perimeter behind which onlookers were kept at bay. There was no hint of panic among the public soon after the stabbing.

The Netherlands had already been shocked by a similar stabbing in Amsterdam a year ago when two Americans were injured in a knife attack that prosecutors say had a “terrorist motive.”

Earlier Friday in London, a man wearing a fake explosive vest stabbed several people, killing two, before he was tackled by members of the public and then fatally shot by officers on London Bridge, authorities said.
 

The nation’s largest utility said Friday that its distribution lines have sparked no damaging wildfires since it began repeatedly shutting off power to hundreds of thousands of Northern California customers this fall.

But Pacific Gas & Electric is not ruling out that failed transmission equipment may have started a fire in wine country north of San Francisco that damaged or destroyed more than 400 structures.

Authorities have not determined what sparked the wildfire in Sonoma County last month, but the utility says it had a problem at a transmission tower near where the fire ignited.

It had shut off power to distribution lines to prevent its equipment from igniting wildfires, but left electricity flowing through what it believed were less vulnerable transmission lines. PG&E said in a court filing Friday that it is not aware of similar vulnerable equipment elsewhere.

“In 2019, there have been no fatalities and no structures destroyed in any wildfire that may have been caused by PG&E distribution lines,” the company said.

That’s in sharp contrast to recent years, despite the potential blame it faces for sparking last month’s damaging wildfire.

PG&E acknowledges its equipment caused last year’s Camp Fire that ravaged the Sierra Nevada foothills community of Paradise, destroying nearly 19,000 buildings and killing 85 people.

For 2017, PG&E said it could be held potentially liable for 21 wildfires that combined to destroy 8,900 buildings and killed 44 people.

The utility has faced scathing criticism for shutting off power to millions of people for days at a time to avoid a repeat of those tragedies.

The company declared bankruptcy in January as it faced up to $30 billion in damages from wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that were started by the company’s electrical equipment. Lawyers for wildfire victims and PG&E now are considering whether new claims related to the most recent fire will be included in the bankruptcy case.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is overseeing the utility’s felony probation for a deadly natural gas explosion in 2010, required officials to provide more details Friday about the jumper cable that broke moments before last month’s fire was reported.

The company said the tower with the detached cable, which is a metal connector between an incoming and outgoing electrical line, was last routinely visually inspected from the ground in July, with a drone in May, and by a contractor crew that climbed the tower in February as part of the utility’s wildfire safety inspection program. They spotted no problems with the jumper cables, the company reported.

The judge asked whether the public must now fear that other cables that passed inspection could also still fail.

PG&E said is investigating whether similar issues exist elsewhere but is not currently aware of any other jumper cables that are vulnerable.

The company said it had inspected about 750,000 distribution and transmission structures in high-risk areas and “repaired or made safe all of the highest-priority conditions” by September, before last month’s fire.

That included repairing two “Priority Code ‘A’ conditions relating to jumper cables on transmission structures.” It said it is incorporating lessons learned from the wildfire safety inspection program into its regularly scheduled inspection and maintenance program.

A South Korean court sentenced two K-pop stars to prison terms Friday for sexual relations with a woman who was unable to resist.

Thirty-year old Jung Joon-young and 29 year old Choi Jong-hoon were convicted of committing “special quasi-raping,” which means multiple people collaborating to have illicit sexual intercourse with a person who was unconscious or unable to resist, the Seoul Central District Court said in a statement.

Jung who was sentenced to six years behind bars, was convicted of raping the woman, filming the act, and sharing it with friends in a group chat.
 
Choi was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in the crime.

The two singers were also ordered to undergo 80 hours of sex offender treatment programs.

South Korea’s lucrative entertainment industry has produced pop songs, TV dramas and films hugely popular in Asia and beyond, but many sexual scandals in recent years have revealed its dark side.

A volunteer firefighter in Australia has been accused of arson following an unprecedented bushfire crisis.  

Fire chiefs say the alleged arson south of Sydney was the “ultimate betrayal” of emergency crews risking their lives on the front line.  They said the accusations could tarnish the reputation of the entire service.  Investigators believe the teenage suspect lit the blazes and then later returned as part of his duties as a volunteer firefighter. 

