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A plane carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday while on the way to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, the Navy said.

Eight of the people on board have been found, Japan’s defense minister told reporters, but it was unclear whether they were alive. The Defense Ministry said it had no information on their condition.

The Navy’s Japan-based 7th Fleet said in a statement that a search and rescue operation was launched from the carrier.

“Personnel recovery is underway and their condition will be evaluated by USS Ronald Reagan medical staff,” the statement said.

The C-2 “Greyhound” aircraft crashed into the Pacific about 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Okinotorishima, a Japanese atoll, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said, according to a ministry spokesman.

The Navy said the ship was operating in the Philippine Sea, which is east of the Philippines, when the crash occurred at 2:45 p.m. Japan time. The names of the crew and passengers are being withheld pending next of kin notification.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, the Navy said.

The plane was taking part in an ongoing joint U.S.-Japan naval exercise in waters surrounding Okinawa from Nov. 16-26. The Navy called it the “premier training event” between the two navies, designed to increase defensive readiness and interoperability in air and sea operations.

The 7th Fleet has had two fatal accidents in Asian waters this year, leaving 17 sailors dead and prompting the removal of eight top Navy officers from their posts, including the 7th Fleet commander.

The USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided near Singapore in August, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided off Japan.

The Navy has concluded that the collisions were avoidable and resulted from widespread failures by the crews and commanders, who didn’t quickly recognize and respond to unfolding emergencies. A Navy report recommended numerous changes to address the problems, ranging from improved training to increasing sleep and stress management for sailors.
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A year of events marking the 100th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s birth is drawing to a close exactly 54 years after his assassination.

National park rangers will lay a wreath outside Kennedy’s childhood home in Brookline, Massachusetts, and a 21-gun salute by an honor guard will follow.

Wednesday’s solemn commemorations fall on the anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The observances are being held at what is now known as the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service.

The nation’s 35th president was born in the leafy Boston suburb on May 29, 1917. Over the past year, numerous conferences and other events have been held worldwide to examine JFK’s legacy and imagine his impact had he survived.
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Each year in America, when summer ends and fall begins, it’s a safe bet you’ll find pumpkins and sweet potatoes flavoring everything from coffee to pie. It’s seasonal food that makes its way from farms to tables around the country from Thanksgiving to Christmas time. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports from a local farm feeding local produce to a local business stewing seasonal sensations.
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The U.S. military says more than 100 al-Shabab militants were killed Tuesday in an airstrike that targeted a camp in central Somalia.

The U.S. Africa Command says the strike occurred about 10:30 am Somalia time and hit an al-Shabab camp about 200 kilometers northwest of the capital, Mogadishu.

A statement said the attack was done in coordination with the federal government of Somalia. 

The U.S. has carried out numerous drone and missile strikes against al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked group that has tried for a decade to install a strict Islamic state in Somalia.

The Somali government vowed an all-out war against the group after an October 14th suicide truck bombing at a busy Mogadishu intersection that killed more than 350 people and wounded over 400.

The group did not claim responsibility for the blast but has carried out many similar bombings against Mogadishu hotels, restaurants and other public places.

 
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The United States is urging Zimbabwean leaders to move the country towards a “genuine transition” and allow political space for the country’s opposition and its people to determine their future.  

During a small roundtable with State Department reporters late Monday, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto said the implementation of “real, genuine, economic [and] political reforms” is key to meeting the needs of Zimbabweans.

The message came hours before Zimbabwe’s parliament speaker announced President Robert Mugabe had resigned Tuesday.

Yamamoto said the international community “wants to lift sanctions” against Zimbabwe, and wants to see the country play a positive political role in the stability of its neighbors.

The way for Washington to lift sanctions is for Harare to carry out the due process, to respect human rights, and to give the opposition a genuine opportunity to form a government, said Yamamoto.

“What we don’t want is a manipulation by the government or by the ruling ZANU-PF party – holding rush elections, not taking into consideration a lot of the reform issues that the opposition wants to implement; also, not giving political space for Zimbabwe people for them to express what they want to see in a new government,” he said.

U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Harry Thomas has been meeting with officials from ZANU-PF party and the opposition party behind the scenes to try and help push the political process forward.

US urging peaceful democratic evolution

For years, the United States has taken a leading role in condemning the Zimbabwean government’s increasing assault on human rights and the rule of law, calling on the government to embrace a peaceful democratic evolution.

U.S. steps against Mugabe’s rule included financial sanctions against selected individuals and entities, travel sanctions against selected individuals, a ban on transfers of defense items and services, and a suspension of non-humanitarian government-to-government assistance.

