Category: World

We have heard it before, but new research reconfirms that coffee is a healthy drink. But some of the other habits associated with the ritual of drinking coffee are not. VOA’s George Putic explains. …

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing a backlash after posting an insulting tweet about a Democratic senator from New York. Kirsten Gillibrand said Tuesday that the president is trying to silence her calls for his resignation following renewed allegations by women who claim that Trump harassed them sexually in the past. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports …

Read more “WH Denies Trump’s Tweet Against Democratic Senator Was Sexist”

The Christmas season drives economies around the world. It’s typically a time when retailers rejoice. As Arash Arabasadi reports, the business of Christmas is as important to small towns as it is to multinational corporations. …

A senior FBI agent removed from U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation this year referred to Donald Trump before his election as an “idiot,” according to e-mails turned over to Congress and seen by U.S. media. …

U.S. officials are voicing skepticism about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria, in particular saying that his declaration of victory against the Islamic State extremist group seems premature. …

France’s foreign minister has accused Iran of trying to create an “axis” of military and political influence stretching from Tehran through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea. …

NATO allies have extended Jens Stoltenberg’s term as chief of the Western alliance until September 30, 2020. …

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said that there will be an international investigation into a deadly 2015 shoot-out that has strained ties with neighboring Kosovo. …

A British banker sentenced to life in prison for the gruesome murders of two Indonesian women went before a Hong Kong court Tuesday to appeal his conviction. Rurik Jutting was convicted last year of the 2014 murders of Sumarti Ningsih and Seneng Mujiasih in his luxury apartment. Jurors were shown graphic video Jutting took on …

Read more “British Banker Appeals Conviction of Double Murder in Hong Kong”

Emergency services say one person died when a natural gas facility in Austria exploded and caught fire. …

Voters in the southern U.S. state of Alabama are voting Tuesday in a closely watched election to fill the Senate seat left by Jeff Sessions when he became attorney general. The race pits controversial Republican Roy Moore, who is battling sexual harassment allegations, against Democrat Doug Jones, a former prosecutor. The outcome of the race …

Read more “Alabama Voters Picking Senator in Race Watched Nationally”

Militants ambushed a Pakistan army convoy Tuesday in the remote North Waziristan region, killing at least two soldiers. A brief military statement said an officer of the rank of second lieutenant was among the dead. The fatalities occurred, it explained, when “terrorists fired on [an] army vehicle from surrounding mountains” in this volatile region bordering …

Read more “Militant Attack Near Afghan Border Kills 2 Pakistani Soldiers”

The United States is bracing for another wave of cyberattacks focused on disrupting or undermining the 2018 midterm elections, with some officials warning this is just the beginning of a much deeper and broader threat. Intelligence and security officials, as well as policymakers and other experts talking both on the record and on background say …

Read more “US Officials, Lawmakers Warn More Cyberattacks Coming”

President Donald Trump will sign a directive Monday ordering the National Air and Space Administration to revive the program to send American astronauts back to the moon, and eventually to Mars. “The president listened to the National Space Council’s recommendations, and he will change our nation’s human spaceflight policy to help America become the driving …

Read more “Trump to Revive US Manned Space Exploration Program”

Several thousand people have attended a ceremony in Zagreb to honor convicted Bosnian Croat war criminal Slobodan Praljak, who died of cyanide poisoning last month. …

In robocalls, president says ‘all of our progress will be stopped cold’ if Democrat Doug Jones wins …

Iranian media reports say an earthquake has struck western Iran, near the border with Iraq. …

Activists from a Russian nationalist group disrupted the Moscow screening of a film about the war in eastern Ukraine on December 10. (RFE/RL’s Russian Service) …

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in New Delhi on December 11 to meet with his Indian and Chinese counterparts, with talks expected to focus on security and trade issues in the region and elsewhere. …

Honduras’ electoral court finished a hand recount of votes in nearly 5,000 ballot boxes Sunday, saying that results were “extremely consistent” with original data for the presidential election two weeks earlier. Court president David Matamoros said the recount of less than one-third of the total number of boxes showed that tallies done at polling stations …

Read more “Honduras’ Electoral Court Finds Results ‘Consistent’”

Al Qaida is seeking to to exploit Muslim anger over President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to present itself as the true defender of Islam and the Palestinians. The jihadist group posted Saturday a 17-minute audio message from Osama bin Laden son’s, Hamza, in which he lambasts Saudi …

Read more “Al Qaida Seeks to Capitalize on Muslim Anger Over Jerusalem”

The United Nations children’s agency has called for an emergency evacuation of 137 sick children stranded in a rebel-held suburb outside the Syrian capital. The Eastern Ghouta suburb, home to 400,000 residents, has been cut off from food and medical aid since 2013. The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says five children have reportedly died there …

Read more “UN: 137 Children Need Emergency Evacuation from Syria”

Russia’s federation for biathlon – a winter sport combining cross country skiing and rifle shooting — has been relegated to provisional membership of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) over “the Russian doping conspiracy.” …

Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says he will not recognize Russia’s upcoming presidential election if election officials continue to refuse to register him as a presidential candidate. …