Author: Fworld

Two associates of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani have been arrested on federal charges of making illegal contributions to U.S. political campaigns.Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen, and Igor Fruman, a Belarus-born U.S. citizen, were detained late Wednesday in Virginia, a law enforcement official said.     The two men are expected to …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused his predecessor on Thursday of fomenting protests to derail a peace process for the country’s separatist-held east and said talks with Russia were the only way to end the five-year war there.Zelenskiy told reporters that Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent leader he defeated in April, was “pushing” people to oppose the …

Turkish ground forces pressed their advance against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria on Thursday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said, launching airstrikes and unleashing artillery shelling on Syrian towns and villages the length of its border.The Turkish invasion, now in its second day, has been widely condemned around the world. In northern Syria, residents of the border …

National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin and VOA’s Kurdish and Turkish Services contributed to this report.The United Nations Security Council is set to meet Thursday to discuss the military operation in northeastern Syria that Turkey says is a “measured and responsible” anti-terror operation, while the mainly Kurdish fighters in the region appeal for help to “save …

Russia’s economic forecast is not looking good, with the central bank last month lowering its growth projections – though officials maintain the country is not sliding into a recession.  But in Russia’s far east, thousands of kilometers and several time zones away from Moscow, the effects of the economic downturn are obvious.  On the shores …

Ukraine’s president appears to be playing to both sides of the American political divide, hedging his bets to ensure U.S. financial and military aid keeps flowing no matter who wins next year’s election.First, a point for U.S. President Donald Trump’s team: Ukraine’s top prosecutor agreed to revisit past investigations into a gas company executive who …

The European Union’s 2019 cybercrime report said the number of online attacks is going down but criminals are targeting more data and profits.The European Union’s law enforcement agency developed the report that shows that ransomware remains the top cybercrime threat. Ransomware attacks block access to vital data and are described as being targeted, more profitable …

Turkey is facing calls for restraint by its Western allies as well as Russia and Iran after Ankara’s forces launched a military offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia Wednesday.”[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan cannot step back. He was under so much public pressure,” said Huseyin Bagci, an international relations professor with Ankara’s Middle East Technical …

The wives of two of English soccer’s most high-profile players got embroiled in a spat on Twitter on Wednesday about the leaking of information to a tabloid newspaper.In a post to her 1.3 million followers, Wayne Rooney’s wife, Coleen, accused Rebekah Vardy, the wife of Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, of informing The Sun about details …

The European Union warned Wednesday that next-generation telecommunication networks face a range of cyber threats, including from hostile countries.   While steering clear of singling out Chinese tech company Huawei, an EU security risk assessment identified “states or state-backed actors” as the most serious and likely culprits to carry out sophisticated attacks on new 5G networks. …

U.S. President Donald Trump’s new special envoy to the stalled talks between Serbia and Kosovo made his first visit to the troubled Balkan region Wednesday.Ambassador Richard Grenell, the top U.S. diplomat in Germany, met with political leaders in Kosovo, including President Hashim Thaci and the party leader likely to be the next prime minister, Albin …

When 40-year-old Svetlana Prokopyeva penned her column about an October 2018 suicide bombing by a 17-year-old student at the Federal Security Service (FSB) offices in Arkhangelsk, Russia, she had no inkling of what she would be bringing on herself.The perpetrator killed himself in the blast and injured three FSB officers, announcing beforehand on an anarchist …

In Turkey, new controls regulating internet broadcasting have come into force. The government says all broadcasters need to abide by the same rules, but critics claim the new measures are an attempt to silence the last platform for independent journalism. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

U.S. President Donald Trump denies that the United States has abandoned Kurds in Syria ahead of Turkey’s planned invasion on Kurdish-held territories in northern Syria. In a tweet Tuesday, Trump said that “any unforced and unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy.” But Syrian Kurdish fighters who were crucial in an offensive …

The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee has issued a bipartisan report that calls on the U.S. government and private industry to prevent social media sites from being used to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, as they were in 2016.The report, released Tuesday after more than two years of investigating foreign electoral meddling, found the Kremlin-backed …

The International Organization for Migration reports fatalities from a shipwreck Monday off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa has pushed the migrant death toll on the Mediterranean Sea this year to 1071.The boat, which capsized seven miles from the coast of Lampedusa, reportedly departed from Tunisia with between 50 and 55 people aboard.  …

Steve Herman at the White House, Carla Babb at the Pentagon and Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this report.Turkish military officials say their troops are ready to launch a long-planned incursion into Syria to take out Kurdish forces branded by Ankara as terrorists, but viewed by much of the West as key …

A Moscow court has ruled to extend the house arrest of U.S. investor Michael Calvey until January 13.The Moscow City Court announced the ruling on Tuesday, five days before a previous extension of Calvey’s house arrest was to expire.Calvey and several other executives and employees of the Russian-based private-equity group Baring Vostok were detained in …

France has delivered to India its first Rafale fighter jet from a series of 36 aircraft purchased in a multi-billion dollar deal in 2016.Defense Minister Florence Parly and her Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, who is on a three-day visit to France, attended a ceremony Tuesday at aircraft maker Dassault Aviation facility in Merignac, southwestern France.The …

Russia in the last school year enacted a law establishing Russian as the main language at all schools.  The legislation is raising concern among ethnic minorities in far-flung republics who fear the change is helping promote the gradual destruction of their cultures.  For VOA, Ricardo Marquina reports from the Russian republic of Buryatia. VOA’s Jim …

It was by Vladimir Putin’s swashbuckling standards all rather low-key. There was no riding horses bare-chested or allegedly saving a television crew by shooting a tranquilizer dart at a wild tiger which obligingly appeared from out of nowhere in the woods.No stripping to the waist to wade deep in the waters of mountain rivers to …

The White House announced Sunday that U.S. troops will pull out of northern Syria as Turkey moves forward with a military offensive. The decision has led to condemnations from Congress, clarification from the Pentagon and fear from local allies. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports. …

Russian President Vladimir Putin spent his pre-birthday weekend hiking the mountains of southern Siberia with his defense minister.Putin, who turned 67 on Monday, can be seen walking up steep hills and picking wild mushrooms in photos and video released by the Kremlin.Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu traversed the vast Taiga forest, at one point …

The U.N. refugee agency warns the battle to stamp out global statelessness is being threatened by growing anti-refugee and migrant sentiment, as well as rising nationalism. More than 220,000 people have acquired citizenship since the U.N. refugee agency launched a 10-year global campaign in 2014 to end statelessness.  Now at the mid-point of the campaign, activists …

Climate protesters around the world started two weeks of demonstrations on Monday, engaging in acts of civil disobedience to demand action on cutting carbon emissions.In London, police arrested 276 people who blocked bridges and roads, while in Berlin, around 1,000 protesters blocked the Grosser Stern, a traffic circle at the Victory Column.The protests, organized by …

Kurt Volker, the former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine and a key witness in the burgeoning impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives, has resigned from his post as executive director of a prestigious institute bearing the name of the deceased U.S. senator John McCain.The Washington-based McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State …