A factory caught fire and collapsed in the Indian capital Thursday, causing injuries to several people, including some fire officials. A fire official said three people were rescued from the debris of the building in Peera Garhi area in western New Delhi. Thirty-five fire engines were at the site, and …
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook northeastern Iran Thursday, state television reported, adding that there were no immediate reports of damage. The quake hit the town of Sangan at a shallow depth of 8 km (5 miles) it said. The town, which has a population of about 10,000, is located near …
Former commissioner of the National Basketball Association David Stern, who oversaw the NBA turning from a struggling U.S. league into a global powerhouse, died in New York Wednesday. He was 77. The NBA said Stern had been seriously ill since emergency surgery for a brain hemorrhage in early December. Stern …
Pope Francis wished for peace in the world at the start of the New Year. Thousands of people packed Saint Peter’s Square to hear his word on World Peace Day. The pope also used strong words during a morning mass in the Vatican Basilica to decry violence against women and …
Taiwan parliament’s passage of a bill Tuesday banning infiltration by political rival China dealt a new blow to relations that have already sparked military threats and diplomatic tug-of-wars in the past four years. Legislators gave final approval to a bill that allows sentences of five years in prison or a …
The leader of France’s hardline CGT union on Wednesday urged all workers to join pension strikes that have crippled public transport over the past month, as a showdown with President Emmanuel Macron enters a second month. In his New Year’s address Tuesday Macron vowed not to back down on his …
The Arab League called Tuesday for efforts to “prevent foreign interference” in Libya in the wake of military and maritime agreements signed by Turkey with the U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli. Permanent representatives of the pan-Arab organization, in a meeting at its Cairo headquarters requested by Egypt, passed a resolution “stressing …
Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren looks back on the biggest stories of 2019 and examines how that will shape 2020. Joining Greta: Michael; O’Hanlon from the Brookings Institution, VOA White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara and Plugged In’s Mil Arcega. Air Date: January 1, 2020. …
A Slovak court handed a 15-year prison sentence to a man charged with facilitating the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018 in a plea deal on Monday, a spokeswoman said. The killing of Kuciak and his fiancee, both 27, at their home outside Bratislava in February 2018 sparked …
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo leaves this week for Ukraine — the country at the center of President Donald Trump’s impeachment. Pompeo will be in Kyiv on Friday, the first stop of a five-nation European and Central Asian tour that will also take him to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and …
Erik Prince, a major Republican donor and founder of controversial security firm Blackwater, has been referred to the U.S. Treasury Department for possible sanctions violations tied to his recent trip to Venezuela for a meeting with a top aide of President Nicolas Maduro, two senior U.S. officials said. There’s no …
New York City’s counterterrorism czar expects Times Square to be “the safest place on the planet Earth” on New Year’s Eve. Thousands of police officers will be on duty for Tuesday night’s festivities, along with specialized units armed with long guns, bomb-sniffing dogs and other measures. For the first time, …
Amid sudden changes in the upper echelons of Algeria’s government, the new President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is looking to establish stability and put his stamp on the country’s future. On Saturday, Tebboune appointed Abdelaziz Djerad as the country’s prime minister, according to state-owned Algeria Press Service. Previous prime minister, Noureddine Bedoui, …
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday said airstrikes against a pro-Iran militant group in Iraq and Syria succeeded, and he did not rule out additional action “as necessary.” “The strikes were successful. The pilots and aircraft returned back to base safely,” Esper told reporters after F-15 jet fighters hit …
Democratic congressman John Lewis, an icon in the fight for civil rights, announced Sunday he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. “I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the …
Greece wants to be included in U.N.-sponsored talks in January on the Libya conflict, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Sunday, as tensions escalate with neighbors Turkey over the issue. Libya has become another diplomatic front for Greece and Turkey as the traditional rivals jostle over Mediterranean maritime rights and the …
Halting production from Iraq’s southern Nassiriya oilfield on Saturday by protesters will not affect the country’s exports and production operations, the oil ministry said on Sunday. Iraq will use additional output from southern oilfields in Basra to make up for the missing shipments from Nassiriya field and the closure of …
Hate crime in America’s five largest cities rose sharply in 2019, with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago all setting highs not seen since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a new report from California State University. The Jewish community was the most frequent target of hate …
Health authorities say about two dozen people, mostly laborers, were killed Saturday when a minibus collided with a truck on a highway in Port Said in northern Egypt. Officials said in a statement that the minibus, a vehicle widely used in Egypt as communal taxis, was bringing the laborers from …
A U.S. astronaut set a record Saturday for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission. Christina Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Livingston, Montana, arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke …
The Sudanese government and nine rebel groups on Saturday signed an agreement on a roadmap towards ending the bloody conflict in the Darfur region. The deal outlines different issues the parties will need to negotiate during the latest round of talks in Juba. “We believe this is an important step,” …
The director of an Algerian internet radio station has been placed in pretrial detention after a new charges were pressed against him, a prisoner rights group said Friday. Sarbacane chief Abdelkrim Zeghileche was put in pretrial detention on Thursday after the governor of Constantine, 430 kilometers (260 miles) east of Algiers, lodged …
Disc jockey Don Imus, whose career was made and then undone by his acid tongue during a decades-long rise to radio stardom and an abrupt public plunge after a nationally broadcast racial slur, has died . He was 79. Imus died Friday morning at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in College …
Mexican authorities have arrested a municipal police chief for his suspected links to the killing of three women and six children of U.S.-Mexican origin in northern Mexico last month, local media and an official said Friday. Suspected drug cartel hitmen shot dead the nine women and children from families …
Australian authorities said Friday they are focused on protecting water plants, pumping stations, pipes and other infrastructure from intense bushfires surrounding Sydney, the country’s largest city. Firefighters battling the blazes for weeks received a reprieve of slightly cooler, damper conditions over Christmas, but the respite is not expected to last …
Zaheer Ahmed had just returned home from work in northern India last Friday afternoon and stepped out for a smoke before lunch. Minutes later, he was dead, shot in the head. His death, and the killing by gunfire of four other Muslim men the same afternoon in the mainly Muslim …