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Former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg announced Thursday he would end his long political career after a scathing ethics report concluded he failed to protect the Senate from his husband, who has been charged with sexual misconduct. In a one-sentence letter delivered to the Senate, Rosenberg said his resignation would be effective at 5 p.m. …
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A mother of two in Afghanistan sold her five-month-old daughter to raise money for medical treatment for a relative. The case sparked deep concern in the country, and officials and others have raised money for both medical costs and to get the child back to her mom. The mom, Obaidah, lives in Mimanah, in Afghanistan’s …
Read more “Afghan Mother Sells Baby to Raise Money for Relative’s Medical Care “
The Phoenix Suns — a team in the National Basketball Association (NBA) — has hired Igor Kokoskov of Serbia as its new head coach, making him the first person born outside of North America to lead an NBA team. …
Officials in Afghanistan say a gunman has shot and killed a deputy counterterrorism official in the country’s western province of Farah. …
Afghanistan’s slain journalists were remembered on World Press Freedom Day — May 3 – just three days after the deadliest attack on the country’s media since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. …
The April 30 killings of 10 journalists in Afghanistan highlight the dangers journalists face in covering some parts of the world. On VOA’s Plugged in with Greta Van Susteren, experts discuss why worldwide freedom of the press is more important now than ever. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more. …
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says President Donald Trump’s plan to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides “an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of history on the Korean Peninsula.” Pompeo was formally sworn in as the 70th U.S. secretary of state in a ceremony attended by Trump. As VOA’s Diplomatic …
Read more “Pompeo Sees Chance to ‘Change the Course of History on the Korean Peninsula’”
Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinian has called for a pause in the massive three-week-long demonstrations after the ruling Republican Party (HHK) indicated that it might support him for prime minister in a May 8 parliamentary vote. …
The Russian Embassy in Washington has demanded that a flag removed from the now-closed Russian Consulate in Seattle be put back. …
Malaysia’s former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad wasn’t invited to the forum that planned to debate whether at well past 90 years he was too old to be prime minister again. He turned up anyway. “As far as health is concerned, I am not senile yet,” he announced to the stunned participants, maybe of whom stood …
Read more “Is Mahathir Too Old to Rule Malaysia? He Doesn’t Think So”
Turkmenistan has opened a vast new seaport on the Caspian Sea that the country hopes will improve its export prospects and establish it as a regional hub connecting Europe and Asia. …
Patriarch Filaret, the head of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church, has called on the European Union not to treat the conflict in his country’s east as Kyiv’s internal problem and urged the bloc to maintain sanctions against Moscow. …
Supporters of opposition protest leader Nikol Pashinian flooded Gyumir city hall to demand the mayor of Armenia’s second-largest city join their protest movement. …
A suicide bomber and other militants attacked Libya’s election commission in the capital on Wednesday, killing at least six people, the Health Ministry said. The suicide bomber blew himself up inside the building and other militants set fire to it, Health Ministry spokeswoman Wedad Abu Niran told The Associated Press. Videos posted on social media …
Read more “Militants Attack Libyan Election Commission, 6 Killed”
President Donald Trump makes his first visit to the State Department Wednesday for a ceremonial swearing in of his new secretary of state. “It’s an important day for the president’s first trip to this important place,” Secretary of State Pompeo said Tuesday while speaking to personnel who gathered in the State Department lobby as he …
On a Saturday afternoon, a few dozen people gathered in a hotel in Kafanchan, a town in Nigeria’s Kaduna state. Something unprecedented was happening there: A 28-year-old woman named Ndi Kato was declaring her intent to represent her community at state parliament. “I came to run for an election. I came to win an election,” …
Tempers flared in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, after protesters blockaded the main road leading the city’s Zvartnots Airport as part of a general strike in the country. …
Saudi Arabian authorities on Tuesday ordered the handover of 25 state-run schools to be run by private sector companies as part of economic reforms designed to ease pressure on the state’s finances. Riyadh announced last week that it aimed to generate 35 billion to 40 billion riyals ($9 billion to $11 billion) of non-oil state …
Read more “Saudi Government to Hand Over 25 Schools to Private Sector”
Facebook Inc plans to add a dating service, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday, marking the first time the world’s largest social media network has actively tried to help people form romantic relationships. Zuckerberg told software developers at Facebook’s annual F8 conference that a dating service would be a natural fit for a company …
U.S. regulators on Tuesday issued warnings to 13 companies selling e-cigarette liquids for using child-friendly images in their packaging, in the latest crackdown aimed at preventing tobacco sales to minors. The packaging resembles that of juice boxes, candy or cookies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission said, noting a recent …
Read more “US Clamps Down on Kid-Friendly Packaging for E-cigarette Liquids”
Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinian called for a general strike in response to parliament failing to elect him interim prime minister. His comments were carried live by RFE/RL’s Armenian service, as he addressed mass crowds of supporters in Yerevan. …
RFE/RL Afghan service journalist Sabawoon Kakar was buried in Kabul on May 1, a day after he was killed in a suicide bombing. His colleague Abadullah Hananzai, was buried on April 30, as was Maharram Durrani — who was training to become a journalist at RFE/RL’s Kabul bureau. They were all killed in the same …
The U.S. government’s watchdog on Afghanistan says the number of Afghan security forces has decreased by nearly 11 percent during the past year as security in the country has deteriorated. …
Pakistan’s environmental protection agency is installing air quality monitors and warning factories to add pollution filters after a panel of the country’s top judges ordered the government to detail its efforts to control worsening air pollution. The court ruling earlier this month followed a lawsuit by a Karachi man challenging the government’s failure to control …
Read more “Pakistan Moves to Curb Urban Air Pollution After High Court Ruling”