Category: World

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 …

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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 …

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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. …

The government of Qatar has hired former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to help the country challenge accusations from its Arab neighbors and U.S. President Donald Trump that it supports terrorism. …

U.S. officials have confirmed that three U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on June 10. …

Danger lurks at Dracula’s castle.   Romanian authorities have closed a 13th-century fortress connected to Vlad the Impaler after a mother bear and her cubs were found roaming in the area.   The citadel, atop a mountain in central Romania, can be reached only by climbing 1,480 steps. It was shut in late May “for …

Read more “Romania: Protective Mama Bear, Cubs Cut off Dracula’s Castle”

Adam West, the actor who played the title role in the kitschy 1960’s “Batman” television series, has died at age 88, Variety reported on Saturday, citing a family statement. West, who was so closely identified with his tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the cartoon superhero that he had trouble landing other roles when the show ended, died …

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Bahrain’s Foreign Minister that the dispute between Qatar and other Arab states should be resolved by the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday. In a joint news conference with Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa, Cavusoglu said …

Read more “Erdogan Calls for Qatar Row to be Resolved by End of Ramadan”

After U.S.-backed Iraqi forces seized the 17th Tamouz neighborhood in western Mosul from Islamic State (IS) recently, soldiers found a house where IS militants detained hundreds of enslaved Yazidis. VOA’s Kawa Omar reports. …

A Kansas man, accused of shouting “get out of my country” as he shot dead one Indian man and injured another at a bar, faces federal hate crime and firearms charges, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday. A U.S. grand jury indicted Adam Purinton, 52, on charges of killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla and wounding Alok …

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The main rival to Mexico’s ruling party said on Friday he will seek the annulment of the vote in five districts in a key governor’s race last weekend in a bid to overturn the result and strengthen his hand ahead of next year’s presidential election. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) came in …

Read more “Mexican Leftist Seeks to Annul Votes to Overturn Key Election”

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he is “absolutely” committed to NATO’s Article 5, the keystone principle of the North Atlantic alliance that an attack on one alliance member is an attack against all. …

U.S. President Donald Trump has stepped up his pressure against Qatar, singling out the Persian Gulf state for its alleged funding of extremists, while appearing to contradict his chief diplomat who earlier sought to defuse the crisis. …

A U.S.-backed Syrian Arab-Kurdish coalition has captured territory on the western edge of Raqqa, the extremist group Islamic State’s (IS) stronghold and self-declared capital in Syria, a monitoring group says. …

The recent WannaCry computer virus infected more than 230,000 computers in more than 150 countries. It is not yet clear who was behind the ransomware attack that affected organizations, hospitals and telecom companies worldwide, but it was hardly unexpected. Months earlier, filmmaker Alex Gibney released his documentary Zero Days, in which he warns of massive-scale cyberattacks …

Read more “Documentary ‘Zero Days’ Warns of Wide Scale Cyberattacks “