Month: January 2024

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia — France and Cambodia have signed a $235 million aid agreement for drinking water and energy infrastructure development, as well as vocational training. The deal is part of a move to boost bilateral relations between the two countries, which have maintained a postcolonial dialogue since Cambodia became independent in 1953. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace and announced the pact last week. It was the West Point graduate’s first official visit to a Western power since succeeding his father, Hun Sen, in August.   “Cambodia will always remember France’s role in …

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london — Two motorists were killed, tens of thousands of people were left without electricity and hundreds of trains were canceled Monday after the latest winter storm lashed Britain and Ireland with heavy rain and wind gusts that topped 100 mph (160 kph). The storm littered roads and railways with downed trees that created deadly hazards and blocked travel, disrupting morning commutes. On Sunday night, an 84-year-old male passenger in a car in Scotland and a van driver in his 60s in Northern Ireland were killed when their vehicles struck toppled trees. The U.K.’s Met Office weather service had issued an …

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SKOPJE, North Macedonia — The leaders of Western Balkan countries pledged Monday to make full use of the European Union’s financial support plan of 6 billion euros ($6.5 billion) as they continue to seek membership in the bloc.  Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania are at different stages of the accession process. Their leaders gathered in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, and said in a joint statement they were committed “to the development of their countries to follow European standards.” In November, the European Commission presented a Growth Plan for the Western Balkans to enhance economic integration with the EU’s …

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Geneva — This year’s executive board meeting at the World Health Organization opened at a time of multiplying global health emergencies, but also at a moment when the U.N. health agency can point to “many achievements and milestones” in public health. “After almost three-and-a-half years in May, I declared an end to both COVID-19 and mpox as global health emergencies, although both remain global threats,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told delegates on Monday. “More than two-thirds of the global population has now received a complete primary series of a COVID-19 vaccine,” he said. “COVAX, which closed at the end of …

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Russian immigrants in many countries hit the streets Sunday, protesting on the three-year anniversary of the imprisonment of Russia’s best-known opposition leader, Alexey Navalny. Richard Green narrates VOA’s report from Los Angeles. …

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