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Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to participate in Moscow-mediated talks to end the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry said Friday. As deadly clashes over the breakaway Azerbaijani region continued overnight Thursday, foreign ministers of both countries accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to meet for the first negotiations since fighting erupted Sept. 27.”Baku and Yerevan have confirmed their participation,” AFP quoted Russian ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying. The preparations were underway, she said.Armenia and AzerbaijanThe Kremlin said in a statement late Thursday that “following a series of telephone discussions between the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan,” Putin called for a halt to fighting “in order to exchange dead bodies and prisoners.” Armenian and Azerbaijani forces had ignored calls in the past two weeks by the United States, France and Russia for an immediate cease-fire, as fighting escalated to levels not seen since the 1990s. The three countries co-chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Minsk Group, which is trying to find a peaceful solution.   The predominantly ethnic Armenian territory declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991 during the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking a war that claimed the lives of as many as 30,000 people before a 1994 cease-fire.    Peace efforts in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, mediated by the Minsk Group, collapsed in 2010.   
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Former Malian presidential candidate Soumaila Cisse met the country’s transitional president Thursday night for the first time since his release this week by Islamist insurgents in a prisoner swap.Cisse, who had been kidnapped six months ago, did not reveal the nature of his talks with Bah N’Daw and other dignitaries at Mali’s presidential palace, in the capital Bamako.Cisse only spoke of his captivity, saying he was mostly in isolation living under difficult conditions, but that he was not the victim of any physical or verbal abuse.Cisse and three European hostages were freed by Islamic extremists in northern Mali just days after the Malian government released nearly 200 militants despite concerns their release might further destabilize the country.
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One of the most popular holiday beach resorts in Argentina is the site of a poignant memorial to the people who have died from the novel coronavirus.People in Mar del Plata planted 504 small Argentine flags on Bristol Beach, as the pandemic continues to spread through the interior of the country.Residents said they chose the popular beach ahead of the start of the summer season to draw attention to the rising toll of people contracting coronavirus and dying from COVID-19.One of the Mar del Plata residents placing the flags on the beach said her sympathy for COVID-19 victims extends beyond her hometown.COVID-19 infections reportedly are down in Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, but nationwide, Argentina still has one of the highest coronavirus tallies in Latin America and the world.Argentina has reported more than 840,000 cases of the new coronavirus and 22,710 deaths.
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Eight-year-old Inbar Regev plays with her pet python, Belle, in a small pool in her backyard at her family’s animal sanctuary in the Israeli town of Ge’a, Wednesday, October 7.  Inbar said Belle is good company during a coronavirus lockdown that has kept schools closed over the past few weeks. “It helps me pass the time because I really like to hang out with snakes and sometimes I help snakes shed (their skin) and I help them to be happy during coronavirus,” Inbar said. Sarit Regev, Inbar’s mother, said the two grew up together. “Inbar was raised with all these animals and she was raised with the snakes. When Inbar was little she swam inside the bath with the snake and now she has grown up and the snake got bigger, so they swim together in the pool. It’s very natural for us,” she said. (Reuters) 
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is questioning President Donald Trump’s fitness to serve, announcing legislation Thursday that would create a commission to allow Congress to intervene under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and remove the president from executive duties.Just weeks before the Nov. 3 election, Pelosi said Trump needs to disclose more about his health after his COVID-19 diagnosis. She noted Trump’s “strange tweet” halting talks on a new coronavirus aid package — he subsequently tried to reverse course — and said Americans need to know when, exactly, he first contracted COVID as others in the White House became infected. On Friday, she plans to roll out the legislation that would launch the commission for review.”The public needs to know the health condition of the president,” Pelosi said, later invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows a president’s cabinet or Congress to intervene when a president is unable to conduct the duties of the office.Trump responded swiftly via Twitter.”Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation. They don’t call her Crazy for nothing!” the president said.The president’s opponents have discussed invoking the 25th Amendment for some time, but are raising it now, so close to Election Day, as the campaigns are fast turning into a referendum on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 210,000 Americans have died and millions more infected by the virus that shows no signs of abating heading into what public health experts warn will be a difficult flu season and winter.Trump says he “feels great” after being hospitalized and is back at work in the White House. But his doctors have given mixed signals about his diagnosis and treatment. Trump plans to resume campaigning soon.Congress is not in legislative session, and so any serious consideration of the measure, let alone votes in the House or Senate, is unlikely. But the bill serves as a political tool to stoke questions about Trump’s health as his own White House is hit by an outbreak infecting top aides, staff and visitors, including senators.