Month: May 2017

The circus billed as “The Greatest Show on Earth” has come to an end after 146 years. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus gave its final performance Sunday in Uniondale, New York, 50 kilometers east of New York City. Ringling Brothers has its origins in the 19th century with showman P.T. Barnum.  Circus …

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A protest march organized by Moldova’s LGBT community on May 21 in the capital, Chisinau, was halted after just several hundred meters as police sought to avert a confrontation with participants in a counterprotest made up of “Orthodox priests and believers.” …

In a surprise announcement Sunday, Pope Francis named five new cardinals, for Spain, El Salvador and three countries where Catholics are a tiny minority: Mali, Laos and Sweden. “Their origin, from different parts of the world, manifests the universality of the Church spread out all over the Earth,” Francis said, speaking from the window of …

Read more “Pope Names Cardinals for Laos, Mali, Sweden, Spain, Salvador”

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party on Sunday kicked off a congress to re-elect President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as its chairman after last month’s referendum. Erdogan will return to lead the party he co-founded after Sunday’s extraordinary congress in Ankara, since last month’s referendum removed a constitutional requirement that presidents be neutral and cut ties …

Read more “Erdogan to Return to Turkey’s Ruling Party As Its Chairman”

Nigerian troops fought Boko Haram in the Lake Chad area on Saturday, killing 13 of the Islamic extremists and arresting 10 others, including 6 women believed to have helped smuggle supplies to the insurgents, said an army spokesman.   Soldiers of the of 8 Task Force Battalion spent 72 hours clearing the location where the …

Read more “Nigerian Troops Battle Boko Haram in Lake Chad Area”

Russian authorities are wrestling with how to handle an apparent surge in interest in political protests among young people, who have been forced to watch films and listen to lectures warning about the dangers of street politics. …

China hosted an international conference for the ambitious One Belt, One Road (OBOR) trade transportation network on May 14-15. On this week’s Majlis podcast, we discuss Central Asia’s role in OBOR. …

Minneapolis Metro Transit police are investigating an incident shown on video in which a transit officer asks a light-rail passenger about his immigration status. The agency announced it was investigating after Minneapolis artist Ricardo Levins Morales posted video of the incident to his Facebook page on Friday. Morales says the officer was checking passenger fares, …

Read more “Video Shows Transit Officer Asking About Immigration Status”

A $100-billion arms deal signed Saturday between Saudi Arabia and the United States is meant to counter Iran’s “malign” influence in the region, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. Speaking at a joint briefing in Riyadh Saturday with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, Tillerson said the defense package is meant to …

Read more “Tillerson: Saudi Arms Deal Meant to Counter Iranian Influence”

Iran has sanctioned nine more U.S.-linked businesses, organizations and people over America’s sanctions over its ballistic missile program. Iran’s Foreign Ministry published a new sanctions list online Saturday, which added nine targets. The sanctions means Iran could seize local assets of the companies targeted and bar its employees from the country. Those targets include Booz …

Read more “Iran Strikes Back at US With More Reciprocal Sanctions”

Newly reelected President Hassan Rohani speaking on national television on May 20 for the first time since being declared the winner of the previous day’s election, said the Iranian people are the “real victors” of the election and that Iran has chosen “engagement with the world” in voting for him, rejecting extremism. (Reuters) …

Two police officers have been killed after gunmen in police uniforms attacked a bank in the southeastern province of Paktia, local officials say. …

An RFE/RL correspondent says that in conversations with people in northwestern Afghanistan it became clear local militias were being formed in many areas to fight the Taliban and IS. (The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.) …

The U.S. State Department said a clash in Washington this week in which Turkish security personnel apparently attacked demonstrators was “deeply disturbing.” A State Department statement Friday promised a “thorough investigation’’ to hold those responsible accountable. Tom Shannon, the acting deputy secretary of state, met Wednesday with Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic to discuss the altercation. …

Read more “US: Turkish Security Detail’s Clash in Washington Is ‘Deeply Disturbing’ “

Russia is pledging to send 60,000 tons of wheat to Venezuela each month, helping alleviate a food crisis in the troubled South American country. …

Controversial Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum has left the country and flown to Turkey, officials say. …

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he cannot “forgive or forget” what Sweden has put him through, following an announcement by Swedish prosecutors that they have dropped their rape case against him. Assange has been living at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012 under virtual house arrest to avoid being detained in connection with the …

Read more “Rape Case Dropped, but Assange Can’t ‘Forgive or Forget’ Treatment”

International mediators brokering a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict condemned recent cease-fire violations in the region in a statement issued on May 18. …