Month: April 2018

A military court has referred 36 defendants accused of taking part in deadly church bombings to Egypt’s top religious authority for consideration of the death penalty, state television reported Tuesday. The defendants are suspected of involvement in bombings that hit three Coptic churches — one at Cairo’s Coptic Cathedral in December 2016 that killed at least 25, and …

Read more “Egypt Military Court Refers 36 Defendants for Death Penalty Consideration”

European Council President Donald Tusk confessed he gets furious about Brexit, describing Britain’s departure from the EU as very sad on Tuesday as he used a speech in Dublin to call for unity in Europe. The former Polish prime minister, who chairs meetings of the European Union’s national leaders, cited his dislike of Brexit in …

Read more “Furious About Brexit, Tusk Calls for EU Unity From Dublin”

After a pair of crashes involving U.S. Navy ships in the Asia-Pacific killed more than a dozen people last year, the Navy’s efforts to develop its leaders is receiving renewed attention. Last week, the Navy inaugurated the College of Leadership and Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island. Seventeen sailors were killed …

Read more “After Deadly Crashes in Pacific, US Navy Refocuses on Leadership”

Police in Bosnia-Herzegovina have arrested two men suspected of being members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. …

Hundreds of farmers have demonstrated in the Iranian city of Isfahan over the lack of water available to irrigate their fields. …

Iranian journalists have criticized a government offer to provide 100 of them with free Internet, saying they’d reject such a privilege because unrestricted Internet is everyone’s right. …

The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward. The White House staff is on edge, unsure who will be fired next, and when. And the national security team is holding its breath to see whether their new leader will be a shock …

Read more “Bolton Takes Helm on US National Security at Time of Tumult”

Venezuelan jurists who fled their homeland say they will try Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on allegations of corruption and money laundering, based on evidence suggesting he may have sought bribes from the Brazilian construction giant at the center of a regional corruption scandal.   The panel calls itself Venezuela’s “Supreme Court in Exile” and is …

Read more “Exiled Jurists Launch Graft Trial Against Venezuela’s Maduro”

Colombia has fired the head of a $500 million fund meant to finance post-conflict programs tied to the country’s peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels, after donor countries complained of irregularities and possible corruption. The decision came after the ambassadors of Norway, Sweden and Switzerland wrote a letter to the government expressing concern over a …

Read more “Colombia Says It Fired Head of Post-conflict Fund”

Georgia’s Interior Ministry says it has launched an investigation into the beating of African men who were playing soccer in the capital, Tbilisi. …

Reports from Afghanistan say at least six civilians have been killed by a bomb attack near a mosque and a bazaar in western Herat Province. …

A court in Moscow has scheduled April 18 for the start of a trial for a man accused of stabbing an Ekho Mosky radio journalist in the neck. …

South Korean prosecutors have indicted former President Lee Myung-bak on charges that include bribery and embezzlement. He is accused of accepting $10 million in bribes from South Korea’s spy agency as well as Samsung. Prosecutors also say Lee embezzled $33 million from a private company he owned. Lee denies any wrongdoing, saying the charges are …

Read more “Prosecutors Indict Former South Korean President Lee For Corruption”

Spanish researchers have developed a technique to quickly remedy acute psychosocial stress, described as a short-term intense stress that occurs during social or interpersonal relationships caused by a verbal argument. The treatment involves blue, light-emitting diodes. VOA’s Mariama Diallo has more. …

U.S. President Donald Trump has blamed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Russia, as well Iran, for enabling an alleged poisonous attack in Syria late Saturday. Syrian activists and medical sources say at least 40 people have died. The suspected chlorine attack came during a government offensive to retake rebel-held areas near Damascus after the …

Read more “Trump Accuses Putin, Russia, Iran of Enabling Atrocities in Syria”