Month: January 2018

USA Gymnastics, the sport’s U.S. governing body, said Wednesday that all its remaining directors have resigned following revelations that the longtime team doctor had sexually abused numerous athletes under his care. A USA Gymnastics spokeswoman on Friday had said that the full board intended to resign. The U.S. Olympic Committee threatened to revoke the organization’s …

Read more “USA Gymnastics: All Directors Have Resigned After Abuse Scandal”

Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of occasional reports from this area. HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA —  “Yes, there exists this fear — the fear that this can happen [again],” said Raul, a 31-year-old Mexican national and longtime resident of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A fear of reprisal led to his request that VOA keep his surname …

Read more “How Immigration Arrests Affect Harrisburg, Pennsylvania”

Less than a week after threatening to cut aid to the Palestinians if they fail to pursue peace with Israel, the United States is sanctioning the political leader of Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip. The State Department Tuesday announced it has placed Ismail Haniyeh, president of the Hamas political bureau, on …

Read more “US Designates Hamas Political Leader as ‘Global Terrorist’”

A U.S.-based rights group says Iran has sentenced an Iranian-American art dealer and his wife to lengthen prison terms for being followers of the Zoroastrian religious faith. …

The AP is fact-checking prepared remarks from President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech. Here’s a look at some of the claims we’ve examined: Tax cuts Trump: “We enacted the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history.” — excerpt released by White House. The Facts: No truer now than in the countless other …

Read more “FACT CHECK: Snapshots From Trump’s Speech”

Russia’s foreign spy chief, who is under U.S. sanctions, met last week outside Washington with U.S. intelligence officials, two U.S. sources said, confirming a disclosure that intensified political infighting over probes into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Sergey Naryshkin, head of the Russian service known by its acronym SVR, held talks with …

Read more “Sources: Russian Spy Chief Met US Officials in US Last Week “

Hong Kong’s democracy supporters are riled after the government blocked a 21-year-old founding member of a young political party from an upcoming election, in what activists see as the latest effort to muzzle opposition in the Chinese territory. In a letter to Agnes Chow, a prominent figure in several political causes, a city elections officer …

Read more “Hong Kong Democracy Activists Decry Another Disqualification”

A prominent Iranian reformist who has been under house arrest for the past seven years has criticized Iran’s supreme leader, urging him to introduce and implement major reforms “before it is too late.” …

Rights watchdog Amnesty International says it is “outraged” at the execution in Iran of a young man convicted of a murder he committed when he was 15. …

The controversy over information gathered from GPS-enabled fitness devices and published online – in some cases highlighting possible activity at U.S. military bases in places like Syria and Afghanistan – could be just the start of an ever-growing problem in a world where more people and devices are connected to the internet. Already, U.S. Defense …

Read more “Concern Fitness Tracking App Exposed US Military Bases Just the Start”

The United States is expressing its “highest level of concern” after a Russian military jet came dangerously close to a U.S. plane in international airspace over the Black Sea Monday. The encounter came during a Russian military exercise. “While the U.S. aircraft was operating under international law, the Russian side was flagrantly violating existing agreements …

Read more “Pentagon: Russian Jet Flies Within 5 Feet of US Navy Plane”

A new report paints a bleak picture of U.S. efforts to secure Afghanistan, more than 16 years after the United States invaded the South Asian nation following the September 11 terrorist attacks. U.S. involvement in Afghanistan now amounts to the longest conflict in American history, but the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction or SIGAR …

Read more “New US Watchdog Report: Bleak US Results in Afghanistan”

The United Nations says progress can be made to resolve a 26-year-old dispute between Athens and Skopje over the use of the name Macedonia. …

The U.S. Treasury Department has released a long-anticipated list of Russians believed to have close links to President Vladimir Putin who are potential targets for future U.S. sanctions. …

A senior U.S. State Department official is scheduled to travel to Uzbekistan this week for meetings with officials in Tashkent. …