Hurricane Dorian has weakened as it hits the U.S. southeastern coast Friday, lashing North Carolina, southeast Virginia and parts of New England with torrential rain, flooding and strong winds. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump has created a potential firestorm of his own, by continuing to insist he was …
Officials said Friday Taliban militants conducted an overnight attack on the western Afghan city of Farah, the capital of Farah province. There was no immediate word about casualties among Afghan forces or the Taliban. On Thursday, the NATO-led military alliance said an American soldier and a Romanian soldier were killed …
WAGGA WAGGA, Australia — After the horrors of fleeing to Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq to escape Islamic State fighters in 2014, several hundred Yazidi refugees are starting new lives in the Australian outback. Members of the minority religious group have been resettled in a handful of regional centers, like Wagga …
Maurice, a French rooster, now has a legal victory to crow about. A court in Rochefort in western France on Thursday rejected complaints by Maurice’s neighbors that he was a nuisance and made too much noise. The rooster’s owner, Corrine Fesseau, who lives in the village of Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron, was …
The government on Thursday ordered Michigan State University to make sweeping changes and pay a $4.5 million fine after determining that it failed to adequately respond to sexual assault complaints against Larry Nassar, a former campus sports doctor who molested elite gymnasts and other female athletes. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos …
Zimbabwe’s government doctors are on strike, demanding a salary increase to cover the soaring cost of living. The strike began on Tuesday. The doctors, like many government workers, say inflation has made it impossible to meet basic needs. Columbus Mavhunga has the story for VOA from Harare. …
A peculiar form of body art is gaining popularity in New York city – It’s protest body art where people paint their bodies, not with pictures and innocent images, but slogans aimed at fighting divisiveness. Nina Vishneva has the story narrated by Anna Rice. …
The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Wednesday subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security for documents that could shed light on President Donald Trump’s alleged offer of pardons to officials implementing U.S. immigration policy. The committee, which is considering whether to recommend impeachment against Trump, cited press reports that …
A number of technology companies including Facebook Inc., Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and Twitter Inc. met with representatives of the U.S. government Wednesday to discuss security strategies related to the 2020 U.S. election, Facebook said in a statement. The security teams of the companies met with representatives from the Federal …
President Donald Trump isn’t giving up on the dubious idea that Alabama faced a serious threat from Hurricane Dorian. During an Oval Office briefing Wednesday, Trump displayed a map of the National Hurricane Center forecast for last Thursday that showed Dorian could track over Florida. The map he displayed …
The focus in the Bahamas is on rescue and recovery efforts Wednesday after the bulk of Hurricane Dorian finally moved north after flooding neighborhoods, ripping roofs off buildings and leaving thousands of people in need of aid. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said there were seven confirmed deaths from the storm, …
Rescue workers said Tuesday they have recovered the bodies of 20 people killed in a middle-of-the-night fire aboard a dive boat off the coast of Southern California, while continuing to look for 14 more people feared dead. Divers, in water 20 meters deep, scoured the submerged remains of the 23-meter …
Russia’s natural resources and environment minister said on Wednesday he supported allowing private oil and gas companies to work on the Arctic shelf. Speaking to reporters at an economic forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, the minister, Dmitry Kobylkin, said he supported “any decision linked to an …
Vienna has held off Melbourne to retain the top spot on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index for 2019, further strengthening its reputation as the world’s most pleasant city, while the ‘gilets jaunes’ protests hurt Paris’ score. The Austrian capital, which attracts tourists for its classical music scene and …
The gunman in a West Texas rampage “was on a long spiral of going down” and had been fired from his oil services job the morning he killed seven people, calling 911 both before and after the shooting began, authorities said. Officers killed 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator on Saturday outside …
Joe Biden entered the Democratic primary promising “from day one” to reject campaign cash from lobbyists. “I work for you _ not any industry,” he tweeted. Yet hours after his April campaign kickoff, the former vice president went to a fundraiser at the home of a lobbying executive. And in …
Ukraine’s parliament has approved a much-anticipated bill to scrap immunity from prosecution for lawmakers. The move was one of the main campaign promises for comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who won the presidential election by a landslide in April. The parliament, dominated by Zelenskiy’s allies, voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to end …
The U.S. Coast Guard says 34 people are missing after a fire erupted aboard a dive boat off the coast of Southern California. Local media are reporting that several people died in the fire, but the Coast Guard could not immediately confirm any fatalities. Coast Guard officials said five crew …
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson threatened Monday to expel any Conservative Party rebels if they try to block his push for a no-deal exit next month from the European Union. Johnson has only a one-seat majority in the House of Commons. But as parliament returns Tuesday from its summer recess, …
Hundreds of Palestinian women held a demonstration in the West Bank on Monday to demand an investigation into the death of a 21-year-old woman who many suspect was the victim of a so-called honor killing. Israa Ghrayeb, a makeup artist from a village near Bethlehem, died last month after being …
Wall Street stock futures weakened in early trade on Monday, setting a dour tone for Asian markets after tit-for-tat tariffs between the United States and China took effect, reinforcing investors’ gloomy expectations for global growth prospects. The E-mini futures for U.S. S&P500 ESc1 fell as much as 1.06% in early …
The United States and China on Sunday put in place their latest tariff increases on each other’s goods, potentially raising prices Americans pay for some clothes, shoes, sporting goods and other consumer items before the holiday shopping season. President Donald Trump said U.S.-China trade talks were still on for September. …
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen staged multiple airstrikes on a detention center operated by the Houthi rebels in the southwestern province of Dhamar, killing at least 100 people and wounding dozens more Sunday, officials and the rebels’ health ministry said. Franz Rauchenstein, the head of the Red Cross delegation …
A team of researchers and humanitarian professionals have developed a unique approach to combat domestic violence in the refugee camps of Dollo Ado in Ethiopia. The approach involves the co-creation of a podcast series called Unite for a Better Life, together with Somali refugees living in the camp to target …
Using water cannons, gunshots, batons and tear gas, Hong Kong police pursued protesters through city streets and into subway stations, seeking people who defied and blocked police in several districts on a tense and chaotic Saturday. The demonstrations coincided with the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s denial of free, unimpeded elections …
For more than a century, coal has kept the lights on in the industrialized world. But coal-fired power plants are closing across the United States and Europe. Market forces have shifted to cheaper natural gas and renewables, not to mention the concerns about climate-changing carbon dioxide that the plants produce. …