Author: Fworld

It’s a double cosmic conundrum: Lots of stuff that was already invisible has gone missing. Astronomers have found a distant galaxy where there is no dark matter. Dark matter is called “dark” because it can’t be seen. It is the mysterious and invisible skeleton of the universe that scientists figure makes up about 27 percent …

The U.S. Justice Department has charged a former Minnesota FBI agent with leaking classified information to the online news site The Intercept, Minnesota Public Radio reported Wednesday. It said Terry Albury was charged this week by the department’s National Security Division with two counts including “knowingly and willfully” transmitting documents and information relating to national …

Current and former U.S. and British intelligence officers say the West’s collective banishment this week of 115 Russian “diplomats” will be far less damaging to Russian espionage operations than British Prime Minister Theresa May and American officials have argued. And they warn tit-for-tat expulsions the Kremlin is expected to order shortly will have much greater …

Last year, the United States lifted long-standing economic sanctions against Sudan. The sanctions included a trade embargo, a freeze on some government assets, and restrictions on Sudanese banks and the ability of foreign banks to do business with Sudan. But instead of revitalizing the economy, lifting the sanctions has highlighted a range of additional steps …

In the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, students launch the Never Again movement, demanding far stronger gun laws in the US. Just five weeks after the shooting, they organized the March for Our Lives, attended by an estimated one million people across the globe. As Sama …

When letters from the U.S. government last month summoned more than 1,000 Burmese refugees in the United States for official interviews, chatter spread across the immigrant community: Were the letters real? Did the refugees have to attend? What was the government trying to glean from meeting with refugees who were already in the country, in …

Authorities in the southern U.S. state of Louisiana on Tuesday cleared two white policemen of wrongdoing in the shooting death of a black man at close range after it was determined he was armed, as the officers said they had believed, as they struggled to arrest him. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the facts …

The attorney general’s office in the western U.S. state of California is joining an investigation into the deadly police shooting of an unarmed African-American man to provide independent oversight. The announcement was made by the police chief of Sacramento, the capital city of California, where the shooting occurred. Chief Daniel Hahn said the partnership is …

Mexico and the United States have signed three accords to improve bilateral customs procedures and expedite the flow of agricultural produce across their almost 2,000-mile (3,220-kilometers) border, the two governments said on Monday. In a joint news conference with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the first agreement aimed …

Linda Brown, who as a young girl was at the center of the lawsuit that ended racial segregation in American schools, has died. Brown died Sunday in Topeka, Kansas. She was 76. Brown was 9 years old when her father, the Rev. Oliver Brown, sued the Topeka school board to allow his daughter to attend …

In her widely watched “60 Minutes” interview, porn star Stormy Daniels explained why she accepted a $130,000 payment she says was intended to keep her silent about her sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006.   Trump has denied the affair, through his representatives. But his lawyer, Michael Cohen, has said he paid Daniels $130,000 …

Washington is watching President Donald Trump’s makeover of his national security team to include more outspoken hardliners when it comes to America’s posture on the world stage. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, days after nominating CIA director Mike Pompeo to become his new secretary of state, Trump tapped John Bolton, a former Bush administration diplomat known …

U.S. firearms and ammunition manufacturer Remington has filed for bankruptcy protection in order to reorganize its operations and put in place a debt reduction deal with its creditors. The company filed its petition for the so-called Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sunday, six weeks after announcing an agreement to reduce its $950 million in debts while transferring …

Music is changing lives in some American prisons, where guitars and songwriting are sparking creativity in inmates. Mike O’Sullivan reports from a state prison in Norco, California, about the music program Jail Guitar Doors. …

The 23-year-old Texan blamed for a deadly Austin bombing spree described himself as a psychopath and showed no remorse in a confession he taped before blowing himself up as police closed in to arrest him, a U.S. congressman said Saturday. Authorities had not previously disclosed details of the cellphone video in which Mark Conditt admitted …

What does it take to build a thriving technology company – and an environment in which black techies, their financial backers and their markets can flourish? That question underpins the new VOA documentary “Beyond the Unicorn.”  Subtitled “Africans Making IT in Silicon Valley,” it explores how some Africans and African-Americans are finding their way in …

German business leaders are expressing concerns that President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported steel could affect the auto industry in the South.   WABE Radio reports Mercedes-Benz USA this month opened its new North American headquarters in Sandy Springs, Georgia, for 1,000 employees. The luxury car manufacturer is owned by Germany-based Daimler, but …

The United States has flouted trade rules with an inquiry into intellectual property and China will defend its interests, Vice Premier Liu He told U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a telephone call on Saturday, Chinese state media reported. The call between Mnuchin and Liu, a confidante of President Xi Jinping, was the highest-level contact …

Thousands of people participated in “March for Our Lives” rallies in Washington and cities across the United States, drawing attention to school violence and what they see as a need for stricter gun control. …

H. Wayne Huizenga, a college dropout who built a business empire that included Blockbuster Entertainment, AutoNation and three professional sports franchises, has died. He was 80. Huizenga died Thursday night at his home, said Valerie Hinkell, a longtime assistant. The cause was cancer, said Bob Henninger, executive vice president of Huizenga Holdings. Starting with a …

A Washington lawyer and Fox News guest who was expected to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal team this week in the special counsel’s Russia probe has yet to be retained, another of Trump’s lawyers said Friday. Joseph diGenova’s hiring is pending completion of a review of potential conflicts of interest that may arise from …

A Virginia man was arrested Friday, after a discussion about marijuana policy in the district office of U.S. Representative Scott Taylor devolved into violent threats, the U.S. Justice Department said. Wallace Grove Godwin, 69, allegedly told two staffers for Taylor on Thursday afternoon after a discussion about marijuana did not go his way that he …

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced that the Department of Justice is publishing for comment a proposal to change federal regulations to classify devices with bump stocks as machine guns. Bump stocks, devices that enable a semiautomatic weapon to function as a fully automatic one, have been the object of controversy since a mass …

As officials lay the ground work for proposed talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, a U.S. lawmaker tells VOA’s Korean Service, there will be no easing of pressure on the North Korea government. This, as the United Nations Security Council votes to extend the work of investigators who …

Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave a farewell speech to State Department staff Thursday, before his official March 31 departure. U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a March 13 tweet that he is replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Tillerson did not mention Trump in his farewell address, …

President Donald Trump’s lead lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, resigned Thursday, the latest twist in an investigation that continues to cast a shadow over the Trump White House. Trump has attacked the Russia probe on Twitter in recent days, sparking fears among Democrats and some Republicans that he may be setting the stage …