Turkish President Erdogan visited breakaway Northern Cyprus on Sunday to meet its newly elected leader who backs his call for a “two-state” solution to the divided island’s five-decade conflict if U.N.-mediated talks yield no results.With Turkey’s support, former prime minister Ersin Tatar won a tight presidential vote last month that could further strain ties with the internationally-recognized Cypriot government to the south. Tatar’s predecessor had backed reunification.Turkey is alone in recognizing Northern Cyprus as an independent state. Cyprus was split after a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup.Turkey’s government said Erdogan and Tatar would discuss how to strengthen ties and also the situation in the broader Eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey has clashed this year with Cyprus, Greece and the European Union over offshore territorial rights.The EU, which has threatened to impose sanctions on Turkey next month over illegal oil and gas exploration at sea, admitted Cyprus into the bloc in 2004. Erdogan has said separate administrations were the only solution after U.N.-mediated peace talks between Cyprus and North Cyprus broke down in 2017. Ankara has proposed an informal meeting between Turkey, Greece, Turkish and Greek Cypriots and the United Nations.Before last month’s election, Northern Cyprus partially reopened the beach town of Varosha, a fenced-off resort area abandoned in no-man’s land since 1974.Turkey backed the move while the United States, Greece and Greek Cypriots criticized it. 
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In an unassuming house in rolling hills east of the Hungarian capital, a small family firm is helping oil the wheels of the world’s big pharmaceutical companies on the path to a coronavirus vaccine. Biologist Noemi Lukacs, 71, retired to Szirak, her birth village, to establish English & Scientific Consulting (SciCons) and manufacture a genetic sensor so sensitive that a few grams can supply the entire global industry for a year. “We produce monoclonal antibodies,” Lukacs told Reuters in the single-story house where she was born, now partly converted into a world-class laboratory. The white powder ships worldwide from here, micrograms at a time. “These antibodies recognize double-stranded RNA [dsRNA],” she explained. DsRNA is a byproduct of viruses replicating, so its presence signals the presence of a live virus, long useful in virus-related research. More importantly, dsRNA is also a byproduct of the process used by U.S. giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech to create their experimental COVID-19 vaccine which is more than 90% effective according to initial trial results last week.And because dsRNA can be harmful to human cells, it must be filtered out from any vaccine to be used in humans. Several filtering methods exist, but the most widely used way to do quality control is to expose the vaccine to Lukacs’ antibodies. Not only will the antibodies show if there is any dsRNA in the vaccine, they will also tell researchers how much of it is present. Only once completely freed from dsRNA can the vaccine be administered. The result: a line of big pharma representatives outside her door. Hungarian biologists Alexandra Torok and Noemi Lukacs check the purity of an antibody, a genetic sensor of sorts, in Szirak, Hungary, Nov. 13, 2020.The small company is growing rapidly, yet its revenue was only 124 million forints (just over $400,000) last year, with profits at 52 million forints. That feeds five employees and even leaves some for local charity projects in Szirak. To Lukacs, that is just fine. The success of the RNA field, long frowned upon, is vindication enough. Dog in the race The former university professor followed the race to the vaccine closely and rooted especially for the contestants who look set to come first: those using modified RNA to train cells of the human body to recognize and kill the coronavirus. The RNA was her dog in the race. The modified RNA, or mRNA, methodology is a whole new group of drugs, with the COVID vaccine the first product likely to get regulatory approval and go into mass production. But more applications are expected, which has Lukacs overjoyed. “Once you get into the RNA field, it is an extremely exciting area,” she said, recalling decades of struggles when the rest of the scientific community did not share her excitement. Or most of the rest, that is. Another Hungarian woman, Katalin Kariko, working across the Atlantic, patented the method that enables the use of RNA and promises to free the world not only of the coronavirus but scores of other diseases. In the process, Kariko — now the Vice President of Germany’s BioNTech, which was first alongside U.S. giant Pfizer to break through with a vaccine earlier this month  — became an early SciCons customer. The COVID breakthrough and other RNA uses may necessitate more use of Lukacs’s antibodies as well, but they do not anticipate much of a boon. “We would be happy to sell more of it,” said Johanna Symmons, her daughter and the small company’s chief executive. “We probably will too. But it’s not like we’ll get silly rich.” Being part of the solution reaps its own rewards. “We have cooperated with most vaccine manufacturers, and certainly almost all of the ones using the mRNA method,” she said with a hint of pride. “We have been a small screw in this large machine.”    
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center said early Sunday that reconnaissance aircraft had found that Tropical Storm Iota has strengthened into the 13th hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.The meteorologists said Iota is “rapidly strengthening” into a major hurricane as it approaches Central America, a region recently pummeled by Hurricane Eta.The weather forecasters said Iota is moving with maximum sustained winds of 120 kph.The agency has issued hurricane warnings for Providencia, in Colombia, as well as portions of Honduras and Nicaragua.
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As Tropical Storm Iota barreled toward Central America, authorities on Saturday urged communities to evacuate before it unleashed “life-threatening” flooding across a region still recovering from Hurricane Eta’s devastation.Iota was expected to intensify to major hurricane strength or just short of it by the time it smashes into the jungles of the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua and Honduras on Monday.The storm comes as Central America is still coping with the massive destruction wrought by Hurricane Eta, which slammed the region two weeks ago, prompting flooding and mudslides that have killed scores of people across a huge swath stretching from Panama to southern Mexico.On Saturday morning, Guatemalan authorities said a mudslide had buried 10 people in Chiquimula state, near the border with Honduras. Emergency workers rescued two people and recovered three corpses; five people were still missing. Saturday’s mudslide followed last week’s partial collapse of a mountain onto the village of Queja, in the central Guatemalan region of Alta Verapaz, which killed and buried alive dozens of residents.FILE – Guatemala’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, speaks during a news conference in Guatemala City, Feb. 7, 2020.Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei expressed on Saturday his concern about the approach of Iota, saying he had ordered evacuations for areas expected to be affected. “We are concerned about the area of Alta Verapaz and Quiché. We believe that they are the areas where we could have the greatest impact,” said Giammattei. “We hope God helps us.”In Honduras, where Eta killed 64 people and damaged roads, bridges and crops, President Juan Orlando Hernández on Saturday urged people in the path of Iota to evacuate to the nearest shelters. “Iota is going to put our lives and our economy at risk again,” he said.Residents of the community of Cruz de Valencia in northwestern Honduras began evacuating. “We have to get out. We have to save our lives,” said resident Erick Gomez, who said he survived the flooding from the last hurricane by clinging to a tree to avoid being swept away by the rushing water. “We are afraid of what we just suffered with Eta, and we do not want to go through the same thing again.”The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that Iota could bring flash flooding and mudslides across northern Colombia and Central America as early as Monday. It is expected to pack maximum winds of 110 mph (177 kph) as it approaches landfall. 
 
