worldwide news
The leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church has returned to Georgia as controversy swirls over the arrest of an archpreist who authorities say was trying to carry cyanide to Germany, where the patriarch was undergoing medical treatment. …
To sue, or not to sue. That was the question facing Bakir Izetbegovic, the Bosniak member of the Bosnian Presidency, in connection with a 2007 decision by a UN court acquitting Serbia of genocide in the 1990s. …
Even the hyenas won’t eat the carcasses of Mohamed Aden Guleid’s sheep, goats and camels, which litter the landscape in Somalia’s northwest Somaliland region. There is too little meat on their bones because of a devastating drought. “I had 550 of these livestock; now only 50 of my livestock remain,” he said. “My family contains …
The Democratic Republic of Congo is brushing off demands for an independent investigation into the alleged executions of unarmed civilians by DRC troops in the Kasai region. Video emerged on social media over the last several days appearing to show soldiers shooting men and women as they lay on the ground. One of the videos …
Read more “US Demands Independent Probe of Alleged Civilian Massacre in DRC”
Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been disinvited to this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference after his attempt to clarify past comments on relationships between boys and older men fell flat with organizers. Hours later, his publisher cancelled his book Dangerous, which had been scheduled to come out in June. The American Conservative Union founded and …
Read more “Conservative Group Cancels Speech by Yiannopoulos”
Vitaly Churkin, a veteran Soviet and Russian diplomat who served as Moscow’s envoy to the United Nations as its ties with the West plunged to levels unseen since the Cold War, has died at the age of 64. …
A little-known Ukrainian lawmaker is in the spotlight after a report said a peace-for-sanctions-relief proposal that he says he co-authored ended up on the desk of U.S. President Donald Trump’s short-lived national security adviser. …
Afghanistan’s government has demanded that Pakistan hand over terrorists operating on its soil and close tens of training camps for suspected terrorists, the Foreign Ministry in Kabul said February 20. …
Dozens of emaciated men with sunken cheeks and protruding ribs lie silently in an infirmary at Haiti’s largest prison, most too weak to stand. The corpse of an inmate who died miserably of malnutrition is shrouded beneath a plastic tarp. Elsewhere, prisoners are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in cellblocks so overcrowded they have to sleep in makeshift hammocks …
Read more “Prosecutors Say Malnutrition Killing Inmates in Haiti Jails”
Footage from airport cameras purportedly showing the assault on the half-brother of the North Korean leader emerged on Monday as a diplomatic row between Malaysia and North Korea escalated over the handling of a probe into the killing of Kim Jong Nam. Malaysia recalled its envoy from Pyongyang and summoned North Korea’s ambassador in Kuala …
Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has formed a strategic partnership with retail conglomerate Bailian Group, extending a push into bricks-and-mortar retail as online growth slows. The move comes on the heels of a recent purchase of a stake in retailer Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd as well as plans to take a controlling …
Read more “Alibaba Extends Bricks-and mortar Retail Push With Bailian Deal”
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will meet European Union and NATO leaders on February 20, culminating a European trip intended to reassure allies on U.S. commitment to the Continent. …
The United States and Russia were the top arms exporters over the past five years, with demand in the Middle East and Asia fueling an increase in global transfers, a Swedish-based research institute says. …
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says he will make recommendations soon to President Donald Trump on whether to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. …
At least 20 people were killed and dozens others were wounded when a massive truck bomb exploded in a busy market in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Sunday, officials and witnesses said. Witnesses said a truck laden with explosives targeted a market in Kawo-Goday area in Mogadishu’s Wadajir district. Security officials told VOA’s Somali service the …
Only when the rare crisis hits Central Asia does the area receive a lot of attention. …
Vice President Mike Pence was the latest in a trio of high-ranking Trump emissaries to tell European allies in person that the United States will steadfastly support NATO and demand that Russia honor its commitments to end fighting in Ukraine. Some European leaders, however, remain skeptical of whether Pence and the U.S. secretaries of state …
Read more “Europeans Wonder if Trump Will Act on Pence’s Reassurances”
Muslim organizations in the Netherlands have criticized disparaging comments about Moroccans made by anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, but say they are just the latest in a long string of insults. Launching his campaign Saturday for the Netherlands’ March 15 parliamentary election, Wilders criticized what he called “Moroccan scum” for making the Netherlands unsafe. …
Read more “Muslim Groups Criticize Wilders’ ‘Moroccan Scum’ Comments”
The U.S Embassy in Kyiv has said Russia’s decision to temporarily recognize documents issued by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine is incompatible with the Minsk process on regulating the conflict. …
Hundreds of demonstrators marched in the Belarusian city of Gomel to protest a law against “social parasitism.” …
The U.N. is warning that hundreds of thousands of Somali children will be malnourished this year, including 185,000 who will be in need of urgent lifesaving support. To avert a major humanitarian disaster, the U.N. is calling for “scaled up” humanitarian assistance for the country. The worst hit regions in Somalia are Bay and Bakool …
Read more “UN: Malnourishment Threatening Hundreds of Thousands of Somali Children”
In his first major foreign policy speech, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has said at the Munich Security Conference that America will be ‘unwavering’ in its support for the NATO alliance – but warned allies that they must step up defense spending. Amid controversy over the Trump administration’s ties to Moscow, Mr. Pence said the …
Read more “Pence Vows ‘Unwavering’ US Commitment to Transatlantic Alliance”
United States-backed airstrikes launched Friday took out an Islamic State group headquarters located in a hospital in western Mosul, U.S. military officials said Saturday. In a statement released Saturday, the U.S. task force in Iraq and Syria said IS militants had been using a building located within the Al Jumhuri medical complex in Mosul for …
Read more “Airstrikes Take Out IS Headquarters in Mosul Hospital”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he received a “very strong message supporting Ukraine” in a meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and recent talks with other top U.S. officials. …