Dozens of fires continue to burn in the states of Queensland and New South Wales, where more than 50 people have been charged with arson since August. Another 150 suspects are being interviewed by investigators.

More than 2 million hectares of land, including vast areas of forest, have been scorched in eastern Australia’s bushfire crisis.   Hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and six people have died.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has estimated that around half of the nation’s bushfires are either arson or suspected arson.

Most offenders are male.  Many are children.  Some have been the victims of sexual or physical abuse, while much work has been done to explore the motivations of adult firebugs. 

“Usually they are marginalized, they are confused. It is thought that they have very low intelligence, but I suspect that that is only because we are catching the ones that have low intelligence,” said Paul Reid, a criminologist at Monash University. “They tend to have deep depression, and (are) very socially awkward.  They usually have a history of drug use and violence.”

Arsonists are responsible for thousands of bushfires in Australia every year and they can face long jail terms if found guilty.  Convictions are rare, though, because evidence is often destroyed by the fire and there are few, if any, witnesses.

India has offered to lend $400 million to Colombo for infrastructure development as it reaches out to build ties with Sri Lanka’s newly elected president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is visiting New Delhi.
 
Rajapaksa’s meetings Friday with Indian leaders, less than two weeks after he took power, signal an effort by both countries to reset a relationship strained during a previous term when he and his brother dominated Sri Lankan politics and took the country closer to China.
 
India and China have been competing for influence in the tiny island country located off India’s southern tip that has seen an influx of Chinese investment in the last decade. New Delhi was particularly perturbed when Chinese nuclear submarines docked at Colombo harbor in 2014 when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was defense secretary and his brother was the president.
 

Following talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Sri Lankan leader appeared to assuage those concerns telling reporters that “we will continue to work closely with India to ensure that the Indian Ocean remains a zone of peace.”
 
“I want to take ties with India to a very high level,” Rajapaksa said following a welcome at the presidential palace in New Delhi.
 
In the aftermath of deadly suicide bombings that killed more than 250 people in Sri Lanka this April and raised concerns that Islamic militant groups were spreading their influence in South Asia, both leaders also stressed that they will step up cooperation to tackle terrorism.  
 
“We have had to rethink our national security strategies, and assistance from India in this regard will be most appreciated,” the Sri Lankan leader said Friday.
 
Announcing a $50 million credit line to improve security in Sri Lanka, Modi said that India is already providing counterinsurgency training to Sri Lankan police officers.
 
Analysts point out that it remains to be seen how the new president will balance ties between India and China.
 
Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Sri Lanka in a string of infrastructure projects, from oil refineries and highways to a strategic port that it now operates. It sees the tiny island country, which lies close to key shipping lanes, as a key link in its Belt and Road initiative.
 
Analysts point out that India cannot match Chinese investment that has helped Beijing spread its influence in New Delhi’s neighborhood, but will have to rely on boosting trade links and strengthening cultural ties with Sri Lanka to build goodwill.
 
That is the message Modi sought to give Rajapaksa saying that “India is fully committed to the development of Sri Lanka.”
 
Since becoming prime minister in 2014, Modi has stressed a “neighborhood first” policy, hoping to offset China’s growing influence by holding out the promise that its small neighbors will benefit from its much bigger economy.
 

The Taliban said Friday they were ready to restart peace talks with the United States, a day after President Donald Trump made a surprise visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and said he believed the radical group would agree to a cease-fire.

Trump’s Thanksgiving Day visit was his first to Afghanistan since becoming president and came a week after a prisoner swap between Washington and Kabul that has raised hopes for a long elusive peace deal to end the 18-year war.

“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we are meeting with them,” Trump told reporters after arriving in Afghanistan Thursday.

“We say it has to be a cease-fire and they didn’t want to do a cease-fire and now they want to do a cease-fire, I believe. It will probably work out that way,” he said.

Meetings with US officials

Taliban leaders have told Reuters that the group has been holding meetings with senior U.S. officials in Doha since last weekend, adding they could soon resume formal peace talks.

On Friday, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the hardline Islamist insurgent group, said they were “ready to restart the talks” that collapsed after Trump had called them off earlier this year.

“Our stance is still the same. If peace talks start, it will be resumed from the stage where it had stopped,” Mujahid told Reuters.