Despite strained political relations, the U.S. is the largest provider of development and humanitarian assistance to the people of Zimbabwe.

“We have about $220 million in foreign assistance to Zimbabwe, but none of that goes through the government,” said Yamamoto, adding the U.S. aid goes through NGOs, community leaders, and is focused on health care as well as economic community development.  

Yamamoto indicated the U.S. foresaw last week’s military’s intervention.

“You can predict, given [our] assessment in Zimbabwe,” he said, when asked by VOA if the U.S. was informed of the military intervention in advance, amid reports that China and South Africa were given a heads-up.  

“The [Zimbabwean] military had made indications [of] what’s acceptable to them [in terms of Mugabe’s actions, and] what’s not acceptable.”  
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Additional remains of U.S. Army Sergeant La David Johnson were found in Niger on November 12, an unnamed U.S. official said Tuesday.

Johnson and three other U.S. soldiers were killed on October 4 when their convoy was ambushed as it left the village of Tongo Tongo.

The official said medical examiners had verified Johnson’s remains, which were found at the site where his body was recovered.

Members of the U.S. Africa Command and the Niger military, who are investigating the ambush, visited the site on November 12 and are expected to complete the probe in January.

Johnson, a 25-year-old from Florida, was separated from his military unit and his body was not recovered until two days after the ambush.

The attack has come under intense scrutiny in the U.S., where the Pentagon’s initial account of the attack has been questioned. Lawmakers have complained that they received insufficient or conflicting information on the the incident.

The U.S. military is helping Niger deal with threats by members of Islamic State and al-Qaida, but deaths of U.S. servicemen in Niger are rare.

Johnson’s fellow soldiers killed in the attack were Bryan Black, 35; Jeremiah Johnson, 39; and Dustin Wright, age 29.
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After years of being shielded from deportation from the United States while their country recovers from a devastating 2010 earthquake, tens of thousands of Haitians will lose that security status.

“It was assessed overall that the extraordinary but temporary conditions that served as the basis of Haiti’s most recent designation has sufficiently improved such that they no longer prevent nationals of Haiti from returning safely,” a senior Trump administration official said during a briefing.

Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, will be revoked for at least 50,000 Haitians living and working in the U.S.

The protection will expire July 22, 2019, giving Haitians living in the U.S. an 18-month window to go back to their homeland or legalize their status in the United States. At the end of the deadline, Haitians will return to the immigration status they previously held, leaving them facing possible detention and deportation.

Advocates argue that Haiti is in no condition to handle the influx, seven years after the 7.0-magnitude quake created billions of dollars in damages, and left 300,000 dead, 1.5 million injured and an equal number internally displaced.

The country was also recently hit by Hurricane Matthew, which created $2.8 billion in damages last year, followed by damage from hurricanes Irma and Maria. Haiti also continues to suffer from a deadly cholera epidemic.

Last week, the Office of Civil Protection confirmed that at least five people had died and 10,000 homes were flooded after days of rain.

Earlier this month, in terminating the TPS program for thousands of Nicaraguans who fled to the U.S. after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and deferring a decision on 57,000 similarly affected Hondurans until July, the acting secretary of homeland security, Elaine Duke, acknowledged the “difficulties” families would face and called on Congress to find a permanent solution.

Last week, Representatives Yvette Clarke, a Democrat from New York; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican; and Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, introduced a bill to protect TPS immigrants, hoping the so-called Aspire Act would attract bipartisan support by offering a path to permanent residency to those who could prove they would face genuine hardship in their home country.
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The bribery scheme was hatched in the halls of the United Nations in New York and spanned several continents.

Chi Ping Patrick Ho, a Chinese national, and Cheikh Gadio, a one-time foreign minister of Senegal, plotted to bribe high-level African officials to secure business rights for a Shanghai-based energy and financial conglomerate.

Their targets: Idriss Deby, the long-time president of oil-rich Chad, and Sam Kutesa, a Ugandan foreign minister who served as president of the U.N. General Assembly from 2014 to 2015.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed by U.S. prosecutors on Monday, Ho and Gadio engaged in a multi-year scheme to bribe Deby and Kutesa in exchange for “business advantages” for the energy company, a multibillion-dollar Chinese company that operates in the oil-and-gas and financial sectors.

Ho was arrested Saturday afternoon and appeared before a federal magistrate Monday, the Justice Department announced Monday.

Gadio, who served as foreign minister of Senegal from 2002 to 2009, was arrested in New York on Friday afternoon and presented to a federal magistrate Saturday. Both remain in federal custody.

