Category: News

Syrian opposition activists say airstrikes have hit a hospital in a rebel-held northwestern village, knocking it out of service. There was no immediate word on casualties. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Thiqa news agency, an activist collective, said the Rahma hospital…

China on Wednesday blasted a huge planned U.S. arms shipment to self-ruled Taiwan and threatened to sanction firms involved in the sale of F-16 fighter jets. The U.S. State Department on Tuesday approved the transfer of 66 Lockheed Martin-built F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan in…

President Donald Trump acknowledged his aggressive China trade policies may mean economic pain for Americans but insisted they’re needed for more important long-term benefits. He contended he does not fear a recession but is nonetheless considering new tax cuts to promote growth. Asked if his…

On a recent sweltering Saturday, a day now reserved for protest in Hong Kong, a demonstrator named Wayne stepped past a row of plastic barricades, lifted a pair of binoculars and squinted. Four hundred meters away, a line of riot police stood with full-length shields,…

The United Nations reports the small oasis town of Murzuq in southwestern Libya has suffered one of the largest losses of civilian life this month since civil war broke out in 2011 following the overthrow of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Escalating violence reportedly has…

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte announced his resignation Tuesday, blaming his decision to end his 14-month-old populist government on his rebellious and politically ambitious deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini. Conte told the Senate that the surprise move earlier this month by Salvini's right-wing League party to…

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…