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the media after the Republican policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 22, 2020.In a stunning admission, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he had stopped going to the White House two months ago because he disagreed with its coronavirus protocols. His last visit was Aug. 6.”My impression was their approach to how to handle this was different from mine and what I insisted we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social distancing,” McConnell said at a campaign stop in northern Kentucky for his own reelection.On Friday, Pelosi along with Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a constitutional law professor, plan to roll out the legislation that would create a commission as outlined under the 25th Amendment, which was passed by Congress and ratified in 1967 as way to ensure a continuity of power in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.It says the vice president and a majority of principal officers of the executive departments “or of such other body as Congress” may by law provide a declaration to Congress that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” At that point, the vice president would immediately assume the powers of acting president.Trump abruptly halted talks this week on the new COVID aid package, sending the economy reeling, his GOP allies scrambling and leaving millions of Americans without additional support. Then he immediately reversed course and tried to kickstart talks.It all came in a head-spinning series of tweets and comments days after he returned to the White House after his hospitalization with COVID-19.First, Trump told the Republican leaders in Congress on Tuesday to quit negotiating on an aid package. By Wednesday he was trying to bring everyone back to the table for his priority items — including $1,200 stimulus checks for almost all adult Americans.Pelosi said Thursday that Democrats are “still at the table” and her office resumed conversations with top negotiator Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.She said she told Mnuchin she was willing to consider a measure to prop up the airline industry, which is facing widespread layoffs. But that aid, she said, must go alongside broader legislation that includes the kind of COVID testing, tracing and health practices that Democrats say are needed as part of a national strategy to “crush the virus.”Normally, the high stakes and splintered politics ahead of an election could provide grounds for a robust package. But with other Republicans refusing to spend more money, it appears no relief will be coming with Americans already beginning early voting.Democrats have made it clear they will not do a piecemeal approach until the Trump administration signs off on a broader, comprehensive plan they are proposing for virus testing, tracing and other actions to stop its spread. They have scaled back a $3 trillion measure to a $2.2 trillion proposal. The White House presented a $1.6 trillion counter offer. Talks were ongoing when Trump shut them down.”There’s no question that the proximity to the election has made this much more challenging,” McConnell said.
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The top-ranked military officer in the United States is warning adversaries that there has been no letup in the country’s defenses even though he and other high-ranking officers have been forced to self-quarantine because of the coronavirus.In a message shared Thursday on Twitter, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley said the quarantine was having “no impact” on the Pentagon’s ability to defend the nation or its allies.“America is capable and ready,” Milley said in the statement. “The Joint Chiefs and I remain in constant communication while in quarantine and the chain of command remains the same.”#GenMilley: “America is capable and ready to defend the homeland and support our allies and partners. The Joint Chiefs and I remain in constant communication while in quarantine and the chain of command remains the same. (1/2)— The Joint Staff 🇺🇸 (@thejointstaff) October 8, 2020Milley, along with Vice Chairman General John Hyten and the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force, began self-quarantining earlier this week, “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the Pentagon, after learning another top military official, U.S. Coast Guard Vice Commandant Admiral Charles Ray, had come down with COVID-19.Officials said Ray tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, followed by Marine Corps Assistant Commandant General Gary Thomas, who tested positive Tuesday.Officials said all the military officers, along with National Guard Bureau Chief General Daniel Hokanson, Cyber Command Chief General Paul Nakasone, and lower-ranking members of the Joint Staff took part in meetings last week at the Pentagon.The Pentagon said it was unclear how Ray, who began experiencing mild symptoms over the weekend, was exposed to the coronavirus.Protocols followed“From the available data that I have, the senior-most leaders of the department are following and have followed all of the protocols to keep themselves safe and their staff safe,” Lieutenant General Ronald Place, director of the Defense Health Agency, told reporters Thursday.“What this really shows is despite all those best practices that we think that we know about how to try to contain this particular virus, it isn’t 100% effective,” Place said. “It’s just reinforcing that we have to continue to stay vigilant at a time where complacency becomes an even greater risk factor across the world, really, but in particular for us across America.”Milley, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other senior defense officials have been tested frequently since Sept. 27, when they attended a White House reception for Gold Star families of fallen troops. Both President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were at that event and tested positive for coronavirus later in the week.VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Violence in Afghanistan has surged as the U.S. special envoy is in Doha to break the deadlock over the framework for conducting peace talks.   