At 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT), Iota was about 780 kilometers (485 miles) east-southeast from the Nicaraguan-Honduran coast, with maximum sustained winds of 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph). It was moving at 8 kph (5 mph) in a west-southwest direction.
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The leader of Armenia’s opposition Homeland party, Artur Vanetsyan, has been arrested and accused of plotting to overthrow the government and kill the country’s embattled prime minister, as the country’s main security body said it had thwarted an assassination attempt.Vanetsyan, who formerly headed Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), was detained after his arrival for a meeting with the service’s Investigative Department on Saturday, according to his lawyer.”Vanetsyan was detained on suspicion of usurping power and preparing the assassination of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan,” attorney Lusine Sahakian wrote on Facebook.In addition, Sahakian wrote, “illegal searches” were carried out in the apartment of Vanetsyan’s parents and an office affiliated with the Homeland party.Both Sahakian and Vanetsyan’s Homeland party condemned the moves as politically motivated.NSS statementThe NSS has not confirmed Vanetsyan’s arrest, but in a statement Saturday it said that it had thwarted an assassination attempt against Pashinyan.”The National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia has revealed cases of illegal acquisition and storage of weapons, ammunition and explosives by a group of people with the aim of seizing power in the Republic of Armenia,” the statement said. “It is clarified that the attackers, who did not agree with the domestic and foreign policy of the state, intended to seize power by killing the head of government.”The Homeland party said in a statement that Vanetsyan’s arrest was part of the Armenian authorities’ efforts to quell opposition protests against a Russia-mediated cease-fire agreement that stopped fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.Pashinyan’s agreement to the truce with Azerbaijan on Tuesday prompted a furious reaction in the Armenian capital, with protesters storming government buildings and parliament.Homeland is one of 17 Armenian opposition groups that launched the protests and demanded Pashinyan’s resignation. They accuse Pashinyan of capitulating to Azerbaijan and committing high treason.10 arrestsOn Wednesday, 10 prominent opposition figures, including Vanetsyan, were arrested and accused of “organizing illegal violent mass disorder.” The detentions were denounced by the opposition as illegal, and the opposition figures were released two days later.Vanetsyan, 40, was appointed as head of the NSS immediately after the 2018 revolution that brought Pashinyan to power. He quickly became an influential member of Pashinyan’s entourage, overseeing high-profile corruption investigations initiated by Armenia’s new leadership.Vanetsyan resigned in September 2019 after a falling out with the prime minister. He has since repeatedly accused Pashinyan of incompetence and misrule, prompting angry responses from the premier and his political allies.While the Moscow-brokered truce ended fighting that has killed more than 2,000 soldiers and civilians on each side, it has been rejected by Armenians because it allows Azerbaijan to keep large swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh.Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but its majority Armenian population has governed its own affairs since Azerbaijani troops and Azeri civilians were pushed out of the region in a war that ended in a cease-fire in 1994.The most recent fighting broke out in late September.
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In a bitter farewell to his home of 21 years, Garo Dadevusyan wrenched off its metal roof and prepared to set the stone house on fire. Thick smoke poured from houses that his neighbors had already torched before fleeing this ethnic Armenian village about to come under Azerbaijani control.The village is to be turned over to Azerbaijan on Sunday as part of territorial concessions in an agreement to end six weeks of intense fighting with Armenian forces. The move gripped its 600 people with fear and anger so deep that they destroyed the homes they once loved.The settlement — called Karvachar in Armenian — is legally part of Azerbaijan, but it has been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the 1994 end of a war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. That war left not only Nagorno-Karabakh itself but also substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.After years in which sporadic clashes broke out between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, full-scale fighting began in late September this year. Azerbaijan made relentless military advances, culminating in the seizure of the city of Shusha, a strategically key city and one of strong emotional significance as a longtime center of Azeri culture.Two days after Azerbaijan announced it had taken Shusha, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russia-brokered cease-fire under which territory that Armenia occupies outside the formal borders of Nagorno-Karabakh will be gradually ceded.Muslim Azeris and Christian Armenians once lived together in these regions, however uneasily. Although the cease-fire ends the fighting, it aggravates ethnic animosity.Garo Dadevusyan, right, wrenches off its metal roof and prepares to set the stone house on fire in Kalbajar before leaving the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, Nov. 14, 2020. The village is to be turned over to Azerbaijan Nov. 15.”In the end, we will blow it up or set it on fire, in order not to leave anything to Muslims,” Dadevusyan said of his house.He spoke while taking a rest from salvaging what he could from the home, including metal roof panels, and piling it onto an old flatbed truck.The truck’s final destination was unclear.”We are homeless now, do not know where to go and where to live. Do not know where to live. It is very hard,” Dadevusyan’s wife, Lusine, said, choked by tears as the couple gave the interior of the house a last look.Dadevusyan’s dismay extended to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Armenia and Russia keep close relations and Russia has a sizable military base in Armenia, so many Armenians had hoped for support from Moscow. Instead, Russia facilitated the cease-fire and territorial concessions and is sending in nearly 2,000 peacekeepers to enforce it.”Why has Putin abandoned us?” Dadevusyan asked.Cars and trucks stuck in a huge traffic jam climb along the road from Kalbajar to a mountain pass leaving the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, Nov. 14, 2020.On Saturday, kilometers-long columns of cars and trucks carrying fleeing residents jammed the road to Armenia.Scores of local people flocked to Dadivank, an Armenian Apostolic Church monastery dating to the ninth century, as priests removed sacred items to be taken away. Many of the visitors took photos of themselves at the site nestled in the mountains near Karvachar, suggesting they did not expect to see it again.People look at bells, removed from the Dadivank, an Armenian Apostolic Church monastery dating to the ninth century, as ethnic Armenians leave the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, Nov. 14, 2020.A small group of Russian peacekeepers watched from across the road, some sitting on their armored vehicles.The monastery’s abbot, the Reverend Hovhannes Ter-Hovhannisyan, walked over to greet them.”It’s very important to us that the Russian peacekeepers came today in order to preserve peace, because not all the questions of our future have been resolved,” he said. “But I am sure that justice will triumph.”Hundreds of thousands of Azeris were displaced by the war that ended in 1994. It is unclear when any civilians might try to settle in Karvachar — which will now be known by its Azeri name, Kalbajar — or elsewhere.Any returns could be wrenching. Settlers will confront the burned, empty shells of houses — or worse. Agdam, which is to be turned over next week, once was a city of about 40,000, but now is an empty sprawl of buildings that were destroyed in the first war or later ruined by pillagers grabbing building materials.Returning also is potentially dangerous because of the remnants of war. The Azerbaijani general prosecutor’s office said one man was killed and another injured Saturday when they triggered a mine left over from the fighting in Fizuli, an area now under Azerbaijani control.For the Dadevusyans, their sudden relocation is overwhelming beyond words.”When you spent 21 years here and now need to leave it … ,” Garo Dadevusyan said, trailing off, as smoke from nearby burning houses choked the air. Soon, he knew, his house would be one of them.
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Demonstrators on the Canary Islands on Saturday demanded better living conditions for thousands of migrants who have reached the Spanish archipelago from Africa.A slow procession of hundreds of demonstrators, some on foot and some in cars, crossed the island of Gran Canaria before reaching the Arguineguin dock in the town of Mogan, where nearly 2,000 migrants are living in tents in conditions that an immigration judge has called “inhumane and degrading.”Over 700 migrants in small boats were rescued Saturday, coast guards said, bringing the number of people who have reached the islands by the dangerous Atlantic route from Africa to nearly 17,000 this year — more than 10 times last year’s total.Deepening economic hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic is pushing more people in developing nations to seek better lives elsewhere, while tightened security in the Mediterranean means more migrants are attempting the Atlantic crossing, with many dying along the way.”We are here fighting for a more dignified reception for these people who arrive in our island to find a better life,” said one demonstrator, teacher Famara Brito.Aid groups estimate about 4,000 migrants are living in tourist hotels because of the lack of refugee reception centers. The Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Enterprises of Gran Canaria called on the government Saturday to act so hotels could be used again for tourists.Spain’s regional policy minister said Friday that it would expand naval patrols around the Canary Islands and set up more migrant centers in response to the surge in arrivals.
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Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua announced evacuations Friday as a second major hurricane in days closed in on Central America with the region still reeling from deadly storm Eta last week.
 
