Category: World

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has defended President Donald Trump’s proposal to sharply cut spending on diplomacy and foreign aid while proposing large increases in military spending. The president’s 2018 proposed budget would cut spending at the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by 32 percent and boost Defense Department spending …

Read more “Tillerson Defends Proposed Cuts to Diplomacy, Foreign Aid Programs”

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin has bestowed the Family Glory award on a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses — just one month after the Russian Supreme Court declared the group an illegal “extremist” organization. …

Uzbek police are investigating the death of a teenager who was allegedly bullied and beaten by fellow students. The fatal incident sparked a public outcry, triggered a rare protest rally, and seemingly spurred authorities to react. …

Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin has been sentenced to 15 days in prison following his arrest at an anticorruption protest in Moscow. (RFE/RL’s Russian Service) …

The Trump administration is throwing out proposed rules aimed at keeping endangered whales, turtles and other sea life from getting caught in Pacific Coast fishing nets. The regulation was proposed under the Obama White House in 2015 by not only government experts, but also members of the Pacific fishing industry. It would have shut down …

Read more “US Agency Kills Proposal to Protect Endangered Sea Life From Fishing Nets”

The U.S. Secret Service said Monday it doesn’t have any recordings or transcripts of any tapes recorded within President Donald Trump’s White House, a disclosure that failed to rule out whether any tapes exist of Trump’s conversations with ousted FBI Director James Comey. The agency made the disclosure in response to a freedom of information …

Read more “Secret Service Says It Doesn’t Have Any Trump Tapes”

Kosovo could be heading towards lengthy talks on forming a coalition government, delaying economic reforms, official preliminary results showed on Monday. Early elections were held on Sunday after the PDK-led government of Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, accused by the opposition of failing to meet pledges to improve the lives of young people, lost a no-confidence …

Read more “Lengthy Coalition Talks Ahead for Kosovo, Could Delay Reforms”

An audio message purporting to come from the spokesman of the Islamic State extremist group has called on followers to launch attacks in the United States, Europe, Russia, Australia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and the Philippines during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began late last month. …

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine has requested that the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission in eastern Ukraine and International Committee of the Red Cross help locate Stanislav Aseyev, a blogger missing since June 2. …

Georgia’s law enforcement and the former Soviet republic’s “repressive” drug laws have come under heavy criticism after a pair of local rappers were arrested on possession charges punishable by decades in prison. …

Police in Russia’s Far East have detained several people trying to demonstrate as part of nationwide anticorruption protests organized by opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and his supporters. …

Foreign influence is adding an unwelcome new mystery to the Philippine government’s battle against a violent Muslim group that some suspect is not even fighting for a religious cause.  Armed Forces of the Philippines say they have cut the Maute Group, a suspected terrorist organization on the southern island Mindanao, to “remnants” after fighting it …

Read more “Foreign Influence Prolonging Fight Against Militants in Philippines”

Bangladesh has begun training thousands of school girls to protect them from being blackmailed or harassed online following an alarming rise in cybercrimes.  The Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Division of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Post, Telecommunication & Information Technology recently finished conducting a pilot project in which female students from urban areas were taught how …

Read more “Bangladesh Trains Girls to Fight Online Predators”

Actor Bill Cosby could charm jurors at his sexual assault trial if he testifies this week, but experts say the risk would be considerable. Accuser Andrea Constand has told her side of the story. The jury also heard Cosby’s version in the form of his police statement and his lurid deposition in her 2005 lawsuit. …

Read more “Will Cosby Testify at Sex Assault Trial? Lawyers Remain Quiet”

Qatar said on June 11 that citizens of its Gulf neighbors are welcome to stay despite the ongoing blockage by regional Arab nations and other countries. …

Iran will play Uzbekistan in Tehran with an opportunity to secure a spot in the 2018 World Cup football tournament in Russia. …

It’s been 150 years since the birth of America’s best-known architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. But his innovative designs continue to fascinate the public, from New York’s Guggenheim museum, where the circular building itself is a sculptural work of art, to the Fallingwater house built over a waterfall in the Pennsylvania woods, to his modernist home …

Read more “Frank Lloyd Wright, Born 150 Years Ago, Still Fascinates”

Voters in Kosovo headed to the polls on June 11 to cast ballots in early parliamentary elections. RFE/RL footage shows early voters in Pristina, among whom was Kosovo’s Central Election Commission chief, Valdete Daka. (RFE/RL’s Balkan Service) …

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on the phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu about the dispute between Qatar and its Arab Gulf neighbors. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed relations last week with Qatar, accusing the small nation of supporting Islamist militants and Iran, allegations Qatar has …

Read more “Tillerson, Cavusoglu Discuss Row Between Qatar, its Arab Neighbors”

Pakistani officials say gunmen killed two police officers and wounded another in an attack in the southwestern province of Balochistan. …

Iran’s national carrier says it has sent five planeloads of food to Qatar, which is suffering shortages amid a regional blockade. …

Pressure is growing on Prime Minister Theresa May to announce her intention to resign in the next few months. Senior Conservatives told VOA it is only a matter of time before May, who’s scrambling to hang on to power, has to go. They say she faces the choice between either agreeing to go quietly or …

Read more “Britain’s Conservatives Plunged Into Civil War”

Russian officials say at least four people were killed on June 10 by a shooter in the village to the southeast of Moscow. …