worldwide news
Thousands of pro-government Iranians have rallied in cities across the country for a fourth day in a show of support for the clerical leadership, while antigovernment protests reportedly continued in at least nine cities across the country, including the capital, Tehran. …
Nearly 4,000 companies and 170,000 people will descend on Las Vegas next week for CES, the massive consumer electronics show. For many small technology companies, the event is a big opportunity to raise their profile. VOA’s Michelle Quinn visits one San Francisco company to learn how they prepare for “the Super Bowl of conferences.” …
The U.S. economy ended 2017 by adding 148,000 new jobs in December. Despite the modest gain, hiring was strong enough to suggest the economic momentum will continue. But while the national unemployment rate remained unchanged at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent, analysts say the pace of job growth may be slowing down. Mil Arcega …
Nearly 200,000 Salvadoran beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, anxiously wait as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security weighs a decision whether to end the designated security program. Given precedent with beneficiaries from Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan, TPS holders from El Salvador worry they may be next on Trump’s chopping block, despite a 16-year …
Read more “Nearly 200,000 Salvadorans Anxiously Await Decision on TPS Future”
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he plans to stay in his post through 2018 despite speculation he might leave soon due to strained relations with President Donald Trump. …
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says he’s not worried about Islamabad retaliating against Washington over its suspension of as much as $2 billion in military aid this week. …
The White House is working with leading U.S. lawmakers on legislation designed to enable the United States to remain in the Iran nuclear deal, media are reporting, citing senior U.S. officials. …
Islamabad has rejected U.S. criticism about Pakistan’s record on religious freedom, saying that Pakistan is being made a scapegoat for “failure” in Afghanistan. …
A direct bus-service link between the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, and the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent has resumed after a 17-year pause. …
America’s space agency wants you to head for the mountains with a smartphone and a measuring stick. NASA’s earth science arm is funding research that recruits citizen scientists on skis, snowshoes and snowmobiles to measure the depth of snow in backcountry locations in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Their measurements will be incorporated …
Read more “Headed to Mountains? Measure Some Snow for Science”
A court in Bishkek has sentenced Kyrgyz opposition politician Kanatbek Isaev to 12 years in prison on corruption charges. …
A hot air balloon with foreign tourists sightseeing over the southern city of Luxor crash landed Friday, killing a tourist from South Africa and injuring seven others, Egyptian officials said. No details were immediately available on the nationalities of the other victims. The remaining 12 tourists were unhurt. The officials said the incident was caused …
China warned of a second wave of snow and sleet hitting northern, central and eastern parts of the country Friday after record snowfall paralyzed parts of the country in the most severe weather this winter. Heavy snowfall has wreaked havoc in central and eastern China since Tuesday, killing 10 people and disrupting the lives of …
Read more “Second Wave of Snow, Sleet Likely for Parts of China “
Childish Gambino, Lady Gaga, Little Big Town and Pink will perform at the 60th Grammy Awards, which will also feature Broadway musical tributes by Patti LuPone and Ben Platt in honor of the show’s return to New York City. The Recording Academy announced Thursday the first round of performers for the January 28 awards show, …
Read more “Childish Gambino, Lady Gaga to Perform at Grammy Awards”
A look at the best news photos from around the world. …
A suicide bomber struck an Afghan forces’ convoy in Kabul Thursday night, killing at least 15 people, health ministry officials confirmed. Participants of a demonstration reportedly wanted to set fire to a city policy station, prompting authorities to dispatch personnel of the Afghanistan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) to secure the facility. The bomber detonated …
The Afghan Health Ministry says at least 11 people were killed and 25 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Kabul as security personnel were conducting an operation at the scene before the attack. …
The U.S. State Department has singled out Pakistan, Iran, and three Central Asian countries for policies violating religious freedom. …
What message are former inmates supposed to glean from standing at the grave site of the man who was ultimately responsible for them being thrown in prison? (The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.) …
Mormon church leader Thomas Monson has died, the church announced Wednesday from its Salt Lake City headquarters. He was 90 years old and led the church for 10 years. Monson became a church bishop when he was just 22, and at age 36 became the youngest apostle in Mormon church history. Monson was well-respected by …
Auto sales in the United States fell by 2 percent in 2017, the first decline in seven years. Ford Motor reported Wednesday that its new vehicle sales fell 1 percent, as did those of General Motors. Fiat Chrysler reported a decline of 8 percent compared with 2016. Volkswagen said its sales in the U.S. rose …
Security researchers on Wednesday disclosed a set of security flaws that they said could let hackers steal sensitive information from nearly every modern computing device containing chips from Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and ARM Holdings. One of the bugs is specific to Intel but another affects laptops, desktop computers, smartphones, tablets and internet servers alike. Intel and ARM insisted that the …
Read more “Security Flaws Put Virtually All Phones, Computers at Risk, Researchers Say”
A U.S. federal jury in Manhattan has found a Turkish banker guilty of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, convicting him on five of the six charges he faced. …
Top White House adviser H.R. McMaster says one of the most important tasks in defending U.S. national security is to reveal Russia’s “insidious” interference in elections worldwide to prevent Moscow from meddling again in the democratic process. …