Eta killed more than 200 people across Central America, with heavy rain bursting riverbanks and triggering landslides as far north as Chiapas, Mexico.
 
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami has now confirmed that another major hurricane is approaching Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, whose populations total more than 30 million.
 
The NHC forecasts Tropical Storm Iota to become a Category 2 or 3 hurricane as it moves into the same shell-shocked countries, hitting Nicaragua and Honduras by late Sunday or early Monday — less than two weeks after Eta hit.
 
Authorities in Honduras on Friday ordered the evacuation by police and the army of people in the area of San Pedro Sula — the country’s second city and industrial capital, located 180 kilometers north of Tegucigalpa.
 
“Our red alert [in Honduras] orders mandatory evacuations,” Julissa Mercado of Honduras’ Emergency Response Agency told AFP.
 
The San Pedro Sula valley was hit hard by Eta and about 40,000 people are still in shelters across the country.
 
In Nicaragua relief agencies began to evacuate some indigenous communities from the Coco River, on the border with Honduras, which could be affected by heavy rains and floods due to the storm.
 
“We are asking you to calmly prepare” for the hurricane that “threatens to cause floods and disasters,” Rose Cunnigham, the mayor of Waspam, on the border with Honduras, urged the community over a local radio station.
 
Waspam authorities on Friday sent boats to evacuate the community in Cabo Gracias a Dios, the cape where the Coco River flows into the Caribbean along the “Mosquito Coast”, and buses to transport people from the village of Bihmuna.
 
Guatemala’s disaster management agency CONRED meanwhile called on residents in the country’s most threatened areas in the north and northeast to voluntarily evacuate to shelters. It also recommended avoiding waterways and other risky areas.  
 
“Our ground is already oversaturated,” said Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei.  
 
“So, it’s to be expected that we will have more farming and infrastructure damage,” he warned after meeting his Honduran counterpart, Juan Orlando Hernandez, in Guatemala City.
 
Eta hit the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm and was one of the strongest November storms ever recorded.
 
Warmer seas caused by climate change are making hurricanes stronger for longer after landfall, increasing the destruction they can wreak, scientists say.
 
Guatemala’s Giammattei on Friday accused industrialized nations of being responsible for the catastrophes caused by climate change that are ravaging the area.
 
“Central America is one of the regions where climate change is felt the most,” he told reporters.
 
The region is hit by “catastrophic floods, extreme droughts and the greatest poverty” but nonetheless receives “the least help on behalf of these industrialized nations”, he said.
 
This year’s hurricane season has seen a record 30 named tropical storms wreak havoc across the southeastern United States, the Caribbean and Central America.
 
The NHC was even forced to switch to the Greek alphabet after 2020’s storms exhausted its list of Latin names.
 
