Month: February 2019

Dozens of Kazakh mothers are holding a meeting with local officials inside city hall in Almaty amid country-wide protests sparked by the deaths of five children from the same family in a house fire. …

Measles is spreading in the U.S. As of Feb. 5, there were 50 cases in Washington state and five in Houston. New cases are being added daily. Health officials, including the U.S. surgeon general, are urging parents to get their children vaccinated. Measles was eliminated in the U.S. 19 years ago. The cases that occur …

Read more “Measles Spreading in US, Mostly Among Unvaccinated Children”

Health officials in the United States are urging parents to get their children vaccinated for measles, after a spike in the number of cases. On Feb. 5, there were 50 cases reported in the state of Washington, and five more cases in Houston, Texas. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports most of the cases are in unvaccinated …

Read more “Measles Spreads Mostly Among Unvaccinated Children In US”

Dozens of human rights activists have gathered in Kyiv’s central square to mark the birthdays of two Ukrainian citizens jailed by the Russian authorities. …

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has decided to conditionally lift Russia’s suspension imposed over a doping scandal. …

The U.S. Capitol is the most recognizable workplace in the country, and for an estimated 80 to 100 lawmakers, it’s also the place they literally call home while in Washington, D.C. For three to four nights each week — 30 to 40 weeks a year — these lawmakers don’t leave Capitol Hill at the end …

Read more “Changes Coming for US Lawmakers Who Call Capitol Home”

U.S. military is prepared to protect U.S. personnel and diplomatic facilities in Venezuela if needed, the U.S. admiral in charge of American forces in South America said on Thursday. “We are prepared to protect U.S. personnel and diplomatic facilities if necessary,” Navy Admiral Craig Faller, the head of U.S. Southern Command, said during a Senate …

Read more “Admiral: US Military Ready to Protect Diplomats in Venezuela”

Ukrainian lawmakers have voted to ban Russian citizens from serving as election monitors in the country. …

The U.N. Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimates it could take 10 years to clear Mosul, Iraq, of landmines and decades longer to free this former Islamic State stronghold of thousands of tons of other explosive hazards. The nearly year-long battle by Iraqi forces to retake Mosul from Islamic State militants has left the city with …

Read more “UN: Clearing Iraq’s Mosul From Explosives to Take Decades”

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s denouncement Thursday of the arrest of a group of ethnic Pashtun activists in neighboring Pakistan has triggered a harsh response from Islamabad, reigniting bilateral political tensions. The unusual reaction by Ghani came two days after authorities in the Pakistani capital arrested about two dozen members of a non-violent group, known as …

Read more “Afghan Leader Roils Pakistan With Pashtun Comments”

Google has begun censoring websites blacklisted by the Russian government after Russia’s communications watchdog threatened to block the search-engine giant for not following its increasingly stringent rules, the Russian daily Vedomosti reported. …

As a nascent North Macedonia gets its ducks in a row over a decades-old dispute with Greece, it’s at the center of a tug-of-war for influence between Russia and the West that gives its imminent membership in the transatlantic alliance added significance. …

The number of foreign students detained in an alleged visa fraud scheme that involved a fake U.S. university has climbed to 146.      A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told VOA on Wednesday that the number had risen from 130 at the end of last week, as federal agents detained additional suspects in a …

Read more “Number of Detained Students Grows in Fake University Case”

An international rights group has asked Pakistani authorities to investigate the death of a human rights activist while in police custody and release other activists arrested for protesting his alleged killing. “There must be an immediate and effective investigation into the death of Arman Luni. There are credible accounts that he may have been beaten …

Read more “Amnesty International Calls for Release of Rights Activists in Pakistan”

F.A. Cole was 11 when her stepmother told her to dress up for a special occasion near her hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone.    It was, instead, a traumatic occasion, Cole recalls 34 years later. Her stepmother turned her over to a small group of women, who led her into a forest and bound and …

Read more “FGM Engenders Sharp Cultural Divide”