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Former Peruvian president Martin Vizcarra has lost his last opportunity to reverse his dismissal from office.A majority of the judges on Peru’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled Vizcarra’s lawsuit inadmissible, rejecting his claim that the Congress, which voted overwhelming last Monday to impeach him, acted improperly.Peru’s Congress ousted Vizcarra under the “permanent moral incapacity” clause based on unverified allegations he received $630,000 in bribes from construction companies while he serving as a regional governor.Manuel Merino, the leader of Congress, succeeded Vizcarra but he resigned Sunday, less than a week after becoming interim president following days of street protests, which turned deadly when two protesters were killed during confrontations with police.Lawmaker Francisco Sagasti, who was next in line to lead the country, was sworn in as the new interim president on Tuesday.Sagasti will serve until next July and Peruvians will chose a permanent leader in April.
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President Donald Trump announced Tuesday on Twitter that he had fired Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, for a recent statement Krebs made regarding election security. Krebs has consistently debunked allegations of voter fraud over the past week, tweeting, “On allegations that election systems were manipulated, 59 election security experts all agree, ‘in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.’ ” On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that Krebs’s statements were “highly inaccurate,” alleging “massive improprieties and fraud.” Trump’s tweet was labeled as “disputed” by Twitter. “Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” he tweeted. The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud – including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, “glitches” in the voting machines which changed…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020
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The U.S. Justice Department is dropping its drug trafficking and money laundering case against former Mexican defense secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday. Barr said the department would drop its case so Cienfuegos “may be investigated and, if appropriate, charged, under Mexican law.” Cienfuegos, who was charged in federal court in Brooklyn, was arrested in Los Angeles last month.  Cienfuegos, who led Mexico’s army for six years under ex-President Enrique Peña Nieto, was the highest-ranking former Cabinet official arrested since the top Mexican security official Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019. Cienfuegos was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in 2019 and accused of conspiring to participate in an international drug distribution and money laundering scheme. Prosecutors alleged he helped the H-2 cartel smuggle thousands of kilos of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana while he was defense secretary from 2012 to 2018.  Prosecutors said intercepted messages showed Cienfuegos worked to ensure that the military did not take action against the cartel and that operations were initiated against rivals in exchange for bribes. He was also accused of introducing cartel leaders to other corrupt Mexican officials.  In court papers last month, U.S. prosecutors had argued Cienfuegos was a significant flight risk and said he would “likely seek to leverage his connections to high level H-2 Cartel members in Mexico, as well as former high-level corrupt government officials, to assist him in fleeing from U.S. law enforcement and shelter him in Mexico.” Had he been convicted of the charges in the U.S., he would’ve faced at least 10 years in federal prison.  Under Cienfuegos, the Mexican army was accused of frequent human rights abuses, but that was true of both his predecessors and his successor in the post. The worst scandal in Cienfuegos’ tenure involved the 2014 army killings of suspects in a grain warehouse. FILE – Blood is seen on the wall of a building in the Tlatlaya community after 22 people, alleged members of the drug cartel, were killed in a confrontation with soldiers of the Mexican Army, in Tlatlaya, Mexico, June 30, 2014.The June 2014 massacre involved soldiers who killed 22 suspects at the warehouse in the town of Tlatlaya. While some died in an initial shootout with the army patrol — in which one soldier was wounded — a human rights investigation later showed that at least eight and perhaps as many as a dozen suspects were executed after they surrendered. Barr said in a joint statement with Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero that the U.S. Justice Department had made the decision to drop the U.S. case in recognition “of the strong law enforcement partnership between Mexico and the United States, and in the interests of demonstrating our united front against all forms of criminality.”  The Justice Department said it has provided Mexico with evidence collected in the case. 
