https://www.voanews.com/z/3491 Breaking News https://www.voanews.com/Content/responsive/VOA/en-US/img/logo.png https://www.voanews.com/z/3491 en 2026 - VOA 60 Sat, 19 Sep 2026 13:20:59 -0400 Pangea CMS – VOA LONDON — Democracy looks bruised but not beaten as it heads into 2025. In a year in which countries representing almost half the world's population called voters to the polls, democracies endured violence and major scares, but also proved resilient. Former U.S. President Donald Trump survived two assassination attempts and, despite fears of a contested result and unrest, he won back the White House in a clear victory and looks set for a peaceful transition to power next month. Mexico... https://www.voanews.com/a/democracy-heads-into-2025-bloodied-but-unbowed/7912157.html https://www.voanews.com/a/democracy-heads-into-2025-bloodied-but-unbowed/7912157.html Tue, 24 Dec 2024 02:25:22 -0500 World Newswebdesk@voanews.com (Reuters) THE HAGUE — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor asked judges on Wednesday to issue an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who took power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the deportation and persecution of the Rohingya. Nearly a million people were forced into neighboring Bangladesh to escape... https://www.voanews.com/a/icc-prosecutor-requests-arrest-warrants-for-the-head-of-myanmar-s-military-regime-/7878520.html https://www.voanews.com/a/icc-prosecutor-requests-arrest-warrants-for-the-head-of-myanmar-s-military-regime-/7878520.html Wed, 27 Nov 2024 05:21:48 -0500 East Asiawebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The U.N. head, Pope Francis and others called Monday for nations to end the production and use of land mines, even as their deployment globally grows. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message to delegates at the fifth review of the International Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention, that 25 years after it went into force some parties had renewed the use of antipersonnel mines and some are falling behind in their commitments to destroy... https://www.voanews.com/a/un-chief-pope-call-for-nations-to-end-the-use-of-antipersonnel-land-mines/7875788.html https://www.voanews.com/a/un-chief-pope-call-for-nations-to-end-the-use-of-antipersonnel-land-mines/7875788.html Mon, 25 Nov 2024 05:40:57 -0500 East Asiawebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) UNITED NATIONS — The deadliest place for women is at home and 140 women and girls on average were killed by an intimate partner or family member per day last year, two U.N. agencies reported Monday. Globally, an intimate partner or family member was responsible for the deaths of approximately 51,100 women and girls during 2023, an increase from an estimated 48,800 victims in 2022, UN Women and the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said. The report released on the International Day for the... https://www.voanews.com/a/women-girls-killed-by-a-partner-or-relative-per-day-in-2023-un-says/7875721.html https://www.voanews.com/a/women-girls-killed-by-a-partner-or-relative-per-day-in-2023-un-says/7875721.html Mon, 25 Nov 2024 02:00:21 -0500 World Newswebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) As delegates from 175 countries gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday for the fifth round of talks aimed at securing an international treaty to curb plastic pollution, lingering divisions cast doubts on whether a final agreement is in sight. South Korea is hosting the fifth and ostensibly final U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting this week, after the previous round of talks in Ottawa in April ended without a path forward on capping plastic production. Instead,... https://www.voanews.com/a/countries-remain-divided-as-fifth-un-plastics-treaty-talks-begin/7875670.html https://www.voanews.com/a/countries-remain-divided-as-fifth-un-plastics-treaty-talks-begin/7875670.html Sun, 24 Nov 2024 20:51:09 -0500 Science & Healthwebdesk@voanews.com (Reuters) LONDON — Britain will seek backing from other United Nations Security Council members on Monday for its demand that Sudan's warring parties stop hostilities and allow deliveries of aid, the British foreign ministry said. With London holding the rotating presidency of the council, British foreign minister David Lammy is due to chair a vote on a UK/Sierra Leone-proposed draft resolution, which also calls for the protection of civilians. Lammy will say "the UK will never let Sudan... https://www.voanews.com/a/uk-to-put-sudan-resolution-to-vote-by-un-security-council/7867450.html https://www.voanews.com/a/uk-to-put-sudan-resolution-to-vote-by-un-security-council/7867450.html Sun, 17 Nov 2024 23:07:48 -0500 Africawebdesk@voanews.com (Reuters) White House — In what will likely be his farewell appearance on the world stage, President Joe Biden faces a daunting question: what to tell world leaders wondering about potential changes in U.S. policies when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House with his America First agenda. Biden arrived Thursday in Peru and will visit Brazil afterward for two major economic summits. Biden is scheduled to spend Friday and Saturday in Lima with leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic... https://www.voanews.com/a/at-apec-and-g20-biden-faces-leaders-worried-about-us-policy-changes/7863428.html https://www.voanews.com/a/at-apec-and-g20-biden-faces-leaders-worried-about-us-policy-changes/7863428.html Wed, 13 Nov 2024 23:07:31 -0500 Americaswebdesk@voanews.com (Patsy Widakuswara) DAMASAK, Nigeria — When Boko Haram launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2010, Abdulhameed Salisu packed his bag and fled from his hometown of Damasak in the country's battered Borno state.  