Author: Worldman

U.S. President Barack Obama held his final press conference in office on January 18. Addressing U.S. sanctions on Russia, Obama stressed that they were imposed because of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and that the sanctions can be removed once Russia stops “meddling in Ukrainian affairs.” (AP) …

U.S. President Barack Obama says Washington should not lose focus on why it imposed sanctions against Russia over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea territory and its support for separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine. …

The commanding officer of Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Services says his forces have driven Islamic State fighters from all districts of eastern Mosul that they have been tasked with recapturing. …

Russia says it has extended the residency permit of Edward Snowden, the former U.S. intelligence contractor who disclosed archives of top-secret surveillance files. …

The United States on January 17 confirmed that 10 prisoners had been released from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transferred to Oman. …

U.S. President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst who is serving 35 years in prison for leaking classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks. …

Vietnam shows signs of softening its approach toward China over their bitter maritime dispute, a move welcomed by nervous leaders in Beijing as it could rebalance Hanoi’s foreign policy away from Washington while cooling decades of strife. Beijing and Hanoi issued a communique Saturday proposing negotiations on their conflicting claims in the South China Sea, …

Read more “Vietnam Signals Softer Stance on Contested South China Sea”

Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Commerce Department is scheduled to be questioned by a Senate committee Wednesday about his qualifications to head an agency responsible for bolstering the economy, international trade and many other tasks from forecasting the weather to taking the census. Wilbur Ross is a multi-billionaire who made a fortune buying …

Read more “Senators Question Nominee to Head Commerce Department”

Alongside cephalopods like the octopus and the cuttlefish, seahorses are some of the most fascinating animals in the ocean. One of the strangest things about them is that seahorses are really just fish, closely related to pipefish, those long, thin swimmers you can find hanging around the shoreline. Seahorses are more delicate, and more desirable, …

Read more “Seahorses at Risk, But Conservation Efforts Having Impact”

 More than 60 percent of Americans would like to see the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s powers preserved or strengthened under incoming President Donald Trump, and the drilling of oil on public lands to hold steady or drop, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday. The results could foretell stronger-than-expected public opposition to Trump’s …

Read more “Poll: Unlike Trump, Americans Want Strong Environmental Regulator”

Iraqi special forces pushed into a pocket of Islamic State-held territory in eastern Mosul on Tuesday, the military said, seeking to recapture the remaining districts under the group’s control east of the Tigris river. The militants have been driven out of most eastern districts in their Iraqi stronghold in a 3-month-old U.S.-backed campaign. Iraqi troops …

Read more “Iraqi Forces Push Into IS-held Pocket in Mosul”

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that a Russian law barring Americans from adopting Russian children led to human rights violations. …

When Ulil Abshar-Abdalla was a teenager in Pati, Central Java, he placed first in an Arabic class held at his local madrasa. The prize was six months of tuition at the Institute for the Study of Islam and Arabic (LIPIA), a Jakarta university founded and funded by the Saudi Arabian government. At the end of …

Read more “Saudi Arabia Quietly Spreads its Brand of Puritanical Islam in Indonesia”

Prominent Kazakh journalist Bigeldy Gabdullin has gone on trial in Astana on extortion charges. …

Counterterrorism measures that have been adopted across Europe in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks are eroding human rights under the guise of defending them, Amnesty International warns. …