Month: December 2018

A Tajik bride at the center of a virginity dispute says she is enrolling at a police academy to help other women in similar situations. Facebook social tease: Tajik bride is “done crying” over virginity dispute. Twitter social tease: “What happened to me has happened to many other girls.” By Farangis Najibullah and Sarvinoz Ruhulloh …

Read more “Beaten But Not Broken: Tajik Bride Loses A Husband Over Impurity Allegations, Gains A Cause”

President Donald Trump’s relationship with the truth tends to be borderline, at best, when it comes to the border. So it was this past week when he made a flurry of false or unsupported statements about immigration. He said, with no evidence, that migrants are plagued with disease. He asserted that Mexico has in effect …

Read more “AP FACT CHECK: Trump Floats Fictions About the Border”

China, Pakistan and Afghanistan signed a trilateral understanding Saturday to enhance counterterrorism security cooperation, and collectively reiterated their call for the Taliban insurgency to join Afghan peace talks. The foreign ministers of the three countries met in Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul, for a second round of talks, where they put the understanding into effect and …

Read more “Afghanistan, China and Pakistan Ink Deal to Enhance Counterterror Cooperation”

A Ukrainian air force pilot was killed when his fighter jet crashed during a landing attempt on December 15, the country’s military announced. …

The World Food Program says reopening the Yemeni Port of Hodeida is crucial in efforts to stave off famine in that country, which has been at war for more than three years. The United Nations warns some 14 million people are on the verge of starvation in Yemen. Yemen imports 90 percent of its food, …

Read more “Reopening of Port of Hodeida is Good News for Starving Yemenis”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed concern over the rising popularity of rap music among Russian youth. …

Facebook says a software flaw may have exposed private photos of nearly 7 million users, the latest in a series of privacy issues facing the social media company. Facebook said Friday that the photo glitch gave about 1,500 software apps unauthorized access to private photos for 12 days in September.  “We’re sorry this happened,” Facebook …

Read more “Facebook Flaw May Have Exposed Private Photos”

The U.S. diplomat who once steered Washington’s relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan says Islamabad’s growing closeness with Beijing could pose new challenges to already frail U.S.-Pakistan relations.    Richard Olson was the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and was previously U.S. ambassador to Pakistan. In a Voice of America interview, he warned that growing …

Read more “Challenges for US Seen in China-Pakistan Ties”

Kosovo’s parliament has voted to convert and expand its lightly armed security force into a standing army, a move backed by the United States but opposed by neighboring Serbia.    Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic responded by saying Belgrade would request an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting over the vote. He called it the “most …

Read more “Kosovo Votes to Form Army, Angering Serbia”

A prominent Kremlin critic says Russia has been rapidly losing its standing on the world stage due to President Vladimir Putin’s “aggressive” policies. …

At least six paramilitary troops were killed in southwestern Pakistan on December 14 when their convoy came under attack in a mountainous area near the border with Iran in the southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said. …

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) says it will send a team next week to retrieve data from a Moscow anti-doping laboratory, a key requirement for the full reinstatement of the Russian anti-doping agency. …

The Trump administration has unveiled a new strategy for Africa that’s focused on countering Chinese and Russian influence on the resource-rich continent. And the administration is demanding more accountability for American aid. Patsy Widakuswara has more from the White House. …

A first-round of intra-Yemeni peace talks ended in Sweden Thursday with agreement on a cease-fire for the critical port city of Hodeida and plans for a prisoner exchange. VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer reports on Yemen’s dire situation and how the United Nations is working to end the massive humanitarian disaster created by years of …

Read more “UN Pushes for Peace in Yemen”

China’s November retail sales grew at their weakest pace since 2003 and industrial output rose the least in nearly three years as domestic demand softened further, underlining rising risks to the economy as China works to defuse a trade dispute with the United States. The world’s second-largest economy has been loosing momentum in recent quarters …

Read more “China’s Economy Slowing, Two Indicators Show”