Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who criticized China last year for “buying” up his country, will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time on the sidelines of this week’s G-20 meeting in Japan, his office said on Monday.

Bolsonaro, a far-right firebrand, has softened his stance on Brazil’s largest trading partner since taking office in January and will meet with Xi for 40 minutes on Friday morning before the summit of leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies kicks off in Osaka, according to the schedule released by his office.

A representative of China’s embassy in Brazil said the two countries were discussing a bilateral meeting, although the details had yet to be agreed to. Given the packed schedule at the G-20, any bilateral meeting would likely be informal and brief, the diplomat said, speaking on background.

China is by far the largest buyer of Brazilian soybeans and iron ore, and Brazil hopes to upgrade its commodities exports to include products with greater added value.

Bolsonaro expressed concern about Chinese domination during his election campaign. Citing the purchase of electrical assets by Chinese companies, he complained that “China isn’t buying in Brazil, China is buying Brazil.”

But he has dropped his criticisms as the reality of Brazil’s dependence on the Chinese market set in.

His vice president, retired general Hamilton Mourao, visited Beijing in May to resume high-level talks that had stalled under the previous government. Mourao’s visit followed Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina’s mission to China seeking to widen food sales to China.

Mourao met in Beijing with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei and later told journalists that Brazil had no plans to follow the United States in barring the Chinese telecom company’s participation when Latin America’s largest country launches its 5G network next year.

Washington has asked countries to reject Huawei technology in the development of new mobile phone networks due to security concerns.

Bolsonaro and Xi are expected to discuss a date for the Brazilian leader’s planned visit to Beijing later this year, before Xi visits Brazil in November for the summit of the BRICS leading emerging economies.

One of the Russian navy’s most advanced warships entered Havana’s harbor Monday and docked at the port used until this month by U.S. cruise lines. Here are some questions and answers about the Admiral Gorshkov’s travels through the Caribbean.
 
WHAT IS THE ADMIRAL GORSHKOV?
 
The Admiral Gorshkov entered service last year. It is one of the Russian navy’s most advanced warships and is armed with cruise missiles, air defense systems and other weapons. The frigate is based at the Arctic port of Severomorsk and is part of Russia’s Northern Fleet. It’s the first ship in a new class of frigates intended to replace aging Soviet-era destroyers to project power far away from Russian shores. It is accompanied by the multi-functional logistics vessel Elbrus, the medium sea tanker Kama and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker, the Russian navy says.
 
WHAT IS THE SHIP DOING IN THE CARIBBEAN?
 
The navy says the Admiral Gorshkov crossed through the Panama Canal into the Caribbean Sea on or around June 18. The naval group has covered a distance of over 28,000 nautical miles since leaving Severomorsk in February, with stops in China, Djibouti, Sri Lanka and Colombia, the navy says. It says the ships are scheduled to make calls at several Caribbean ports, without specifying which. The naval group was greeted with a 21-gun salute from Cuban forces stationed at the entrance to the Bay of Havana. The Gorshkov responded with its own salute.
 
Russia has not provided details about the purpose of its trip, but the Kremlin has moved to bolster Russia’s military capability amid tensions with the West following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The Russian armed forces have received hundreds of new warplanes and dozens of warships in recent years as part of a sweeping military modernization program that allowed Moscow to project power abroad.
 
As the U.S.-Russian relations have sunk to the lowest levels since the Cold War, Moscow has been considering further steps to boost its global presence. An air base and a naval facility in Syria are currently Russia’s only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union but Russian military officials have talked repeatedly about plans to negotiate deals for Russian warships and aircraft to use foreign ports and air bases.
 
WHAT MESSAGE IS RUSSIA SENDING WITH THE ADMIRAL GORSHKOV?
 
Russian ships have become an occasional presence in Havana over the last decade. In 2008, after a visit by then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a group of Russian ships entered Cuban waters in what Cuban media described as the first such visit since 1991. Another group visited the southern city Cienfuegos in 2010, reportedly with a cargo of wheat. Others visited in 2013 and in 2014.
 
In January 2015, the reconnaissance and communications ship Viktor Leonov arrived unannounced in Havana a day before the start of discussions between U.S. and Cuban officials on the reopening of diplomatic relations. The Viktor Leonov returned again in March 2018.
 
All of the Russian naval missions to Cuba have been seen as a projection of military power close to U.S. shores, although neither Cuba nor Russian have described them as anything other than routine.
 
