Category: World

A look at the best news photos from around the world. …

A judge in Russia’s Chechnya region has extended until July 9 the pretrial detention of activist Oyub Titiyev, according to Memorial, the Russian human rights group that Titiyev heads in Chechnya. …

Zimbabwe’s President says the Trump administration is easing enforcement of sanctions on the southern African country. The president spoke Thursday in Gweru town, about 350 kilometers south of Harare, a day after setting July 30 as the date for the next election. In an hour-long speech Thursday to his ZANU-PF party supporters, President Emmerson Mnangagwa …

Read more “Zimbabwe: Trump Administration Turning ‘Blind Eye’ to Sanctions”

The World Food Program is calling for stronger international support for hundreds of thousands of Somalis impacted by some of the heaviest rains to hit their country in three decades. The rainfall that began last month has caused widespread flooding and damage in central, south and north Somalia. For much of the last decade, Somalia …

Read more “Flood-Stricken Somalia Needs More Aid to Avert Humanitarian Crisis”

Protests are planned in more than 50 cities around the world in June 1-2, demanding Russia release Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov from a Siberian prison colony. Sentsov has been on a hunger strike since May 14. …

The mother of an Iranian citizen-journalist who has been jailed in Iran for four years says her son has been on a hunger strike for a month to raise awareness about poor conditions at his prison.  In a phone interview with VOA Persian broadcast on Wednesday, Farangis Mazloom said her activist son, Soheil Arabi, began …

Read more “Mother of Activist Jailed by Iran Says He’s on Hunger Strike”

The American Cancer Society is recommending people start testing for colon and rectal cancer at age 45, rather than 50 as currently prescribed. It also recommends people who are in good health and with a life expectancy of more than 10 years continue regular colorectal cancer screening through the age of 75. The group said …

Read more “New Guidelines: Start Colorectal Cancer Screening Earlier “

Amid current tensions between Washington and Tehran, Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the forthcoming Eurasian Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting June 9-10 in Qingdao, China. Analysts say Rouhani’s presence at the SCO conference will send a message that China is ready to fill the void left …

Read more “China to Host Rouhani After US Withdrawal From Iranian Nuclear Deal”

Friends and neighbors of Arkady Babchenko were in deep mourning for him. Then authorities revealed the Russian journalist they said was murdered was, in fact, alive and well. …

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have spoken by telephone for the first time since Pompeo was sworn into office on April 26. …

Arkady Babchenko’s faked death was an elaborate operation to fool not only those allegedly plotting his killing, but also colleagues, friends, his wife, and possibly Russian intelligence. Key to that effort was a fake photo of a bloody corpse. …

Four Afghan police officers were killed after a group of suicide bombers attacked a police station in the eastern province of Logar, officials say. …

The Pakistani and Indian militaries say they have agreed to deescalate tensions along the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the disputed region of Kashmir, where exchanges of fire between the two neighbors have killed dozens of civilians and soldiers since the beginning of the year. …

Iran’s supreme leader has called for swift punishment of those involved in a high school sex abuse scandal that erupted Monday with revelations in a state news report and a social media video of the alleged abuser. In a Tuesday post on his official website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shared a letter he had written to …

Read more “Iran’s Khamenei Demands Punishment in New Sex Abuse Scandal”

A Kazakh-born computer hacker who U.S. prosecutors say unwittingly worked with a Russian spy agency in a massive Yahoo data breach has been sentenced to five years in prison. …

The U.S.-North Korea summit appears to be back on track, but Pyongyang is showing increased impatience at comments coming out of Washington that what leader Kim Jong Un really wants, even more than his nuclear security blanket, is American-style prosperity. It’s a core issue for Kim and a message President Donald Trump shouldn’t ignore as …

Read more “Analysis: N. Korea Sees US Economic Handouts As Threat”

The Trump administration plans to shorten the length of validity for some visas issued to Chinese citizens, the State Department said Tuesday, as President Donald Trump works to counter alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property by Beijing. The changes begin June 11. The State Department said that under the new policy, U.S. consular officers may …

Read more “AP Sources: US to Impose Limits on Some Chinese Visas”

Every morning, Asma’u Muhammadu removes the wet sheets from her bed and sets them out to dry. She opens the door to let in the fresh breezes that will air out the smell of urine in the mud-walled room. Along with the sheets, she brings out wet rags she uses to line her inner garments. …

Read more “Nigerian Health Workers Blame Cultural Practices for Fistula Epidemic”

U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed a top North Korean official is to visit New York for talks related to a planned summit between Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. “Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Twitter. Hours earlier, news reports …

Read more “Top N. Korean Official Heading to US for Talks on Summit”

The U.S. Supreme Court is entering the last month of its 2017-2018 session. All the cases before the top U.S. court have been argued; only decisions remain to be handed down, including for major issues such as gay rights, abortion, President Donald Trump’s travel ban, gerrymandering, voting rolls and labor unions.  Here are some of …

Read more “US Supreme Court Has Yet to Rule on Gay Rights, Travel Ban”

Georgia says it will sever diplomatic relations with Syria over its decision to recognize the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries. …

Kyrgyz investigators have interrogated former Prime Minister Sapar Isakov for a third time over a power-plant accident that left many residents of Bishkek without heat for days last winter. …

A UN report says violence against Afghan women, including honor killings, often goes unpunished despite state efforts to prosecute such crimes. …

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are to meet before a planned summit between Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, according to Japanese officials.  Trump and Abe spoke Monday as American officials were in North Korea and Singapore to discuss arrangements for the prospective talks. The White House has …

Read more “Officials: Trump, Japan’s Abe to Meet Ahead of Possible US-North Korea Summit”