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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee, faced off Wednesday night in a debate in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Mike O’Sullivan reports the administration’s handling of COVID-19 loomed large as President Donald Trump and others in the White House remain in quarantine after contracting the virus.
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American poet Louise Glück has won this year’s Nobel Prize in literature.The Swedish Academy praised Glück’s “unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”Glück has published 12  poetry collections, and her previous honors include the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.The literature prize is just one of a group given out this week.  Each comes with a $1.1 million cash award.Friday brings the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize.The prize in chemistry was awarded to two scientists for developing a method of gene editing.Three scientists won the physics prize Wednesday for their discoveries related to black holes.  Three scientists also shared the medicine prize for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.
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Authorities in Mexico are trying to trace the origin of a light plane carrying just under 400 kilos of cocaine, which crashed following an air chase.Mexico’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that two people on board the plane died.Reuters reports that authorities say Mexican military helicopters chased the plane for hundreds of kilometers over Mexico airspace Monday before it ran out of fuel and crashed in central Mexico.The crash occurred less than two weeks after authorities said a business jet stolen in Mexico crashed in Guatemala, near a jungle airstrip, carrying a stash of drugs and weapons.Authorities say the plane made a stop in Venezuela for an unknown reason before the crash.Prosecutors in Guatemala said at least two bodies were found at the crash site.The Associated Press reports Guatemala confiscated more than 50 aircraft last year on suspicion of transporting drugs.
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In a further blow to the travel industry, Australia is warning its international borders are likely to stay closed because of COVID-19 restrictions until “late next year.” Foreign nationals were banned in March to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, and Australian citizens must get official permission to leave the country.Last year, about 9 million overseas travelers arrived in Australia. The largest groups came from China, New Zealand and the United States. The pandemic has seen those numbers collapse.COVID-19 has turned Australia into a fortress. Its borders were closed to foreign nationals in March, helping to contain the disease but inflicting enormous economic harm. Australia is in a recession for the first time in three decades.The exclusion of overseas tourists and students intending to study in Australia has cost Australia billions of dollars in lost revenue.Australian citizens and permanent residents are allowed to fly home, but they must pay for mandatory hotel quarantine on their return. Tens of thousands of people are stranded in other countries because of strict quotas on those allowed into the quarantine system. Australians need official permission from the government to leave the country.Many of Australia’s internal borders also have also been closed to curb the spread of the virus.Most states and territories have managed to contain the virus, but reopening the country will take time, according to the Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg.“Domestic borders are assumed to reopen around the end of this year,” he said. “International travel, including by tourists and international students, is assumed to remain largely closed off until late next year and then gradually return over time. And a vaccine to be available around the end of 2021 is one of the assumptions in the budget.”Large-scale immigration, which has fueled prosperity in Australia, will only resume when international borders are reopened.By many global comparisons, Australia has mostly handled the pandemic well. It has recorded just over 27,000 coronavirus cases, and about 900 people have died.Geography has been a key part in its pandemic strategy. Australia is a huge island, and restricting international travel has helped to limit the spread of COVID-19. Safely reconnecting with the rest of the world promises to be a monumental challenge for the authorities here, though.
