Month: May 2018

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for Russia to withdraw its troops from breakaway regions in Georgia while also pledging deeper security and economic support for Tbilisi. …

The Syrian military said it has taken an enclave in Damascus from Islamic State (IS) militants that gives it full control of the capital for the first time since the civil war began in 2011. …

More than 800 people have been poisoned after eating toxic wild mushrooms across western Iran, local media report. …

The candidate of Moldova’s pro-Moscow Socialist Party, Ion Ceban, has won the first round of the snap election for mayor in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, with almost 41 percent of the vote, followed by Andrei Nastase, the candidate of the pro-European party Dignity and Truth Platform (DA), who garnered just over 31 percent. …

Mourners packed a mosque in Stafford, Texas, about 59 kilometers away from the mass school shooting Friday that killed 10 people. One of the victims was a Pakistani exchange student who wanted to learn about the American culture and share her own. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from her funeral. …

Drivers can choose from several GPS apps that can alert them to accidents or slow traffic so they can avoid them. But bike riders – who travel the same roadways as cars – are on their own. So an English university student designed an app to help cyclists report dangerous hot spots to other cyclists, …

Read more “New GPS Technology Offers Help For Old School Transportation”

“Dirty” Russian money is undermining Britain’s efforts to stand up to the Kremlin and supports President Vladimir Putin’s campaign “to subvert the international rules-based system,” a parliamentary report says. …

An overflow crowd of hundreds of people attended the funeral in Texas of Sabika Sheikh, the Pakistani exchange student killed in the May 18 mass shooting at a high school. …

Voters in Moldova’s main cities of Chisinau and Balti are heading to the polls to elect their mayors for one year. …

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is heading to the Black Sea resort of Sochi to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 21 to discuss ways to strengthen the two countries’ “privileged strategic” relationship. …

A Syrian monitor says Islamic State fighters are being evacuated from the last insurgent enclave near Damascus, a move that will restore state control over the area. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the evacuation of the fighters and their families from Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp began Sunday. Buses were carrying the fighters …

Read more “Monitor: IS Fighters Leave Damascus Enclave”

The Royal United Services Institute recently released a detailed report that looks at the factors that could be contributing to or preventing the radicalization of migrant laborers from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in Russia. …

A stream of lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano threatens to block a key Hawaii highway that serves as an escape route for coastal residents as two of 22 fissures had merged. Aerial footage from the U.S. Geological Survey shot on Saturday showed a wide flow of fast-moving lava advancing to the southeast at rates of …

Read more “Lava Fountaining 100 Meters High From Hawaii’s Kilauea”

Edison did it. Eastman did it. And so did Steve Jobs. They invented products that changed our lives. But for every well-known inventor there are many other, less recognizable individuals whose innovative products have greatly impacted our world. Fifteen of those trailblazing men and women — both past and present — were recently honored for …

Read more “American Inventors You’ve Never Heard Of”

The United States and China agreed to take measures to reduce the U.S. trade deficit in goods by having China purchase more American goods, particularly agriculture and energy products, according to a joint statement the two nations released Saturday. “There was a consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the United States trade deficit in goods with China,” the joint …

Read more “US, China Agree to Increased Trade Cooperation”