Theoretical Physicist Stephen Hawking Dead at 76
Physicist Stephen Hawking died March 14, 2018, at his home in Cambridge, England. He was one of the most respected and best-known scientists in modern history. Arash Arabasadi reports. …
Physicist Stephen Hawking died March 14, 2018, at his home in Cambridge, England. He was one of the most respected and best-known scientists in modern history. Arash Arabasadi reports. …
Britain says it will expel 23 Russian diplomats after Moscow shrugged off demands to explain how a deadly Soviet-era nerve agent came to be used in the English town of Salisbury to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. VOA’s Jeff Custer reports. …
Slovakia’s prime minister announced on Wednesday that he was ready to resign as a way out of the political crisis triggered by the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee. Robert Fico’s surprise move was meant to keep the current three-party coalition in power and avoid the possibility of early elections. “The early elections would be almost certainly accompanied by chaos and instability,” Fico said. His government coalition came to power after 2016 general elections. The next regular ballot is planned for 2020. Fico said he was ready to resign if the next prime minister is from his left-wing …
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says relations with the U.S. can’t get any worse so he’s hoping for improvement under a new secretary of state. Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that he’s not worried about relations getting worse after Rex Tillerson’s ouster, saying the relationship “can hardly go lower than the floor.” He said he hopes for a “constructive and sober approach in joint relations” under Tillerson’s nominated replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo. “This hope will always remain.” Relations between the U.S. and Russia have worsened in recent years over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and …
Saying the Kremlin mustn’t be allowed to get away with “gangsterism,” the British government has announced a raft of reprisals against Russia after Moscow shrugged off demands to explain how a deadly Soviet-era nerve agent came to be used in the English town of Salisbury to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. The retaliation likely to be announced Wednesday by Prime Minister Theresa May to the House of Commons amounts to the unleashing of an economic war against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his coterie of Kremlin officials and oligarchs, with asset freezes and seizures of …
As its name implies, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has its roots in Europe and North America. But as the alliance faces new global threats, it has begun to broaden its horizons. VOA’s Jela de Franceschi takes a closer look at how North Korea’s missile and nuclear build-up has led NATO to boost its engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. …
Delegates from across Africa are attending the Commonwealth Africa Summit in London – where the theme this year is the ‘Common Good.’ Topics under discussion include climate change and improving gender equality. The Commonwealth has its origins in the British Empire – most members were former colonies – and as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, Britain is hoping to rekindle those ties as it leaves the European Union. …
Organizers of a “Peace March” supporting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday they expect as many as 200,000 people to attend the event, set to take place three weeks before Hungary’s April 8 national election. Leaders of the Civil Union Forum said the ruling Fidesz party is supporting Thursday’s march to parliament, where Orban will speak on a holiday commemorating the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Organizer Andras Bencsik said the march in Budapest is meant to provide “an impulse” for a successful election, “so we can help Fidesz.” “We have to take this election very seriously — life or …
Turkish led forces are claiming to have surrounded the city of Afrin, home to several thousand people in northwestern Syria, and the main target of Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch. The military incursion launched in January seeks to oust the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia considered by Ankara as terrorists linked to a decades long insurgency inside Turkey. Ankara has warned an operation to capture the city is imminent, “Hopefully Afrin’s center will soon be cleared of terrorists and the local community will be saved from the cruelty and oppression of the terrorists,” declared deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag on Monday. …
U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday British evidence that the Russians may have been behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in England, but he stopped short of blaming Moscow “until we get the facts straight.” “It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all the evidence they have,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. Trump said he would speak Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May about the attack in southern England on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. “I don’t know if they’ve come to a conclusion, but she’s calling …
European Union finance ministers agreed new measures on Tuesday to force accountants and banks to report aggressive tax schemes that help companies shift profits to low-tax countries. Ministers also added the Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Saint Kitts and Nevis to a blacklist of tax havens, while Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia were delisted, confirming earlier Reuters reports. Under the rules, proposed by the European Commission in June, accountants, banks and lawyers would be required to inform authorities about “potentially aggressive tax planning arrangements” set up for their clients. The 28 EU states will also share information …
