Category: News

Convicted mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik spends his days in a spacious three-room cell, playing video games, exercising, watching TV and taking university-level courses in mathematics and business.  Halfway through a 21-year sentence and seeking early release, Breivik, 42, is being treated in a way that might seem shocking to people outside Norway, where he …

Read more “Norway Killer Breivik Tests Limits of Lenient Justice System”

Three hundred and forty kilometers east of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, lies the city of Poltava.  At its heart is a semi-circular square with a cast-iron column and nearly two dozen eighteenth-century Swedish cannons captured in the 1709 Battle of Poltava, a decisive encounter in the Great Northern War, waged between Russia’s Peter the Great …

Read more “Putin, Following in Steps of Peter the Great?”

Thousands gathered in Istanbul this week to demand full justice for high-profile Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed 15 years ago. Placards reading “We are all Hrant, We are all Armenian” and “For Hrant, For Justice” were waved as the crowd gathered outside the building where a teenage gunman in 2007 shot Dink. Candles …

Read more “‘Impunity Persists’ in Case of Slain Turkish-Armenian Journalist”

Short of an all-out invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin could take less dramatic action in Ukraine that would vastly complicate a U.S. and allied response. He might carry out what President Joe Biden called a “minor incursion” — perhaps a cyberattack — leaving the U.S. and Europe divided on the type and severity of economic …

Read more “‘Minor Incursion’ Into Ukraine by Russia Could Complicate West’s Response”

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.  UN chief calls for action in 2022 on urgent challenges  Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday that the world is facing “a five-alarm fire” that requires urgent and united global …

Read more “UN Weekly Roundup Jan. 15-21, 2022”

The United States and Russia appeared to make little progress in the increasingly high-stakes standoff over Ukraine, each side leaving the latest round of high-level talks Friday promising only to keep talking. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for about an hour and a half in Geneva, with both officials refusing …

Read more “Little Progress Apparent in Ukraine Standoff, but Talks to Continue”

A World Health Organization ((WHO)) advisory panel Friday recommended extending the use of a smaller dose of the Pfizer – BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to children ages 5 to 11. The recommendation follows a meeting this week by the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts ((SAGE)) on immunization to evaluate the company’s vaccine. The WHO had previously recommended the vaccine for use in people ages 12 years and older. During a virtual briefing Friday, SAGE Chairman Alejandro Cravioto told reporters the committee said the 5-11 …

Read more “WHO Recommends Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine for 5-11-Year-olds”

A Taliban delegation is expected to hold talks with Norwegian officials and Afghan civil society representatives in Oslo next week, the Norwegian foreign ministry said Friday. The visit is scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday, and “the Taliban will meet representatives of the Norwegian authorities and officials from a number of allied countries,” for talks on …

Read more “Norway Says Taliban Team Expected in Oslo for Aid Talks”

French oil giant TotalEnergies on Friday said it would withdraw from Myanmar over “worsening” human rights abuses committed since the country’s military took power in a February 2021 coup. “The situation, in terms of human rights and more generally the rule of law, which have kept worsening in Myanmar… has led us to reassess the …

Read more “TotalEnergies to Leave Myanmar Over Human Rights Abuses”

Spain’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Friday that Europeans have a united position on the crisis over the Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border and that Spain is pushing for dialogue. Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops on its borders with Ukraine in what Western states fear is the precursor …

Read more “Spain’s Foreign Minister Says Europeans ‘United’ on Ukraine Crisis”

China condemned a French parliament resolution on Friday that accuses Beijing of carrying out a genocide against its Uyghur Muslim population, a move that has strained ties two weeks before the Winter Olympics. The resolution adds to a chorus of western nations that have criticized Beijing for placing around 1 million Uyghurs in forced labor …

Read more “French Parliament’s Uyghur Genocide Declaration Angers China”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Geneva, where he meets Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the fourth time in the last week that U.S. and Russian officials have engaged in direct talks. The West is demanding that Russia pull its troops and weapons away from the Ukraine border while Moscow is …

