The aid group Doctors without Borders has sharply reduced essential healthcare services in parts of Sudan’s North Darfur State. The group, also known as MSF, says it has no more drugs or medical supplies to treat people in the Jebel Si region.
Jebel Si is considered a conflict zone because of the presence of several rebel groups. As a result, the Sudanese government has denied permission and permits needed to bring supplies in by plane and helicopter.
MSF Operational manager for Sudan ...
Pakistani officials say unknown gunmen opened fire on a rally in Karachi Tuesday, killing at least 10 people - including women - and wounding 20 others.
Sindhi nationalists, including the Awami Tehrik political group, had launched the rally late Tuesday afternoon to protest graffiti that appeared in recent days in Karachi and nearby Hyderabad. The wall writings demanded a separate province for the area's Urdu-speaking community.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for ...
NAIROBI - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization , (UNESCO) and officials from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia Tuesday launched a regional initiative to identify and improve groundwater resources in the region.
UNESCO's “Strengthening Capacity to Combat Drought and Famine in the Horn of Africa” project aims to ease the water and food shortages faced by some nine million people who are still struggling to recover from last year’s drought and famine, the worst ...
Veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker, who serves as the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, is stepping down from his post in the coming months, even as the United States and its NATO allies work their way out of the costly war.
In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said Crocker was confirming "with regret" that he will leave as ambassador sometime mid-2012. Crocker left retirement last July to become the U.S. envoy. He had reopened the embassy in the Afghan capital ...
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has named several new aides. They are former Cabinet members, and many analysts see the move as an attempt to weaken Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s power.
Putin’s announcement is expected to shift the center of power to the Kremlin. Many analysts say the president also may use the appointments as a center of power separate from the government.
Among the former ministers, who are now Putin’s aides, are former health minister ...
The chief of the International Monetary Fund is calling for the 17-nation euro currency bloc to accept more liability for each others' debts, but economic powerhouse Germany says it remains adamantly opposed to selling joint eurozone bonds.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told a London news conference Tuesday that with the economy contracting in the eurozone, more needs to be done to boost its growth and that wealthier countries need to share the burden with their debt-ridden ...
NAIROBI, Kenya - The World Bank estimates that 2.6 billion people, or 40 percent of the world’s population, have no access to proper toilet facilities. In 2005, Swedish architects Camilla Wirseen and Anders Wilhelmson created the Peepoo - a personal, fully biodegradable toilet bag that can be used by people living in slums to improve their health and safety. It can even help to prevent women and children from getting raped on their way to the toilet at night.
Karen ...
NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali government forces backed by African Union troops have launched an offensive to oust al-Shabab in the outskirts of Mogadishu, along the Afgoye corridor. Security officials say the aim of the assault is to bring security and stability to the more than 400,000 internally displaced persons in the Afgoye area, located west of Mogadishu.
For the first time, African Union forces and Somali national army troops have attacked al-Shabab bases outside Mogadishu.
...
U.S. President Barack Obama urged a group of high school graduates to retain "the power of community" that is helping their small town recover from a deadly storm that struck exactly one year ago.
Obama traveled to Joplin, Missouri Monday, the day before the one year anniversary of the tornado that devastated the town of 50,000 people and killed 161 residents, including two Joplin High School students.
Repeating the constant theme "you are from ...
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich sounds the alarm on the world's water crisis in the documentary "Last Call at the Oasis," by Oscar-winning director Jessica Yu. The film highlights water pollution, depletion and potential wars over vanishing water resources.
“You don’t have to be a scientist to understand if you take more water out of the bathtub than you put into the bathtub, the bathtub will eventually go empty,” marine biologist Tim Barnett says in the film.
The ...
BANGKOK - Authorities in Burma have detained at least 10 people for supporting or taking part in the street protests against electricity cuts that began Sunday in Mandalay, the country's second-largest city.
Hundreds of protesters have marched every night, peacefully holding candles in a symbolic gesture against the recently announced cuts.
VOA’s Burmese Service confirmed most of those taken into custody were questioned for several hours and then released. They included local ...
North Korea is warning that it will continue to develop its nuclear program in response to diplomatic pressure from the United States.
Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it will "bolster its nuclear deterrent" in the face of what it called Washington's "hostile policies." But it made no direct threat of a nuclear test that many fear could soon take place.
The statement carried by the North Korean Central News Agency came after the Group of ...
United Nations officials say Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will deliver a speech to a labor conference in Geneva next month.
International Labor Organization Director-General Juan Somavia said Tuesday that Aung San Suu Kyi will address the annual ILO conference on June 14.