Trump canceled peace negotiations in September after the militant group claimed responsibility for an attack in Kabul that killed 12 people, including an American soldier.

“We are hoping that Trump’s visit to Afghanistan will prove that he is serious to start talks again. We don’t think he has not much of a choice,” said a senior Taliban commander on conditions of anonymity.

US troops in Afghanistan

There are currently about 13,000 U.S. forces as well as thousands of other NATO troops in Afghanistan, 18 years after an invasion by a U.S.-led coalition following the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks on the United States.

About 2,400 U.S. service members have been killed in the course of the Afghan conflict.

A draft accord agreed in September would have thousands of American troops withdrawn in exchange for guarantees that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on the United States or its allies.

Still, many U.S. officials doubt the Taliban could be relied upon to prevent al-Qaida from again plotting attacks against the United States from Afghan soil.
 

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

A U.N. official is warning that Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, is on the brink of starvation, with millions facing food insecurity. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.

Festive floats and giant balloons are on the move in New York City for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, an annual, nationally-televised spectacle. Blustery weather had threatened to ground the balloons, a crowd favorite not permitted to fly in strong winds.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio drew cheers from the crowd when he declared the balloons “are going to fly” even if a “little lower.” Handlers are keeping the massive inflatables only a couple meters above them.

In the past, strong winds have caused some helium-inflated characters to detach from tethers, leading to injuries.

This year’s parade, the 93rd sponsored by American retail department store Macy’s, includes a canine cartoon character, Snoopy, as an astronaut.

The event features about 8,000 marchers, two dozen floats and many marching bands — ending with an appearance by Santa Claus.

Among the performers scheduled for this year are singers Celine Dion, Ciara, Kelly Rowland and Idina Menzel.

For many Americans, the holiday to give thanks also marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

The death toll in earthquake-ravaged Albania rose to at least 41 on Thursday, after nine bodies were pulled from the rubble and hope faded for finding additional survivors from Tuesday’s temblor, the strongest to hit the country in more than three decades.

Authorities called off search and rescue operations in Thumane, after recovering the bodies of the last people who had been reported missing. It was the worst-hit town, with 23 dead.  Seven of the 23 belonged to a single family of nine.

“God let us keep two [members of the family] but took seven from us,” survivor Sul Cara told VOA. “Now we are focused on paying our respects to the dead, as honor and tradition demands of us. We will try our best to show strength as we send off seven loved ones to burial. This is a heavy tragedy to bear, but at the same time we have found strength in the outpouring of support, not just from this town but from the whole country.”

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) has commended Somalia for signing a convention to protect internally displaced people (IDPs) in Africa.  Somalia’s announcement on Nov 26 makes it the 30th African country to sign the Kampala Convention.  Somalia has the fourth largest population of IDPs in the world

This week, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed signed the Kampala convention that requires internally displaced persons be protected and given assistance in their daily struggles.

Somalia is the 30th country to ratify the deal, which was adopted in 2009 by all 55 African countries.

African IDPs face many risks to their safety and are often in need of humanitarian assistance.

Guelnoudji Ndjekounkosse is the U.N. refugee agency’s senior protection officer in Somalia. He says ratification will improve the welfare of Somalis who fled their homes.

“It helps to promote and strengthen regional, national measures to find a solution for displaced persons,” said Ndjekounkosse. “The second aspect is that the fact that the Kampala ratification established a legal framework to protect and assist properly the Somali displaced people and lastly I look at it from the angle of how it established a legal framework for solidarity, cooperation at a regional level.”

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 10 million people in Africa were displaced in 2018. Somalia accounted for 11 percent of that figure.

Somalia has long lacked a stable government. The fight against al-Shabab militants has led to more people fleeing their homes.
 
Ndjekuonkosse says reaching those Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance has been a problem for many aid agencies.  
 
“So the same insecurity is affecting the internally displaced persons also affects humanitarian workers from all the sectors that are trying to intervene in the areas,” said Ndjekounkosse. “I think most significantly the government of Somalia is making the effort to ensure that humanitarian actors have access and to deliver the assistance and protection request from them.”

