Month: July 2019

The Trump administration's new asylum rule survived an initial court challenge Wednesday, keeping in place a directive that disqualifies a significant proportion of mostly Central American asylum-seekers who reach the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly denied requests to block the rule while…

The Gulf of Guinea is a hot spot for illegal activities, which affect global trade and security. This week a conference in Ghana’s capital, Accra, seeks solutions to overcome issues that plague the region. Experts say collaboration will be the focus of a seaborne law…

Australian researchers are looking to Africa and the Middle East for drought- and heat-resistant crops as many grain farmers face another failed season. Key farming regions in southern Queensland are forecast to miss their third winter grain crop in a row. The national crop this…

Venezuela's National Assembly approved a law returning the OPEC nation to a regional defense treaty on Tuesday, but opposition leader Juan Guaido sought to tamp down supporters' hopes it could lead to President Nicolas Maduro's imminent downfall. Opposition hardliners had been pressuring Guaido to join…

President Donald Trump on Tuesday told young people a number of falsehoods he's been relating to adults for months and took a misleading swipe at the female Democratic lawmakers he's trying to turn into foils. A sampling of his remarks at a Turning Point USA…

Most Americans think that tanking levels of distrust in the government and in other people are hindering efforts to solve pervasive, persistent issues, ranging from immigration and racism to healthcare, taxes and voting rights. Pew Research Center released results for the poll on Monday. It…

South Korea says it fired warning shots at a Russian military aircraft after the plane breached South Korea's airspace. South Korea's Defense Ministry says three Russian aircraft entered its air defense identification zone early Tuesday morning off its east coast before one of them breached…

Brazil seized 25.3 tons of cocaine bound for Europe and Africa in the first half of 2019, up more than 90 percent on the same period last year, officials said Monday. Nearly half of the drugs were found at Santos port in southern Brazil, not…

Four Turkish nationals have been kidnapped at gunpoint in central Nigeria, police said on Monday, in the latest such incident in the country. Gunmen stormed a bar in the village of Gbale in the state of Kwara and seized the men on Saturday, national police…

Poland's politicians are condemning violence against the first LGBT rights parade through the eastern city of Bialystok. Police said Monday that 28 “hooligans” have been detained and have heard charges of disturbing a legal gathering. Local police have published images of at least two more…

Puerto Rico braced early Monday for what many people expected to be one of the biggest protests ever seen in the U.S. territory as irate islanders pledged to drive Gov. Ricardo Rossello from office. Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to take over one…

Ireland's Shane Lowry won golf's British Open on Sunday, his first career major championship, in front of thousands of cheering fans at Northern Ireland's Royal Portrush course alongside the Atlantic Ocean. The bearded, 32-year-old Lowry led going in to the final round of professional golf's…

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition secured a majority in Japan's upper house of parliament in elections Sunday, according to vote counts by public television and other media. Exit polls indicated Abe could even close in on the super-majority needed to propose constitutional revisions. NHK…

U.S. authorities say a Venezuelan fighter jet ``aggressively shadowed'' an American intelligence plane flying in international airspace over the Caribbean, underscoring rising tensions between the two nations.  The U.S. Southern Command said Sunday that Venezuela's action demonstrates reckless behavior by President Nicolas Maduro, whose government…

MIAMI — American crocodiles, once headed toward extinction, are thriving at an unusual spot — the canals surrounding a South Florida nuclear plant.  Last week, 73 crocodile hatchlings were rescued by a team of specialists at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point nuclear plant and…

TOKYO — Japanese voters cast ballots Sunday in an upper house election, with Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc looking to protect its majority and keep on track plans to amend the country's pacifist constitution.    Abe, 64, who is on course to become Japan's longest-serving prime…

ABUJA — Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari condemns the killing of 37 people by bandits in the northwestern state of Sokoto, his spokesman said Saturday in a statement.  Armed gangs have killed hundreds of people in northwest Nigeria this year and forced at least 20,000 to…

Summer in the city is hot. How hot? A team at the University of Georgia is developing a way to map how hot it is in so-called urban heat islands, down to the level of individual street blocks. Faith Lapidus reports. ...

Fifty years ago, two American astronauts became the first humans to walk on the Moon. But before humans had left Earth, animal astronauts had blazed a trail into space. VOA’s Kerry Hensley has more. ...

Many victims of an arson attack on an animation studio in the western Japanese city of Kyoto were young with bright futures, some joining only in April, the company president said Saturday, as the death told climbed to 34. Thursday’s attack on Kyoto Animation, famous…

Hundreds of Catholics gathered in the nation's capital to protest the federal government's treatment of migrants, and about 70 sisters, clergy and parishioners were arrested. The Washington Post reports protesters armed with photos of migrant children who died in federal custody recited The Lord's Prayer…

South African singer and musician Johnny Clegg, one of the loudest voices in pop during the anti-apartheid movement, is being widely mourned in the country following his death earlier this week.   The so-called “White Zulu” -- so named for his use of indigenous South…

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee who will question former special counsel Robert Mueller next week plan to focus on a narrow set of episodes laid out in his report, an effort to direct Americans' attention to what they see as the most egregious examples…

VALLETTA, MALTA — Three suspects were formally charged this week in the 2017 slaying of Maltese anti-corruption journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia.    Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, all in their 50s, were arrested in December 2017. The Justice Ministry's confirmation of the…

House lawmakers voted Wednesday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. In a vote that mostly followed party lines, House members passed the Raise The Wage Act, the first minimum wage increase since 2009. The measure has not yet come up in…

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that China's mistreatment of its Uighur Muslim minority had created one of the most significant human rights crises in contemporary world history.    Speaking at a conference on religious freedom in Washington, Pompeo said, "China is home…

The heat wave that has been roasting much of the U.S. in recent days is just getting warmed up, with temperatures expected to soar to dangerous levels through the weekend. Communities are preparing by offering buildings as cooling centers and asking residents to check in…

The lawyer and family of Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani physician who helped the United States track down former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, told VOA that Afridi continues to suffer in prison under dire conditions. Qamar Nadeem, Afridi’s lawyer, expressed optimism that the fate of…