 
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The fashion industry, which used to rely on face-to-face interaction, has been forced to adapt to COVID realities for employees. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.Camera: David Gogokhia      
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An updated U.S. citizenship test will require applicants to answer more questions than before and could reduce the number of tests held each day, experts said.The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency on Friday announced the updated test now has 128 civics items to study and will require applicants answer 20 questions instead of 10. To pass, applicants must answer 12 correctly, or 60%. That’s the same pass rate as before.The new test also removes geography questions and alters prior ones, such as requiring applicants to name three branches of government instead of one. It also changes the answer to a question on whom U.S. senators represent from “all people of the state” to “citizens in their state,” which has drawn criticism over its accuracy.Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Washington-based, nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, said that the changes to the naturalization test would possibly triple the amount each Citizenship and Immigration Services officer spends testing applicants.Pierce said that under previous rules, applicants could potentially only answer six of 10 questions if they gave all the correct answers, but now applicants must respond to 20 questions even when they already got 60% of them correct.”These changes reduce the efficiency of this already struggling agency,” Pierce said, referring to its citizenship application backlog. “The administration is adding hundreds of thousands of more minutes to these naturalization exams.”Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Dan Hetlage said the new test “covers a variety of topics that provide the applicant with a more well-rounded testing experience.”Hetlage said applicants 65 years and older who have been living in the U.S. legally for at least 20 years are provided special consideration. They will be able to study from a smaller number of civics topics and will need to only get six out of 10 questions correct to pass.People who apply for naturalization on or after Dec. 1 will take the new version of the test. The test is one of the very final steps in obtaining American citizenship, a monthslong process that requires immigrants to have permanent legal residency for at least five years before applying.More than 840,000 immigrants became U.S. citizens during the 2019 fiscal year, up 11% from a year earlier, according to U.S. government statistics.In recent years, the average wait time for an applicant to naturalize has also grown. It was nearly 10 months in the 2019 fiscal year compared with fewer than six months three years prior. The government lists estimated naturalization processing times on its website of between 14.5 and 26 months in Houston and 16.5 and 32 months in New York.
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Election security officials have no evidence that ballots were deleted or lost by voting systems in this month’s U.S. election, two security groups said in a statement released Thursday by the lead U.S. cybersecurity agency. “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” the groups said about the November 3 election won by Joe Biden, a Democrat. Republican President Donald Trump has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and has yet to concede. The groups, the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee (GCC) and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council (SCC), said the election was the most secure in U.S. history. “While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections and you should, too,” the groups said in the statement released by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA, led by the top U.S. cybersecurity official, Christopher Krebs, runs a website that debunks misinformation about the election. The security groups said all the states with close results in the race have paper records of each vote, which can be counted if necessary.  
 
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The sound of heavy weapons erupted across the Ethiopian border town. Immediately, Filimon, a police officer, started to run.Shaken and scared, he paused when asked about his wife and two small children, ages 5 and 2.”I don’t know where my family is now,” he said, unsure if they were left behind in the fighting or are somewhere in the growing crowd of thousands of new refugees over the border in Sudan.In an interview with The Associated Press by phone from Sudan on Thursday, the 30-year-old gave one of the first witness accounts from what experts warn is a brewing civil war with devastating humanitarian consequences. The conflict could also draw in neighboring countries.Filimon, who gave only his first name, said those attacking the Tigray regional town of Humera last week came from the direction of nearby Eritrea, though it was impossible to know whether the attackers were Eritrean forces.Tigray regional leaders have accused Eritrea of joining the weeklong conflict in the region at the request of Ethiopia’s federal government, which regards the Tigray government as illegal. Ethiopia has denied the involvement of Eritrean forces.Thousands fleeFilimon’s worries are far more immediate. After a daylong journey on foot with about 30 others who were also fleeing, he has spent two days in Sudan, exposed to the sun and wind in a border town that is quickly becoming overwhelmed.About 11,000 refugees have fled into Sudan, where authorities are preparing for up to 100,000, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.Half of the refugees are children.It was too early to collect statements from the refugees about the fighting, the agency said. Fleeing combatants were separated from civilians. Injured people — injured how, it was still unclear — were being treated.Tensions over the deadly conflict in Ethiopia are spreading well beyond its cut-off northern Tigray region, as the federal government said some 150 suspected operatives accused of seeking to “strike fear and terror” throughout the country had been detained. Hours later, police in Addis Ababa said they had arrested 242 people allegedly recruited “to cause terror in the capital.”The government said the suspects “happen to be ethnically diverse,” but concerns remain high among ethnic Tigrayans amid reports of being singled out by authorities.”We don’t go to the office because they might also arrest us,” said one ethnic Tigrayan in the capital. “I’m in hiding, actually.”Ethiopia’s Parliament voted to remove immunity from prosecution for 39 top Tigray region officials, including its president, accusing them of revolting and “attacking the federal army.”Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is rejecting international pleas for negotiation and de-escalation, saying that cannot occur until the ruling leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) are removed and arrested and its heavily stocked arsenal is destroyed.In a bloody sign of how volatile Ethiopia’s tensions have become, Amnesty International said it had confirmed that scores of civilians were “hacked to death” in Mai-Kadra in the Tigray region on Monday night. It cited photos and videos of bodies strewn in the streets and witnesses who saw them. Amnesty International said it has not been able to confirm who was responsible.Abiy on Thursday asserted that the western part of the Tigray region had been liberated and accused the TPLF rulers of seeking to destroy Ethiopia. He accused the TPLF forces of abuses. Defense Minister Kenea Yadeta said a transitional administration will be set up in “rescued” areas, the Ethiopian News Agency reported.Acting President Debretsion Gebremichael of the Tigray Region called on the population to mobilize and defend themselves. Tigray TV, aligned with the TPLF, asserted that fighter jets had bombed the Tekeze hydroelectric dam.War months in the makingWhat appeared to be a sudden slide toward civil war has been months in the making. After taking office in 2018, Abiy announced sweeping political reforms that won him the Nobel Peace Prize but marginalized the TPLF, which had dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition. The TPLF later left the coalition and in September held a local election in defiance of the federal government.Each side now regards the other as illegal, and each blames the other for starting the fighting.Rallies occurred in multiple cities in support of the federal government’s military offensive. At a blood drive in Addis Ababa, donor Admasu Alamerew said, “I also want to pass my message to those people who are causing conflict and urge them to fear God and make peace.”Communications and transport links remain severed in the Tigray region, making it difficult to verify claims, while the United Nations and others warn of a looming humanitarian disaster as food and fuel run short for millions of people.The conflict risks drawing in Ethiopia’s neighbors, notably Sudan and Eritrea, which are at bitter odds with the TPLF. Experts fear that the Horn of Africa, one of the world’s most strategic regions, could be destabilized, despite Abiy’s past peacemaking efforts.Meanwhile, more than 1,000 citizens of various countries are stuck in the Tigray region, the U.N. has said. Long lines have appeared outside bread shops, and supply-laden trucks are stranded at its borders. Fuel is already being rationed.Over the border in Sudan, thousands of Ethiopian refugees waited, few possessions in hand, as authorities hurried to find a place to host them.”It’s just countryside. There’s nothing there. Everything will have to be provided,” said Charles Franzen, disaster response director for the aid group World Relief, whose largest program is in Sudan. At first, he said, for people who were already in a fragile stage, there will be a “fair amount of human suffering.”
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After the recent terror attacks in France and Austria, European leaders held a summit Tuesday in France to coordinate the response against terrorism, and they are pushing for a “common coordinated and rapid” European response to counterterror attacks.The question of how to respond to Islamist attacks like the recent ones in Nice and Vienna brought together Tuesday French President Emmanuel Macron and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the Elysee Palace in Paris where they were joined by videoconference with the leaders of Germany, the Netherlands, and top EU officials.President Macron urged a “common coordinated and rapid” European response to counterterror attacks.Macron detailed the need to develop common databases between EU states, improve cooperation between law enforcement, share intel and enact tougher legislation on the continent. Any threat at EU external borders or inside even one member state is a threat to the entire EU, said the French president.European leaders also stressed the need for what they said should be a “determined fight against terrorist propaganda and hate speech on the internet.” Macron mentioned Netherlands and Austria as good examples of how this fight should be carried out.He said the Internet is a space of freedom, and social networks are, too, but this freedom exists only if there is security and if it does not serve as a refuge for those who flout European values or seek to indoctrinate with deadly ideologies. Macron said terrorist propaganda must be removed within an hour once it is flagged.To counter jihadist terrorism, EU leaders also are calling for measures to ensure that the teachings of imams on the continent do not include hate speech.Charles Michel is the president of the European Council.Michel said religious freedom is key in Europe, but there also is a need to guarantee that imams preach the right values of tolerance and peace.This meeting took place on the eve of the anniversary of the November 2015 attacks that killed more than 100 people in Paris. 
