islamabad — A high-ranking Pakistan government officer stepped down Saturday after admitting his involvement in manipulating the results of last week's National Assembly elections, which were marred by accusations of massive electoral fraud and returned no clear winner. Liaqat Ali Chatha, the commissioner of the Rawalpindi region that comprises five districts, made the shocking revelation amid nationwide protests led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, and other political parties. Читать дальше...
ISLAMABAD — The Afghan Taliban have decided not to participate in a U.N.-sponsored conference on Afghanistan in Qatar’s capital Doha. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will host a two-day gathering beginning Sunday in Doha, where member states and special envoys to Afghanistan will discuss engagement with the Taliban. In a statement issued Saturday evening on social media platform X, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a delegation would attend only if the Taliban were accepted... Читать дальше...
TEHRAN, Iran — A 30-year-old man gunned down 12 of his relatives Saturday in a remote rural area in southeast Iran, the deadliest shooting reported in decades. Head of the justice department of the province of Kerman, Ebrahim Hamidi, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency the gunman opened fire on his father, brother and other relatives early in the morning in a village because of family disputes. The report, which did not identify the assailant, stated he used a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Local media report on occasional shootings... Читать дальше...
MUNICH — China's foreign minister told a gathering of international security policy officials Saturday that trying to shut China out of trade in the name of avoiding dependency would be a historic mistake. Wang Yi spoke at the Munich Security Conference. Host Germany wants to avoid over-reliance on trade with an increasingly assertive China and diversify its supply of key goods in an approach it calls “de-risking.” That's in line with the approach of other industrial powers in the Group of Seven... Читать дальше...
TOKYO — Japan's flagship H3 rocket reached orbit and released two small observation satellites in a key second test following a failed debut launch last year, buoying hope for the country in the global space race. The H3 rocket blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center on time Saturday morning, two days after its originally scheduled liftoff was delayed by bad weather. The rocket successfully reached orbit at an altitude of about 670 kilometers (about 420 miles) and released two satellites... Читать дальше...
A ruling was delivered Friday in the New York civil fraud trial involving Donald Trump. The decision marks a major setback for the former president, whose legal battles have continued to unfold since he left office. Aron Ranen has the story from New York City.
Taipei, Taiwan — Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, once a fierce critic of China, has emerged as the likely winner of Indonesia’s presidential election. His presumed victory, analysts say, is unlikely to lead to any major shifts in the Southeast Asian nation’s relations with Beijing. However, concerns about work safety and environmental pollution linked to Chinese investments, as well as Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, could test the stability of the relationship. While President Joko Widodo was in office... Читать дальше...
beirut — The slow-simmering cross-border conflict between Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group and Israeli forces escalated this week, reviving fears that the daily clashes could expand into an all-out war. A rocket fired from Lebanon struck the northern Israeli town of Safed on Wednesday, killing a 20-year-old female soldier and wounding at least eight people. Israel responded with airstrikes that killed at least 10 people in southern Lebanon: a Syrian woman, her two children, four members of another family and three Hezbollah fighters. Читать дальше...
LOISABA CONSERVANCY, Kenya — Conservationists in Kenya are celebrating as rhinos were returned to a grassy plateau that hasn't seen them in decades. The successful move of 21 eastern black rhinos to a new home will give them space to breed and could help increase the population of the critically endangered animals. It was Kenya's biggest rhino relocation ever. The rhinos were taken from three parks that are becoming overcrowded to the private Loisaba Conservancy, where herds were wiped out by poaching decades ago. Читать дальше...
RIO DE JANEIRO — The small team of state public health workers slalomed between auto parts strewn across a Rio de Janeiro junkyard, looking for standing water where mosquitoes might have laid their eggs. They were part of nationwide efforts to curtail a surge in Brazil of the mosquito-borne illness of dengue fever during the country's key tourist season that runs through the end of February. Paulo Cesar Gomes, a 56-year-old entomologist, found some mosquito larvae swimming in shallow rainwater inside a car bumper. Читать дальше...
