Month: July 2019

India’s monsoon rains were 20% below average in the week ending on Wednesday, as rainfall was scanty over the central, western and southern parts of the country, the weather office said, raising concerns over the output of summer-sown crops. Monsoon rains are crucial for farm output and economic growth, as about 55% of India’s arable land is rain-fed, and agriculture forms about 15% of a $2.5 trillion economy that is the third biggest in Asia. Soybean- and cotton-growing central regions received 68% less rainfall in the week, while the rubber- and tea-growing southern state of Kerala received 71% lower rainfall, …

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U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made religious freedom a centerpiece of his foreign policy, met Wednesday with victims of religious persecution from countries like China, Turkey, North Korea, Iran and Myanmar. Trump counts evangelical Christians among his core supporters and the State Department is hosting a conference on the topic this week that will be attended by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Four of the 27 participants in the Oval Office meeting were from China, the White House said: Jewher Ilham, an Uighur Muslim; Yuhua Zhang, a Falun Gong practitioner; Nyima Lhamo, a Tibetan …

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Police have begun arresting protesters gathered at the base of Hawaii’s tallest volcano, Mauna Kea, to stop the construction of a giant telescope on what they say is their most sacred ground. Protest leader Kealoha Pisciotta told The Associated Press that police had arrested 30 elders, called kupuna in Hawaiian, on Wednesday.   Some of the elders used canes and strollers to walk, while others were taken in wheelchairs to police vans. Those who could walk on their own were led away with their hands in zip ties. The elders were among about 2,000 people blocking the road to the …

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The European Union is opening a new front in its quest to more closely regulate big tech companies, saying Wednesday it was investigating whether U.S. online giant Amazon uses data from independent retailers to gain an illegal edge when selling its own products. EU antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she is taking a “very close look at Amazon’s business practices and its dual role as marketplace and retailer, to assess its compliance with EU competition rules.”   In addition to selling its own products, Amazon also allows third-party retailers to sell their goods through its site. Last year, more than …

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Bulgarian police have detained a suspect who is allegedly behind the hacking of the national revenue agency, an attack that leaked the personal and financial data of millions of Bulgarians and companies. Police cybersecurity chief Yavor Kolev said Wednesday a 20-year-old Bulgarian employee of a cybersecurity company is suspected in the hacking. The leak is the biggest in the Balkan nation so far. Local media say the details of some 5 million of the country’s 7 million people were stolen. Kolev said the investigation is still ongoing and other people could have been involved. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said the …

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A driver whose car collided with several people before crashing outside Britain’s Parliament has been convicted of attempted murder. Three people were injured when Salih Khater hit a pedestrian and cyclists before colliding with a security barrier guarded by police. The August 2018 incident came a year after London was hit by several deadly vehicle attacks, including one outside Parliament. Khater, a 30-year-old British citizen originally from Sudan, claimed he was looking for the Sudanese embassy to get a visa, got lost and panicked.   But prosecutor Alison Morgan said it was a “premeditated and deliberate” attack. She said Khater’s …

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The ever-so-brief Hurricane Barry spared the southern U.S. city of New Orleans and the Louisiana coast of devastating floods. But with the 2019 hurricane season underway, a sense of anxiety has once again overcome a community that fears it will only be a matter of time before a storm as lethal as Hurricane Katrina tests its limits again. On the bayou, one fishing community worries for the future of their profession, while residents of New Orleans’ most vulnerable neighborhoods say the city’s infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle another crisis. VOA’s Ramon Taylor reports.   …

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Police in Pakistan have arrested an Islamist cleric whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist for his alleged role in the deadly 2008 attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai. Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group and head of its banned charity wing, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), was traveling to the city of Gujranwala in Punjab province when he was taken into custody. A spokesman for the provincial counterterrorism department said Saeed was taken to the city’s anti-terrorism court where the judge ordered the cleric held in jail for a week. The court also …

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Venezuelans like to jest that their beloved arepas are so widely consumed that babies come out of the womb with the corn flatbreads already in hand. Now, as millions flee their homeland’s turmoil, they are taking Venezuela’s most ubiquitous dish with them. Humble street stalls and sit-down restaurants serving arepas are popping up throughout the streets of Colombia’s capital and in cities around the world, where many are finding the white corn flour patties an ideal means for gaining their footing in a foreign nation. Others are exchanging traditional fillings for local flavors in a nod to their adopted countries. …

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German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen was narrowly elected president of the European Commission on Tuesday after winning over skeptical lawmakers. The 60-year-old conservative was nominated to become the first woman in Brussels’ top job last month by the leaders of the bloc’s 28 member states, to the annoyance of many MEPs. The Strasbourg parliament would have preferred a candidate chosen by one of its political groups, but in the end a small majority — 383 members of the 751-member assembly voted — for her. She will now replace Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the EU executive on November …

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Activists are calling on Sudan’s military and opposition leaders to open the country’s political process to women when the sides begin to implement their recent power-sharing deal. For most of Sudan’s 63 years as an independent country, women were not allowed to get involved in politics due to cultural norms and other restrictions. Women say they have been marginalized and denied a chance to participate in public affairs, especially during the 30-year regime of former president Omar al-Bashir. Women’s rights activist Manal Bashir, who helped mobilize women during the protests that led to last week’s power-sharing deal, says now is …

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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif says his country is willing to negotiate with the U.S., but only if it lifts harsh economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran in 2017 before withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal last year that requires Iran to slash its uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.   “Once those sanctions are lifted … the room for negotiation is wide open,” Zarif said in an NBC News interview that aired Monday.  Zarif, who is in New York for meetings at the United Nations, said the U.S. abandoned a diplomatic …

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