Worldwide news. The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a “plurality of worlds”
War takes its toll, not only on humans but on wildlife as well. Researchers at Princeton University investigated the consequences of 65 years of war on animal populations in Africa. The new study found that during armed conflict, the number of large animals like elephants, rhinos and giraffes decreases. VOA’s Deborah Block has the story. …
A paraplegic rock climber in Hong Kong is China’s first-ever nominee for the world’s greatest moment in sports. The wheelchair user hopes to inspire his countrymen and others living with disabilities to overcome the challenges that stand between them and their dreams. Arash Arabasadi reports. …
U.S. President Donald Trump has canceled his planned trip to London. Trump put all speculation about the visit to rest with a tweet shortly before midnight Thursday. “Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy …
The U.S. Justice Department said it is setting up a new team to investigate alleged drug trafficking by Hizballah, the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group that the United States has branded a terrorist organization. …
Leaders of Greece and Macedonia say they have been working hard to settle their decadeslong dispute over the name Macedonia. …
A series of moderate earthquakes struck near the Iran-Iraq border and other areas of Iran on January 11, most of them occurring in the same region hit by a major quake in November that killed over 530 people. …
Prominent Chinese rights activist Wu Gan, a blogger who goes by the nickname “Super Vulgar Butcher” as he mocked corrupt officials as pigs, has sought to appeal his eight-year prison sentence after being found guilty of subverting state power. In his petition to the high court in Tianjin, the outspoken rights defender argued that “people …
Read more “‘Vulgar Butcher’ Wu Gan Sought to Appeal his 8-yr Sentence”
U.N. Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein has condemned the recent escalation of fighting in Eastern Ghouta in Syria, causing scores of civilian deaths and injuries. The U.N. Human Rights office says 85 civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed and at least 183 injured in the besieged city of Eastern Ghouta, a suburb …
Read more “UN Human Rights Chief Condemns Escalation of Fighting in Syria”
French police said Thursday some of the jewels stolen from the upscale Ritz Hotel in Paris have been found, while authorities were still searching for two suspects involved in the robbery. A group of five people carried out the crime Wednesday, smashing display cases and grabbing an estimated $5 million worth of jewelry. Police arrested …
Read more “French Police Search for Suspects in Jewelry Heist”
At least two people were killed when officers fired live rounds to disperse crowds protesting the rape and murder of a eight-year-old girl in Pakistan. Riots broke out after the funeral for Zainab Ansari on January 10 in the eastern city of Kasur. Police recovered Ansari’s body from a garbage dumpster four days after she …
Heavy winter storms across Kazakhstan have cut transportation links to and from the capital, Astana, and left other regions of the Central Asian country isolated. …
The Russian human rights group Memorial says authorities in Chechnya are pressuring relatives of Oyub Titiyev, an activist who was detained this week on what supporters contend is a fabricated narcotics charge. …
President Vladimir Putin says the minimum wage in Russia will be raised on May 1, as he steps up his campaign for the March presidential election. …
Ethiopian lawmakers passed a resolution Tuesday that will ban foreign adoption of Ethiopian children amid concerns of mistreatment overseas. The new measure was approved after a heated debate, as critics fear that the country does not have the resources, including child care centers, to handle the effects of the ban. Ethiopia had been among the …
A look at the best news photos from around the world. …
Authorities in the Paraguayan border town of Ciudad del Este have temporarily closed a shop accused of selling transgender dolls. Mayor Sandra McLeon justified Tuesday’s closure by noting that the city, most widely known as a smuggling and counterfeiting haven, last year declared itself “pro-life and family.” City attorney Christian Cabral said the shop also …
Read more “Paraguay City Closes Shop Selling Alleged Transgender Dolls”
Iranian media say thousands of prisoners awaiting execution for drug crimes could be spared after the judiciary said previous death-row convictions should be reviewed following a softening in the country’s law. …
Italy’s young adults will likely prove crucial in determining the outcome of the country’s March elections, and there are signs they are turning their backs on mainstream parties. Elsewhere on the continent the populist surge appears to be receding, but not so in Italy, where the anti-establishment, euro-sceptic Five Star Movement (M5S), founded nine years …
Read more “Italy’s Youth Turn Away From ‘Mainstream’ Parties”
Oyub Titiyev worked tirelessly but quietly to expose human rights violations in the Russian region of Chechnya. Although few people outside the region had heard of him, it seems agents of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov were displeased with his activism. …
On a summer morning in a desolate corner of Iraq’s western desert, Jim Mattis learned he’d narrowly evaded an assassination attempt. A Sunni Arab man had been caught planting a bomb on a road shortly before Mattis and his small team of Marines passed by. Told the captured insurgent spoke English, Mattis decided to talk …
Read more “Storyteller Mattis Tries to Illustrate Deeper Meaning of Military Service”
Tunisian police clashed with anti-government protesters in the capital Tunis and several other towns on Tuesday, residents said, as fresh demonstrations against austerity measures broke out a day after one person was killed in unrest. Protests erupted in at least 12 towns across Tunisia on Monday, among them the tourist towns of Sousse and Hammamet, …
Read more “Tunisian Police Clash With Protesters in Capital as Unrest Continues”
Peruvian center-right President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski replaced nearly half of his 19-member Cabinet on Tuesday, after back-to-back crises in his government last month triggered political resignations and protests. Kuczynski had promised to reveal a “Cabinet of reconciliation” nearly two weeks ago amid an uproar over his Christmas Eve pardon for former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori, …
Read more “Peru’s Kuczynski Reshuffles Cabinet After Fujimori Uproar”
Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani has met with Greek government officials in Athens in an effort to settle a decades-old dispute over the name Macedonia. …
The Pentagon has rejected Russian insinuations that U.S. forces were involved in recent drone attacks against Russia’s air base and its naval facility in western Syria. …