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Tropical Storm Iota should strengthen into a major hurricane by the time it smashes into the jungles of the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua and Honduras on Monday, a region still recovering from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Eta.Iota formed Friday afternoon, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said it could be blowing winds of up to 193 kph when it collides with Central America, two weeks after Eta battered the area.”Flooding and landslides from heavy rainfall could be significant across Central America given recovery efforts underway after Hurricane Eta,” the NHC said.Eta sparked floods and mudslides that killed scores of people across a huge swath of terrain stretching from Panama to southern Mexico.No area was harder hit than the central Guatemalan region of Alta Verapaz, where a mountain partly collapsed onto the village of Queja, killing and burying dozens of residents alive.At 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) Iota was about 539 kilometers south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, packing maximum sustained winds of 64 kph. It was moving at a slow 5 kph in a west-southwest direction.Dangerous winds, rising sea levels and downpours could menace the coast of Nicaragua and Honduras from Sunday night, the Miami-based NHC said.The center expected to issue hurricane watches for portions of those areas by late Friday or early Saturday.Through Wednesday morning, Iota could spark life-threatening flash flooding and cause rivers to burst their banks in parts of Haiti, Jamaica and Central America, the NHC said.In Honduras, evacuations were already under way in Sula Valley, and officials said they would on Saturday start letting water out of a major dam in anticipation of Iota, the record-breaking 30th storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
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Mexican senators on Friday began weighing a sweeping initiative to legalize recreational use and sale of marijuana, a proposal that could create the world’s largest marijuana market in a country battered by a violent war against drug gangs.The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that recreational marijuana should be permitted, and lawmakers in 2017 legalized the use of medicinal marijuana. But the country has yet to pass laws that would legalize its recreational use or regulations for medicinal marijuana.Lawmakers are now rushing to try to meet a Dec. 15 deadline set by the Supreme Court for legalization, with the support of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who wants to remove the drug as a source of income for violent drug gangs.Discussed by the Senate’s health, justice and legislative studies commissions on Friday, the marijuana bill would allow licensed sale of marijuana, let users carry up to 28 grams of the drug and grow as many as four cannabis plants in their homes.It would also create the Mexican Institute for Regulation and Cannabis Control within the Health Ministry.Among the restrictions, children and teenagers would be prohibited from smoking pot or being involved in its cultivation and sale, and the drug would not be allowed while driving.The possible legalization of hemp, a product derived from marijuana, for industrial use in sectors such as construction or food production, has not yet been hammered out, a legislative staffer told Reuters.However, the bill does propose allowing the sale, import and export of non-psychoactive cannabis products for industrial use.Major companies are positioning themselves for a time when Mexico opens up what would be the world’s biggest legal cannabis market in terms of population, where the drug can be lawfully cultivated and sold.Pro-marijuana activists have called for the passage of the bill in recent weeks with a cannabis “garden” next to the Senate, where police have turned a blind eye to recreational users freely lighting up joints.   
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As the remnants of Hurricane Eta disappear in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, meteorologists say a tropical depression in the southern Caribbean Sea is likely to strengthen into 2020’s 30th named storm.The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tropical Depression 31 was about 500 kilometers south-southeast of Jamaica and was slowly moving to the west-southwest. Forecasters said conditions were right for the system to gradually intensify into Tropical Storm Iota.It was expected to begin moving west-northwest by Saturday and move across the central Caribbean. It could approach the coastlines of Nicaragua and northeast Honduras by late Sunday, by which time it could be a major hurricane.FILE – A rescue dog and his handler search for survivors after a massive, rain-fueled landslide in the village of Queja, Guatemala, Nov. 7, 2020, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Eta.That is very bad news for the Central American region, which is still trying to recover from powerful Hurricane Eta that brought disastrous flooding and landslides to Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala last week.The storm, which existed for more than 10 days, moved offshore late last week, restrengthened as it crossed the Caribbean, and came ashore twice in the U.S. state of Florida — once in the southern part of the state and, earlier this week, near Tampa on the Gulf Coast — bringing more than 40 centimeters of rain and life-threatening floods.The storm moved east across Florida and north up the U.S. East Coast, where it brought heavy rains and flooding to North Carolina and southern Virginia before moving out to sea.Meanwhile, the season’s 29th named storm, Tropical Storm Theta, continued to spin in the far eastern Atlantic. At last report it had maximum sustained winds of 95 kph, but it posed no threat to land.Theta broke the record for the most named storms in a season, set in 2005.
 