The ratification signed by the Somali government means it has to take measures to ensure the safety and tend to the long term needs of IDPs in the country.

Amnesty International researcher Abdullahi Hassan says Somalia has much to overcome to fulfill the commitment.
 
“As long as this conflict continues the situation of IDPs will be there so that’s one big challenge that Somalia needs to deal with the other thing is due to these climatic shocks we have seen in Somalia there has been constant famine and drought that hits Somalia very hard in the past few years. IDP situation is likely to be there for a long time and more IDPs will be created due to drought and continues conflict but that should not be an excuse for the government not to protect the rights and the livelihoods of the IDPs in the country,” said Hasan.
 
Two-point-six million Somalis are displaced, a number that could rise as the fight against al-Shabab rebels continues.

Police teams Thursday began clearing a Hong Kong university that was a flashpoint for clashes with anti-government demonstrators, as the government slammed a U.S. move to sign into law bills supporting human rights in the Chinese territory.

The move into the Polytechnic University came after its administration said they believed no one else remained inside after a two-day search ended Wednesday. Faculty teams found only a young woman in weak condition and a stockpile of dangerous items including gasoline bombs and corrosive liquid.

Hours before the police operation, a masked protester came out from hiding and told reporters there were fewer than 20 others holed up inside.

“The remaining protesters never trust the police. It explains why for the past few days when the university management searches for us, we keep hiding,” said the protester, who identified himself as Ah Bong.

He warned they’ll “definitely protest” if police enter the campus.

11 days of protests at university

The university has been ringed by police for 11 days as protesters retreated into the campus after blocking a major tunnel and set toll booths on fire during clashes with police. Some 1,100 protesters have left or have been arrested.

A senior police official, Chow Yat Ming, said the focus of the operation is not to arrest any holdouts but on removing hazardous items that are a threat to public safety, and to gather evidence of “malicious” damage to campus facilities.

If they find any protesters, he said police mediators and counselors will coax them to seek medical treatment. He said they won’t be arrested but their details will be taken down for possible further action.

“Our major concern today is not about arrest, it’s about their well-being,” Chow said. He said it’s unclear how long the operation will take.

About 100 police personnel, including hazmat teams and explosive disposal experts, fanned out across the vast campus. Television footage showed officers searching buildings and removing bottles and other items.

Thousands detained since June

More than 5,000 people have been detained since the unrest started in June over a China extradition bill seen as an erosion of freedoms promised when the former British colony returned to Chinese control in 1997. The movement has since expanded into wider demands, including universal suffrage and an independent investigation of police conduct.

The protest movement was given another boost after U.S. President Donald Trump signed two bills to support Hong Kong human rights and pro-democracy activists. China immediately warned it would take strong countermeasures.

Hong Kong’s government also denounced the move as “unreasonable” meddling, saying it sends the wrong signal to protesters and won’t help to ease the crisis.

Prominent activist Joshua Wong, who was among Hong Kong pro-democracy supporters who lobbied for the U.S. bills, called it a “remarkable achievement” as human rights had triumphed over crucial U.S.-China trade talks.

He said he hoped it will spur Britain and other Western nations to follow suit. He said he will participate in a parliament hearing in Italy via Skype later Thursday to press for further global support.

“Now is the time for the Western world to stand with Hong Kong,” Wong said.

The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act mandates sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who carry out human rights abuses and requires an annual review of the favorable trade status that Washington grants Hong Kong. Another bill prohibits export of certain nonlethal munitions to Hong Kong police.

“It is a major turning point in the protest movement,” said Willy Lam, a political expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The U.S. support will pile more pressure on Hong Kong’s embattled government and make Beijing “think twice” on using harsher tactics to quell the unrest, he said.

The U.S. legislation followed a stunning election victory by the pro-democracy camp in Sunday’s local elections, in a rebuke of the government’s handling of the crisis.

Many protesters however, feel it’s premature to celebrate as the city’s embattled leader Carrie Lam has not offered any concessions to their demands. Violence has abated since the polls, but protesters plan to hold a victory rally Thursday night with more gatherings over the weekend.

Dozens of Ethiopian activists, journalists and politicians have lived in exile for many years, having fled their country when dissident voices were repeatedly suppressed and jailed over the past few decades. Ahead of elections set to take place in their homeland in six months, the first since the previous government collapsed in 2018, the exiles are closely watching the current unrest and are contemplating how they can help.

