A Russian Soyuz spacecraft failed to dock with the International Space Station Saturday. The craft was carrying a humanoid robot that was scheduled to conduct a mission on the station with the cosmonauts who are there. NASA said on its blog that the docking system of the Soyuz spacecraft…
This is the second story in a series on how the U.S. government’s Migrant Protection Protocols are being carried out in Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Read the first story here. VOA News Center Immigration Reporter Ramon Taylor, and VOA Spanish Service reporters Jorge Agobian and Celia Mendoza contributed…
The United Nations reports nearly two months of heavy rains and flooding in Sudan have wiped out livelihoods, rendered tens of thousands of people homeless and created a humanitarian emergency that needs a swift international response. At least 54 people are known to have died from the torrential rains that…
For years, dozens of scammers from Nigeria and other countries swindled millions of dollars from U.S. businesses and individuals, funneling the stolen money through accounts provided by two fellow Nigerian “brokers” based in Los Angeles. In the burgeoning underworld of online fraud, Nigerian nationals Velentine Iro and Chukwudi Christogunus Igbokwe…
Two years ago, Myanmar’s army drew international condemnation for driving more than 750,000 Muslim Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh. This week the Myanmar and Bangladesh governments announced the beginning of a voluntary repatriation plan for many, however not a single person volunteered to go back. Steve Sandford spoke to refugees and…
A wildfire burning north of Anchorage has destroyed 51 homes and three businesses, officials said Friday. Another 84 buildings between the communities of Willow and Talkeetna, about 70 miles north of the state’s largest city, also have been destroyed, fire information manager Kale Casey said. Hundreds of people have been…
Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, a stronghold of Islamic State’s Khursan branch, was hit with more than a dozen bomb blasts recently, wounding more than 120 people, including 30 children. Among those children was Basharyar, who fled Afghanistan with his family years ago to neighboring Pakistan. VOA’s Zia Urahman Hasrat reports…
Work crews in Arizona and New Mexico forged ahead Friday with construction of taller border fencing funded through a national emergency declaration by President Donald Trump. The work on his hallmark campaign promise involves mostly replacement fencing along a 46-mile stretch of desert west of Santa Teresa, New Mexico, and…
The chief executive of the e-commerce firm Overstock.com has stepped down over his relationship with an alleged Russian intelligence operative jailed for meddling in U.S. politics. Patrick Byrne only recently admitted that he had a close relationship with Maria Butina for three years, during the period when she beguiled top Republican…
The Supreme Court says Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has completed radiation therapy for a tumor on her pancreas and there is no evidence of the disease remaining. The court said Friday the tumor was “treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body.” In a…
VOA Connect Episode 84 – We look at efforts to both help and honor military veterans. We also visit a legendary ice cream store in Savannah, Georgia, and a camp in Maryland where self-described outcasts come together for fun and friendship. …
Human rights advocates have urged lawmakers in New Zealand to drop regulations preventing the resettlement of refugees from Africa and the Middle East unless they already have family members living in the country. The measures were introduced by the previous center-right government in 2010, due in part to security…