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads to France, Turkey and five other countries days after Democrat Joe Biden was named the projected the winner of the presidential race.  Pompeo’s refusal to recognize Biden’s victory has raised eyebrows, as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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French ground forces and military helicopters killed a jihadi commander linked with al-Qaida in Mali along with four others, the French military said Friday. The operation Tuesday targeted Bah ag Moussa, military chief for the RVIM Islamic extremist group, who had been on a U.N. sanctions list and was believed responsible for multiple attacks on Malian and international forces in the country, French military spokesman Colonel Frederic Barbry told reporters Friday. Surveillance drones helped French forces in Mali identify Moussa’s truck in the Menaka region of eastern Mali, which was then targeted by the helicopters and 15 French commandos sent to the scene, Barbry said. All five people in the truck were killed after they ignored warning shots and fired on the French forces, he said. FILE – An anti-aircraft gun is mounted on the back of a pickup truck as militants from a Tuareg political and armed movement in the Azawad Region in Mali gather in the desert outside Menaka, March 14, 2020.He described it as an act of “legitimate defense” and said the bodies were handled “in conformity with international humanitarian law.” He wouldn’t comment on whether allied forces including the U.S. contributed intelligence to the operation. A statement from the French defense minister said Moussa oversaw the training of jihadi recruits. It was the latest of multiple French actions in Mali in recent weeks that killed suspected extremists. Moussa was a Tuareg rebel fighter close to jihadi commander Iyad Ag Ghaly when extremists and rebel forces took control of northern Mali in 2012. That prompted a French-led military operation in 2013 to keep Mali from falling apart. Moussa became a prominent jihadi leader in central Mali in recent years, and he was a liaison with extremist groups in his native northern Mali, according to Malian military officials. The Malian army accused him of orchestrating attacks against Malian forces in Diabaly, Nampala and Dioura that killed dozens of troops. France has thousands of troops in a force called Barkhane in West Africa to help fight extremist groups. After Islamic extremist rebels were forced from power in northern Mali in 2013, they regrouped in the desert and now launch frequent attacks on the Malian army and its allies. The French military announced its latest operation on the fifth anniversary of Islamic extremist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris, targeting the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and the national stadium.
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Hospitals in several parts of Europe, from the Midlands of England to Ukraine, are warning their intensive care units are reaching full capacity as a second wave of coronavirus sweeps across the continent.  Doctors are once again talking about a viral tsunami hitting them, one that’s likely to be worse than the first wave that hit Europe and the United States earlier this year. With the tempo of new infections quickening, even before the northern hemisphere winter sets in, alarm is rising.  Vassilis Voutsas, a Greek doctor who works in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at Thessaloniki’s Papanikolaou Hospital, said Thursday: “My fear is that the number of patients will be so big that we won’t be able to treat them all.” The unit has seen a fivefold rise in patients.  “The hospital system is already at its limits,” he added.In ItalyA clamor of warnings is also coming from hospitals in an arc across northern Italy.  Midweek, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Italy passed the symbolic one million mark, according to government data. The country is now recording more than 30,000 new infections daily and deaths are rising from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.  A COVID-19 sign is seen at the Policlinico Tor Vergata hospital where patients suffering from the coronavirus disease are being treated in Rome, Italy, Nov. 13, 2020.This week, Massimo Galli, head of the infectious diseases department at Milan’s Sacco hospital, warned the situation was “largely out of control.” Italy’s national association of internal medicine professionals agrees, saying Italy’s hospitals in the worst-hit north are close to collapse due to the number of COVID-19 patients being admitted. In an open letter published by the Italian news agency ANSA, the association said hospitals are suffering a shortage of staff and lack of beds “in the face of an abnormal influx of patients due to the rapid and dizzying spread of COVID infection.” The association is calling for a total national lockdown, saying there should be no “downplaying the situation,” which they describe as “dramatic.” Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte last week imposed a nationwide overnight curfew, ordered an early closing for bars and restaurants, and announced further restrictions on people traveling between regions where infection rates are high. Several regions, including Lombardy, the epicenter of the pandemic in Italy during the first wave, have been declared “red zones” and are in a virtual lockdown.  In an interview with La Stampa newspaper, Conte said he was working “to avoid the closure of the entire national territory” and is waiting to see if the new restrictions do tamp down the rising numbers. “We are constantly monitoring the evolution of the contagion, the reactivity and the capacity of our health system to respond,” he said. In UkraineIn Ukraine, where more than half a million confirmed coronavirus cases have been recorded, the COVID-19 situation is dire in some regions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, have been hospitalized after testing positive, although they are suffering only mild symptoms of COVID-19, according to the president’s spokeswoman, Iuliia Mendel. FILE – A medical staffer wearing a protective suit waits at a triage check point that was set to ease the pressure on hospital emergency wards, following the surge of COVID-19 case numbers, at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Nov. 11, 2020.”We’re in the midst of what I’d call an operational tsunami,” said Kiran Patel, the chief medical officer. A critical-care consultant, Tom Billyard, told Britain’s Sky News, “We normally struggle through winter, so to add more COVID patients on top of that is a big worry.” On Thursday, British health authorities announced 33,470 people had tested positive for coronavirus in the previous 24 hours — the highest figure recorded since the pandemic began, according to government figures. French Prime Minister Jean Castex has also warned his country’s hospitals are under immense strain, saying there is a hospital admission every 30 seconds. “The pressure on our hospitals has intensified enormously,” he said.   
 
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Five years after the deadly Paris attacks that killed more than 100 people in November 2015, the country paid tribute to the victims Friday. This anniversary is taking place amid a new terror threat as France has been targeted by radical Islamists in recent months.
    
The horrible scenes and sad memories of the night of November 13, 2015, are still vivid among French people. Five years ago, 130 people were killed and 350 were injured when Islamist jihadists attacked a stadium near Paris, bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.
 
Francois Hollande, French president at the time of the attacks, was among those who paid tribute to the victims and remembered the tragic events.
    
Hollande acknowledged the memories remain quite vivid even five years after. The time-frame could seem long for a generation but not for a head of state who faced this horrific reality that night, he said. Hollande said the victims must endure painful memories after being hurt or taken hostage during a situation that created traumas for them and for the nation.
    
Prime Minister Jean Castex and cabinet members attended memorial ceremonies Friday in Paris. Gatherings were scaled down this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.  
 
This fifth anniversary occurs as France was recently hit by three terror attacks  – a knife attack outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly magazine in late September, the decapitation of a teacher a month later, and the stabbing of three people in a church in Nice just days later in late October.
Even if the Islamic state terror group was defeated in Iraq and Syria, the threat has evolved, and lone wolf radical Islamists are now the major threat, according to Laurent Nunez, French national intelligence coordinator.
   
He says that France is being wrongly accused of Islamophobia, and that there is a major and ongoing propaganda campaign being waged by al-Qaida and the Islamic State that is urging lone individuals, already present on France’s soil, to stage attacks using basic weapons, like what happened in Nice with a knife.
   
The trial of those accused of involvement in the November 2015 attacks will begin early next year.
 