Kinfu Assefa remained active as a journalist even after being forced to move to the Netherlands. From there, he has seen the changes at home, and he worries about the strength of Ethiopia’s democratic institutions.  

“I didn’t see proper preparation for the upcoming elections,” he said. “Neither the ruling party nor the opposition groups have done anything so far to mobilize the nation. Activists and exiled journalists could contribute a lot towards a positive development in the country. We can engage ourselves to ongoing changes through dialogue and discussion. We can contribute a lot through knowledge transfer, for instance.” 

Ahmed’s reforms

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed released many political prisoners and won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for ending hostilities with Eritrea in the past year and a half. His reforms also opened up more space for civil society organizations.  

Activist Bekele Wocheya has been living in exile in Britain for the past 14 years, working with civil society organizations. Because of his experience, he co-founded the Ethiopian Institute for Leadership, Communication and Organization, in the hope of strengthening civil society ahead of the elections. 
 
“The agenda of the country should be set by ordinary citizens, folks on the ground, who are actually having life on a daily basis, who are exposed to problems,” Wocheya said. “So it is they who should decide what is important for them. It’s not the elites who are further away from the reality that should decide the agenda of the day. So it’s important for me and others to stay and bring support in organizing folks.” 

Activist won’t return
 
Many new parties will stand in the elections scheduled for May 2020. One is Ginbot 7. Outlawed by the previous government, it merged with seven other political parties. 
 
Seblework Tadesse was part of Ginbot 7, but her political activism landed her in prison for 18 months.  Facing possible arrest again, she moved to Australia.  Despite political reforms in Ethiopia, she does not see herself going back and running for office. 
 
“I myself was engaging in Ethiopian politics from an early age,” Tadesse said. “And I’m lucky, I had a chance to be part of that. I know it’s not easy. It’s very hard.” She said she would like to mentor more young women and encourage their interest in the country, its politics, economy and social structure. 

Ethiopia is plagued by ethnic tensions and violent unrest that analysts warn could disrupt the election if they are not resolved. 
 
A successful referendum was held in November, granting the Sidama ethnic group self-determination. But it took several postponements before the vote could go ahead peacefully. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A United Nations report accuses South Sudanese rebel and government military commanders of illegally logging and selling teak and mahogany trees in the former Central Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria States. A rebel spokesman denies the allegation, while a spokesperson for the South Sudan Peoples Defense Forces declined to comment.

A Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition spokesman denies rebels loyal to Riek Machar are doing business selling ecologically sensitive trees.

“If there are still forces of IO in Kajo-Keji area, they are still waiting for the second phase [cantonment] and it is not that they are doing business as put across [in the U.N. report]. One thing the U.N. is doing is to put confusion when peace is moving on well like that,” Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel told South Sudan in Focus.

In a 33-page, Nov. 22 report, the U.N. Panel of Experts said they received “credible information” indicating Major General Moses Lokujo of SPLA-IO Division 2B was “directly involved in the taxation of teak and mahogany” being illegally harvested in Liwolo, Kariwa, Kendire, Kala, Ajio, Lora Manglotore, Bori, Lowili and Katire payams, all of which are under the control of opposition forces.

The report also said Lokujo has been active in transporting logs across South Sudan’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Gabriel said U.N. experts connected Lokujo to the illegal activity because of logging in Kajo-Keji.

“The truth is, the logging is done by the community approved by the landlords,” Lokujo told South Sudan in Focus.

Gabriel criticized the U.N. for calling teak logging illegal in rebel territory, saying the SPLA-IO has the right to serve civilians under their protection.

“What do they mean like illegal in a controlled area of SPLA-IO? It is supposed to be legal because that thing moved through the community and it comes up to the level of government [IO leadership]. During war, there are those who are loyal to the government, and there are those who are loyal to the rebels, they will always be loyal to us and those with the government will be loyal to the government,” Lam told South Sudan in Focus.

Gabriel was featured in a video documentary entitled, “The Profiteers,” for his role as a middle man who facilitated the transportation of timber from rebel-controlled areas in Yei, South Sudan, to Uganda.

