worldwide news
Dozens of bodies, including those of jihadists and civilians, have been found in a mass grave in the former Islamic State group stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, a local official said Saturday. The former de facto capital of the group in northern Syria, Raqqa saw the jihadists ousted by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in October 2017. Nearly …
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U.S. lawmakers this week strongly endorsed continued U.S. military engagement in Libya, calling it vital for building the country’s unity and keeping it from becoming a hub for terrorism. U.S. involvement in Libya has been a politically divisive issue ever since former President Barack Obama launched the U.N.-authorized military intervention aimed at saving pro-democracy protesters …
Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinian says he will meet on April 22 with former president and current Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian after nine days of mass demonstrations against Sarkisian’s rule. …
Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinian says he will meet on April 22 with former president and current Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian after nine days of mass demonstrations against Sarkisian’s rule. …
Iran’s President Hassan Rohani has criticized the morality police’s use of violence against women failing to observe the compulsory Islamic dress code, state media reported on April 21. …
A Rohingya Muslim man among the group of 76 rescued in Indonesian waters in a wooden boat says they were at sea for nine days after leaving Myanmar, where the minority group faces intense persecution, and were hoping to reach Malaysia. The eight children, 25 women and 43 men were brought ashore Friday afternoon at …
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Israeli soldiers firing Friday from across a border fence killed four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and wounded more than 150 others, health officials said, as several thousand people in blockaded Gaza staged a fourth round of weekly protests on the border with Israel. Huge black plumes of smoke from burning tires engulfed the border …
Read more “4 Palestinians Dead, Hundreds Hurt in Gaza Protest”
The food industry uses plastic to wrap its products in many places around the world. Plastic manufacturers say that keeps produce and meat fresh longer, so less goes bad and is thrown away. But, according to a new European study, while the annual use of plastic packaging has grown since the 1950s, so has food …
Read more “Plastic: If It’s Not Keeping Food Fresh, Why Use It?”
A senior U.S. administration official has told reporters that President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss the Iran nuclear agreement at the White House when they meet next week. …
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his country will freeze tests of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and close down a nuclear test site, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports. …
Armenian opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinian has rejected calls for dialogue with the government and called on Serzh Sarkisian to resign as prime minister. …
China has made a series of market opening pledges over the past week, but analysts said the moves are unlikely to help Beijing and Washington take any steps toward resolving their differences or advance negotiations. Instead, frustrations are growing as punitive trade actions pile up. China has pledged specific steps to open up its financial …
Iraqi warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in eastern Syria with deadly airstrikes Thursday, the Iraqi government said. The Iraqi army and Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) stationed in the bordering province of Anbar have fired rockets at IS pockets in Syria in the past, but the airstrikes were the first by Iraq in its neighboring …
Read more “Iraqi Jets Strike IS Positions in Syria for First Time”
Russia sought to shut down Telegram, stood by as Western air strikes targeted its Syrian ally, and avoided a fresh volley of U.S. sanctions — for now — while holding off on its own retaliation to punitive measures for its “malign activity around the globe.” …
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of the Armenian capital early on April 20 for an eighth straight day against what they see as longtime former Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian attempt to cement his hold on power. (Photos by RFE/RL’s Amos Chapple) …
The United Kingdom is proposing a ban on disposable plastic straws. With Earth Day coming up this Sunday, advocates are asking everyone to follow suit and skip the straw. Straws and stirrers are among the top 10 items found in coastal cleanups worldwide, according to the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy, which has been conducting annual trash …
A video showing Iranian morality police dragging off a woman in Tehran for not wearing a hijab has gone viral on social media sites. …
U.S. President Donald Trump has “made a very firm commitment to work as hard as possible to try to return” American detainees and Japanese abductees from North Korea, said William Hagerty, the U.S. ambassador to Japan. “This is a very sensitive issue for us and a high priority for both leaders that was covered extensively,” …
Read more “US Envoy: Trump Intent on Bringing Home Americans Held in N. Korea”
A look at the best news photos from around the world. …
The United States has joined media watchdogs in calling on Russian authorities to thoroughly investigate the death of Russian investigative journalist Maksim Borodin last week. …
The organization representing more than 15,000 striking nurses in Zimbabwe vowed a legal battle unless the government reverses its order to fire strikers from state-run hospitals. “We are forced to approach the courts to intervene,” Enoch Dongo, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association, said Thursday. Nurses went on strike Monday to demand better pay, …
Read more “Striking Zimbabwe Nurses Vow Legal Challenge to Dismissal”
Hundreds of lawmakers from Germany, France, and Britain have called on their counterparts in the U.S. Congress to support the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, calling it a “major diplomatic breakthrough.” …
The lower house of the Belarusian parliament has approved in its first reading draft amendments to the country’s media law that would tighten control over online news websites and social-media networks. …
A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Wednesday carrying SpaceX’s first high-priority science mission for NASA, a planet-hunting space telescope whose launch had been delayed for two days by a rocket-guidance glitch. The Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:51 p.m. EDT, starting the clock on a two-year quest to …