worldwide news
The first charges against Russian athletes suspected of having been part of a doping ring at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi may soon be issued by the International Olympic Committee, the head of a committee investigation said on September 15. …
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general has said that former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych’s justice minister has been detained over allegations that he participated in an illegal “coup d’etat” in 2010. …
China and Russia have rejected a call from the United States to take more “direct actions” to deter North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, and said it is up to Washington to defuse the threat through negotiations. …
The German Marshall Fund says it has documented Russian interference in the elections or political affairs of at least 27 countries since 2004, ranging from disinformation campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and other social media to cyber attacks. The Helsinki Commission held a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill focusing on what it called the “scourge” …
Read more “At Forum, Experts Slam Russian ‘Disinformation’ Campaigns Aimed at West”
An unregistered nationalist group in Russia’s Republic of Bashkortostan has announced a rally to demand the reinstatement of mandatory Bashkir-language classes at all schools in the republic. …
After a 20-year mission, including two extensions, the spacecraft Cassini is preparing to make a final “death dive” Friday into the planet Saturn. Scientists and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory expect the spacecraft to plunge into the planet at 11:55 GMT. NASA said their decision to end the life of the spacecraft in this …
Read more “NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Takes ‘Death Dive’ Into Saturn”
NATO has called for a global response to North Korea’s latest missile launch. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday on Twitter, “North Korea’s missile launch is another reckless breach of U.N. resolutions — a major threat to international peace and security which demands a global response.” Earlier Friday, North Korea launched another missile over …
Read more “NATO Calls for ‘Global Response’ to North Korean Missiles”
President Vladimir Putin plans to visit Russia’s Leningrad region on September 18 to watch Zapad 2017, Russia’s joint military exercises with Belarus. …
Faiq Amirli, the financial director of the Azerbaijani opposition daily Azadliq (Liberty), has walked free after an appeals court replaced his prison term with a suspended sentence. …
The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday welcoming recent efforts to bring opposing sides together on the conflict in Libya, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling ripe for mediation to end the chaos and restore peace. The resolution extends the U.N. political mission in the country until September 15, 2018, with a mandate …
Trucks carrying emergency supplies to children affected by the Rohingya refugee crisis are making their way to Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of members of Myanmar’s Rohingya community have fled for safety, the U.N.’s children’s agency said Thursday. Up to 400,000 Rohingya so far have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh and, according to UNICEF, about 60 …
Read more “Emergency Supplies En Route to Rohingya Children”
SpaceX has put together a bloopers video showing “How NOT to land an orbital rocket booster.” Set to John Philip Sousa’s rousing march “The Liberty Bell,” the two-minute video posted Thursday shows rockets exploding at sea and over land. The opening blast, from 2013, is even synchronized to the music. SpaceX chief Elon Musk can …
Read more “SpaceX Bloopers Video: ‘How NOT to Land an Orbital Rocket’”
The U.S. Treasury Department has announced new sanctions against 11 individuals and entities for alleging supporting Iran’s banned ballistic-missile program or for being responsible for cyberattacks against U.S. financial institutions. …
Police in Kosovo say they have raided premises used by Serbia’s Red Cross in the country, confiscating documents suspected of being used to conduct an illegal census of ethnic Serbs. …
The international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says the government of Pakistan is forcing it to pull out of a violence-plagued northwestern tribal region after a 14-year presence. …
President Donald Trump plans a visit Thursday to hurricane-ravaged Florida, where recovery is slow but steady. Trump plans to stop in Naples, on Florida’s west coast, which was directly in the path of Hurricane Irma. He has already declared the state a major disaster area, a move that speeds up the release of federal relief …
Read more “Trump to Visit Florida as State Slowly Recovers From Hurricane Irma”
U.S. human rights groups are suing the federal government over warrantless searches of phones and computers at the U.S. border. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced Wednesday that they have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of 10 American citizens and one U.S. permanent resident …
Read more “US Homeland Security Sued Over Warrantless Search of Electronics”
At least 32 people have been killed in clashes across Ethiopia’s Oromia and Somali regions following clashes between rival ethnic Somali and Oromo forces, a former Ethiopian lawmaker said. Speaking to VOA Somali Service, Boqor Ali Omar Allale said at least 32 ethnic Somalis, including his younger brother, were killed on Monday night in Awaday, …
Read more “At Least 32 Killed in Ethiopia’s Oromia, Somali Regions”
More than 100 people gathered in front of Macedonia’s parliament to protest against a draft law to extend the official use of Albanian language to the entire country, as lawmakers started debating the bill. …
European lawmakers have called for a parliamentary investigation into an alleged secret fund operated by Azerbaijan’s ruling elite to pay off European politicians and make luxury purchases. …
Mikheil Saakashvili has told a rally in western Ukraine that he had returned to the country to help solve the country’s “political crisis” and that he intends to travel to Kyiv next week. …
The Cambodian Space Project, long on the forefront of a local rock’n’roll revival, is a band making good with their pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodia sound. The Cambodian-Australian group, kicked off a mini-U.S. tour on Tuesday with a performance at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Channthy Kak, 38, also known as Srey Thy, said she was honored …
Read more “‘Cambodian Space Project’ Brings Psychedelic Rock Back to US”
More than 45 people have died and millions are without power since Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean and southeastern United States. Relief efforts are now in high gear, with the U.S. military answering the call for help. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest. …
Tens of thousands of women who survived enslavement and rape during the 1992-95 Bosnian war are still being denied justice, according to a report from Amnesty International. A quarter of a century after the conflict began, rights activists say many of the survivors are living in poverty and have lost all hope the perpetrators will …