After the video was shared widely on social media, the SPLA-IO deputy spokesman recorded a Facebook live-video in which he denied any involvement in the timber business.

The Panel of Experts report said opposition forces harassed community members who refused to follow their orders, leading many to flee to refugee camps in Uganda.

Gabriel strongly disagreed with the U.N. findings, saying people were fleeing clashes between the SPLA-IO and competing rebels of the National Salvation Front (NAS).

“After NAS attacked us in 2017 in Kajo-Keji and we lost, three quarters of these civilians — they went back to Uganda. We fought for seventeen days against the forces of Thomas Cirilo and all these IDPS there moved to Uganda. But the U.N. to restrict it to the harassment of the SPLA-IO, they have already taken sides with forces of Thomas Cirilo,” Lam told VOA.

According to the U.N. panel, timber traders pay the SPLA-IO up to $600 for the right to log and $800 to transport logs through their territories.

The logs are mainly sold in neighboring Uganda for $400 to $600 per log, according to “The Profiteers.”

The U.N. experts said South Sudan Peoples Defense Force commanders in Pageri and Ajaci counties in the former Eastern Equatoria State have traded in timber since April 2017.

The U.N. experts said the SSPDF, especially units of its Tiger Division deployed in Moli, are illegally cutting timber and taxing logging companies.

The Panel says the beneficiary of the illegal logging was Major General Johnson Juma, head of administration and finance for the SSPDF.

The Panel of Experts said illegal tree logging in South Sudan has left locals with no income in those areas.

The South Sudan Peoples Defense Forces Spokesman Major General Lul Ruai declined to comment on the U.N. allegations.

There senior officials in Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s government stepped down Tuesday in connection with a probe into the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Press reports have linked Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, Economy Minister Chris Cardona and Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri to the Caruana Galizia investigation.

All three deny any wrongdoing. Their resignations follow the arrest last week of Maltese hotelier and power company director Yorgen Fenech in relation with the case.

In her blog, Caruana Galizia wrote boldly about corruption and investigated the affairs of Maltese politicians and business figures, as well as those doing business with the European Union member.

Eight months before she was killed by a car bomb in October 2017, Caruana Galizia alleged in her blog that a company called 17 Black Ltd., listed in the Panama Papers, was connected to Maltese politicians. The company belonged to Fenech, the businessman.

Economy Minister Cardona said Tuesday he was stepping down pending the investigation and the ongoing proceedings related to Caruana Galizia’s case. He was summoned by police for questioning last Saturday.
Cardona said he had “absolutely no connection with the case,” but added that after police asked for further clarifications, he felt “duty-bound to take this step in the national interest.”

Mizzi, the tourism minister, said he was resigning “in the national interest.” He reiterated that he had no business connection with Fenech, and no connection with 17 Black.

Prime Minister Muscat himself announced the resignation of his chief of staff Schembri.

Asked of the reasons behind Schembri’s decision, Muscat told reporters it was premature to speculate on “whether he is being questioned or what he is being questioned about.” He added, however, that the timing of the resignation was “unfortunate.”

Schembri served as Muscat’s chief of staff since 2013.

Muscat on Friday described the investigation as “the biggest our country has seen,” but contended that no politicians were tied to the journalist’s murder.

Three people were arrested in December 2017 on suspicion of detonating the bomb that killed 53-year-old Caruana Galizia as she drove near her home. The trial has not yet begun, and the mastermind has yet to be identified.

Colombian unions and student groups will hold another protest on Wednesday in honor of a teenage demonstrator who died after being injured by a tear gas canister, as President Ivan Duque announced changes to his unpopular tax reform proposal.

Other demonstrations are expected to continue on Tuesday, the sixth straight day of protests following a 250,000-person march last week organized by the National Strike Committee.

The largely peaceful protests have attracted thousands of marchers to reject economic reforms, police violence and corruption.

The committee said in a statement early on Tuesday it would demand “a permanent negotiation” with Duque, but talks lasted only about two hours, with committee leaders demanding Duque meet only with them, sans business leaders or other sectors.