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President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants all U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan by Christmas, speeding up the timeline for ending America’s longest war.”We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!” Trump wrote on Twitter.In a February 29 agreement reached in Qatar with the Taliban, the United States promised to pull out all of its troops by mid-2021 in return for the insurgents’ promises not to allow Afghanistan to be used as a haven by extremists.The Taliban have since opened talks in Doha with the Afghan government, but the meetings have stalled as the hard-line Sunni rebels insist on their form of Islamic jurisprudence.Trump’s promise comes one month before U.S. elections in which the president, trailing in the polls, has sought to show that he is making good on his promise to draw to a close the nation’s “endless wars.”After 19 years of U.S. military operations, his stance enjoys wide support, with Democratic rival Joe Biden, a critic during his time as vice president of further U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, also supporting a withdrawal.The United States first intervened in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks and dislodged the Taliban regime, which had welcomed Al-Qaida.But in the years since, the resurgent militants have launched a fresh battle to topple the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, with civilians bearing the brunt of spiraling violence since NATO combat troops withdrew in 2014.Trump has reduced U.S. forces in Afghanistan to around 8,600 and the Taliban has stood by promises not to attack Western troops, even as the militants continue their bloody campaign against government forces.
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An Iranian dissident has contracted the coronavirus at a prison in northern Iran, according to a knowledgeable source, highlighting what U.S. and U.N. officials say is a worsening pandemic threat facing Iran’s prisoners of conscience.In a message sent Tuesday to VOA Persian, an Iran-based source close to the family of dissident Farhad Meysami said Meysami tested positive for the virus at Rajaei Shahr prison in the city of Karaj and was transferred that morning from his ward to a so-called prison “safe room” for isolation. The source had no further details on the conditions of Meysami’s detention.The 50-year-old medical doctor and women’s rights activist has been imprisoned by Iran since his July 31, 2018, arrest. Security agents detained him at his Tehran home where they found him in possession of pins with the slogan “I am against compulsory hijab.”Meysami had been peacefully supporting a 2018 campaign by Iranian women who removed their hijabs in public to protest Islamist regulations requiring the headscarves. He was sentenced in January 2019 to five years in prison on charges of “spreading propaganda against the system” and “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security,”  a sentence that was upheld on appeal in August that year.Authorities initially incarcerated Meysami at Tehran’s Evin prison before moving him to Rajaei Shahr last November.A former Iranian political prisoner first reported Meysami’s coronavirus infection in a series of Monday tweets.#فرهادمیثمی در زندان رجائی‌شهر به کرونا مبتلا شده است؛امروز از زندان تماس گرفت و گفت که جواب تستش مثبت شده، اینکه در هفته گذشته احساس بی‌اشتهائی داشته ولی الان حالش خوب است.گفتم این خبر را توئیت بکنم، مخالفتی نکرد.گفتم آیا لازم است بگویم حالِ فعلی‌تان خوب است؟گفت: بله!۱/ pic.twitter.com/grFUJwI8Vv— Zia Nabavi (@ZiaNabavi1) October 5, 2020Zia Nabavi, who is based in Iran, tweeted that Meysami informed him of the diagnosis in a phone call from prison that day. Nabavi said Meysami reported feeling fine after being unwell last week.#فرهادمیثمی در زندان رجائی‌شهر به کرونا مبتلا شده است؛امروز از زندان تماس گرفت و گفت که جواب تستش مثبت شده، اینکه در هفته گذشته احساس بی‌اشتهائی داشته ولی الان حالش خوب است.گفتم این خبر را توئیت بکنم، مخالفتی نکرد.گفتم آیا لازم است بگویم حالِ فعلی‌تان خوب است؟گفت: بله!۱/ pic.twitter.com/grFUJwI8Vv— Zia Nabavi (@ZiaNabavi1) October 5, 2020The former political prisoner followed up with a Tuesday tweet in which he also said Meysami had been transferred to a prison safe room that morning. Nabavi described the safe room as an individual cell without medical and other facilities available to inmates in the public wards.Meysami’s lawyer Mohammad Moghimi also tweeted about his client’s coronavirus diagnosis on Monday.موکلم دکتر فرهاد میثمی به کرونا مبتلاء شده و باید از مرخصی درمانی بهره‌مند شود. بارها گفته‌ام، دوباره تاکید می‌کنم؛ زندانیان سیاسی باید بدون قید و شرط آزاد شوند و سلامتی زندانیان عادی نیز باید تضمین شود یا آنان نیز بصورت موقت یا مشروط آزاد شوند.