The 45-year-old father of seven came back with his family early last year. They are among thousands of Nigerians taken back from displacement camps to their villages, hometowns or newly built settlements known as “host communities” under a resettlement program that analysts say is being... https://www.voanews.com/a/nigeria-resettling-people-back-to-homes-they-fled-to-escape-boko-haram-/7820998.html https://www.voanews.com/a/nigeria-resettling-people-back-to-homes-they-fled-to-escape-boko-haram-/7820998.html Sun, 13 Oct 2024 19:57:13 -0400 Africawebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) NEW YORK — The rush for gold just keeps coming. Gold hit another all-time high this week. Recent gains for the precious metal are largely credited to ongoing economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and strong demand from central banks around the world. If trends continue, analysts have bullish outlooks on the price of gold for the months ahead. But the future is never promised. Here's what you need to know. Where does the price of gold stand today? The New York spot price of... https://www.voanews.com/a/the-price-of-gold-keeps-climbing-to-unprecedented-heights-here-s-why/7799908.html https://www.voanews.com/a/the-price-of-gold-keeps-climbing-to-unprecedented-heights-here-s-why/7799908.html Sat, 28 Sep 2024 03:00:18 -0400 USAwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) STOCKHOLM — Lower voter turnout and increasingly contested results globally are threatening the credibility of elections, an intergovernmental watchdog warned on Tuesday, as its sub-index for free and fair elections suffered its biggest decline on record in 2023. In its report, the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said 2023 was the eighth consecutive year with a net decline in overall democratic performance, the longest consecutive fall... https://www.voanews.com/a/global-index-for-free-and-fair-elections-suffers-biggest-decline-on-record-in-2023-democracy-watchdog-says/7787215.html https://www.voanews.com/a/global-index-for-free-and-fair-elections-suffers-biggest-decline-on-record-in-2023-democracy-watchdog-says/7787215.html Tue, 17 Sep 2024 03:34:05 -0400 World Newswebdesk@voanews.com (Reuters) LONDON — Discontented, economically squeezed voters have turned against sitting governments on both right and left during many of the dozens of elections held this year, as global power blocs shift and political certainties crumble. From India to South Africa to Britain, voters dealt blows to long-governing parties. Elections to the European Parliament showed growing support for the continent's far right, while France's centrist president scrambled to fend off a similar surge at... https://www.voanews.com/a/uncertainty-is-the-winner-and-incumbents-the-losers-so-far-in-a-year-of-high-stakes-global-elections/7702944.html https://www.voanews.com/a/uncertainty-is-the-winner-and-incumbents-the-losers-so-far-in-a-year-of-high-stakes-global-elections/7702944.html Thu, 18 Jul 2024 02:29:26 -0400 Europewebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso — Burkina Faso's military regime, in power since a 2022 coup, will extend its rule for five years under an accord adopted during national consultations on Saturday, the talks' chairman said.  "The duration of the transition is fixed at 60 months from July 2, 2024," Colonel Moussa Diallo, chairman of the organizing committee of the national dialogue process, said after the talks.  He added that coup leader and acting president Ibrahim Traore... https://www.voanews.com/a/burkina-faso-extends-military-rule-for-5-years-to-2029-/7627015.html https://www.voanews.com/a/burkina-faso-extends-military-rule-for-5-years-to-2029-/7627015.html Sat, 25 May 2024 17:33:53 -0400 Africawebdesk@voanews.com (Agence France-Presse) JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's four main political parties began the final weekend of campaigning Saturday before a possibly pivotal election that could bring the country's most important change in three decades. Supporters of the long-governing African National Congress, which has been in the government ever since the end of white minority rule in 1994, gathered at a soccer stadium in Johannesburg to hear party leader and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speak. The ANC is... https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-s-top-political-parties-begin-final-campaign-push-ahead-of-election/7626947.html https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-s-top-political-parties-begin-final-campaign-push-ahead-of-election/7626947.html Sat, 25 May 2024 14:55:41 -0400 Africawebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) GENEVA — Conflicts and violence have pushed the number of internally