worldwide news
A court in Moscow says it will consider a request by the Russian Investigative Committee to prolong the pretrial detention of 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russian forces who attacked three Ukrainian navy vessels in the Black Sea in November. …
An estimated 69,000 to 84,000 Americans were hospitalized due to the flu in the last three months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday. The nation saw one of the worst flu outbreaks in nearly a decade during the 2017-2018 season, with more than 900,000 cases of hospitalizations and over 80,000 …
Read more “Up to 84,000 Americans Hospitalized With Flu in Past 3 months: CDC”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry says Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono plans to visit Moscow next week for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the four Pacific islands that have been disputed since World War II. …
The former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday that what’s happening on the U.S. southern border is no emergency. Craig Fugate, who ran the national disaster agency for nearly eight years under President Barack Obama and was head of Florida’s disaster agency under a Republican governor, said the push of refugees seeking …
Read more “Former FEMA Boss: Border Situation Is Not Emergency”
A community organizer shown in an iconic photograph while challenging racial segregation in Mississippi in the 1960s has died at his home in Pocatello, Idaho. Known by his birth name John Salter Jr. when he worked at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, he later changed his name to Hunter Gray to honor the Native American …
Read more “Gray, Activist From Lunch Counter Protest Photo, Dies at 84 “
Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who lived an unassuming life in New York City for decades until his past was revealed and he was deported to Germany last year, has died, German media reported Thursday. He was 95. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Westfaelische Nachrichten newspapers independently quoted German officials saying Palij …
Read more “Report: Ex-Nazi Camp Guard Deported by US Dies in Germany”
Iran soon will put two satellites into orbit using domestically made rockets, President Hassan Rohani has said, despite U.S. concerns that the launches could help further develop the country’s ballistic missiles. …
A former Iranian national team member appeared to mock the Dari accent of an Afghan counterpart who was chiding Iran for its censorship. …
President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has warned Russia that it could lose its ally if Moscow fails to offer Minsk compensation for higher oil prices. …
This week, visitors to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas are getting a look at the latest technology in TVs, computers, smartwatches and drones. But they are also seeing examples of how tech can be used to help people around the world become more resilient. Michelle Quinn reports. …
The annual Consumer Electronics Show is underway in Las Vegas. The massive exhibition highlights trends and new products that should change the way we live — in some cases as early as next week, and in others, years in the future. VOA’s Kevin Enochs looks at a few of the new technologies that will change …
Read more “The Future of Auto Tech: Keeping Drivers Safe, and Entertained”
The upcoming departure of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is raising questions about the future of a special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Rosenstein is seen as the protector of the probe, which has been vilified by U.S. President Donald Trump, whose nominee as attorney general, William Barr, has …
Read more “Rosenstein’s Departure Raises Concerns About Russia Investigation”
Russia has summoned the Japanese ambassador and accused Tokyo of deliberately ramping up tensions ahead of a planned visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for talks with President Vladimir Putin on formally ending World War II hostilities. …
Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed in a telephone call to coordinate efforts to work toward peace in Syria, the Kremlin says …
Anatoly Lukyanov, a former Communist Party official who was imprisoned after the failed 1991 coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, has died at age 88. …
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unannounced visit Wednesday to Iraq where he met with Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and other officials. Pompeo is making a week-long trip to the Middle East to reassure allies amid U.S. plans to withdraw its troops from Syria, and to seek support for increasing pressure on Iran. …
Read more “Pompeo Meets With Iraqi Leaders on Unannounced Visit”
Kazakhstan says dozens of its citizens, including children, have been evacuated from Syria after being held “hostage” in the country. …
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has overseen the Russian election meddling probe, is set to leave the U.S. Department of Justice in coming weeks as President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the department is set to take over, several U.S. media outlets reported on Wednesday. Rosenstein has had oversight of the U.S. Special …
Read more “US Official Overseeing Mueller Probe to Leave – Reports”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has mocked U.S. officials, calling them “first-class idiots.” …
The Mexican government has pledged to put guards at some 370 illegal crossing points along the country’s southern border with Guatemala. The crossings “will be guarded and controlled to prevent the entry of undocumented people,” Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero said Monday. Currently, migrants cross along almost the entire length of the Usumacinta and …
Read more “Mexico to Regulate 370 Illegal Crossings on Guatemala Border”
Russia has rejected a British suggestion that it might use a former U.S. Marine detained last month in Russia on espionage charges as a pawn in a diplomatic game, saying that Moscow reserves the right to conduct counterintelligence activities. …
After three years of decline, U.S. carbon emissions shot up last year, based on early estimates from an independent research group. The Rhodium Group routinely monitors carbon emissions and their preliminary estimates suggest U.S. output was up 3.4 percent in 2018. This is the largest annual increase since 2010, when the nation was bouncing back …
A new global campaign aims to sensitize the world to the plight of refugees by urging people to step into their shoes and clock the number of kilometers they need to run to reach safety. The campaign wants people to get out of their comfort zone and see what it feels like to be a …
Read more “Global Campaign Urges People to Run in Refugees’ Shoes”
Humanitarian organizations say migrants are being held hostage at sea because European countries are unable to agree how those rescued at sea should be relocated. The latest crisis involves migrants rescued by two German vessels. Forty-nine migrants rescued by two German humanitarian vessels, the Sea Watch and Sea Eye, continue to be stationed off the …
Read more “EU Diplomatic Deadlock Continues Over How to Distribute Rescued Migrants”