The long-time pro-democracy activist will be making her first trip outside Burma in 24 years, after spending much of the past two decades under house arrest.
She will also travel to Norway to give ...
WASHINGTON - The private U.S. company Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, successfully launched its Falcon-9 rocket and reusable Dragon space capsule from Cape Canaveral in Florida before dawn Tuesday.
"Three, two, one, zero and launch of the SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket, as NASA turns to the private sector to resupply the International Space Station," announced NASA launch commentator George Diller as the rocket, carrying the Dragon space capsule, soared into the ...
A new report published by the international organization, Human Rights Watch today calls for the Angolan government to rein in security forces who are accused of sexual violence and other inhuman treatment against Congolese migrants.
The 50-page report, entitled “If you come back we will kill you: sexual violence and other abuses against Congolese migrants during expulsions from Angola,” describes an alarming pattern of human rights violations by member of Angolan security forces that took ...
The head of the United Nations nuclear agency says he expects Iran to sign an agreement "quite soon" to allow inspections of facilities suspected of being used in a covert nuclear weapons program.
"I can say it [the agreement] will be signed quite soon," said Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "I cannot say how soon that will be, in a few days that will be clarified."
Amano's comments came after returning ...
CAIRO - Egypt's new political era is inspiring some women to become more assertive of their rights, even as others worry a possible Islamist victory in this week's presidential election might lead to those rights being curtailed.
Women's rights conference
A recent women's rights conference in Cairo attracted a cross section of Egyptians -- Muslims, Christians, leftists and conservatives.
Organizers of the new “An Egyptian Woman” campaign say they are ...
Yemeni soldiers somberly marched in a National Day parade on Tuesday, one day after a suicide bomber killed at least 96 troops and wounded more than 200 during a rehearsal for the parade.
Al-Qaida's wing in Yemen said Monday's bomb attack was revenge for what the group called a U.S.-backed war on its followers.
Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi watched Tuesday from behind a bulletproof glass shield as a smaller parade was moved to the grounds of the air force academy in ...
SEOUL - Amid a perceived increased threat from North Korea, the military of South Korea intends to put a significantly larger number of missiles into its arsenal in the years ahead.
South Korea officials confirm plans are underway to increase spending on missile development.
Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok says this is part of an ongoing process to strengthen the country's military.
Enhanced response capability
Kim says it is necessary for South Korea to ...
A Syrian rights group says a bomb has exploded in Damascus, killing five people.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday the blast targeted the neighborhood of Qaboun, which has been the center of several protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
The blast came a day after activists said government forces stormed the village of Qastoun. An activist living in the central city of Hama told Reuters news agency that dozens of mortars had hit the village and ...
CHICAGO - Despite the participation of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at the NATO summit in Chicago, neither the U.S. nor Pakistan announced steps to improve relations or to reopen key NATO supply routes to to Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the lines in November following a U.S. airstrike that killed two 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Zardari and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared cordial at their brief meeting at the NATO summit in Chicago. But relations between the two ...
CHICAGO - Leaders of the 28 NATO countries ended their summit in Chicago on Monday, pledging an "irreversible" commitment to transition in Afghanistan. The leaders committed to greater efficiencies, while reaffirming the alliance's defense commitments.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai sat with NATO leaders and representatives of other nations whose support Afghanistan will need if it is to move from war to stability. NATO leaders formally approved the plan to ...
A new report says women are suffering domestic violence at “alarming levels and with shocking frequency” in post-conflict countries in West Africa.
The report, released Tuesday by the U.S.-based International Rescue Committee, says domestic violence is the “primary threat to women” in countries, like Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, which are rebuilding after years of internal strife.
Report co-author Heidi Lehmann said women in these countries face special risks, even though ...
An independent panel of U.S. public health officials is recommending that physicians no longer use a blood test to screen men for prostate cancer. The Congressionally-created advisory group, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, says the widely-used test does more harm than good.
Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in the U.S. Last year, more than 240,000 mostly older men in their 60s got the news. An estimated 33,000 died of the ...
ADDIS ABABA - The leaders of Somalia's competing political factions are meeting with international mediators to tackle critical issues standing in the way of the formation of a post-transition government.
All of Somalia's top political leaders are attending the closed door talks, which are expected to last at least two days. President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is here, along with Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, as well as the speaker of the House and the president of the ...
CHICAGO - In addition to pledging an "irreversible transition" in Afghanistan, NATO's 28 partner nations agreed at their Chicago summit on steps to ensure the alliance's viability, and its ability to respond effectively to future threats and challenges in tight economic times.
