Month: January 2018

Two revered former U.S. secretaries of state on Thursday warned lawmakers of a marked rise in nuclear dangers stemming from North Korea’s race to develop atomic weapons and the means to deliver them. Henry Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, highlighted “a systemic failure of the world order” in dealing with nuclear …

Read more “Kissinger, Shultz Warn of Rising Nuclear Perils”

A Russian Olympic Committee official says 169 athletes have been cleared to compete in the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month. …

The United States has denied Pakistan’s claim that an American drone strike targeted an Afghan refugee camp in the country, in a war of words between the uneasy allies. The denial Thursday came a day after missiles fired from an unmanned aircraft struck a militant hideout located between Pakistan’s semiautonomous Kurram region and the Hango …

Read more “US Rejects Claim Drone Hit Refugee Camp in Pakistan”

The three drivers of a bus in which 52 Uzbek nationals died in a fire last week have been detained, the prosecutor’s office in Kazakhstan’s northwestern region of Aqtobe said on January 25. …

In Sierra Leone, as elsewhere, commercial sex work is still stigmatized. Sex workers there say they face assault and routine intimidation by police, clients and others. Local activists are working to provide greater opportunity and protection for women in the sex trade.  On the outskirts of Freetown, Mariatu Sesay runs a small roadside cafe on …

Read more “Sierra Leone: Women Helping Women Out of Prostitution”

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation in an accident involving a Tesla car that may have been operating under its semi-autonomous Autopilot system.  The board sent two investigators to Culver City, California, to learn whether the Autopilot was on and if so, how the car’s sensors failed to detect a firetruck …

Read more “US Safety Board to Probe Tesla Autopilot Crash”

Nearly 150 Islamic State fighters were killed during U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting IS headquarters in eastern Syria late last week, the coalition said in a statement. The strikes on Saturday targeted a congregation of IS fighters near the town of as-Shafah in eastern Syria’s contested Middle Euphrates River Valley, the coalition statement said Tuesday. The fighters, heavily …

Read more “US-led Coalition Strikes Kill Scores of IS Fighters in Eastern Syria”

Macedonia has extended an olive branch toward Greece by agreeing to rename its main airport and a major highway in another step toward ending a decades-old dispute over the former Yugoslav republic’s name. …

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has elected Bosnian Dunja Mijatovic as the new Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. …

The former top U.S. Army commander in Europe said Russian battlefield tactics in eastern Ukraine show sophisticated integration of drones, electronic warfare, and mortar and artillery, posing major challenges for Ukrainian forces. …

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, has angrily rejected a charge by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that Moscow bears responsibility for any use of chemical weapons in Syria. …

Virtual reality allows the user to enter a different world through sight and sound. Several researchers and companies are adding a third element to the virtual experience: the sense of touch. Researchers in haptics, meaning the feeling of touch, are incorporating this sense into virtual reality with real-world applications.  French company Go Touch VR created …

Read more “Touching Objects in Virtual Reality Is Now Possible”

Afghan officials say at least 11 people have been injured in an attack on the offices of international aid agency Save the Children. …

Lava fountaining regularly from the Philippines’ most active volcano has flowed up to 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the crater in a dazzling but increasingly dangerous eruption.  Mount Mayon has spewed lava up to 600 meters (2,000 feet) high at times Tuesday and early Wednesday and its ash plumes stretched up to 5 kilometers (3 …

Read more “Philippine Volcano Spreads Lava Almost 2 Miles from Crater”

The American Lung Association says fewer Americans smoke cigarettes now than before tobacco control policies were put in place.  In its annual report, the ALA says smoking rates among adults and teens are at historic lows. On average, just over 15.5 percent of American adults and eight percent of high school students smoke cigarettes. The …

Read more “Cigarette Smoking Rates in US Reach Historic Lows”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, in Kyiv to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine. …