worldwide news
Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest to protest against proposed justice reforms by the ruling Social Democrats (PSD) that opponents say will make it more difficult to prosecute high-level corruption. …
A British tourist says he was brutally assaulted by a group of young men in central Kyiv who he believes targeted him because of his appearance. …
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic visited the northern Kosovar city of Mitrovica on January 20, where he paid his respects to Oliver Ivanovic, an ethnic Serb political leader in Kosovo who was shot dead earlier this week. …
Robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies were all on display at the National Retail Federation (NRF) 2018 trade show. The event showcased the ways retailers are keeping pace with shoppers’ round-the-clock spending. Tina Trinh reports. …
The Trump administration’s promise to exempt Florida from an offshore drilling plan is not a formal action, an Interior Department official said Friday in a statement that Democrats said contradicted a high-profile announcement by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Zinke has proposed opening nearly all U.S. coastline to offshore oil and gas drilling, but said soon …
Read more “Official: ‘No Formal Decision’ on Florida Offshore Drilling”
Iran’s mistrustful public has long chafed at official effort to push them onto Iranian-made apps when foreign ones are available, despite the obstacles. …
Russian police searching a suspect’s home for undeclared weapons in St. Petersburg unexpectedly found a large crocodile living in the basement, police said on January 19. …
U.S. health officials on Friday said they were revoking legal guidance issued by the Obama administration that had sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services, such as Planned Parenthood. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials also said the department is issuing a new regulation aimed …
Read more “US Health Agency Revokes Obama-era Planned Parenthood Protection”
Pope Francis traveled deep into the Amazon rainforest Friday demanding an end to the relentless exploitation of its timber, gas and gold and recognition of its indigenous peoples as the primary custodians to determine the future of “our common home.” Speaking to a coliseum filled with indigenous men, women and children, many of whom …
Read more “Pope to Peru’s Indigenous: Amazon Is ‘Heart of the Church’”
At least a dozen soldiers were killed in Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile eastern borderlands where the army is battling Ugandan Islamist rebels, Congolese security and diplomatic sources said on Friday. The armies of Congo and Uganda launched a military offensive last month against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, who were suspected of being …
Read more “At Least a Dozen Soldiers Killed in Eastern Congo”
A “Game of Thrones”-themed ice hotel complete with a bar and a chapel for weddings has opened in northern Finland in a joint effort by a local hotel chain and the U.S. producers of the hit TV series. Lapland Hotels said Friday they chose “Game of Thrones” to be the theme for this season’s Snow …
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told a meeting on Central Asia and Afghanistan that addressing “inequality, exclusion, and discrimination” is crucial to stemming terrorism and extremism. …
As Orthodox Christians marked Epiphany on January 19, two Balkan cities celebrated with traditional swimming races. (RFE/RL’s Balkan Service). …
The U.S. defense secretary has called Russia and China “revisionist powers” and said the focus of U.S. military strategy was shifting away from terrorism and back toward what he called “great power competition.” …
Authorities in Sudan were holding an Agence France-Presse journalist on Thursday after he was arrested a day earlier while covering demonstrations against rising food prices that were dispersed by police. Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali, a 51-year-old who has worked for AFP in Khartoum for nearly a decade, was covering the protests on Wednesday in the …
Read more “Sudan Holding Journalists Who Were Arrested While Covering Protests”
The U.S. House Intelligence Committee has voted to release the transcript of its interview of Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of the research firm that assembled the infamous Trump-Russia dossier. The transcript was expected to be released later Thursday. Fusion GPS, based in Washington, was hired by a law firm that represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign and …
Read more “House Panel to Release Fusion GPS Testimony on Trump-Russia Probe”
A former German rapper who became a recruiter, fighter and propagandist for the Islamic State terror group has reportedly been killed in fighting in Syria. The pro-IS Al-Wafa media group announced the death of Denis Cuspert, who also went by the name Deso Dogg, on Thursday and posted graphic photos of his corpse, according to the SITE Intelligence …
Read more “German Rapper-Turned-IS Pitchman Reportedly Killed in Syria”
At the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that a failure of the Iran nuclear agreement with world powers would send an “alarming” message to the international community. …
The Russian weapon design was dubbed the “doomsday machine” when its plans were first glimpsed in a Russian state TV report in 2015. Now a U.S. nuclear policy document confirms Moscow’s apparent intentions to build it. …
Cricket legend Imran Khan, a strong contender to be Pakistan’s next prime minister, has googly eyes for his spiritual adviser — and his political rivals are throwing it back in his face. …
Authorities in Serbia have arrested three Australian citizens as part of a joint investigation with Australian police in connection with the second-largest seizure of cocaine in Australia’s history. …
Two U.S. senators from the president’s own party have assailed President Donald Trump for his constant attacks on critical stories about his presidency, saying they undermine a basic tenet of democratic societies, a free and open news media. …
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that U.S. troops will remain in Syria indefinitely not just to fight militants but also to counter the power of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his ally Iran. …
Fewer Muslim Americans were involved in acts of violent extremism last year, despite fears that the Trump administration’s hard-line policy on terrorism could set off a backlash from Muslim militants and lead to further acts of violence at home and abroad, a new report shows. The number of Muslim Americans charged, convicted or associated with …
Read more “Report Shows Muslim Americans’ Involvement in Violent Extremism Slides in 2017”