NATO leaders came to Chicago with the objectives of improving the efficiency of NATO operations, increasing burden-sharing and positioning the alliance as a reliable global security hub.
...
HARARE - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has begun a five-day visit to Zimbabwe at the invitation of President Robert Mugabe. The president invited the U.N. human rights chief in hopes of clearing his government, which for years has been accused of being a gross violator of human rights. Civil society groups say Pillay will not see Zimbabwe's actual human rights situation during her visit.
Pillay, a former South African High Court judge who also ...
ISTANBUL - Hundreds of actors and supporters of free expression recently demonstrated in the heart of Istanbul against what they call growing political control of the country's municipal and state theaters.
Istanbul City Theater sparked controversy with its April 2012 production of Daily Obscene Secrets by Chilean playwright Marco Antonio de la Parra.
Conservative media outlets condemned the play as "vulgarity at the hands of the state," after which Istanbul Mayor Kadir ...
The price of shares of social-media giant Facebook plunged on its second day of stockmarket trading.
Investors quickly started selling the stock on the Nasdaq exchange Monday, sending the price of Facebook shares down 13 percent in the first hour. It later regained some strength, but still was down more than 10 percent in midafternoon trading at below $35 a share.
Facebook shares traded publicly for the first time on Friday, when they edged up to $38.23, 23 cents above the initial ...
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a new government and many of the leaders are Putin loyalists.
Putin unveiled his new government, tightening his grip on the economy and his political control. Analysts say it will limit Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s ability to implement his reform agenda, which includes launching pro-growth policies and a privatization bid to wean Russia off its dependence on oil.
Despite this, Putin announced that he and Medvedev agreed on ...
Al-Qaida says a suicide bomber's attack in Yemen that killed at least 96 troops and wounded more than 200 on Monday was revenge for what it called a U.S.-backed war on its followers.
Yemeni officials say a suspected rogue soldier detonated the explosives as hundreds of fellow troops were lining up for a military parade rehearsal in the capital, Sana'a. The soldiers were preparing for a parade on Tuesday to mark the unification of Yemen's north and south.
...
BAMAKO - Hundreds of Malians took to the streets Monday to protest an agreement just signed between West African mediators and the leader of this March's military coup that keeps an interim civilian president in place for one year, to organize elections. A mob forced its way into the presidential palace and attacked the interim president, who is being treated for injuries.
Hundreds of protestors forced their way into the office of Mali's interim president, Dioncounda ...
Mali's interim president has been rushed to a hospital after being beaten by protesters who broke into the presidential palace.
VOA correspondent Anne Look in the capital, Bamako, reports that interim president Dioncounda Traore was taken away in an ambulance after Monday's attack.
She spoke to the president's chief of staff, Souleymane Niafo, who said Traore's life is not in danger, but that he is being treated for injuries. The full extent of Mr. Traore's ...
Amr Mohamed Moussa is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as Secretary-General of the Arab League from 2001 until 2011. Prior to that, he served ten years as Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs. He is viewed as a top contender for the presidency in Egyptian elections later this month; his prior experience under Hosni Mubarak is seen as both a strength and a political liability. (You can listen to the full podcast in Arabic here .)
Elshinnawi: If you are elected ...
STATE DEPARTMENT - Egyptians go to the polls this week to choose their first democratically-elected president. A continuing legal dispute over the role of U.S. civil society groups means there will be fewer monitors to observe that vote.
Egypt's historic presidential campaign comes to a close with the first round of voting to choose a new civilian leader.
The Elections Commission says there will be monitors from the Arab League, the African Union, and the European Commission. ...
BANGKOK - Rare street protests of months of electricity cuts are being held in Burma’s second-largest city, Mandalay. Burma’s state media blames attacks by ethnic-Kachin rebels for worsening chronic power shortages.
Protesters gathered late Sunday in Mandalay, upset with power cuts that have left them with only several hours of electricity a day. Hundreds of people held a peaceful candle-lit walk through the streets and outside the local electric authority, demanding regular ...
NAIROBI -- The head of the African Union panel mediating talks between Sudan and South Sudan says he expects the two countries to agree on a date to resume negotiations this week.
Speaking to reporters in Juba Monday, former South African President Thabo Mbeki said there is an urgent need to settle outstanding issues that have brought the two sides to the brink of war.
Following talks with South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and other officials, Mbeki said he believes the two ...
BANGKOK -- A panel of the U.N. Economic Commission for Asia and Pacific says exports, which are historically the region’s traditional growth driver, are slowing due to the Eurozone debt crisis and uncertainties in the United States.