The German government on Tuesday sharply condemned a nerve agent attack on a former spy that the British government has blamed on Russia, and said the perpetrators must be held accountable. Outgoing German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he had called British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to express Germany’s solidarity with the British government, and remained in close touch with British authorities. “It’s clear the perpetrators must be held accountable. If it should be confirmed that Russia was behind (the attack), that would be a very serious incident,” Gabriel said in a statement. …
France’s minister for overseas territories has announced an emergency plan to improve security on the French island of Mayotte following weeks of street protests. Annick Girardin on Monday and Tuesday visited the tiny Indian Ocean island, where protesters have taken to the streets and blocked roads over the past three weeks. The population is upset at increasing violence, illegal immigration, high unemployment and an economic crisis. Girardin pledged to take measures to combat illegal immigration through additional police officers and military forces and a Navy patrol vessel. Mayotte is the only part of the Comoros archipelago that voted to remain …
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is backing up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s assertion that Russia is behind the attack on a former Russian spy in England, saying it certainly “will trigger a response.” “This is a really egregious act. It appears that it clearly came from Russia,” Tillerson said Monday en route to Cape Verde. Tillerson spoke with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson over the phone shortly after taking off from Nigeria. Tillerson wrapped up his five-nation trip to Africa on Monday. May said it is clear that former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were …
Eurozone creditors are expected to disburse new loans to Greece this month and are working on debt relief measures, the head of the bloc’s finance ministers said on Monday, steps that should help underpin its economic recovery. Greece’s 86-billion-euro bailout program, its third since 2010, is due to end in August and international lenders are debating how to ensure the country makes its exit on a sustainable footing. Among options under consideration in Brussels are support measures that could run into tens of billions of euros and help ease servicing costs on a public debt pile that, in terms of …
Hungary aims to coordinate more closely on refugee policy with Austria and Italy after elections there boosted anti-migrant parties, broadening an alliance of EU states focused on internal security. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday that the approach to migration of the Vienna government and the center-right in Italy was very similar to the bloc’s central European member states. “So it is obvious that we will work together in the future,” he told Reuters in an interview. “This is not against the western part of Europe, this is against migration, and this is in favor of our interests because …
The White House is stopping short of blaming Russia for the poisoning of a former Russian military intelligence officer who was a double agent for Britain’s intelligence services. “The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against U.K. citizens on U.K. soil is an outrage,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday. “The attack was reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation and we extend our sympathy to the victims and their families and our support to the U.K. government.” Sanders added that the United States stands by “our closest ally and the special relationship …
Serbia’s defense minister blasted NATO’s top general on Monday for saying that one of the biggest threats for Europe is increasing Russian influence in the Balkans. Aleksandar Vulin said that U.S. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti’s statement last week during a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing represents the most “dangerous” anti-Serb statement since the Western military alliance bombed the country in 1999 over its bloody crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists. The American general said he has seen an increase in Russian influence over his year-and-a-half as supreme NATO commander in Europe and that he sees it as more …
Thousands stood in silent respect in the southern Macedonian city of Bitola Sunday to remember the victims of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II. Sunday was the 75th anniversary of the deportation of more than 7,100 Macedonian Jews to Nazi death camps in Poland. “We will never forget the Holocaust. We will not allow for anti-Semitism, hate speech, intolerance, xenophobia or any other phenomena that represent the violation of human rights,” Talat Xhaferi, speaker of the Macedonian parliament, said. Xhaferi said Macedonia will never allow history to be altered or denied. He pointed to Jewish property stolen …
British health officials said Sunday that traces of a nerve agent used in the suspected attempted murder of a Russian spy in Britain were found in a pub and restaurant he visited, but that the risk to public health remains low. Health officials said those who visited the Mill pub and Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury, southwest England on March 4 and March 5 should take “simple” precautions, including washing their clothes. “While there is no immediate health risk to anyone who may have been in either of these locations, it is possible, but unlikely, that any of the substance which …