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Turkish analysts say Joe Biden’s projected presidential election victory could prove to be a pivotal moment in Turkey’s relations with the United States — one that could see Ankara pivoting back to its traditional Western allies or further deepening ties with Russia and China. While many European leaders were quick to offer congratulations to Biden, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan belatedly issued a statement Wednesday acknowledging Biden’s victory. In it, Erdogan stressed the “strategic” nature of bilateral ties and said they should be further strengthened based on common interests. The Turkish leader also sent a message to President Donald Trump, thanking him. Under Trump, critics say, Erdogan paid little price for confronting fellow NATO members and cozying up to Moscow, with the U.S. president opposing calls in the U.S. Congress for sanctions against Turkey.A Biden presidency, some analysts are predicting, will bring very different things for Erdogan. “The message from Biden will be to Turkey, do behave like an ally,” said International relations teacher Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University. He told VOA he believes Biden’s victory could be a watershed moment in bilateral relations.”A Biden presidency gives you the opportunity to actually change tracks, not necessarily giving up on your interests but change your style. But if Turkey insists on defying everyone, I don’t think we can get anywhere, and the key to that is the S-400,” Ozel said. The S-400 is an advanced missile system that Turkey bought from Russia despite Washington’s warning that the purchase violated U.S. law and that the missile’s radar compromises NATO defense systems.A defiant Ankara test-fired the system last month, despite a warning from U.S. senators that the move would trigger sanctions. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking at a November gathering of Turkish ambassadors, called on Washington to get over its objections to the S-400, declaring the issue was “done.”Biden’s challenge Among the first critical foreign policy decisions Biden could face is whether to sanction Turkey over the S-400. Erdogan’s deepening ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin are raising concerns within NATO.Under the so-called Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, Biden has a broad range of options when it comes to sanctions – from symbolic to severe financial measures.The U.S. could take action against Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. Despite a New York court jailing of a senior Halkbank official in 2018 for extensive violations of Iran sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department has so far held off on penalizing Turkey.In early 2021, Halkbank faces charges again in a New York court for alleged sanction-busting. Analysts say that until now, Ankara has banked on its strategic importance to avoid sanctions. Turkey borders Iran, Iraq, Syria, hosts a U.S. radar base, and allows the U.S. military to operate from its Incirlik air base, one of the region’s largest.Observers warn Turkey could be overplaying its hand. “Plenty of people in the United States believe they can manage things without Turkey,” cautions Ozel, who says Washington’s need for Incirlik “is being questioned more seriously today than before.”Analysts say Ankara’s hardline stance towards Washington is perhaps a negotiating ploy. They say Mr. Erdogan is aware that Biden will likely take a more robust stance towards Moscow and that Turkey can play a critical role in that strategy.”No doubt there is a lot of anger directed at Turkey, at President Erdogan himself,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow of the European Council of Foreign Relations. “There will be a tendency also to see if the U.S. can peel Turkey back from its reliance on Russia. And I think Erdogan knows how to play this game; he knows how to play the U.S. against Russia and vice versa, and that will be an interesting dance to watch.”But some warn of far-reaching consequences if that dance should end with U.S. sanctions on Turkey.”Hostile actions against Turkey will eventually align Turkey with the Eurasian and Asia powers like Russia and China,” said retired Admiral Cem Gurdeniz. “This is going to be inevitable because they are threatening the very existence of Turkey.”The legacy of Turkey’s 2016 failed coup by disaffected military officers could also be a complicating factor for Biden. Suspicions in Ankara remain that the Obama administration, which Biden served in, was involved in the attempted military takeover, a charge Washington has denied. But Aydintasbas says Biden’s experience of working with Turkey could serve the relationship well. “The tail end of the Obama administration relations between Turkey and Washington was pretty bad. But Biden himself emerged as an Erdogan whisperer. It was Biden who was dispatched to Turkey after the failed coup attempt in 2016 to repair the relationship. So the one-on-one relationship between the two may not be so bad, ” he said.  
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Peruvian President Manuel Merino called Thursday for calm and unity following three days of protest against his new government, after the opposition-led Congress ousted popular ex-president Martin Vizcarra over unverified bribery allegations.Peru’s state run Andina news agency reported Merino attempted to quell tensions Thursday by saying he respects those with opposing views.Speaking after a swearing-in ceremony of a Ministerial Cabinet in Lima, Merino, who was a member of the Congress, also said his transitional government will respect the schedule of the general elections to determine who will guide the country starting July 28.Merino was sworn in as the interim president Tuesday after his colleagues voted overwhelmingly to impeach Vizcarra, who reportedly went to the Special Prosecutor’s office Thursday to offer testimony and respond to the charges against him.Vizcarra is accused of taking kickbacks from construction companies worth $630,000 while serving as governor in southern Peru from 2011-14. 
