Month: November 2018

South Sudan is beset by “alarming levels” of sexual and gender-based violence and a desperate humanitarian situation, including severe food shortages, as it attempts to implement the latest peace agreement in a climate of “deep distrust,” U.N. experts said. The panel of experts said in a report to the Security Council that the world’s newest …

Read more “UN experts: South Sudan Beset by `Alarming’ Sexual Violence”

Opposition supporters marched Thursday in Zimbabwe’s capital, demanding that the government do more to fix the sinking economy. The government allowed the protest, but said marches will only derail progress. Ahead of the rally, President Emmerson Mnangagwa warned the opposition not to abuse their right to demonstrate by engaging in violent or unruly acts. Junior …

Read more “Zimbabwe Government Urges Opposition to Stop Economic Protests”

The family of a 19-year-old British tourist says Egyptian authorities have arrested the young man over a video he filmed on his cellphone that showed a military helicopter in the background. Speaking from the UK on Friday, humanitarian relief worker Shareen Nawaz told The Associated Press that her cousin, Libyan-British Muhammed Fathi AbulKasem, was arrested …

Read more “Family Says Egypt Arrested British Tourist for Military Chopper Video”

World leaders are meeting in Argentina for their annual Group of 20 (G20) summit amid new tensions between Russia and Ukraine. …

U.S. President Donald Trump has defended his decision to seek a business deal in Russia in 2016 even as he pursued the Republican presidential nomination. …

Supporters of wartime Bosnian Muslim commander Naser Oric gathered in Sarajevo as the high court acquitted him and another soldier of war crimes charges on November 30. Oric had been accused of killing three Serb prisoners of war in the Srebrenica area at the beginning of the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Oric is seen as a …

Read more “Wartime Bosnian Muslim Commander Oric Acquitted In War Crimes Trial”

Three tiny rocks brought back from the moon in 1970 by the unmanned Soviet Luna-16 mission sold for $855,000 on Thursday at a New York auction.  They’re the only documented lunar rocks in private hands, Sotheby’s auction house said. The U.S. collector who bought the rocks was not named.  The sellers, also from the U.S., bought …

Read more “Soviet-Era Moon Rocks Sell for $855,000 in New York”

Flash flooding hit a wildfire-scarred area of Northern California on Thursday, forcing officials to quickly deploy swift water rescue teams to save people stranded in vehicles after a downpour near the Paradise area, officials said.  It was not clear how many people were trapped, but authorities received reports of flooding on roads and of downed …

Read more “Flooding Hits Northern California Area Scarred by Wildfire”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the U.N. is working hard to ensure peace talks on Yemen before the end of the year. Talks are tentatively set to open next week in Stockholm between Yemeni officials and representatives of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Guterres said at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit Thursday in Buenos Aires …

Read more “Guterres: UN Working Hard to Ensure Peace Talks for Yemen”

The UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura has called the last Syria peace talks of the year in Astana, a “missed opportunity” for the Syrian people, as talks in the Kazakh capital ended without results. …

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says as many as 23 civilians were killed in an air strike in the country’s south this week, according to its preliminary findings. …

The U.S. has accused Iran of stepping up violations of a UN ban on arms exports by increasingly supplying weapons to militant groups across the Middle East and continuing its missile program. …

India and Pakistan, two nuclear armed rivals in South Asia with a famously tumultuous relationship and several wars in their past, have decided to put aside their antagonism to help the Sikh community commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism’s founder next year. The nations are creating a new fenced corridor from an Indian border …

Read more “India Pakistan Move to Open Historic Border Crossing for Sikhs”

The U.S. Senate has advanced a resolution to stop American help to the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Wednesday’s vote came despite pleas from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who met with the full Senate behind closed doors. …

Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, was nominated for U.S. speaker of the house Wednesday. If confirmed in January, she will not only be the first female speaker but also a woman who has held the post twice. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Pelosi ran unopposed and won by a landslide, despite dissenters in her party …

Read more “Pelosi Expresses Confidence She Will Be US House Speaker Again”