Year: 2019

A Guatemalan court on Monday acquitted a son and a brother of outgoing President Jimmy Morales, after a corruption case that battered his popularity and sparked the leader's feud with a United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission. Samuel "Sammy" Morales, the president's older brother and political adviser,…

The country's top reproductive services group, Planned Parenthood, is pulling out of a federal family planning program to avoid abiding by new Trump administration rules on abortion. The new rule under the Title X program bans grant recipients from referring patients for abortion. "We will…

U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Monday announced a new leadership team at the federal Bureau of Prisons in a shake-up of the agency in the wake of financier Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide inside a federal jail in New York City. Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, a…

Thousands of protesters in Indonesia's West Papua province have set fire to a local parliament building.  Vice Gov. of West Papua province Mohammad Lakotani said Monday's demonstration was sparked by accusations that security forces arrested and insulted dozens of Papuan students in the East Java…

At least eight K-pop stars from China and even one from Taiwan and one from Hong Kong are publicly stating their support for Beijing's one-China policy, eliciting a mixture of disappointment and understanding from fans.  Many of the statements came after protesters opposed to Beijing's…

Imagine listening to a violin concert in one of New York City’s majestic cathedrals or in the National Arboretum, surrounded by blooming magnolias. Now anyone can experience this exquisite scene with the use of VR glasses. A team of researchers from the University of Maryland…

Seeking to end a humanitarian crisis, Spain says a Spanish rescue boat with 107 migrants in the southern Mediterranean can sail to Spain and disembark its passengers in Algeciras. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Sunday told the Open Arms ship to leave Italian waters…

A study by the U.N. Children’s Fund finds more than half a million Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar are not learning the life skills they need to prepare them for the future or to protect them from present-day abuse and exploitation. Hundreds of…

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets Sunday in rain-drenched Hong Kong for another anti-government rally. This is the eleventh weekend in a row that protesters have turned out to voice their dismay. The demonstrations began as peaceful protests to stop an extradition…

BEIRUT - Airstrikes have killed more than two dozen civilians in northwestern Syria in the last two days in an escalation of a Russian-backed offensive against the last major rebel stronghold, a war monitor and local activists said Saturday.  An airstrike in the village of Deir Sharki killed seven members of one family,…

JERUSALEM - The Israeli military said Saturday that three rockets had been fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip into southern Israel.    Israeli aerial defense batteries intercepted two of the missiles, the military said.    Israeli media reported that shrapnel from the Iron Dome defense…

The U.N. human rights office is condemning a crackdown Friday in Zimbabwe by riot police on peaceful protesters in the capital, Harare.  The agency is calling for an investigation into excessive use of force by security forces. U.N. Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville says there…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the U.S.-Israel relationship can withstand the “weakness” of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shook diplomatic norms this week in barring two members of Congress from visiting the country. Pelosi told The Associated Press that the…

The Los Angeles Opera declined Friday to release any details of its promised investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against opera legend Placido Domingo, the company’s longtime general director, including whether it has begun. Also Friday, the union that represents opera singers said it plans…

Thousands of travelers entering the United States experienced delays Friday because of a technology outage affecting Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) processing systems.  Reuters reported that in a tweet at 6:37 p.m. EDT, CBP said that the affected systems were “coming back online” and that travelers were being processed. The…

In Sudan, women are well-represented in the workforce. They are not lacking in any public spaces. And over the past few months, they have made up half, if not more, of the protest crowds making demands of their new transitional government. Women were an integral…

Scary folk tales and urban legends have always captivated people's imaginations, especially those of the young. Now, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," a collection of short stories for children by author Alvin Schwartz and illustrator Stephen Gammell has been adapted by Oscar-winning producer…

Women were an integral part of protests that led to the ouster of Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and in demonstrations after his downfall. But many leaders now say they feel they have been locked out of political agreements and do not expect to be named to…

America's top representative in Taiwan said Thursday that Washington expects the island to continue increasing its defense spending as Chinese security threats to the U.S. ally continue to grow.   W. Brent Christensen said the U.S. had ``not only observed Taiwan's enthusiasm to pursue necessary…

VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren interviews US National Security Advisor John Bolton. ...

French President Emmanuel Macron is celebrating U.S. and African veterans as well as French resistance fighters who took part in crucial but often-overlooked World War II landings on the Riviera.   At a ceremony Thursday in the southern town of Saint-Raphael marking 75 years since…

The river that drains much of the flood-soaked United States is still running higher than normal, menacing New Orleans in multiple ways just as the hurricane season intensifies. For months now, a massive volume of water has been pushing against the levees keeping a city…

An Italian court has upheld an appeal by the Spanish rescue ship Open Arms, suspending the Italian Interior Ministry's decision to ban the ship from entering Italian waters. The rescue ship with 147 migrants onboard has been stuck in the Mediterranean for nearly two weeks…

Jim Warlick is the master of presidential memorabilia, trinkets and novelties. Owner of the souvenir store White House Gifts in Washington, D.C. Warlick's company describes its mission as offering a “nonpartisan tribute to Presidential history.” ...

Apple's AirPods, Apple Watch and HomePod, which have helped the company offset waning sales of its bestselling iPhone this year, are not included in a temporary reprieve on tariffs by the Trump administration and will face a 10% levy on Sept 1. The administration said…

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Tuesday that 70 years after countries adopted the Geneva Conventions to limit the barbarity of war, the terrible suffering in conflicts today shows they are not being respected. Peter Maurer told a U.N. Security…

The United Nations refugee agency urgently appealed to European governments Tuesday to let two migrant rescue ships disembark more than 500 passengers who remain stranded at sea as countries bicker over who should take responsibility for them.    The people rescued while attempting to cross…

Rarely has a candidate gone far in a US presidential race highlighting a singular issue, but Democrat Jay Inslee is aiming to buck that trend with his commitment to tackling climate change. Unless he does something to dramatically change his trajectory -- he has less…