Category: World

Lawmakers representing Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority are refusing to leave the parliament building in Pristina to protest a 100-percent tax on products imported from Serbia. …

One Russian cosmonaut and two astronauts from the United States and Canada are set to board the first manned mission to the International Space Station (ISS) since an aborted launch in October. …

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has called on the public to report suspicious activity near army sites after a Russian TV crew prompted an alert at a highly sensitive military facility, the Daily Mail newspaper reports. …

The U.S. military said it killed nine militants in an airstrike targeting al Shabaab in Lebede, Somalia, as part of its operations to support the government’s efforts to weaken the militant group. The military’s Africa Command (Africom) said the strike was carried out Friday. “We currently assess this airstrike killed nine militants with no civilians …

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he will give formal notice to the U.S. Congress soon to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), giving six months for lawmakers to approve a new trade deal signed Friday. “I will be formally terminating NAFTA shortly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way …

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he is likely to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in January or February and that three sites for their second meeting are under consideration. “We’re getting along very well. We have a good relationship,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from a G-20 …

Read more “Next Trump-Kim Meeting Likely Early Next Year”

The White House says U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have agreed on a 90-day cease-fire to their mounting trade war, as the world’s two biggest economies try to avert further escalation. The White House said in a statement December 1 that Washington had also agreed not to raise tariffs on Chinese …

Read more “Trump, Xi Agree On Tariff Cease-Fire, As Trade Talks Continue”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he and U.S. President Donald Trump briefly discussed the recent naval confrontation in the Black Sea between Ukrainian and Russian naval ships. Putin gave few details of the conversation, which happened December 1 on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. “We spoke in passing. I …

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The U.S. defense secretary strongly criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of deceit involving a key Cold War-era arms control treaty, and acting recklessly in last week’s naval confrontation with Ukraine. …

George Bush was a man with a matchless resume — combat pilot, diplomat, vice president, then president of the United States — but great communicator was not on the list. That was Ronald Reagan. “Fluency in English is not something I’m often accused of,” he once said, demonstrating the point. Nor was he given to …

Read more “George H.W. Bush: Great on Experience, Not as Communicator”

U.S. President Donald Trump said it wouldn’t be right to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of Russia’s recent seizure of Ukrainian vessels, but he said the meeting would go ahead at another time. In his November 30 interview with VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren, Trump also discussed Brexit, the U.S. economy, …

Read more “Interview: Trump On Russia, Ukraine, Brexit”

On the outskirts of Kuwait City, the love Kuwaitis have for former U.S. President George H.W. Bush could be seen in 2016 on a billboard one Bedouin family put up to announce their son’s wedding. That son being Bush al-Widhan, born in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War that saw U.S.-led forces expel the …

Read more “1991 Gulf War Looms Large Over Bush’s Mideast Legacy”

Former U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush died at his home in Houston, Texas. He was 94. The 41st U.S. president, a Republican who served one term from 1989 to 1993,was celebrated for expelling the invading Iraqi troops from Kuwait and for efforts toward a Middle East peace agreement. Zlatica Hoke has more. …

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has put on hold planning for the Tokyo 2020 boxing tournament in a move that could see the governing body AIBA frozen out of the Olympic Games. …

Iran has launched a domestically made destroyer, which state media said has radar-evading stealth capabilities, amid rising tensions with the United States. …

South Sudan is beset by “alarming levels” of sexual and gender-based violence and a desperate humanitarian situation, including severe food shortages, as it attempts to implement the latest peace agreement in a climate of “deep distrust,” U.N. experts said. The panel of experts said in a report to the Security Council that the world’s newest …

Read more “UN experts: South Sudan Beset by `Alarming’ Sexual Violence”

Opposition supporters marched Thursday in Zimbabwe’s capital, demanding that the government do more to fix the sinking economy. The government allowed the protest, but said marches will only derail progress. Ahead of the rally, President Emmerson Mnangagwa warned the opposition not to abuse their right to demonstrate by engaging in violent or unruly acts. Junior …

Read more “Zimbabwe Government Urges Opposition to Stop Economic Protests”

The family of a 19-year-old British tourist says Egyptian authorities have arrested the young man over a video he filmed on his cellphone that showed a military helicopter in the background. Speaking from the UK on Friday, humanitarian relief worker Shareen Nawaz told The Associated Press that her cousin, Libyan-British Muhammed Fathi AbulKasem, was arrested …

Read more “Family Says Egypt Arrested British Tourist for Military Chopper Video”

World leaders are meeting in Argentina for their annual Group of 20 (G20) summit amid new tensions between Russia and Ukraine. …

U.S. President Donald Trump has defended his decision to seek a business deal in Russia in 2016 even as he pursued the Republican presidential nomination. …

Supporters of wartime Bosnian Muslim commander Naser Oric gathered in Sarajevo as the high court acquitted him and another soldier of war crimes charges on November 30. Oric had been accused of killing three Serb prisoners of war in the Srebrenica area at the beginning of the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Oric is seen as a …

Read more “Wartime Bosnian Muslim Commander Oric Acquitted In War Crimes Trial”

Three tiny rocks brought back from the moon in 1970 by the unmanned Soviet Luna-16 mission sold for $855,000 on Thursday at a New York auction.  They’re the only documented lunar rocks in private hands, Sotheby’s auction house said. The U.S. collector who bought the rocks was not named.  The sellers, also from the U.S., bought …

Read more “Soviet-Era Moon Rocks Sell for $855,000 in New York”

Flash flooding hit a wildfire-scarred area of Northern California on Thursday, forcing officials to quickly deploy swift water rescue teams to save people stranded in vehicles after a downpour near the Paradise area, officials said.  It was not clear how many people were trapped, but authorities received reports of flooding on roads and of downed …

Read more “Flooding Hits Northern California Area Scarred by Wildfire”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the U.N. is working hard to ensure peace talks on Yemen before the end of the year. Talks are tentatively set to open next week in Stockholm between Yemeni officials and representatives of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Guterres said at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit Thursday in Buenos Aires …

Read more “Guterres: UN Working Hard to Ensure Peace Talks for Yemen”