Friday, August 17, 2018
A decade-long dispute between Kosovo and Serbia is compelling both countries to consider a territorial swap along ethnic lines — a move that has long been opposed by both Brussels and Washington. But the leaders of both Balkan countries say redrawing the borders could help them resolve their differences and advance in their quest for European integration. Experts have mixed opinions over whether such a deal is workable or even desirable. Ten years after Kosovo declared...
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Friday, August 17, 2018
The United States is sending a U.S. Navy hospital ship to Colombia to help treat some of the hundreds of thousands of people who have poured over the border fleeing violence in Venezuela. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters traveling with him to Washington from Bogata, Colombia, Friday that he would likely be sending the USNS Comfort based at Norfolk, Virginia. Mattis said those he spoke with in Bogata were “embracing” and “enthusiastic” about the upcoming ship...
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Friday, August 17, 2018
The Ugandan government is under pressure from human rights activists to explain pictures and reports of the brutal torture of legislators by security forces. Five legislators — Kasiano Wadri who won the election, Robert Kyagulanyi commonly known as Bobi Wine, Francis Zaake, Paul Mwiru and Gerald Karuhanga — and former legislator Michael Mabike were campaigning for an opposition candidate in Monday's by-elections in the Arua municipality when they were arrested. Four of the...
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Friday, August 17, 2018
The United States on Friday announced it was cutting about $230 million in stabilization money to northeast Syria and said future global reconstruction funds for the country will depend on a U.N.-led peace process. The U.S. State Department in a statement said the decision, which was authorized by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was made after other members of the global coalition against the Islamic State (IS) made contributions and pledges of about $300 million to Syria. “This...
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Friday, August 17, 2018
The wife of a jailed Iranian dissident says her ailing husband’s doctor has warned prison officials that they are putting her husband’s life in danger by denying him medical treatment in a hospital. Speaking by phone from Tehran to the Friday edition of VOA Persian’s NewsHour program Rezvan Beigi said her jailed husband, Behfar Lalezari, has been struggling with asthma and heart problems. “Despite numerous requests that (my husband) has made and the following up we have done, he has...
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Friday, August 17, 2018
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a new report that options to protect Palestinian civilians under Israeli occupation range from establishing an armed military or police force to deploying civilian observers or beefing up the U.N. presence on the ground. The U.N. chief stressed in the report circulated Friday evening that every option would require the cooperation of Israelis and Palestinians, "a sustained cessation of hostilities and additional resources." But the...
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Friday, August 17, 2018
Two U.S. Catholic bishops named by grand jury in a Pennsylvania sex abuse report have apologized to victims but also defended their own actions. Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer spoke at a Mass of forgiveness in Harrisburg Friday, saying, “In the name of our global church, I voice again my heartfelt sorrow and sincere apology to all survivors of clergy sexual abuse.” Gainer said most of the abuse happened long ago and said the church has since then taken “significant and effective...
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Friday, August 17, 2018
Relatives of the late singer Aretha Franklin say her funeral will be August 31 in her hometown of Detroit. There will be a two-day public viewing before the funeral at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, a publicist for the family, Gwendolyn Quinn, said, to allow fans to mourn. The funeral will take place at Greater Grace Temple, which seats about 4,000 people and will be limited to family, friends and invited guests, which are expected to include...
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Amnesty International - Friday, August 17, 2018
In response to reports indicating that some 3,600 Indigenous people from 14 communities find themselves trapped in the middle of clashes between armed groups in the department of Chocó, in northwestern Colombia, which could lead to mass displacement, Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said:
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Friday, August 17, 2018
A decadelong dispute between Kosovo and Serbia is compelling both countries to consider a territorial swap along ethnic lines. As VOA's Keida Kostreci reports, experts have mixed opinions over whether such a deal is workable or even desirable.
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