#فرهادمیثمی#زندانیسیاسی#کروناpic.twitter.com/6ljKYTbGqR— Mohammad Moghimi (@Moghimi_Lawyer) October 5, 2020“My client should be on medical leave,” Moghimi wrote. “I emphasize again: political prisoners must be released unconditionally, and the health of ordinary prisoners must be guaranteed. Otherwise, they must be released temporarily or conditionally.”Meysami’s infection got a mention in Iranian state media as well. Ensaf News published a Monday report quoting a friend of the dissident, medical book publisher Farhad Teimourzadeh, as saying he heard about the diagnosis from the dissident’s mother, Sedigheh Pishnamaz.The health risks facing prisoners of conscience in Iran has prompted international concern as the Islamist-ruled nation struggles to contain the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East.The U.S. is concerned by the worsening COVID-19 situation in Iran and we reiterate our offer of assistance first made in February. We join @UNHumanRights’ call for Iranian authorities to release all political prisoners from their overcrowded and unsanitary prisons immediately.— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) October 6, 2020In a Tuesday tweet, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus called for Iranian authorities “to release all political prisoners from their overcrowded and unsanitary prisons immediately.”U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also issued a statement Tuesday saying poor conditions inside Iranian prisons have “led to the spread of the virus among detainees, reportedly resulting in a number of deaths.”“I call for [Iran’s] unconditional release of human rights defenders, lawyers, political prisoners, peaceful protesters and all other individuals deprived of their liberty for expressing their views or otherwise exercising their rights,” Bachelet said. “It is particularly important to rectify such injustices at a time when COVID-19 is coursing through Iran’s prisons.” This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Lipin reported from Washington and Yazdiha from Istanbul. Click here for the original Persian version of the story.
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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are among at least a dozen top White House or other government officials diagnosed with COVID-19. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines the President’s treatment with former Director of the Centers for Disease Control Dr. Tom Frieden and ABC News Political Director Rick Klein helps clarify the effect it has on the presidential election campaign. Airdate October 7, 2020.
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Zimbabwe’s back-to-school program is failing to take off with most teachers refusing to return to class because of low pay and concerns about COVID-19.  Teachers want a 500% salary increase to get out of poverty and say authorities must provide adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic.  Zimbabwe authorities say PPE is adequate and are threatening to replace teachers who refuse to return to schools.  Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare. Camera:  Blessing Chigwenhembe    Produced by:  Bronwyn Benito
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The Russian military says it has successfully test-launched a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile off Russia’s northern coast, in what President Vladimir Putin hailed as a “big event” for the country. Speaking to Putin by video conference on October 7, General Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said the test launch took place from the Admiral Groshkov frigate located in the White Sea. Gerasimov said that the hypersonic anti-ship missile flew at a speed more than eight times the speed of sound and hit its target 450 kilometers away in the Barents Sea. 
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Kuwait’s new ruler Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Wednesday named Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad, deputy head of the country’s National Guard, as crown prince of the U.S.-allied OPEC member state. The selection of Sheikh Meshal, which must be approved by the Gulf Arab state’s parliament, “was blessed by the Al Sabah family,” state news agency KUNA cited a statement from the emir’s office as saying. Earlier two members of Kuwait’s ruling family posted messages on Twitter pledging allegiance to Sheikh Meshal as crown prince. Sheik Nawaf assumed power following the death of his brother Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad last week, at a time of tension between Kuwait’s larger neighbors Saudi Arabia and Iran and as the government tries to shore up finances strained by low oil prices and COVID-19. Diplomats and analysts say that due to his low-key style and age, Sheikh Nawaf, 83, may delegate a larger portion of responsibilities to his heir apparent, who would have to act swiftly to tackle domestic issues. The country’s parliament speaker has said if the emir announces a crown prince on Wednesday, then lawmakers would vote on his choice on Thursday, the last day of parliament’s term. 
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