Early during his presidency, Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered the military to shut a Soviet-era electronic surveillance outpost in Cuba and a naval base in Vietnam as he sought to warm ties with the United States. Amid tensions with the U.S., Russian military officials talked about the possibility of reinstating a presence on Cuba and in Vietnam.
 
Russian warships and aircraft have periodically made forays into the Caribbean. In a show of power, a pair of Russian nuclear-capable Tu-160 strategic bombers visited Venezuela in December in what the Russian military described as a training mission. The deployment came before the latest crisis in Venezuela. Russia also sent Tu-160s and a missile cruiser to visit Venezuela in 2008 amid tensions with the U.S. after Russia’s brief war with Georgia. A pair of Tu-160s also visited Venezuela in 2013.
 
It is not publicly known if the Admiral Gorshkov will visit Venezuela.
 
WHAT DOES THE RUSSIAN PRESENCE MEAN FOR CUBA?
 
Russians were once the most important group of foreigners in Cuba, with many thousands of Soviet workers and advisers collaborating on projects in fields ranging from agricultural production to military defense. That ended with the fall of the Soviet Union, which saw the end of the Soviet and Russian presence and the start of a grueling depression in Cuba known as the “Special Period.” That period ended with the start of Venezuelan aid around 2000.
 
Cuba also somewhat diversified its economy by attracting Latin American, European and Asian investment, and tourism primarily from Canada, Europe and the U.S. U.S. tourism surged in 2015 and 2016 as the Obama administration loosed restrictions on travel to Cuba as part of the opening with the communist government. That opening included allowing cruise ships. But the Trump administration has been trying to cut off income to Cuba and reduce the number of travelers to the island. The latest blow was ending cruise ship travel to the island, a measure that went into effect this month.
 
In what some Cubans saw as a potent symbol of changing times, the Admiral Gorshkov is moored at the cruise terminal where ships from cruise lines like Carnival and Norwegian loomed over Old Havana as recently as June 6.

Iraq’s deputy parliament speaker says the legislature has approved three Cabinet ministers whose posts have been vacant since the formation of the government in October.
 
Hassan al-Kaabi told The Associated Press that the parliament approved Najah al-Shammari for defense minister, Yassin al-Yassiri as interior minister and Farouq Amin Othman for the post of justice minister. The three were sworn in on Monday.
 
Al-Kaabi said election of education minister has been postponed as the current candidate didn’t get enough votes.
 
In October, Iraq’s parliament voted to confirm Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s new government while leaving the four Cabinet posts unfilled, underscoring the discord plaguing Iraqi politics.
 
Abdul-Mahdi had earlier proposed others for the posts but his proposals were rejected by other groups until an agreement on the new names was reached.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is urging Hong Kong authorities to “consult broadly before passing or amending” an extradition bill or “any other legislation,” as protests in the autonomous territory continue.

Speaking at the opening of a three-week session of Human Right Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Michelle Bachelet also said that she continues to discuss with China issues related to Xinjiang, including allowing “unfettered access” to the western region, and other matters.

U.N. observers and activists say that about one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims are held in detention centers in Xinjiang. The international community has condemned China for setting up such complexes which Beijing describes as “education training centers” helping to eradicate extremism and give people new skills.

Hong Kong protesters blocked access to a Hong Kong government office building for about two hours Monday and plan another demonstration Wednesday to raise awareness among leaders attending the G-20 summit this week in Japan.

Thousands of student protesters dressed in black have been marching in Hong Kong for weeks, demanding the full withdrawal of the controversial extradition bill and the resignation of the territory’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam.

Last week, Lam offered an apology for the political crisis and unrest sparked by the proposed law.

The Hong Kong protests pose the greatest challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he took office in 2012. The Chinese government had supported the extradition proposal, and accused protest organizers of colluding with Western governments.

The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said President Donald Trump plans to discuss the Hong Kong issue with Xi at the upcoming G-20 summit.

A group of Oregon state Republican senators have gone into hiding to stop the passage of a landmark climate change legislation. The western state’s House bill 2020 would set limits to carbon emissions with permits auctioned off to polluting industries. Republicans say the bill would hurt rural Oregonians. Democrats have a majority in both chambers of the state’s congress and the bill is likely to pass if it comes to the floor, which cannot happen unless there is a quorum of two-thirds of senators present. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the state governor, a Democrat, has given authorization to state police to track them down.

