Month: January 2018

The U.N. children’s fund warns more than one-half million Rohingya refugee children in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, are at risk of disease outbreaks leading to many deaths during the upcoming cyclone and monsoon season. Bangladesh gets battered by tropical storms during two seasons every year. Aid agencies in Cox’s Bazar are looking ahead with dread toward …

Read more “Upcoming Monsoons in Bangladesh Put Rohingya Children at Risk”

The head of the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees said Wednesday he is looking for “new funding alliances” after the United States announced it is withholding tens of millions of dollars. Pierre Krahenbuhl said the U.S. decision leaves the U.N. Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) with the most critical financial situation it has ever …

Read more “UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Seeking New Funding After US Cuts”

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL. …

Ukraine’s military says two of its soldiers were killed and five wounded after an explosive device damaged a military vehicle in the eastern part of the country, where the conflict with Russia-backed separatists persists despite a longstanding cease-fire deal. …

The bail verdict in an increasingly high profile Cambodian espionage case against Australian filmmaker James Ricketson was postponed on Wednesday because the prison delivered him to the court late. Ricketson, who was charged with espionage after reportedly flying a drone at an opposition rally in Phnom Penh in June, arrived briefly at Cambodia’s Supreme Court …

Read more “Cambodian Court Delays Bail Decision on Accused Australian Spy”

William Courtney, an ex-U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan talks about 2 1/2 decades of bilateral relations. …

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for continued sanctions pressure on North Korea to force it to abandon its nuclear weapons program. …

Venezuela’s government says rogue pilot Oscar Perez was among seven “terrorists” killed in an operation to arrest him Monday. Interior minister Nestor Reverol said Tuesday seven members of a “terrorist cell” were killed in the police operation to arrest Perez, who dropped several grenades on the Supreme Court building and fired shots at Interior Ministry …

Read more “Venezuela: Rogue Pilot Oscar Perez Killed”

Kremlin economic aide Andrei Belousov has said that the Russian government is considering a possible boost in social spending, as President Vladimir Putin steps up his campaign for the March presidential election. …

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Democrat lawmakers Tuesday, saying their demands to include protections for young undocumented immigrants in a bill that would prevent a government shut-down this week would cost the military. “The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security.The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding …

Read more “Trump Continues to Criticize Democrats Over DACA Demands”

Three Pakistani celebrities have revealed they were sexually abused as children, using the #MeToo hashtag, amid a national outcry over last week’s rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl. As Twitter users responded with an outpouring of support, other women have come forward to share similar stories, defying taboos about discussing sex in the conservative …

Read more “Pakistani Celebrities Say #Metoo Amid Outcry Over Child Rape”

Nigeria will punish all those behind an outbreak of deadly clashes between cattle herders and farmers, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday pushing back at accusations that he failed to take action against members of his own ethnic group. At least 83 people have been killed since the start of the new year in violence …

Read more “Nigeria’s Buhari Vows to Punish All Those Behind Ethnic Violence”

A Brazilian court on Monday ordered the world’s largest iron ore miner Vale SA to repair environmental damages its operations caused in land belonging to a community of descendants of escaped slaves in northern Brazil. Federal prosecutors announced the ruling in a statement that said the electricity transmission lines and a bauxite pipeline damaged soil …

Read more “Brazilian Miner Vale Ordered to Repair Environmental Damage”

Fighting in Ukraine that erupted in 2014 escalated the spread of HIV throughout the country as millions of infected people were uprooted by violence, a study published Monday found. Conflict-affected areas such as Donetsk and Luhansk, two large cities in the east of Ukraine, were the main exporters of the HIV virus to other parts …

Read more “Scientists: Conflict in Ukraine Escalated Spread of HIV”

Pakistani officials have briefed a visiting senior U.S. diplomat on recent efforts to fight against terrorism, after the United States suspended security assistance to the South Asian country. …