Category: World

They were little girls with dreams of Olympic gold when they started in gymnastics. Now they’re women with lifelong injuries, suffocating anxiety and debilitating eating disorders.  They are the other victims of USA Gymnastics.  Thirteen former U.S. gymnasts and three coaches interviewed by The Associated Press described a win-at-all-cost culture rife with verbal and emotional …

Read more “US Gymnasts Tell AP Sport Rife With Verbal, Emotional Abuse”

A Southern California couple suspected of starving and shackling some of their 13 children pleaded not guilty Friday to new charges of child abuse. David and Louise Turpin previously entered not-guilty pleas to torture and a raft of other charges and are being held on $12 million bail. Louise Turpin also pleaded not guilty to …

Read more “California Parents Face New Charges in Kids’ Torture Case”

A new congressional map in Pennsylvania on Friday survived a request from eight of the state’s Republican congressmen that federal judges throw it out immediately, but the case remained far from settled days before candidates will start collecting signatures to get on the primary ballot. Hours after they were appointed to the case, a three-judge …

Read more “Judges Decline to Immediately Toss Pennsylvania Congressional map”

The U.S. special counsel hit President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager with new conspiracy and other charges, including allegations that he set up a secret lobbying campaign involving former senior European politicians. …

U.S. President Donald Trump will host the leaders of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in a Baltic Summit on April 3, the White House has said. …

The United States says it will open its new embassy in Jerusalem in May, a move scheduled to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence. …

More than 40,000 middle-school-aged engineering students from around the world recently competed to design the city of the future. The competition started in the fall of 2017 and culminated in a grand-prize ceremony this week in Washington. Arash Arabasadi has more. …

While oncologist Edress Othman works to save cancer patients here in the U.S., his own family faces death back in Afrin, Syria. The doctor, who has lived in the United States for nearly two decades, says his family feels betrayed by Washington for not asking Turkey to stop its attacks on their city. Saleh Damiger …

Read more “American Oncologist Asks Help to Stop Turkey’s Attacks on Afrin”

The annual international agriculture fair opens Saturday in France’s capital, Paris. The 10-day event will promote agriculture as a collective effort involving farmers, decision-makers, institutions and communities. The show is divided into four sectors, focusing on livestock breeding, growing crops and gardening, products from French regions and territories, and agricultural services and professions. VOA’s Zlatica …

Read more “International Agriculture Fair Opens Saturday in Paris”

The United States has criticized Russia over the bombing of Syria’s eastern Ghouta, saying Moscow has a “unique responsibility” for more than 400 people being killed in the Damascus suburb this month. …

Alina Zagitova, an Olympic Athlete from Russia, secured a first Russian gold medal at the Pyeongchang games on February 23, edging out her team-mate Yevgenia Medvedeva in the women’s figure-skating competition. …

Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is stepping down as the head of Russia’s Rusal aluminium empire only days after he was named in a corruption scandal and appeared on the U.S. list of oligarchs who benefit from their ties with the Kremlin. …

President Donald Trump sought to clarify his idea of arming educators in the classroom to deter school shootings, saying he wants to look at the possibility of giving “concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience.” A day after an emotional exchange at the White House with victimized students and parents …

Read more “Trump Seeks to Clarify Call for Arming Teachers to Deter School Shootings”

A movie theater in Moscow has been fined 100,000 rubles ($1,750) for showing the banned satirical film The Death Of Stalin. …

A Kyrgyz lawmaker who was detained in Kazakhstan on suspicion of smuggling last week has Kazakh citizenship, the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry says. …

German police say a 70-year-old German-Russian dual national has been arrested and accused of “politically motivated” attempted murder after he attacked three asylum seekers with a knife. …

The resumption of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises, which were postponed until after the PyeongChang Olympics and Paralympics end in late March, could also mark the end of the current diplomatic outreach to North Korea. The annual joint exercises include the Key Resolve strategic simulation drill, where U.S. and South Korean troops and military assets …

Read more “US, S. Korea Military Exercises Could End Outreach to Nuclear North”

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has placed a boundary on his fast-growing friendship with China by barring further Chinese activity off the Pacific coast and insisting that Beijing avoid new construction work in contested waters. The president who changed Philippine foreign policy in 2016 by pursuing friendship with China, which has pledged loans, grants and investment …

Read more “Philippine President Draws Line on Cooperation with Maritime Rival China”

Hundreds of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, rallied Wednesday at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee to pressure lawmakers to approve tougher gun control laws one week after one of the most deadly U.S. school shootings. A gunman killed 17 people at the Parkland school, triggering a wave of protests by …

Read more “Florida Students Anti-Gun Rally Spreads”

Secretly recorded audio shows the eagerness of Uzbekistan’s newly installed finance minister to make good on his boss’s order to get rid of the old-guard “rats.” …

Transparency International says government crackdowns on NGOs and media are associated with higher levels of corruption and most countries are “moving too slowly” to combat graft. …

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

Israeli media say a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to testify against him in a bribery scandal. Shlomo Filber was arrested on suspicion of promoting the interests of Israel’s powerful telecom company in exchange for more positive news coverage of the prime minister. Police have not confirmed that Filber has turned …

Read more “Israeli Media: Netanyahu Confidant Turns State Witness in Corruption Probe”

A Russian court says two Nazi swastikas must go from an inmate’s chest, and he’s apparently got to do it himself. …