The committee has demanded the tax reform, which includes a cut in duties on businesses, be rejected.
Shortly after the meeting, Duque told journalists the proposal will be modified to return value added tax to the poorest 20% of Colombians and lower contributions to healthcare by minimum wage pensioners – half of the retired population – from 12% to 4% over three years. There will also be three days each year without VAT.

The proposals will cost some 3.2 trillion pesos ($931 million), the government said.

Duque denies supporting rumored economic plans that have galvanized many protesters – including a cut to the minimum wage for young people. Demonstrators have also highlighted what they say is a lack of government action to stop the murder of hundreds of human rights activists and asked Duque to fully implement a 2016 peace deal with leftist rebels.

Asked as he left the meeting what the government could do to end protests, Confederation of Colombian Workers president Luis Miguel Morantes told Reuters “it is a negotiation, there will be things that go to a certain point, there will be a fair balance, there will be other things we have to wait for, like changes in laws, it’s very relative.”

The committee wanted an “exclusive” dialogue, but the government would like them to form part of national discussions, said official Diego Molano.

“They must understand that there are other sectors which also want to debate the issues of employment, who have proposals for young people,” Molano told journalists.

The death on Monday of protester Dilan Cruz, 18, is likely to fuel further criticism of the crowd dispersion tactics of the ESMAD riot police, which include tear gas and stun grenades.

Cruz, who was injured on Saturday, has become a symbol for many young protesters. On Tuesday mourners were gathering at makeshift shrines outside the hospital where he was treated and the place where he was hit.
The strike committee said it would ask Duque to shut down the ESMAD and “purify” the police.

The committee will increase the intensity of the strike on Wednesday “in homage to the symbol of the national strike Dylan Cruz,” the statement said, using a different spelling of Cruz’s first name than that used by his sister and the government.

($1 = 3,433.94 Colombian pesos)

Two helicopters collided in midair and killed 13 French soldiers fighting Islamic extremists in Mali, France said Tuesday, in its biggest loss since its mission in West Africa’s Sahel region began in 2013.

The deaths draw new attention to a worrying front in the global fight against extremism. Attackers linked to the Islamic State or al-Qaida this month alone have killed scores of local troops in the region and ambushed a convoy carrying employees of a Canadian mining company, leaving at least 37 dead.
      
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed “deep sadness” after the Monday evening crash. “These 13 heroes had only one goal: protecting us,” he tweeted.

The French military said both helicopters were flying very low when they collided and crashed in Mali’s Liptako region. No one on board survived.

The helicopters were supporting French commandos on the ground who were pursuing a group of extremists. French defense minister Florence Parly said an investigation has been opened into the accident.

France’s operation in West and Central Africa is its largest overseas military mission and involves 4,500 personnel. France intervened in 2013 after extremists seized control of major towns in northern Mali and implemented a harsh version of Islamic law. They were forced back into the desert, where they have regrouped and moved south into more populated areas.

Since 2013, at least 44 French soldiers have died.

A new surge in extremist attacks in Mali has killed well over 100 local troops in the past two months, with IS often claiming responsibility. The extremists loot military posts and profit from mining operations while finding refuge in forested border areas.

Before his death this year, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi congratulated “brothers” in Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso for pledging allegiance.

Public outrage in Mali over the latest attacks also has been directed in recent weeks against France, the country’s former colonizer.

Mali’s Liptako region near the border with Niger and its Gourma region near the Burkina Faso border have become strategic crossings for extremist groups as they are largely unguarded, the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote last month.

France’s operation became involved in the Liptako area in 2017 and this year it built a new base in Gossi in the Gourma region, IISS said.
 
“Despite increased French presence in this zone, military gains remain limited. Both sides barely ever engage in direct confrontation. Militants use guerrilla tactics, rely heavily on improvised explosive devices and hide within the civilian population before and after launching attacks,” it added.

France’s Barkhane military operation is one of multiple efforts against the growing extremist threat in the Sahel including a five-nation regional counterterror force that struggles to secure international funding and a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali. 

A storm that dumped heavy snow in Colorado and Wyoming forced airlines to cancel hundreds of flights in Denver on Tuesday and has made driving impossible in some parts of the two states just as the busy Thanksgiving week travel period went into high gear.

About 7 inches (18 centimeters) was on the ground at Denver International Airport by morning but more was expected through the afternoon.

