Category: World

The White House is applauding France’s move against alleged Iranian intelligence operatives who are accused of planning a bomb attack in Paris. …

A key achievement of Russian President Vladimir Putin on a trip to India this week will be the signing of a $5 billion deal to supply India with S-400 air-defense systems, a top Kremlin aide has said. …

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian says he has received assurances from leaders of the parliamentary majority that they will not block early general elections that he wants to be held in December. …

The U.S. ambassador to NATO has said that if necessary, the United States would consider destroying a Russian missile system that Washington contends Moscow is developing in violation of a nuclear arms treaty. …

As trade tensions between Beijing and Washington worsen, a debate is intensifying in China over the role private and state-owned enterprises play in the economy. The debate has even stoked fears that the communist-led government is preparing to nationalize private industries, analysts say. Under Xi Jinping’s leadership and especially over the past year, after he …

Read more “China’s Private Enterprises Feel Squeeze on All Fronts”

Turkmenistan’s authoritarian president announced the end to free gas, electricity, water, and salt — winning applause and lavish praise from the rubber-stamp People’s Assembly. …

Amazon is boosting its minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 per hour starting next month. The company said Tuesday that the wage hike will benefit more than 350,000 workers, which includes full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal positions. It includes Whole Foods employees. Amazon’s hourly operations and customer service employees, some who already make …

Read more “Amazon Raising Minimum Wage for US Workers to $15 Per Hour”

In five weeks, U.S. voters head to the polls to elect a new Congress and the outcome will have a profound impact on the next two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. Intensity is building for the Nov. 6 election, especially among opposition Democrats seeking to win back control of the House of Representatives. But the …

Read more “Battle Over Kavanaugh Intensifies Midterm Campaign”

Verdicts in the trial of the former Almaty Mayor Viktor Khrapunov and his relatives and former associates will be pronounced next week, a court said on October 2. …

The association of Polish lawyers called on the government on Monday to abandon a plan for legal reform it says could undermine attorney-client confidentiality as part of a broader campaign to take control of the judiciary. The Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily and other media say the plan would enable prosecutors to ask lawyers to divulge …

Read more “Polish Lawyers Call on Government to Abandon Legal Reform Plan”

Twenty-five years ago, President Boris Yeltsin cracked down on political opponents who had barricaded themselves inside the Russian parliament. I recall those turbulent days out on Moscow’s streets. (The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.) …

A look at the best news photos from around the world. …

President Petro Poroshenko has presented Francois Hollande with one of Ukraine’s highest awards in Kyiv, praising the former French leader’s support in the face of Russia’s “aggression.” …

The Pentagon has canceled plans for U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to visit China after his counterpart in Beijing could not be made available, a U.S. defense official told VOA on Monday. The trip was never finalized or formally announced. The Pentagon decided not to participate late last week after trying to schedule security talks …

Read more “Pentagon Cancels Talks With China Amid Rising Tensions”

Seven members of a single Tajik family were wiped out when their truck plunged off a high cliff in the northern district of Lakhsh, police say. …

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the nation’s toughest net neutrality measure Sunday, requiring internet providers to maintain a level playing field online. Advocates of net neutrality hope the move in the home of the global technology industry will have national implications, prompting Congress to enact national net neutrality rules or encouraging other states to follow …

Read more “California Governor Signs Tough Net Neutrality Bill”

Special courts in Iran set up to deal with financial crimes have sentenced three suspects to death over corruption, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday. According to the deputy chief of judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, said the three were among 35 suspects recently brought to trial, IRNA reported. Ejehi said the rest were sentenced …

Read more “Iran Sentences 3 Suspects to Death Over Financial Crimes”

The National Weather Service has announced flash flood watches for the Southwest United States and a tropical storm warning for northwest Mexico as Hurricane Rosa churns closer. According to the National Hurricane Center, Rosa is weakening but is still expected to be a tropical storm when it hits the Baja California Peninsula and Mexico’s Sonora …

Read more “Hurricane Rosa to Drench Mexico, US Southwest”

The vast majority of voters in Macedonia’s referendum on September 30 accepted a name change that could pave the way for the Balkan nation’s entrance into the European Union and NATO, but the vote was marred by low turnout. …

Special courts set up in Iran to deal with financial crimes have sentenced three people to death, local media reported, as the country faces renewed U.S. sanctions and public outcry against corruption. …

Three schoolboys have been reported killed and another injured by a land mine in a separatist-controlled town in eastern Ukraine. …

Traditional two-handled ceramic jars known as amphoras were used extensively in ancient Greece to store and transport a variety of products, especially wine. These days they are more likely to be found in shipwrecks than in stores. But wine-filled amphoras are once again being found on the sea floor, not from sunken ships, but deliberately …

Read more “Croatian Vintner Ages Wines in Amphoras on Adriatic Sea Floor”

The Catholic Church is closing parishes across the American Midwest and Northeast in response to years of flagging attendance. Changing demographics and an overall trend of secularism is partly to blame, but repeated cases of sexual abuse in the church have not helped. Reporter Teresa Krug reports from the Midwestern state of Iowa, where some …

Read more “Some US Catholic Churches Close as Attendance Flags”

Sedgwick Street in Chicago is a thoroughfare divided by race and socio-economics. The area was settled by German, Irish and Sicilian immigrants. But in the 1950s and ’60s, when the original settlers began moving out, African-Americans, Puerto Ricans and so-called hippies started moving in. Today, Sedgwick Street remains a social and economic demarcation line between …

Read more “Using Art to Unite a Divided Neighborhood”