Month: March 2018

A look at the best news photos from around the world. …

A U.S. federal judge has rejected a bid by a lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels to question President Donald Trump under oath about their alleged 2006 affair and a $130,000 hush payment to her just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about the alleged liaison. Judge James Otero said the request for …

Read more “US Judge Rejects Bid for Trump Testimony on Porn Star”

Ankara has launched new attacks and threats aimed at Washington for ongoing U.S. support of the Syrian-Kurdish militia, the YPG.  The latest verbal salvo comes as diplomatic talks between the NATO allies continue to resolve their worst crisis in bilateral relations. The YPG is a key ally in Washington’s war against Islamic State militants, but …

Read more “Turkey Criticizes US Support of New ‘Syria’s Future’ Political Party”

Moscow says it will shut down the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg and expel from Russia the same number of diplomats that Britain, the United States, and others have kicked out of their countries, as tensions continued to mount. …

Prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to sentence three members of an ultraconservative group to prison for an arson attack apparently aimed to prevent the screening of a movie depicting an affair between a teenaged ballerina and the future Russian Tsar Nicholas II. …

British health officials say the daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal is no longer in critical condition and is “improving rapidly,” weeks after a March 4 nerve-agent attack in an English city. …

Authorities were investigating a riot and fire at a Venezuelan police station Wednesday where relatives said dozens of detainees were being kept in squalid conditions and were feared dead.  Officials offered no information on what happened or whether there were any casualties, and police clashed with relatives who gathered outside the station, demanding information on …

Read more “Riot, Fire Break Out at Venezuela Police Station”

The U.N. secretary-general on Wednesday appointed a former U.S. career diplomat to be the organization’s political chief. Antonio Guterres named Rosemary DiCarlo as undersecretary-general for political affairs. She is the first woman to hold the position. Since August 2015, DiCarlo has been president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a senior fellow …

Read more “Former US Diplomat Appointed UN Political Chief  “

Serbia’s president sought advice from Russian President Vladimir Putin on how to respond to a spike in tension with Kosovo. Aleksandar Vucic’s office said in a statement that he informed Putin about the “brutal attack” by Kosovo police on Monday against a senior Serb official who was arrested and expelled after entering the country without …

Read more “Serbian Leader Seeks Putin’s Advice on Tensions with Kosovo”

British police said they believe former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter likely first came into contact with a military-grade nerve agent at their front door. …

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the “brutal attack” by Kosovar police against a senior Serb official earlier in the week. …

U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May in a phone call discussed the need to “dismantle” spying networks and prevent other illegal activities by Russia in their two countries, the White House says. …

Gunmen riding on a motorcycle have shot and killed a transgender woman and her friend in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, police say. …

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has rejected Saudi Arabia’s accusation that it supplied missiles to Yemen’s Huthi rebels that were used in attacks on the kingdom. …

There is a saying that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. That is the idea behind a new concept by an Israeli company that is taking trash from landfills and converting it into a plastic-like composite. The material is being used to make household items and furniture, as we hear from VOA’s Deborah Block. …

Read more “Israeli Company Converts Trash Into Household Items”

With the help of small loans, women in villages in India’s northern Haryana state are emerging as entrepreneurs and in the process improving family incomes and winning respect in a deeply patriarchal society. Anjana Pasricha visited one all-women group that has set up a dairy project to understand how their lives have changed. …

Some eight million youth in the Democratic Republic of Congo have come of age in time for a critical national election scheduled for later this year. VOA’s Anita Powell talked to young people in Kinshasa to learn their thoughts about the poll, and whether they think it will end the country’s political crisis. …