Best-selling author Judith Krantz — whose novels of sex, scandal, and luxury won her global fame and riches — has died at 91.

Her son, television executive Tony Krantz, said his mother died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles.

He describes his mother’s talent as a “rare combination of commercial and creative.”

The New York-born Krantz was a women’s magazine writer when she turned 50 years old and discovered she had a talent for fiction about high society.

Her first novel, “Scruples,” appeared in 1978 and almost immediately skyrocketed to the top of the best-seller list. It was also made into a popular television mini-series.

A series of other books followed, including “Princess Daisy,” “Mistral’s Daughter,” and “Lovers.”

Her books were full of details of mansions, high-fashion, luxurious lifestyles, and steamy sex.

Krantz’s novels have been translated into more than 50 languages and have sold about 85 million copies.

Krantz was the first to admit her books are not classic literature and made no apologies for it.

“I always ask myself if what I’m writing will satisfy a reader who’s in a plane that can’t land because of fog or who’s recovering from an operation in the hospital or who has to escape to a more delightful world for whatever reason. I can’t write any better than this.”

Thousands of supporters of LGBT rights are marching in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv under a heavy police presence.

Organizers of the “March of Equality” have said that they expect 10,000 people to participate in the event on June 23.

Several Western diplomats are also attending the event.

Police said that nine people were arrested on suspicion of preparing provocations against participants in the Kyiv Pride event.

Organizers have said that their goal is to promote “full respect” for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) minority.

The Pride parade has been held in Kyiv since 2016 amid protests by opponents, including right-wing activists and representatives of religious organizations

Arab politicians and commentators greeted U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East $50 billion economic vision with a mixture of derision and exasperation, although some in the Gulf called for it to be given a chance.

In Israel, Tzachi Hanegbi, a Cabinet member close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described Palestinians’ rejection of the “peace to prosperity” plan as tragic.

Set to be presented by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at a conference in Bahrain on June 25-26, the blueprint envisions a global investment fund to lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab economies and is part of broader efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestininan peace process.

“We don’t need the Bahrain meeting to build our country, we need peace, and the sequence of [the plan] — economic revival followed by peace is unrealistic and an illusion,” Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said on Sunday.

The lack of a political solution, which Washington has said would be unveiled later, prompted rejection not only from Palestinians but also in Arab countries with which Israel would seek normal relations.

From Sudan to Kuwait, commentators and ordinary citizens denounced Kushner’s proposals in strikingly similar terms: “colossal waste of time,” “non-starter,” “dead on arrival.”

Egyptian liberal and leftist parties slammed the workshop as an attempt to “consecrate and legitimize” occupation of Arab land and said in a joint statement that any Arab participation would be “beyond the limits of normalization” with Israel.

While the precise outline of the political plan has been shrouded in secrecy, officials briefed on it say Kushner has jettisoned the two-state solution — the long-standing worldwide formula that envisages an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

‘Another tragedy’

The PLO has dismissed Kushner’s plans as “all abstract promises,” insisting that only a political solution will solve the problem. It said they were an attempt to bribe the Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation.

On Israel Radio, Hanegbi said Washington had tried to create “a little more trust and positivity” by presenting an economic vision but had touched a raw nerve for Palestinians.

“They are still convinced that the whole matter of an economic peace is a conspiracy, aimed only at piling them with funds for projects and other goodies only so that they will forget their nationalist inspirations. This of course, is simply paranoia, but it’s another tragedy for the Palestinians,” he said.

Jawad al-Anani, a former senior Jordanian politician, described widespread suspicion after Trump’s decisions to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights.

“This is an unbalanced approach: it assumes the Palestinians are the more vulnerable side and they are the ones who can succumb to pressure more easily,” he said. “This is a major setback for the whole region.”

Azzam Huneidi, deputy head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s main opposition said: “The economic plan is the sale of Palestine under the banner of prosperity in return for peace and with no land being returned… A deal with Arab money.”

“Historic crime’

Kushner’s economic proposals will be discussed at the U.S.-led gathering in Bahrain this week. The Palestinian Authority is boycotting and the White House did not invite the Israeli government.

U.S.-allied Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will take part along with officials from Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. Lebanon and Iraq will not attend.

“Those who think that waving billions of dollars can lure Lebanon, which is under the weight of a suffocating economic crisis, into succumbing or bartering over its principles are mistaken,” parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, said.

Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah, which wields significant influence over the government, has previously called the plan “an historic crime” that must be stopped.

Arab analysts believe the economic plan is an attempt to buy off opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land with a multi-billion dollar bribe to pay off the neighboring hosts of millions of Palestinian refugees to integrate them.

“It is disingenuous to say that this plan is purely economic because it has a political dimension that has implications that are incongruous with the political aspirations,” said Safwan Masri, a Columbia University professor.

After Israel’s creation in 1948, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon absorbed the most Palestinian refugees, with some estimates that they now account for around five million.

‘No harm in listening’

In recent years, Iran’s bitter rivalry with a bloc led by Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia has increasingly pushed the Arab-Israeli struggle into the background.

While Riyadh and its allies have welcomed Trump’s harder line against Tehran, which has cast itself as the guardian of Palestinian rights, critics accuse Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam’s holiest places, of abandoning the Palestinians.

Muslim scholars in the region, who would have in the past rallied popular opinion in support of the Palestinians, were largely silent hours after the plan was released, in a sign of a crackdown on dissent in several Arab countries.

Saudi Arabia has detained several prominent clerics in an apparent move to silence potential opponents of the kingdom’s absolute rulers. Egypt’s top Sunni Muslim authority, al-Azhar, has yet to issue a statement.

Amid fears that it would push them to accept a U.S. plan that favors Israel, Riyadh has assured Arab allies it would not endorse anything that fails to meet key Palestinian demands.

Ali Shihabi, who heads the Arabia Foundation which supports Saudi policies, said the Palestinian Authority was wrong to reject the plan out of hand.

“It should accept it and work on delivering the benefits to its people and then move forward aggressively with non-violent work… to seek political rights,” he tweeted.

Emirati businessman Khalaf Ahmad al-Habtoor also criticized the Palestinians’ refusal to go to Bahrain.

“There is no harm in listening to what will be placed on the table,” he wrote last month.

Yet even in the Gulf, backing for Kushner’s plan is limited.

“The deal of the century is a… one-sided concession, the Arab side, while the occupier wins everything: land, peace and Gulf money,” said Kuwaiti parliamentarian Osama al-Shaheen.

India says it is proud of its secular credentials as it rejected a U.S. report that said that religious freedom in the country has come under attack in recent years.

The latest U.S. State Department Report on International Religious Freedom released Friday said that right wing Hindu-groups claiming to protect cows that Hindus consider holy had used “violence, intimidation, and harassment” against Muslims and low-castes. It also noted that Christians have been targeted for proselytizing.

In a statement, the Indian Foreign Ministry said that no foreign government had the right to criticize its record. “We see no locus standi for a foreign entity to pronounce on the state of our citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.” It said that India is proud of “its status as the largest democracy and a pluralistic society with a longstanding commitment to tolerance and inclusion.”

New Delhi’s sharply worded statement comes ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to India starting Tuesday. His talks in New Delhi are expected to lay the ground for a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Japan later next week.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party also rejected the U.S. report on religious freedom saying that the presumption that “there is some grand design behind anti-minority violence is simply false.”

In a statement, party media head Anil Baluni said that Prime Minister Modi and other BJP leaders have strongly deplored violence against minorities and weaker sections of the society.

The U.S. report had said that senior BJP officials had last year made “inflammatory speeches” against religious minorities and that despite Indian government statistics indicating that communal violence has increased sharply over the past two years, the Modi administration has not addressed the problem.

VOA’s national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump said Saturday he planned “major” new sanctions against Iran to take effect Monday, without providing details.

Huddling with administration officials at the presidential retreat Camp David, Trump announced the move in a tweet.

Iran cannot have Nuclear Weapons! Under the terrible Obama plan, they would have been on their way to Nuclear in a short number of years, and existing verification is not acceptable. We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday. I look forward to the day that…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

A small plane used for skydiving crashed and burst into flames near the perimeter of a small seaside airport on the island of Oahu, killing all nine people aboard, officials said Saturday. 
 
Preliminary information gathered by the Federal Aviation Administration indicated that the crash of the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air plane Friday evening happened as the plane took off from Dillingham Airfield on the north shore of the island, FAA spokesman Greg Martin said in a statement. 
 