The two men are charged with criminal bribery in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and international money laundering.

The FCPA bars companies from bribing foreign officials to gain a business advantage. Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco said the scheme “involved bribes at the highest levels of two nations.”

“Their bribes and corrupt acts hurt our economy and undermine confidence in the free marketplace,” Blanco said in a statement.

According to the complaint, Ho and Gadio began plotting in 2014 when they met at the United Nations in New York.

At the time, Gadio ran a consulting firm while Ho headed a non-profit that received funding by the energy company.

The criminal complaint does not name the non-profit or the Chinese company behind it.

But a small outfit named China Energy Fund Committee fits the NGO’s description in the complaint.

On its website, CEFC describes itself as an NGO and “high end strategic think tank” and lists Dr. Patrick Chi Ping Ho as its deputy chairman and secretary general.

The non-profit says it is registered in Hong Kong and Virginia and is supported by “a special private grant fully sponsored by China Energy Fund Co. Ltd.”

CEFC China Energy Company Limited is “a private collective enterprise with energy and financial serves as its core business,” according to its website.   The Shanghai- based company had revenue of $34 million (263 billion Chinese yuan) in 2015.

On Oct. 19, 2014, Ho met Kutesa at the United Nations. Kutesa had just begun his one-year term as president of the United Nations General Assembly.

A month later, Gadio allegedly advised Ho to “reward” the Chadian president with “a nice financial package.”

Two months later, Ho pledged a $2 million bribe to Deby on behalf of the energy company in exchange for obtaining lucrative oil rights from the Chadian government.

In exchange, Deby is alleged to have provided the energy company with “an exclusive” opportunity to obtain particular oil rights in Chad without facing international competition, according to the criminal complaint.

Gadio is alleged to have connected Ho with Deby and conveyed the $2 million bribe offer to Deby.

Ho is alleged to have paid Deby $400,000 for his services via wire transfers transmitted through New York.

In addition, the criminal complaint alleges, Ho paid a $500,000 bribe to Kutesa, the Ugandan foreign minister, in exchange for obtaining “business advantages” for the energy company, including the potential acquisition of a Ugandan bank.

Chad’s president and Uganda’s foreign minister were also offered gifts and promises of future benefits, including a share of profits generated by joint ventures between the energy company and businesses owned by the families of the foreign minister of Uganda and president of Chad, according to the criminal complaint.

FBI Assistant Director In Charge William Sweeney of the New York Field Office said Ho and Gadio “were allegedly willing to throw money at the leaders of two countries to bypass the normal course of business, but didn’t realize that using the U.S. banking system would be their undoing.”

Chad and Uganda are ranked the 15th and 25th most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The embassy of Chad in Washington and Uganda’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to requests for comment.
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A small fly that thrives at an inhospitable California lake east of Yosemite National Park long has perplexed observers who watch as it crawls into the severely salty and alkaline water, snacks on some algae or lays some eggs, then emerges dry as a desert.

Research published on Monday finally explains the secrets of this scuba-diving insect.

These quarter-inch-long (6-mm) alkali flies possess specialized traits that let them conquer Mono Lake, scientists found. They are covered in a large quantity of fine hairs coated with special waxes that let them encapsulate themselves in a body-hugging bubble that protects them from water that would doom an ordinary insect.

“The flies have found a great gig — all the food they want with few predators. They just had to solve this one tricky problem,” said California Institute of Technology biologist Michael Dickinson, co-author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

All insects are hairy and water repellant to some degree.

These alkali flies, whose scientific name is Ephydra hians, have magnified both traits to overcome the extreme conditions of Mono Lake, considered among the “wettest” water on Earth with a slippery, nearly oily feel. The water tends to attach to any surface due to exorbitant amounts of sodium carbonate, a chemical used in laundry detergent.

“The study provides a clear example of evolution in action,” added co-author Floris van Breugel, a former Caltech postdoctoral scholar now at the University of Washington.

“The flies have evolved to crawl under water so they can feed on the abundant food, alga, that grows there. The lake has no fish because the fish cannot live in the harsh chemicals of the lake. Thus, the flies have no major predators in the lake. Fish are why most insects would be crazy to crawl under water.”

American author Mark Twain was among those who remarked about these flies at the 12-mile-wide (19-km) Mono Lake, which is three times saltier than the Pacific Ocean. They also live at Oregon’s Lake Abert and Utah’s Great Salt Lake, also salty and alkaline.

