Category: World

U.S. State Department personnel who have a problem with President Donald Trump’s immigration order “should either get with the program or they can go,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Monday. “This is about the safety of America.” Spicer acknowledged that the dissent memo circulating among foreign service officers and other State Department employees …

Read more “White House Brushes Off Foreign Service Dissent Over Immigration Order”

DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Virginia — Travelers filing out of the airport international exit on January 30 were greeted with smiles, signs, and songs on the third day of protests against President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on foreign travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. Dozens of demonstrators lined the corridor leading out of the international arrivals hall …

Read more “Dulles Dispatch: Protesters Greet Travelers With Smiles As U.S. Travel Ban Confusion Persists”

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that Iran conducted a ballistic-missile test on January 29 in apparent violation of a UN Security Council resolution. …

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has moved to bar Russian athletes from participating in qualifiers for the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. …

Thousands of people marched through the Romanian capital of Bucharest and other cities to protest government plans to pardon corrupt politicians and decriminalize other offenses. …

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the White House and at airports around the country to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily barring entry to people from seven Muslim majority nations. VOA’s Katherine Gypson looks at how the second day of protests unfolded in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, DC. …

U.S. airport authorities began implementing President Donald Trump’s executive action aimed at preventing terrorists from entering the United States. Several hundred people were detained at entry airports Saturday and Sunday, sparking a wave of protests at home and abroad. The executive order singling out seven Muslim majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya …

Read more “Travelers From Seven Countries Experience Difficulties on Travel to US”

Forest fires that have destroyed more than half a million hectares in Chile retreated somewhat Sunday, with the help of U.S. and Russian supertanker aircraft and the arrival of specialist teams from other countries. There were 118 fires of which 59 were active, an official from the National Forest Corporation said. Authorities say inadequate preparation …

Read more “Vast Areas of Forest Destroyed by Fast-Spreading Fires in Chile”

Jordan’s King Abdullah will travel to Washington on January 30 to meet with U.S. officials, although it remains uncertain if he will hold talks with President Donald Trump. …

Police in Quebec City say six people have been killed and eight wounded in a shooting at a local mosque during prayer time, in what officials called a “terrorist act on Muslims.” …

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer has defeated Spaniard Rafael Nadal in a marathon five set match to win the Australian Open in Melbourne and capture his 18th Grand Slam title. Federer outlasted Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 on Sunday. In the women’s final on Saturday, American woman’s tennis star Serena Williams defeated her sister …

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Russian authorities say security forces have killed three suspected militants in the North Caucasus province of Daghestan. …

The woman at the center of the trial of Emmett Till’s alleged killers has acknowledged that she falsely testified he made physical and verbal threats, according to a new book. Historian Timothy B. Tyson told The Associated Press on Saturday that Carolyn Donham broke her long public silence in an interview with him in 2008. …

Read more “Historian: Emmet Till Witness Admits Her Testimony Untrue”

Tribal and local sources say the U.S. has conducted a commando raid in central Yemen, killing at least three alleged senior al-Qaida leaders and wounding civilians. Sources say the U.S. troops used drones and helicopters in the Sunday morning strike. Officials say at least one relative of the targeted men had been killed in a …

Read more “Reports: 3 Yemeni al-Qaida Leaders Killed in US Raid”

More than 2,000 people rallied in St. Petersburg to protest a decision by the city administration to turn the landmark St. Isaac’s Cathedral over to the Russian Orthodox Church. …

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May signed a $125 million fighter jet deal with Turkey during a visit to Ankara as she looked to boost trade between the two NATO countries. …

Mastercard has launched a new digital marketplace for East African farmers to sell their crops and receive payment via their mobile telephones. “2Kuze” (pronounced “tuh-KOO-zay”) works with existing mobile money systems like mPesa to facilitate transactions between farmers, agents and banks, the financial-services corporation said. The World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) …

Read more “Digital Technology Aiming to Empower Small-farm Owners in East Africa”

Four of the five Pakistani rights campaigners and bloggers, who mysteriously disappeared from several cities earlier this month, have returned home. Police, relatives and sources confirmed Saturday that noted rights defender Salman Haider rejoined his family. “He is fine and safe,” said family members who refused to offer further comments on his whereabouts and the …

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Several people have been detained at airports within the United States and others have been barred from boarding international flights destined for the U.S., according to U.S.-based lawyers and international airport officials, as an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday restricting travel from certain countries begins to take hold. The executive order …

Read more “Effects of Trump Immigration Order Being Felt at International Airports”

Plans to reintroduce tigers to Central Asia, using the Amur tiger from Russia, have been a topic of discussion for about a decade. But the idea got a scientific boost earlier this month when a study laid out the options for restoring tigers to the region and identified a “promising site” in Kazakhstan that could …

Read more “Conservationists Eye Kazakhstan To Give Tiger Second Chance”

The changes announced recently by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev are themselves not very significant but the fact there are changes is important. Nazarbaev turns 77 this year and his speech was about a transition and a reminder the post-Nazarbaev era might not be too much further in the future. (The views expressed in this blog …

Read more “Majlis Podcast: Transition And Succession In Kazakhstan”

As its self-styled “caliphate” crumbles, militants from the group Islamic State (IS) are being driven out of areas of Iraq and Syria by local and international fighting forces. What they leave behind is a trail of crude weapons and evidence of the human misery they inflicted. …

Who are the federal government’s rogue tweeters, using official agency social media accounts to poke President Donald Trump? Are these acts of civil disobedience or federal crimes? The online campaign began with unauthorized tweets — on subjects such as climate change, and inconsistent with Trump’s campaign statements and policies — that have been mostly deleted …

Read more “Rogue Tweeters in Government Could Face Prosecution”

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose taxes, called tariffs, on goods imported to the United States from Mexico and China. Governments impose tariffs on imported goods and services to make them more expensive to consumers. Tariffs provide revenue to the government and give a price advantage to domestic producers. A tariff could mean a …

Read more “Tariffs Help Domestic Producers but Can Hurt Consumers”