Some witnesses reported that the plane crashed as it was inbound to the airport, said Honolulu Fire Chief Manuel Neves, cautioning that those reports had not been confirmed. 
 
He described the site of the crash as being “quite a ways away from the runway” and said that some family members of those aboard were at the airport when the plane went down about 6:30 p.m. 
 
“In my 40 years as a firefighter here in Hawaii, this is the most tragic aircraft incident that we’ve had,” Neves said. 
 
The plane was engulfed in flames when firefighters made it to the crash site about an hour’s drive from Honolulu, Neves said. Officials initially said six people were aboard, but raised the number later to nine. The victims were not identified. 
 
Two FAA inspectors went to the crash site Friday and investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board who will investigate the crash were expected to arrive Saturday evening, said safety board spokesman Eric Weiss. 
 
The plane with two turboprop engines was manufactured in 1967, FAA records said. 

An Afghan man who was imprisoned by the government for allegedly collaborating with the Taliban is now mourning the death of his son who had joined the Afghan army and was killed by the Taliban insurgents. 
 
Abdul Wares, 42, a taxi driver in the Ghani Khil district of eastern Nangarhar province, spent nearly three years in prison after the Afghan armed forces found him using his vehicle to transport Taliban members. When he was released by the government earlier this month, he found that his son Tawhid had been killed while fighting the Taliban on behalf of the Afghan government. 
 
Abdul Wares told VOA he was forced and threatened by the Taliban to help move fighters through government checkpoints in Ghani Khil district. He was wounded in mid-2017 during a firefight between the army and the Taliban fighters when the latter attempted to escape a security checkpoint. 

‘I am a civilian’
 
“I told the army that I am a civilian and I did this because they [Taliban] forced me to,” he said. “When the Taliban tried to escape, the army fired shots and I got wounded.”
 
Abdul Wares was transported by the army to a local clinic for treatment and was later transported to a detention center on suspicion of cooperation with the Taliban. During his time in prison, Ware’s son decided to join the Afghan army’s fight against the Taliban. 
 
“He was telling his mother that he joined the Afghan forces to save money to buy a car so he can bring me home from jail whenever I was released,” Abdul Wares said of Tawhid. 
 
Abdul Wares’ younger son, Walid Khan, told VOA the death of his brother and the arrest of his father affected the physical and psychological well-being of his family. 
 
“When they brought his [Tawhid’s] corpse in a coffin, my mother and sister were screaming, crying, and fainted,” Walid Khan said, recalling the day when the family retrieved Tawhid’s body. 

Relied on charity
 
Having been left with no financial support, the family had to depend on charity to survive. The desperate financial situation prompted them to reach out to the Taliban for help, Abdul Wares said. 
 
“Few of my family members went to the Taliban to ask for help, saying that I was wounded, arrested, put in jail and lost my taxi, and now my kids are suffering due to a bad economic situation,” Abdul Wares said, describing his family’s plea. He said he was still in jail when his family sought the assistance. 
 
“But they [Taliban] responded, ‘No, we lost a few of our members and also some of our weapons were taken, all because of him,’ ” Abdul Wares said. 
 
Abdul Wares was exonerated in two court trials and was awaiting a final verdict when he was set free through a decree by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during the observance of the Islamic holiday Eid al Fitr earlier this month. 

WATCH: Afghan Government Releases More than 800 Taliban Prisoners

 Abdul Wares was among hundreds of Taliban fighters released by the government as part of a goodwill gesture to try to persuade the group to come to the negotiation table with the Afghan government, something the insurgent group has rejected despite repeated U.S and Afghan calls. 

U.N. Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet is urging the Venezuelan government to free hundreds of jailed dissidents who were arrested for participating in peaceful protests.

Her request came at the end of a three-day visit Friday to Venezuela during which she met with President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido.

At a Caracas news conference before leaving the country, Bachelet called on the government “to release all those who are detained or deprived of their liberty for exercising their rights in a peaceful manner.”

Rights groups have been pressuring Bachelet to advocate on behalf of more than 700 people they say have been jailed for political reasons, a claim Maduro denies.

‘Serious’ humanitarian crisis

Bachelet, who said Venezuela faced a “serious” humanitarian crisis, also met with activists and victims of human rights violations, many of whom have been accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government.

“It was deeply painful to hear the desire of the victims, of their families, to obtain justice in the face of serious human rights violations,” she sald.