The flies use sharp foot claws to crawl into the water from rocky outcroppings. Their hairy bodies trap a layer of air that envelops them in a protective bubble, except for the eyes to permit good underwater vision. After eating or laying eggs, they let go and float to the surface, where the bubble pops, leaving them safe and dry.
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Charles Manson, one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history, died late Sunday at the age of 83, after four and a half decades in prison.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Manson died of natural causes at a hospital in Kern County.

Manson and six of his associates were jailed in 1971 for a series of seven grisly murders in the Los Angeles area over two nights in 1969. Three other of his followers were later jailed for crimes linked to Manson.

Manson was born to an unwed mother in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1934. He spent his entire life in and out of detention for various crimes. He started in his teenage years with sentences for burglary and armed robbery. As an adult, the diminutive Manson was believed to be illiterate, but the chronically unemployed, self-styled songwriter won followers with good looks and charisma. In the mid-1960s he became the leader of a small cult known as the Manson Family whom he led to commit the murders of August 1969.

Manson claimed to be influenced by the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter.” He said he believed the song alluded to an impending race war that would be brought about by the murders he and his followers committed.

Manson’s most well-known victim was the American actress Sharon Tate, who was 26 years old and eight and a half months pregnant when she was stabbed to death by the Manson gang at the home she shared with film director husband Roman Polanski in Benedict Canyon, California. Also killed at the same location were Tate’s acquaintances Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, as well as Steven Parent, a friend of the house caretaker. The murder scene was left in a gruesome mess; one of the Manson gang left the word “pig” written in blood on the front door.

The following night, six members of the Manson gang broke into the Los Feliz (L.A.) home of a wealthy supermarket executive, Leno LaBianca, and killed him and his wife Rosemary. The two sets of murders were not connected by authorities until weeks later.

After law enforcement authorities identified the Manson gang members by their fingerprints, Manson and his followers were tried in a spectacular court proceeding the following year. Manson attempted to represent himself, which resulted in a number of flamboyant legal motions. Ultimately he was assigned an attorney and responded by carving an “X” into his own forehead to demonstrate his displeasure. His followers copied him, disfiguring their own faces as well.

Manson later converted his “X” into a swastika, the symbol of the white-supremacist Nazi Party of Germany.

Manson and his followers were each given death sentences in the 1971 verdict, but the state of California outlawed the death penalty the following year — so most of the Manson family members have remained behind bars despite dozens of parole hearings. Manson himself had been denied parole 12 times.

Manson’s death leaves five members of the Manson Family still in prison, serving out their life sentences: Robert Beausoleil, Bruce Davis, Charles “Tex” Watson, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkel. All are in their 60s and 70s. A sixth member, Susan Atkins, died in prison, of brain cancer, in 2009.

At least three other Manson associates have been paroled after serving time for crimes linked to Manson.

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was paroled in 2009 after serving 33 years for an attempt on the life of U.S. President Gerald Ford.

Sandra Good was paroled in 1985 after serving nine years for sending threatening letters to more than 150 corporate executives. And Steve Grogan, convicted for helping Manson and Davis kill a ranch hand in 1969, also was paroled in 1985, after drawing a map that helped authorities locate the body of the victim, eight years after the murder.
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Opioid drug abuse, which has ravaged parts of the United States in recent years, cost the economy as much as $504 billion in 2015, White House economists said in a report made public on Sunday.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) said the toll from the opioid crisis represented 2.8 percent of gross domestic product that year.

President Donald Trump last month declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. While Republican lawmakers said that was an important step in fighting opioid abuse, some critics, including Democrats, said the move was meaningless without additional funding.

The report could be used by the Trump White House to urge Republicans in Congress – who historically have opposed increasing government spending – to provide more funding for fighting the opioid crisis by arguing that the economic losses far outweigh the cost of additional government funding.

Using a combination of statistical models, the CEA said the lost economic output stemming from 33,000 opioid-related deaths in 2015 could be between $221 billion and $431 billion, depending on the methodology used.

In addition, the report looked at the cost of non-fatal opioid usage, estimating a total of $72 billion for 2.4 million people with opioid addictions in 2015. Those costs included medical treatment, criminal justice system expenses and the decreased economic productivity of addicts.

The CEA said its estimate was larger than those of some prior studies because it took a broad look at the value of lives lost to overdoses. The CEA also said its methodology incorporated an adjustment to reflect the fact that opioids were underreported on death certificates.

“The crisis has worsened, especially in terms of overdose deaths which have doubled in the past ten years,” the CEA said.

“While previous studies have focused exclusively on prescription opioids, we consider illicit opioids including heroin as well.”

Opioids, primarily prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl, are fueling the drug overdoses. More than 100 Americans die daily from related overdoses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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