Month: December 2017

President Trump’s opioid commission is calling for more federal funding to battle addiction and deadly opioid drug-related overdoses in the United States. More than 175 Americans are dying every day and the Trump administration has declared the opioid crisis a “public health emergency”. VOA’s Chris Simkins takes us to a hard hit Philadelphia neighborhood where …

Read more “Philadelphia’s Battle Against Opioids Takes Aim at Hard-Hit Neighborhood”

Rex Tillerson is set to embark on December 4 on a diplomatic mission to Europe, days after reports surfaced of a White House plan to force out the U.S. secretary of state. …

U.S. President Donald Trump has lashed out at the FBI following revelations that one of its agents was removed from a team investigating Russia’s alleged election meddling because of anti-Trump text messages. …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated on Sunday a newly built extension to the country’s main Arabian Sea outlet, the strategic Chabahar Port on the Gulf of Oman, which more than triples its capacity and poses a challenge for a port under construction in neighboring Pakistan. The $340 million project was constructed by a Revolutionary Guard-affiliated …

Read more “Iran Inaugurates New Extension to its Main Arabian Sea Port”

The White House national security advisor says the  possibility of war with impoverished, but nuclear-armed North Korea is “increasing every day.” “There are ways to address this problem short of armed conflict,” H.R. McMaster said Saturday, “but it is a race because he’s getting closer and closer and there’s not much time left,” in a …

Read more “McMaster: ‘Increasing’ Possibility of War with North Korea”

The Taliban commander of its so-called “special forces” branch, known as the “Red Unit,” has been killed by Afghan forces, according to Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency. …

Afghan officials say at least five people have been killed in what they said was a motorcycle suicide bomb attack. …

A Tajik border guard has been killed in clashes with alleged drug traffickers trying to cross the border into the country from Afghanistan. …

Members of a rising nationalist party in Germany elected their leadership Saturday at a convention in the city of Hannover that was overshadowed by protests. Joerg Meuthen was re-elected as chairman at the first full party congress since the Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, won seats in the national parliament for the first time. …

Read more “Rising German Nationalist Party Elects Leaders Amid Protests”

Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh officially broke with his Houthi militia allies, calling on his supporters to rise up against them across the country. Arab media is reporting that the former president’s supporters have gained control of key government installations in the capital, including the defense ministry, the interior ministry and Sana’a Airport. In …

Read more “Former Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh Breaks with Houthis, Calls for Opening New Page with Saudi Arabia”

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on all parties in Iraq to dismantle militias, including the government-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). …

U.S. President Donald Trump praised the Senate’s early Saturday morning passage of an immense Republican tax overhaul bill, telling reporters outside the White House the measure calls for “the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country.” Later Saturday at a Republican fundraiser in New York, Trump attributed passage of the bill to semantics. …

Read more “Trump Applauds Senate Passage of Republican Tax Overhaul Bill”

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday the actions of former national security adviser Michael Flynn during Trump’s transition to the White House “were lawful.” “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during …

Read more “Trump Says Fired National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s Actions During Transition ‘Were Lawful’”

Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he was open to talks with the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Huthi rebels, as his supporters fought the rebels in the capital, Sana’a. …

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office to review the implementation of laws and regulations affecting the right of Russian citizens to assemble and demonstrate freely. …

The military has identified 100 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Oklahoma capsized during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 76 years ago, officials said Friday. The milestone comes two years after the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency dug up nearly 400 sets of remains from a Hawaii cemetery. Officials exhumed the bodies after determining …

Read more “Military IDs 100 Killed on USS Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor”

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj was removed from an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia, lifting an obstacle to him traveling outside the country, the justice minister said on Friday. Early this year Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovar guerilla leader who in September took over as prime minister, was arrested in France on an arrest …

Read more “Justice Minister: Kosovo PM Removed From International Arrest Warrant”

TC Bell knows what life is like without health insurance after growing up with a mother who cobbled together care from a public health clinic, emergency room visits and off-the-books visits to a doctor they knew. That memory makes Bell, of Denver, grateful for the coverage his two daughters have now under the Children’s Health …

Read more “Health Care Fallout: Fate of 8M Low-Income US Children in Limbo”