REIM, Southern Israel — Each year as spring approaches, wildflowers erupt across Israel, a splash of color before the punishing Middle Eastern summer. Nowhere is the show more dramatic than in southern Israel, near Gaza, where brilliant red anemones burst forth with such intensity that rolling hills seem to be covered in red carpets. Along the Gaza border, the flowers, which look like poppies, have been crowned with their own festival, Darom Adom, or Scarlet South. It's been a major economic engine... Читать дальше...
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Angolan President Joao Lourenco hosted a mini-summit in Addis Ababa on Friday in a bid to revive peace efforts for the violence-wracked eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The meeting, on the eve of a two-day AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, follows an escalation of fighting in the region in recent days. Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to quell the conflict between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army in the mineral-rich east of the vast central African nation. Читать дальше...
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — President Joe Biden on Friday surveyed the federal cleanup in East Palestine, Ohio, more than a year after an explosive fire from a derailed train carrying hazardous chemicals, and saw up close the lingering hostility from victims still angry that he waited so long to visit. The White House has said Biden was waiting for the right moment to visit. The mayor invited him. Addressing residents, Biden said he wanted them to understand "that we're not going home, no matter what... Читать дальше...
pentagon — The United States carried out a cyberattack earlier this month against two Iranian military ships as part of its multipronged response to the killing of three U.S. soldiers by Iran-backed proxies, VOA has confirmed. A U.S. official, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity because of operational sensitivities, said the MV Behshad was one of the targeted ships The Iranian military ship was collecting intelligence on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. A source with knowledge... Читать дальше...
World leaders respond to the news that Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe has died in prison. Jim Townsend, with the Center for New American Policy discusses the significance of Navalny’s death. Jamil Jaffer with the National Security Institute at the Munich Security Conference on Israel’s strategy. Tanya Haj-Hassan with Doctors Without Borders on what medical colleagues on the ground in Gaza are saying in the aftermath of an Israeli raid in southern Gaza's main Hospital.
washington — Labor protests in China have increased rapidly since August of last year, according to rights groups, especially in the lead-up to Lunar New Year, which began late last week. Labor protests more than tripled in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, according to data collected by New York-based international rights group Freedom House’s China Dissent Monitor, which tracks protests in China. Analysts say this unrest is linked to poor working conditions and China’s ongoing economic difficulties. Читать дальше...
state department — Yemen’s Iran-back Houthi rebels claimed responsibility Saturday for an attack Friday on an oil tanker in the Red Sea. In a statement Saturday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said Yemeni naval forces fired missiles at what he called a British oil tanker, the Pollux, adding that the strikes were “accurate and direct.” The U.S. Central Command assessed Friday that at least three missiles were launched toward the India-bound, Panamanian-flagged M/T Pollux, which was transporting crude oil. Читать дальше...
washington — Days before a U.N.-sponsored conference on Afghanistan, it remains unclear whether the Taliban will attend what analysts describe as an opportunity for a "constructive dialogue" between the country's de facto rulers and the international community. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will host the two-day gathering opening Sunday in Doha, where member states and special envoys to Afghanistan are expected to discuss engagement with the Taliban. Tadamichi Yamamoto, former U.N.... Читать дальше...
new york — Donald Trump must pay $354.9 million in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders, a New York judge ruled on Friday, handing the former U.S. president another legal setback in a civil case that imperils his real estate empire. Justice Arthur Engoron also banned Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years. Engoron canceled his ruling from September ordering the dissolution of companies that control pillars of Trump's real estate empire... Читать дальше...
The United States is blaming Moscow for the death of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny in a remote Russian prison. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.]
washington — Russian plans to launch a new, space-based anti-satellite weapon system that could potentially wreak havoc on Earth are not set in stone, according to U.S. President Joe Biden, who suggested Friday that there was a still a chance to persuade Moscow to change course. Word of the new Russian threat began spreading Wednesday after a top U.S. lawmaker issued a statement warning of “a serious national security threat,” and demanded Biden declassify the intelligence so the American public... Читать дальше...