UNESCAP's panel has lowered the Asia-Pacific region’s growth outlook to 6.5 percent in 2012, from last year's 7.0 percent, and the U.N. group's Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer said new economic drivers are needed in the increasingly uncertain ...
CHICAGO - President Barack Obama says the world has a vital interest in the long-term success of the NATO mission in Afghanistan. NATO has reaffirmed plans to hand over combat operations to Afghanistan's military next year.
President Obama and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen presided over discussions involving members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The session included nations whose logistical and financial support will be crucial ...
NAIROBI - Continually heavy rains have wreaked havoc across Kenya, claiming dozens of lives and displacing tens of thousands people. .
The Kenya Red Cross Society reports that at least 65 people have died since March because of landslides, flash floods and other effects of the heavy rains that have been pounding the country.
The rains have displaced more than 100,000 people - almost 15,000 households - whose homes were washed away.
The most affected ...
ADDIS ABABA - Unofficial committees within Ethiopia's 30-million strong Muslim community are organizing demonstrations to protest what they say is government interference in Islamic affairs. Tensions are rising as the government tries to preempt what it sees as the rise of a hardline strain of Islam.
Worshippers arriving for Friday prayers at Addis Ababa's Awalia mosque found a notice posted at the entrance, which read: "They managed to get in through the back door before. ...
The German and French finance chiefs are pledging their support for efforts to keep Greece in the euro currency bloc, but remain at odds over creating a new way to help debt-ridden governments finance their operations.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his French counterpart, Pierre Moscovici, met in Berlin to prepare for an informal summit of European Union leaders Wednesday in Brussels.
Schaeuble said Germany and France want Greece to remain in the 17-nation euro bloc ...
A senior Iranian official and the United Nations nuclear affairs chief say they made progress in talks in Tehran Monday, as they laid the groundwork for nuclear negotiations between Iran and major world powers on Wednesday.
Iranian media quote the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, as saying the meeting was “intensive” and “very useful,” and would definitely “have a positive impact on” Wednesday’s talks.
But he also reportedly hinted at continuing ...
CAIRO - Egyptian youth are expected to turn out in high numbers for their country's first presidential election since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Many of the young activists who took part in last year's uprising say they feel they are not fully represented in the vote.
Egypt's revolution primarily was an uprising of the young -- a rejection of the old, stifling, decades-long government. So it is particularly galling to many activists that two of the front-runners in ...
PARIS - French police have opened a preliminary probe into gang-rape charges involving former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The latest probe into the sexual life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn zeroes in on an alleged sexual encounter two years ago at a Washington, D.C., hotel involving the former International Monetary Fund chief and a pair of prostitutes. In a statement on Monday, prosecutors in the northern French city of Lille said they are probing ...
Most scientists agree that the Earth is undergoing significant climate change, partly due to the greenhouse gases produced when fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal are burned.
However, earth scientists know that the planetary environment has always been in flux. Some of those changes have caused extinctions on a massive scale. However, for humans, higher apes and other large mammals, environmental fluctuations have sometimes been a goad to adaptation.
Geologists and climatologists, ...
SEOUL - A high-level U.S. delegation focused on North Korean matters met with South Korean and Japanese diplomats in Seoul Monday. The group had words of warning for North Korea.
Key U.S., South Korean and Japanese diplomats held talks for the first time since North Korea's provocative rocket launch attempt last month. The rocket exploded less than two minutes into its flight.
Host envoy Lim Sung-nam said if Pyongyang is willing to take a different path it would "lead ...
Thousands of people in northern Italy woke up in tents and cars Monday morning, after a powerful 6.0 magnitude earthquake killed seven people and devastated centuries-old cultural sites Sunday.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 35 kilometers northwest of Bologna.
It struck about 4 a.m. local time, sending panic-stricken residents running into the streets. A series of aftershocks followed.
Many of those residents said they are afraid to go back to ...
BEIJING - Chinese officials are calling on exiled dissident Chen Guangcheng to follow Chinese law, although they gave no details on whether authorities would allow the blind legal activist back into the country should he choose to return from the United States.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei Monday was asked if the Chinese government will allow Chen Guangcheng to return to China.
He did not directly answer the question, but said that since Chen is a Chinese citizen, he should ...
People from eastern Asia to the western United States enjoyed a rare treat when the moon blotted out most of the sun to create a "ring of fire" in the sky.
The annular lunar eclipse was visible in parts of Asia early Monday and the United States late Sunday. The moon passed in front of the sun leaving only a bright ring visible around its edges.
Viewing parties gathered by the hundreds and even thousands in fields and at observatories across the globe. Many people used ...