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The first cruise ship to resume sailing in the Caribbean since the coronavirus outbreak expanded in March, is idled again after five passengers tested positive for the coronavirus.SeaDream, a Norway-based luxury cruise liner, issued a statement Thursday that all crew members had tested negative for the coronavirus and that the ship’s medical staff was in the process of re-testing passengers.SeaDream says it began strict safety protocols following a Norwegian cruise this summer, although passengers were not immediately required to wear masks when boarding the SeaDream.The 53 passengers and 66 crew members are reportedly self-quarantining aboard the ship docked at the Port of Bridgetown in Barbados.The cruise ship industry has been hard hit by the pandemic, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuing an order banning sailing in March, citing cruise ship travel would worsen the global spread of COVID-19.
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European and world leaders Thursday insisted that when COVID-19 vaccines are ready they should be made available to everyone, under an international project that still needs $28 billion. “We aren’t going to beat the virus if we abandon part of humanity,” French President Emmanuel Macron told the Paris Peace Forum, which seeks concrete solutions to global issues. The third edition of the forum is dedicated to finding ways to ease the pain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The three-day international conference aims to raise more than $500 million toward ensuring fair access to coronavirus tests, treatment and vaccines for all, including poor countries. European and world leaders attend The Paris Peace Forum at The Elysee Palace in Paris, Nov. 12, 2020.It takes place as the number of cases is increasing rapidly across Europe and beyond but with hopes rising for the rollout of a coronavirus vaccine, perhaps even before the end of the year, Top U.S. government scientist Anthony Fauci said Thursday the coronavirus vaccine “cavalry” was on its way, bringing fresh hope as the world registered more than 10,000 deaths in just 24 hours, a record. The world-leading expert on infectious diseases said that after this week’s much-trumpeted news that a vaccine developed by U.S. drug giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech was 90% effective, another is “literally on the threshold of being announced.” ‘Financing gap’  During the online Paris forum, several countries are expected to announce funding for the so-called ACT-Accelerator, a mechanism led by the World Health Organization that aims to ensure access to tests, treatments and vaccines for all. In September, the United Nations estimated that the ACT-Accelerator had received only about $3 billion of the $38 billion needed to meet the goal of producing and delivering 2 billion vaccine doses, 245 million treatments and 500 million diagnostic tests over the next year. On Thursday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a “financing gap” of $28.5 billion remains and that $4.5 billion is urgently required “to maintain momentum.” “The international community must ensure that fair and equitable access to a vaccine is ensured for everyone,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. Chinese President Xi Jinping exhorted world leaders to “put human life above everything … and provide a targeted and concerted response” to the health crisis. Senegal’s President Macky Sall attends The Paris Peace Forum at The Elysee Palace in Paris, Nov. 12, 2020.Senegalese President Macky Sall asked for assurances that enough doses of a virus vaccine would be produced and would reach the poorest countries “which have the most need.” Senegal, a poor nation with a population of about 16 million people, has so far been spared a large coronavirus outbreak. Biggest public health effort in history Day one of the meeting saw France offer 100 million euros, with another 50 million euros pledged by Spain and 100 million euros from the European Commission. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $70 million, bringing its total donations to $226 million for the vaccine project. “We are talking about the largest public health effort in the history of the world and it won’t be unexpensive,” Melinda Gates said. The British government is also set to declare a contribution of one British pound for each $4 announced. Paris Forum members also promised the creation of a high-level expert panel that would curate all available science concerning the interactions between humans, animals and changes in the environment. “The pandemic showed us how much correlation there is between the health of humans, that of animals, and that of the planet,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the forum. At the finance part of the forum, a group of development banks pledged to refocus their investments to take into account climate and development targets set by the U.N. and the Paris accord of 2015. Public development banks invest $2.3 trillion every year, 10% of the world’s total investments. The banks also promised to promote projects that reduce inequalities, protect the environment and pursue “sustainable development” goals, without offering examples. 
 