Maduro said that he will take the recommendations of Bachelet seriously. After meeting Bachelet, Maduro said, “There are always going to be different criteria in every country, but I told her that she can count on me, as president, to take her suggestions, her recommendations and her proposals seriously.”

Earlier, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said that Bachelet will leave two delegates in Venezuela to monitor the country’s human rights situation, a development Bachelet confirmed.

Guaido said Bachelet’s team would investigate issues related to the country’s lack of food and medicine. They will also look into allegations President Maduro’s government has violated human rights while cracking down on the opposition.

Some activists released

The trip to Venezuela was Bachelet’s first as chief of the U.N. watchdog. Her predecessor, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, was repeatedly denied access to the country for what he considered the government’s refusal to recognize the humanitarian crisis.

Maduro appears to have taken a more diplomatic approach this time, as he released on the eve of her arrival 28 opposition activists many considered political prisoners.

Bachelet arrived in Venezuela at the invitation of the government. Her visit preceded a three-week U.N. Human Rights Council session that begins on June 24.

The U.S. and other Western states are expected to denounce Maduro’s government for its alleged use of excessive force and mismanagement, which has led to chronic shortages of essentials, such as food and medicine.

The U.N. says the political and economic crisis in the oil-rich country has forced some 4 million people to flee the country since 2015.

Bachelet also has criticized sanctions imposed against Maduro’s government by U.S. President Donald Trump, contending trade restrictions on trade could adversely affect the general population.

A seven-story building under construction collapsed in Cambodia’s coastal city of Sihanoukville early Saturday, killing seven workers and injuring 21, authorities said.
 
Provincial authorities said in a statement that four Chinese nationals involved in the construction have been detained while an investigation into the collapse is carried out.
 
Rescue work at the site was underway to find out if any more workers were trapped in the rubble, said the city police chief, Maj. Thul Phorsda. Workers could be seen using saws to cut steel beams and excavators to move piles of rubble from the site.
 
The Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training said that 30 workers were at the site when the building tumbled around 4 a.m.  Police and provincial authorities said they were unsure how many people were working on the building.
 
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the collapse.
 
Yun Min, the governor of Preah Sihanouk province, said the building was owned by a Chinese investor who leased land for a condominium – one of many Chinese projects in the thriving beach resort.
 
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said on his official Facebook page that the Cambodian workers were using the unfinished structure as their sleeping quarters. The building was about 70% to 80% completed.

U.S. women will soon have another drug option designed to boost low sex drive: a shot they can give themselves in the thigh or abdomen that raises sexual interest for several hours.

The medication OK’d Friday by the Food and Drug Administration is only the second approved to increase sexual desire in a women, a market drugmakers have been trying to cultivate since the blockbuster success of Viagra for men in the late 1990s. The other drug is a daily pill.

The upside of the new drug “is that you only use it when you need it,” said Dr. Julia Johnson, a reproductive specialist at UMass Memorial Medical Center who was not involved in its development. “The downside is that it’s a shot — and some people are very squeamish.”

The drug’s developer, Amag Pharmaceuticals, could also face some of the same hurdles that have plagued the lone pill previously approved for the condition, including unpleasant side effects and limited insurance coverage. The company declined to release price information.

The FDA approved the new drug, Vyleesi (pronounced vie-LEE’-see), for premenopausal women with a disorder defined by a persistent lack of interest in sex, causing stress. The most common side effect in company studies was nausea. The approval was based on women’s responses to questionnaires that showed increases in sexual desire and decreases in stress related to sex. The women didn’t report having more sex, the original goal for the drug.

“Women are not desiring more sex. They want better sex,” said Dr. Julie Krop, Amag’s chief medical officer.

Flushing, injection site reactions and headache are other common side effects.

Women with high blood pressure or heart disease should not take the drug because increases in blood pressure were observed after injections, the FDA said. It also could interfere with oral naltrexone, a drug for people with alcohol and opioid dependence, the FDA said.

Because so many factors affect sexual desire, doctors must rule out other causes before diagnosing the condition, including relationship issues, medical problems and mood disorders. The condition, known as hypoactive sexual desire disorder, is not universally accepted, and some psychologists argue that low sex drive should not be considered a medical problem.

Still, the pharmaceutical industry has long pointed to surveys — some funded by drugmakers — suggesting that it is the most common female sexual disorder in the nation, affecting roughly 1 in 10 women. Amag estimates nearly 6 million U.S. women meet the criteria for the drug.