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As severe weather events increase in frequency and intensity across the U.S. and around the world, scientists and forecasters are seeking more effective weather-mapping programs. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum   Produced by: JulieTaboh/Adam Greenbaum
 
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A celebration of music, from arias in an art house and guitars in prison, to subway dj-ing and using the earth as a harp.  Note this episode previously aired 4/2018) 
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An unknown number of people are killed and several others wounded  during inter-communal violence between two Tonj East County communities; Sudanese officials in Kassala State close their border with neighboring Ethiopia; and health officials say over a dozen children in Jonglei State have died of acute malnutrition due to ongoing flooding in the area.
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Tropical Storm Eta made landfall late Sunday in the Florida Keys on its way into the eastern Gulf of Mexico before taking another aim at the southeastern U.S. state later this week. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 100 kilometers per hour as it brought heavy rainfall and life-threatening flash floods to parts of southern Florida. Forecasters expect the storm to strengthen slightly into a hurricane later Monday or Tuesday but weaken again into a tropical storm before making a mainland Florida landfall. Officials have closed beaches, ports and coronavirus testing sites in the state and urged people to stay home. Florida’s governor has also declared a state of emergency in several counties to speed the government’s response. Forecasters expect Eta to drop 15 to 30 centimeters of rain on central and southern Florida through Friday. Parts of the Bahamas, Jamaica and Cuba will also see some heavy rains. Eta was a strong hurricane when it hit Nicaragua last week, bringing flooding rains to communities from Panama to Mexico. Rescuers in Guatemala continued searching Sunday for people caught in a landslide and authorities raised the official death toll to 27 with more than 100 people still missing. The storm has been blamed for at least 20 deaths in southern Mexico and at least 20 more in Honduras. 
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Former Republican U.S. President George W. Bush on Sunday congratulated the projected winner of last week’s election, Joe Biden, saying the Democratic president-elect had “won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.”Bush, who served as the country’s chief executive from 2001 to early 2009, said he has “political differences” with Biden, but that he offered him “my prayers for his success and my pledge to help in any way I can.” Bush also called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her.Bush said he thanked Biden for the “patriotic message” he delivered Saturday night in Wilmington, Delaware, near his home as he claimed victory over the Republican incumbent, President Donald Trump, after four days of vote counting following the official Election Day on Tuesday and weeks of early voting.    Bush described Trump’s total of more than 70 million votes – some 4 million less than Biden’s count — as “an extraordinary political achievement.”Trump has not conceded losing to Biden and filed numerous lawsuits claiming irregularities cost him re-election to a second four-year term.Bush said Trump “has the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges, and any unresolved issues will be properly adjudicated.”    But Bush said, “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear.”
 
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“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek died Sunday after battling pancreatic cancer for nearly two years. He was 80.  Trebek died at home early Sunday with family and friends surrounding him, “Jeopardy!” studio Sony said in a statement.Trebek presided over the beloved quiz show for more than 30 years.He was a master of the format, engaging in friendly banter with contestants and appearing genuinely pleased when they answered correctly.He was also able to move the game along in a brisk no-nonsense fashion whenever people struggled for answers.The Canadian-born Trebek was more than qualified for the job, having started his game show career on “Reach for the Top” in his native country.  Moving to the U.S. in 1973, he appeared on “The Wizard of Odds,” “Classic Concentration,” “To Tell the Truth,” “High Rollers,” “The $128,000 Question” and “Double Dare.” 
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