displaced people around the world to a record-breaking high of 75.9 million, with nearly half living in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. The report finds conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestinian territories accounted for nearly two-thirds of new displacements due to violence, which in total spanned 66 countries in 2023. “Over the past... https://www.voanews.com/a/conflict-violence-push-global-internal-displacement-to-record-high-levels/7610132.html https://www.voanews.com/a/conflict-violence-push-global-internal-displacement-to-record-high-levels/7610132.html Tue, 14 May 2024 00:28:37 -0400 Africawebdesk@voanews.com (Lisa Schlein) ABUJA, Nigeria — Armed men broke into a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria early Saturday and seized 15 children as they slept, police told The Associated Press, about 48 hours after nearly 300 students were taken hostage in the conflict-hit region. School abductions are common in Nigeria's northern region, especially since the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Islamic extremists in Borno state's Chibok village shocked the world. Armed gangs have since targeted... https://www.voanews.com/a/gunmen-kidnap-15-children-in-yet-another-northern-nigeria-school-/7521068.html https://www.voanews.com/a/gunmen-kidnap-15-children-in-yet-another-northern-nigeria-school-/7521068.html Sat, 09 Mar 2024 18:20:28 -0500 Africawebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Francis Ndege isn’t sure if his customers in Africa’s largest slum can afford to keep buying rice from him. Prices for rice grown in Kenya soared a while ago because of higher fertilizer prices and a yearslong drought in the Horn of Africa that has reduced production. Cheap rice imported from India had filled the gap, feeding many of the hundreds of thousands of residents in Nairobi's Kibera slum who survive on less than $2 a day. But that is changing. The price of a 25-kilogram... https://www.voanews.com/a/rice-shortages-high-prices-hit-most-vulnerable-/7233443.html https://www.voanews.com/a/rice-shortages-high-prices-hit-most-vulnerable-/7233443.html Mon, 21 Aug 2023 03:40:14 -0400 World Newswebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Huge crowds of antigovernment protesters Saturday encircled the Serbian state television building in downtown Belgrade to press their demand for autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic to ease his tight grip on the mainstream media and allow alternative voices. Tens of thousands of opposition supporters, some chanting slogans urging Vucic's resignation, streamed into the rain-drenched streets a day after the president's followers staged an equally big rally in the capital. Most of... https://www.voanews.com/a/police-and-serbs-clash-in-kosovo-/7111744.html https://www.voanews.com/a/police-and-serbs-clash-in-kosovo-/7111744.html Sat, 27 May 2023 09:02:56 -0400 Europewebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Geneva — Former White House adviser Amy Pope won a vote in Geneva on Monday to head the U.N. migration agency, prevailing in a tense contest against a Portuguese incumbent who had the support of European countries. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Pope would become the first woman to lead the organization when she begins her five-year term on Oct. 1. Pope, who served as Deputy Director General for Management and Reform at IOM, took leave to campaign against her boss... https://www.voanews.com/a/us-candidate-amy-pope-wins-tense-contest-to-run-un-migration-agency-/7093943.html https://www.voanews.com/a/us-candidate-amy-pope-wins-tense-contest-to-run-un-migration-agency-/7093943.html Mon, 15 May 2023 11:25:48 -0400 World Newswebdesk@voanews.com (Reuters) ROME — A chipper-sounding Pope Francis was discharged Saturday from the Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis, quipping to journalists before being driven away that he's “still alive.” Francis, 86, was hospitalized at Gemelli Polyclinic on Wednesday following his weekly public audience in St. Peter's Square after reportedly experiencing breathing difficulties. The pontiff received antibiotics administered intravenously during his stay, the Vatican said. In a sign of... https://www.voanews.com/a/pope-francis-leaves-hospital-still-alive-he-quips/7032059.html https://www.voanews.com/a/pope-francis-leaves-hospital-still-alive-he-quips/7032059.html Sat, 01 Apr 2023 13:30:00 -0400 Europewebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) ISLAMABAD — Pakistan said Saturday that four of its soldiers were killed when a "group of terrorists" from across the Iranian side of the border attacked a routine military patrol operating between the two countries.    The deadly cross-border raid took place in the remote Kech district in southwestern Baluchistan province abutting Iran, the Pakistani military said in a statement.  "Necessary contact with the Iranian side is being made for effective action against terrorists... https://www.voanews.com/a/pakistan-terrorist-attack-from-across-iran-border-kills-4-soldiers-/7031976.html https://www.voanews.com/a/pakistan-terrorist-attack-from-across-iran-border-kills-4-soldiers-/7031976.html Sat, 01 Apr 2023 11:21:40 -0400 Middle Eastwebdesk@voanews.com (Ayaz Gul)