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The head of Germany’s infectious disease institute said Thursday that while the COVID-19 threat in the country remains high, and some hospitals are reaching capacity, he is cautiously optimistic. Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Lothar Wieler, president of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, said the nation as of early Thursday had recorded 21,866 new cases of coronavirus infections in the previous 24 hours. According to Johns Hopkins University, Germany has reported nearly 750,000 cases since the pandemic began and more than 12,000 deaths. Although infections continue to rise, he said, “what makes me cautiously optimistic is the fact that the number of cases has been increasing at a slightly slower rate for some days now. So, the curve is going up a little less steeply — it is flattening out.” FILE – A nurse treats a patient with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit of Bethel Hospital in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 11, 2020.Wieler said he did not know if that was a stable development that can continue. But he insisted it shows “we are not helplessly at the mercy of the virus,” and measures the government has taken do make a difference. On November 2, Germany implemented a four-week partial shutdown to bring the rate of new infections under control. Restaurants, bars, sports and leisure facilities have closed, but schools and nonessential shops remain open. Wieler noted that the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care has doubled in the past two weeks. He added that the situation is likely to worsen before it improves. “It is possible that patients may no longer be able to receive optimal care everywhere,” he said. “We must therefore prevent the situation from worsening further. That is my expectation, and we are doing everything we can to achieve this goal.” Wieler said that nearly half of hospitals responding to his institute are reporting limited availability of ventilator treatment, mostly because of staffing issues caused by infections or quarantine. Although Germany has enough beds and ventilators available nationwide, many German hospitals are currently “working at the limits of their capacity,” said Uwe Janssens, president of Germany’s Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine. Janssens described a shortage of medical personnel trained to provide anesthesia- and ventilation-based treatments as a “key problem.” “Where it is medically justified, procedures must be halted and postponed,” Janssens said, encouraging medical facilities’ need to conserve resources. 
 
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