The United States will continue to pursue diplomatic negotiations with North Korea while pressing Pyongyang to improve its human rights practice, a State Department official said this week. Robert Destro, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor affairs, told VOA in an interview Thursday that …
President Donald Trump on Saturday said the United States and China would “very shortly” sign their so-called Phase One trade pact. “We just achieved a breakthrough on the trade deal and we will be signing it very shortly,” Trump said at a Turning Point USA event in Florida. The Phase One deal …
North Korea Saturday lashed out at the U.S. State Department’s recent criticism of its human rights record, warning Washington would “pay dearly” for what it called “reckless” remarks. North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry specifically took issue with a recent VOA interview of a senior State Department official who said the …
A catastrophic fire warning has been issued for parts of New South Wales in eastern Australia, including Sydney. Emergency crews are also battling serious blazes in the states of Victoria and South Australia. New South Wales has seen the largest ever deployment of its emergency services. About 100 fires are …
An Arizona state trooper shot and killed a Qatari man who was in the U.S. on a student visa after he violently attacked the officer patrolling for drunken drivers along with a member of the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving, authorities said Friday. The state trooper spotted 25-year-old Mohamed Ahmed …
An earthquake shook some buildings in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir state in India on Friday, witnesses said. The magnitude 6.1 quake was centered in mountainous Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan, at a depth of 210 km (130 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. Officials in Kabul said they were assessing …
French President Emmanuel Macron will be sharing a holiday meal Friday with French forces stationed in Ivory Coast as he begins his visit to West Africa where he also plans to concentrate over the weekend on how to confront the rising jihadist violence imperiling the region. The trip is providing …
Boeing’s new Starliner capsule rocketed toward the International Space Station on its first test flight Friday, a crucial dress rehearsal for next year’s inaugural launch with astronauts. The Starliner carried Christmas treats and presents for the six space station residents, hundreds of tree seeds similar to those that flew to …
“I’m buying dollars, I’m buying euros,” Roly, 28, whispers furtively to tourists outside a hotel in Havana. Roly, who declined to disclose his last name for fear of reprisals, works as a “mule”, traveling abroad to buy goods to sell back in Communist-run Cuba where the black market booms due …
The Turkish fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi this week denounced Saudi Arabia’s human rights record during a visit to Italy and called for action to bring those responsible for the killing to justice. She also said she is “heartbroken” the Italian Super Cup was being played …
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent resounding general election victory — the biggest Conservative win since his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 barnstorming success — has made it certain that Britain will part company with the European Union come the end of January, fulfilling the government’s key re-election campaign pledge to …
In mid-June, Abdulrasoul Ibrahim Omar, 38, hired smugglers to transport him, his pregnant wife and his two small daughters out of Libya. Speaking over WhatsApp during the journey, he would not say where he was going. “No safety in Libya. I fled to … ,” he texted, not completing the …
The bodies of two people missing and presumed dead since a New Zealand volcano erupted last week may never be found, authorities said Wednesday. Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Clement said he was “deeply sorry” that the bodies of local tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman, 40, and Australian tourist Winona Langford, 17, …
Yemenis are facing a new battle: Dengue Fever, a potentially fatal illness that spreads in the unsanitary conditions and decimated infrastructure of their conflict-torn country. The World Health Organization says nearly 59,500 suspected cases, including 219 deaths, were recorded in the first 11 months of 2019. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports …
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out Tuesday at Western nations for their lack of support for his so-called Operation Peace Spring, which he launched in October in Kurdish-controlled areas of northeastern Syria. Speaking at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, Erdogan described the difficulties encountered by the millions of …
U.S. lawmakers granted formal recognition to the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians on Tuesday and directed federal officials to acquire land on the tribe’s behalf, following a decades-long struggle by its members scattered across the Northern Plains of the U.S. and Canada. A provision to recognize the tribe and …
One of the biggest refugee crises is about to take place because of recent actions by the Indian government, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned delegates Tuesday at the Global Refugee Forum. Khan said India’s revocaton of Kashmir’s special status on Aug. 5 aims to change the demographics of the …
China’s second aircraft carrier entered service on Tuesday, adding major firepower to its military ambitions as it faces tensions with self-ruled Taiwan as well as the US and regional neighbors around the disputed South China Sea. The commissioning of the warship, named the Shandong, puts China in a small club …
A Chinese state-owned utility says it has bought 49% of the power distribution grid in the Gulf nation of Oman. State Grid Corp. described the purchase as part of China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative to build trade-related infrastructure across Asia to Europe. State Grid released no financial details but …
A Pakistani lawyer known for pursuing cases of those unlawfully detained by the country’s security agencies was abducted overnight from his home in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, his son said Tuesday. According to the son, several armed men in plainclothes knocked on the gate of the family’s home on …
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham met with leaders in Pakistan Monday to discuss “a broader” bilateral relationship, with particular focus on economic cooperation and peace-building efforts in Afghanistan, official said. In his meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Graham, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, hailed Pakistan’s consistent support …
Senegal is failing to prevent the abuse of thousands of students at the West African country’s Quranic schools, says Human Rights Watch, despite government promises to stop the exploitation. The rights group analyzed the Senegalese government’s efforts to address abuses over the last two years and found them to be …
Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 16 signed amendments to the Administrative Violations Code that allow hefty fines for violating the controversial law on “foreign agents,” which critics say is used to muzzle dissent and discourage the free exchange of ideas and a free press. According to the changes, individuals …
Leaders of the G5 Sahel nations held summit talks in Niamey Sunday, after the death last week of 71 Niger soldiers in a jihadist attack, calling for closer cooperation and international support in the battle against the Islamist threat. Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, whose country holds the …
Human remains discovered last month at a farm outside the city of Guadalajara have been confirmed as belonging to at least 50 people, authorities in Mexico’s west-central state of Jalisco reported. Jalisco state prosecutors said recovery work at the farm in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, which began Nov. 22 after the …
Libya’s U.N.-supported government is held hostage by “armed and terrorist militias” in the capital, Tripoli, Egypt’s leader said Sunday. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in televised comments that the Government of National Accord “is not able to have a free and real will because they have been taken hostage by armed …