Month: March 2017

Russia has hinted at involving the United States in a newly-launched regional dialogue Moscow says is aimed at seeking a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan. The move comes as Afghanistan’s national security adviser is due to visit Moscow to discuss the prospects for promoting reconciliation with armed opposition in his country. Moscow’s stepped …

Read more “Russia Hints at Involving US in Talks on Afghanistan”

South Korea’s recently impeached president Park Geun-hye maintained her silence Saturday, remaining inside the presidential palace while rival protests continued in the streets. Park has not been heard from since the Constitutional Court voted unanimously to uphold her impeachment on Friday and has not vacated the “Blue House” as the presidential residence is called, where …

Read more “S. Korea’s Impeached Leader Silent as Protests Continue”

Ukrainian hackers release a trove of electronic communications from a Belarusian man at the center of a network of pro-Russian and anti-Western groups operating in Central and Eastern Europe. He says that just because his efforts “aren’t public doesn’t make them a conspiracy of enemies of Ukraine.” …

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors left over from the Obama administration to resign “in order to ensure a uniform transition,” the Justice Department said Friday. The New York Times reported that the request from Sessions included Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who had been expected to stay …

Read more “Sessions Asks 46 Obama-era US Attorneys to Resign”

Robert James Waller, whose best-selling, bittersweet 1992 romance novel “The Bridges of Madison County” was turned into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood and later into a soaring Broadway musical, has died in Texas, according to a longtime friend. He was 77.   Scott Cawelti, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, told The Associated Press …

Read more “‘Bridges of Madison County’ Author Robert James Waller Dies”

Most of the people crossing the U.S. border into Canada to claim asylum had been in the United States legally, and Canada is sharing their information with U.S. authorities to help understand the phenomenon, a top official said Friday. Several hundred asylum-seekers, mainly from Africa but also the Middle East, have entered Canada. The refugees …

Read more “Canada Says Most Border-crossing Asylum-seekers Were in US Legally”

The United Nations’ envoy for Afghanistan said the country’s problems cannot be solved through military means and he urged Taliban militants to enter peace talks. …

At least three Belarusian activists live-streamed their own detentions on March 10 after several hundred people rallied in the northwestern city of Maladzyechna, demanding cancellation of a controversial tax on jobless people. (In Belarusian) …

The office of New York City’s medical examiner says it will not release the results of an autopsy performed on Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations who died unexpectedly last month. …

China’s plan to declare an unusually strict fishing moratorium in the contested South China Sea this year threatens to shake relations with its neighbors, despite dialogue in recent months, and might violate a 2016 world arbitration court ruling, experts say. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture said in February it would impose its strictest fishing moratorium …

Read more “China Fishing Moratorium Likely to Anger Neighbors”

From the beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump has vowed to follow through on the campaign pledges and the promises he made to the voters who put him in the White House. But growing differences among congressional Republicans now threaten to complicate Trump’s ability to bring real change to Washington, as we hear from VOA …

Read more “Republican Fractures Could Hurt Trump’s Agenda”

Donald Trump’s surprising victory in last year’s U.S. presidential election signaled a turn to the right. Now Europe is facing three critical elections of its own: next week in the Netherlands; next month in France; and later this summer in Germany. Just as anti-establishment fervor in Europe proved to be a harbinger of the U.S. …

Read more “Will Dutch Elections Trigger a Populist Domino Effect?”

Leaders of the European Union are voicing concern about “external influences” fueling divisions in the Western Balkans after recent moves by Russia and its Balkan allies to block closer ties with the West. …

The White House has vowed to find a former FBI agent who mysteriously disappeared a decade ago in Iran. …

A U.S. senator is vowing to revive a lapsed special-visa program for Afghan interpreters and others who served U.S. forces in the country, often risking their lives. …