About a third of the airport’s average 1,500 daily flights were cancelled, but the airport said in a tweet that many airlines would resume operations later in the morning or early in the afternoon as snow clearing crews worked to keep most runways open.

More than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow had fallen in northern Colorado and about a foot (30 centimeters) fell in southern parts of Wyoming by midmorning.

Heavy snow and gusty winds forced the closures of long stretches of Interstates 70 and 76 in Colorado and Interstate 80 in Wyoming, and parts of I-80 were buried under snow drifts of up to 4 feet (1.2) meters.

“We are mindful that this is a holiday travel week and we are working as fast and as quickly as possible to reopen the roads, and we will do that once the roads are safe for travelers,” said Wyoming Department of Transportation spokeswoman Aimee Inama.

Many government offices in the Denver area and in Cheyenne, Wyoming were closed along with colleges and schools not already on holiday break.

The storm system led the National Weather Service to issue blizzard and wintry weather warnings extending into the Great Lakes.

The storm was expected to move into the Plains later Tuesday, bringing high wind and more snow to Minnesota, Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

It could bring another round of snow to the Upper Midwest from Thursday through Saturday, and a chance of snow this weekend in interior New England, said Alex Lamers, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

“That could be a coast-to-coast storm,” he said.

It also could mean disappointment for fans of the larger-than-life balloons flown at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.

Organizers were preparing for the possibility that they’ll have to ground the iconic balloon characters, given 40-50 mph (64-81 kph) gusts in the forecast. Rules put in place after several people were injured by a balloon years ago require lower altitudes or full removal if sustained winds exceed 23 mph (37 kph) and gusts exceed 34 mph (54 kph). The decision will be made on parade day.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area could see its biggest November snowfall in nearly a decade, and travel is northwestern Wisconsin “is going to be chaotic,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Brent Hewett.

The Minneapolis airport could be hit, but Chicago, with its two big airports, should only see rain from the storm, weather service officials said.

A second storm developing in the Pacific Ocean was expected to hit the West Coast of the U.S. on Tuesday afternoon or evening, bringing snow to the mountains and wind and rain along the coasts of California and Oregon.

Forecasters warned of “difficult to impossible travel conditions” across much of northern Arizona later this week as that storm dumps about 2 feet (0.6 meters) on areas that include Interstate 40.    

The National Weather Service’ office in Flagstaff said travel conditions will start to deteriorate Wednesday night, followed by the heaviest snowfall Thursday through Friday morning.  

This month, AAA predicted that the number of travelers over a five-day stretch starting Wednesday will be the second-highest, behind only 2005, despite rising costs for a road trip.

At the start of the week, a gallon of regular gas cost $2.59 on average, up 3 cents from a year ago, and rental cars averaged around $75 a day — their highest Thanksgiving price since AAA started keeping track in 1999. Hotel rooms are a mixed bag, with prices falling from last year at highly rated hotels but rising slightly at midrange ones.

People might feel they can afford a trip because of low unemployment, rising household net worth, and the stock market’s continuing strength.

For those who are flying, the airlines expect traffic to be up about 4% from this time last year. Airlines added about 850 flights and 108,000 seats per day on average to handle the increase over last year’s crowds, according to the trade group Airlines for America.

Airline travel before Thanksgiving tends to be spread out over several days, but most people want to go home on the Sunday or Monday after the holiday.

American Airlines plans to operate 7,046 flights Sunday, just one less than on Aug. 8, its heaviest schedule this year. In all, 22 of American’s 23 busiest days occurred during the summer vacation season, with this Sunday being the only exception.

“Everybody talks about Thanksgiving being a busy travel time, but summer is Thanksgiving week for the entire summer,” said Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the airline.

The U.S. Capitol and its office buildings were briefly evacuated Tuesday over a report of a possible aircraft in restricted airspace.

The evacuations were ordered as a precaution and lasted about 45 minutes.

The U.S. Secret Service said personnel at the White House were told to remain in place during that time. That precaution was later lifted.

Capitol Police said the evacuations were ordered after a report at 8:27 a.m. of a “possible aircraft in restricted airspace.” The evacuations were ordered “in an abundance of caution,” police said in a statement.