Cynthia Pearson, executive director of the National Women’s Health Network, urged women to avoid using the drug “until more is known about its safety and effectiveness.” She noted in a statement that Amag had not yet published full clinical trial results.

The search for a pill to treat women’s sexual difficulties was once a top priority for many of the world’s biggest drugmakers, including Pfizer, Bayer and Procter & Gamble. Those companies and others studied and later abandoned drugs acting on blood flow, testosterone and other targets.

Vyleesi acts on receptors for a brain-stimulating hormone called melanocortin, which is associated with sexual arousal and appetite in both men and women.

Waltham, Massachusetts-based Amag plans to pitch the drug to consumers through social media, including a website called unblush.com that tells women that low sex drive “is nothing to blush about.”

Amag’s campaign has some of the hallmarks that helped launch the first female libido drug, Addyi, a once-a-day pill approved in 2015. The FDA decision followed a contentious four-year review that included a lobbying effort funded by Addyi’s maker, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, which framed the lack of female sex drugs as a women’s rights issue.

Women taking Addyi showed a slight uptick in “sexually satisfying events” per month and improved scores on psychiatric questionnaires. Those results were only slightly better than what women taking a placebo reported, but they were significant enough to meet FDA effectiveness standards.

The pink pill — originally developed as an antidepressant — was ultimately approved with a bold warning that it should not be combined with alcohol, due to risks of fainting and dangerously low blood pressure.

Most insurers refused to cover the drug, citing lackluster effectiveness, and many women balked at the $800-per-month price. Last year, Sprout slashed the price to $400. It was prescribed just 6,000 times last year, according to investment analyst data.

UMass’s Johnson said drugs should not be the first choice for treating women’s sexual problems. Instead, she recommends counseling to help women “separate all the stresses of life” from their sex life.

“But if that doesn’t work, having a medication that may help is worth trying,” she said.

The World Health Organization says millions of people with epilepsy are reluctant to seek treatment because of the stigma attached to their ailment, leading to the premature death of many.  WHO has released the first global report on epilepsy.

Nearly 50 million people around the world suffer from epilepsy.  The World Health Organization reports this neurological disease affects people of all ages in all walks of life.  It says this brain disease can cause seizures and sometimes loss of awareness.  

Program Manager in WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Tarun Dua says people with epilepsy suffer widespread stigma and discrimination as a consequence of their unusual behavior.

“So, in many settings, people with epilepsy they are embarrassed…children are not allowed to go to school, adults are not allowed to work, sometimes not even marry or the right to drive is also not there,” said Dua. “So, these stigma and human rights violations and sometimes also the death that is associated with epilepsy—so premature mortality in epilepsy is three times that of the general population.” 

Causes of epilepsy include injury around the time of birth, brain infections from illnesses such meningitis or encephalitis and stroke.  WHO estimates 25 percent of cases are preventable.

Dua says early death among people with epilepsy in low and middle-income countries is significantly higher than in wealthy countries.  She says the stigma associated with epilepsy is a main factor preventing people from seeking treatment.  

She says low cost, effective medication to treat the disease is largely unavailable in poor countries as are the number of specialists competent to deal with this brain disorder.

“For example, if you look in low and middle-income countries, there is only one neurologist per one million population,” Dua said. “Now, that is definitely insufficient to provide care for all people with epilepsy.  What it means is that we need the non-specialists, the primary care doctors to take care for people with epilepsy.” 

Dua says WHO has the tools and evidence-based guidelines that show epilepsy can be successfully treated in primary health care.  She says pilot programs introduced in Ghana, Mozambique, Myanmar, and Vietnam are making huge inroads in closing the epilepsy treatment gap.

Nine passengers and crew were killed Friday evening when their plane crashed near an airfield in Hawaii, authorities said, during what broadcaster CNN said was a skydiving trip.

The twin-engine King Air plane went down near the Dillingham Airfield, the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) said.

The fire service said the aircraft was engulfed in flames when fire crews arrived and there appeared to be no survivors.

“We are still gathering information as to the intent of the flight and what they were doing,” Honolulu Fire Department Chief Manuel Neves told a news conference.

CNN said the plane was on a skydiving excursion and that Federal Aviation Administration would investigate the crash.

Dillingham is a joint-use airfield operated by the HDOT under a 25-year lease from the U.S. army, according to its website.