New Zealand will slaughter more than 100,000 cows in an effort to eradicate a bacterial disease. The government and agricultural leaders announced Monday that it will spend over $600 million over the next decade to rid the country of Mycoplasma bovis, which causes udder infections, pneumonia, arthritis and other illnesses. The bacteria is not a…
read moreMyanmar’s anti-corruption commission has in recent weeks sued a senior bureaucrat and begun investigating a disgraced minister, indicating a crackdown on corruption promised by the government is finally happening. Often criticized as weak and unambitious, the commission’s stepped-up efforts suggest the Southeast Asian country is joining a regional trend. On May 25, the Myanmar President’s…
read moreIvanka Trump’s brand continues to win foreign trademarks in China and the Philippines, adding to questions about conflicts of interest at the White House, The Associated Press has found. On Sunday, China granted the first daughter’s company final approval for its 13th trademark in the last three months, trademark office records show. Over the…
read moreVietnam is imitating China in its efforts to grow economically and lags its larger neighbor only by about a decade, experts say. The two communist countries, though political rivals, have built up their state-controlled economies on job creation through factory work for export. China opened that effort to foreign investment in 1978 and Vietnam got…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump “adamantly’ wants to answer questions in the criminal investigation of his 2016 campaign’s links with Russia, but one of his lawyers says he remains skeptical about allowing Trump to face prosecutors’ queries about whether he obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe. Trump lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani,…
read morePresident Donald Trump accused The New York Times on Saturday of inventing a source for a story who, in fact, was a White House official conducting a briefing for reporters under the condition that the official not be named. Trump tweeted that the Times quoted an official “who doesn’t exist” and referenced a line in…
read moreA flood of lawsuits over LGBT rights is making its way through courts and will continue, no matter the outcome in the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated decision in the case of a Colorado baker who would not create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. Courts are engaged in two broad types of cases on…
read moreNew shops appear in New York City every day, but Phluid Project, which recently opened its doors on Broadway, is different. One of the first gender-fluid boutiques in the world, Phluid Project sells clothing for men, women and everyone in between. Both the clothes and the mannequins here are gender-neutral, and as an added selling…
read moreRussian state gas giant Gazprom said Saturday it had signed a protocol with the Turkish government on a planned gas pipeline and agreed with Turkish firm Botas to end an arbitration dispute over the terms of gas supplies. The protocol concerned the land-based part of the transit leg of the TurkStream gas pipeline, which Gazprom…
read moreItaly’s would-be coalition parties turned up the pressure on President Sergio Mattarella on Saturday to endorse their euroskeptic pick as economy minister, saying the only other option might be a new election. Mattarella has held up formation of a government, which would end more than 80 days of political deadlock, over concern about the desire of the far-right League and…
read moreKenya built a reputation as a pioneer of financial inclusion through its early adoption of a mobile money system that enables people to transfer cash and make payments on cellphones without a bank account. Now, a proliferation of lenders are using the same technology to extend credit to the banked and unbanked alike, saddling borrowers…
read moreU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined the Trump administration’s efforts to end Iran’s nuclear program in an exclusive interview with VOA’s Persian service. VOA’s Julie Taboh reports, Thursday’s conversation also covered recent protests in Iran and the administration’s efforts to free Americans detained by Iran. …
read moreThough U.S. President Donald Trump decided Thursday to not hold direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump has suggested he’s open to talks down the road, if relations improve. That offer of new talks, on his terms, is part of a pattern for Trump when it comes to negotiations. And it’s something…
read moreThe chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday, less than a week after the embattled socialist leader was re-elected in a vote the U.S. condemned and he kicked out the top American diplomat in the country. The visit appeared to be an attempt by Sen. Bob…
read moreNewly released emails show senior Environmental Protection Agency officials collaborating with a conservative group that dismisses climate change to rally like-minded people for public hearings on science and global warming, counter negative news coverage and tout Administrator Scott Pruitt’s stewardship of the agency. The emails were obtained by the Environmental Defense Fund and the Southern…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, lost a bid on Friday to have certain criminal charges filed against him by special counsel Robert Mueller dismissed. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over Manafort’s case in Washington, said in a ruling that she would not dismiss one of the charges against Manafort related to false statements…
read moreItaly’s prime minister-designate, Giuseppe Conte, a political novice and obscure law professor accused of padding his resume, put the finishing touches to his cabinet lineup Friday. And initial reaction from financial markets was far from approving. Italian government bond prices slumped and the country’s ailing banks saw their stock prices hit an 11-month low. Italy’s…
read moreMilitary veterans who were discharged for relatively minor offenses say they often can’t get jobs, and they hope a recent warning to employers by the state of Connecticut will change that. The state’s human rights commission told employers last month they could be breaking the law if they discriminate against veterans with some types of…
read moreHere are the highest-paid CEOs for 2017, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm. The AP’s compensation study covered 339 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at their respective companies, which filed proxy statements between January 1 and April 30. Compensation…
read moreImer still has fragments from a bullet in his back. The 43-year-old Mexican immigrant, who asked to be identified only by his first name, fled the Mexican state of Guerrero more than 20 years ago after he was shot in the back by a Mexican drug gang. He entered the U.S. illegally in 1998 and…
read moreIn a marshy section of Cow Meadow Park in Freeport, Long Island, longtime resident Cory Brewer bikes through the thick air and stops to take in the greenery before continuing on to the waterfront. Trailing nearby, a flock of baby geese, supervised by a parent, crosses a dirt path and plops into the water. A…
read moreIt’s been almost two decades since Illinois farmer Scott Halpin drove a newer tractor through the fields of Grundy County. Thankfully, as he helps pour soybean seeds into the planter that eventually will place them in the soil, the equipment his family is using is well-serviced and —so far — reliable. Hopefully, that doesn’t change…
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