Month: November 2017

The presidents of the U.S. and Russia have approved a joint statement on Syria, agreeing that “there is no military solution to the conflict.” Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin approved the statement on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. Russian officials said Putin and Trump had a conversation before the group photo ceremony for APEC leaders in Danang. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the Kremlin announcement or the conversation the Kremlin said took place.  In the statement the two world leaders repeated the urgency of destroying the Islamic State and …

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Some foreign students in U.S. schools find it challenging to submit grammatically correct, idiomatically accurate papers. So two former Ukrainian graduate students launched an artificial intelligence-driven grammar-proofing program that goes well beyond spell-check. Today, their 8-year-old startup, Grammarly, whose first venture round netted $110 million in May, has offices in Ukraine and the U.S. VOA Ukrainian Service correspondent Tatiana Vorozhko has the story. …

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From Queen Elizabeth to U2 frontman Bono, the leak of more than 14 million documents from firms involved in offshore finance, known as the Paradise Papers, has engulfed some of the world’s most famous names. One country appears more than most in the papers: Britain. Campaigners say weak regulation means Britain is at the center of the secretive industry, and its decision to leave the European Union is making things worse, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

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Turkey’s increasingly fractious relations with some key Western allies are taking a growing financial toll amid investor concerns, analysts warn. Although the lira surged Monday on news that Turkey and the United States had resolved a dispute over the detention of some of Washington’s local employees in Turkey, the currency plummeted Tuesday following apparently contradictory statements by both sides. The currency gyrations linked to diplomatic tensions are increasingly becoming the norm. In the space of a couple of months, Turkey’s lira fell sharply on news that a reporter working for a U.S. newspaper was convicted in absentia on terrorism charges. …

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From Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to Formula One racing champion Lewis Hamilton — the leak of more than 14 million documents from firms involved in offshore finance, known as the Paradise Papers, has engulfed some of the world’s most famous names. The latest revelations show U2 frontman Bono used a company based in low-tax Malta to invest in a shopping mall in Lithuania. The Irish band, well known for its campaigning against poverty, has faced past criticism for its tax arrangements. There’s no suggestion that Bono acted illegally.   But campaigners against poverty say sheltering profits in secretive tax havens is …

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Three Chinese students were injured Friday when a man deliberately ran over them with his car near the city of Toulouse, France, police said. The French news channel BFM reports the driver, who was immediately arrested, was known to authorities for previous crimes but was not on a list of known extremists. One police source told the French news agency the driver “deliberately” tried to ram the students with his car, one of whom is in serious condition. All three of the victims, one woman and two men, are said to be in their early 20s. France has experienced a …

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A Swedish radio station says a pirate broadcaster briefly broke into its Friday morning show and broadcast an English-language pop song urging Westerners to join the Islamic State group. Jakob Gravestam, a spokesman for the Bauer Media group that operates the Mix Megapol station in Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, said in a statement that the incident would be reported to police and the Swedish government agency that monitors electronic communications, among others. The 24Malmo news site said the song entitled “For the Sake of Allah” was played for about 30 minutes on the FM and internet-based radio station that is …

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European Union diplomats say the EU is set to ban arms sales to Venezuela and could impose asset freezes and travel restrictions on some Venezuelan officials to ramp up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro. Two diplomats confirmed that EU foreign ministers will announce the measures at talks in Brussels on Monday. One said the actions are meant “to encourage a return to dialogue as soon as possible.” The diplomats asked to have their names withheld because the measures haven’t been officially announced. The weapons ban would stop sales of military equipment that could be used for repression or surveillance of …

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Pope John Paul I, the shortest-lived pope in modern history, has moved a step closer to sainthood. The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis has recognized the “heroic virtues” of John Paul I, who reigned for only 33 days before his sudden death in 1978. His death fueled conspiracy theories that the former Cardinal Albino Luciani was murdered as part of a plot involving the Vatican bank, or perhaps committed suicide. The move comes just days after the publication of a book that debunks the conspiracy theories. Pope Luciani: Chronicle of a Death, written by journalist Stefania Falasca, concludes that …

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Lithuania said a growing rift between some eastern and western European Union states over issues such as migration posed a threat to the bloc at a time of increased Russian military assertiveness. Frictions between ex-communist states in Europe’s East and the wealthier West have increased since the 2015 migration crisis and Britain’s decision to leave the bloc, as leaders try to quell popular disenchantment with the EU. Nationalist politicians in Poland and Hungary have called for sweeping reform to bring more power back to member states at the expense of Brussels bureaucracy and refused to take part in efforts to …

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Disguised Russian agents on Twitter rushed to deflect scandalous news about Donald Trump just before last year’s presidential election while straining to refocus criticism on the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to an Associated Press analysis of since-deleted accounts. Tweets by Russia-backed accounts such as “America_1st_” and “BatonRougeVoice” on October 7, 2016, actively pivoted away from news of an audio recording in which Trump made crude comments about groping women, and instead touted damaging emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. Since early this year, the extent of Russian intrusion to help Trump and hurt Clinton in …

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