Read more “Blinken to Meet Russian Foreign Minister on Ukraine”

Iran, Russia and China on Friday began a joint naval drill in the Indian Ocean aimed at boosting marine security, state media reported. Iran’s state TV said 11 of its vessels were joined by three Russian ships including a destroyer, and two Chinese vessels. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard will also participate with smaller ships and helicopters. …

Read more “Iran, Russia and China Begin Joint Naval Drill”

Iran’s president visited Russia this week on a visit Iranian officials called a “turning point” in their relations, as officials also announced a planned joint naval exercise that includes China for later this week. The visit by President Ebrahim Raisi to Moscow comes amid rising tensions between Russia and Western countries over Moscow’s troop buildup …

Read more “Iran, Russia Tout Closer Ties Amid Tensions With Europe, US”

U.S. prosecutors charged four Belarusian government officials Thursday with aircraft piracy for allegedly using a bomb threat ruse to divert a Ryanair flight last year in order to arrest an opposition journalist. The charges, announced by federal prosecutors in New York, recounted how a regularly scheduled passenger plane traveling between Athens, Greece, and Vilnius, Lithuania, …

Read more “US Charges 4 Belarus Officials With Air Piracy in Reporter’s Arrest”

U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to clear up any misunderstanding surrounding remarks made Wednesday, saying he has made very clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin that any movement of Russian troops across Ukraine’s border will be treated as an invasion and will trigger severe consequences. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. …

Over 1.2 million people are dying every year from bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics, according to a new study. That makes multi-resistant bacteria far deadlier than HIV/AIDS or malaria. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for the European Union to pursue its own talks with the Kremlin is raising fears of a split developing in the Western response to the threat of a Russian invasion in Ukraine. Macron has struggled in the past to convince his EU partners of the need for Europe to take …

Read more “Macron’s Call for EU Talks With Kremlin Unnerves European Allies”

Now-retired Pope Benedict XVI neglected to act against clerics who allegedly committed four acts of sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising while he was serving as archbishop between 1977 and 1982, according to a report released Thursday. The Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl produced the report after the archdiocese asked it …

Read more “Report: Now-Retired Pope Benedict Failed to Act in Child Sex Abuse Cases in Germany”

The U.S. government says it is sanctioning four Ukrainians “engaged in Russian government-directed influence activities to destabilize Ukraine.” “The individuals we are targeting, two of whom are members of Ukraine’s parliament, act at the direction of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and support Russia’s destabilizing and dangerous influence operations, which undermine not just Ukraine but …

Read more “US Sanctions 4 Ukrainians Accused of Aiding Russia”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed Thursday that the United States and its allies would inflict “swift and massive” costs on Russia if it invades Ukraine but said Russian President Vladimir Putin can still opt for a diplomatic solution to rising tensions in eastern Europe. “We’re at a decisive juncture,” Blinken said in Berlin …

Read more “Blinken Vows ‘Swift and Massive’ Response Should Russia Invade Ukraine”

Online companies would have to ramp up efforts to keep harmful content off their platforms and take other steps to protect users under rules that European Union lawmakers are set to vote on Thursday. The 27-nation bloc has gained a reputation as a trendsetter in the growing global push to rein in big tech companies …

Read more “Explainer: How Sweeping EU Rules Would Curb Tech Companies”

President Joe Biden is not planning to answer a further Russian invasion of Ukraine by sending combat troops. But he could pursue a range of less dramatic yet still risky military options, including supporting a post-invasion Ukrainian resistance. The rationale for not directly joining a Russia-Ukraine war is simple. The United States has no treaty …

Read more “Explainer: What Are US Military Options to Help Ukraine?”

British police on Thursday arrested two men as part of an investigation into a hostage taking at a synagogue in Texas. “Two men have been arrested this morning in Birmingham and Manchester,” counter terrorism police said. The daylong siege at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, about 16 miles northeast of Fort Worth, Texas, …

Read more “British Police Arrest 2 in Texas Synagogue Attack Investigation”