beijing — Unable to buy a train ticket, or even see a doctor at a hospital, a Chinese pastor found that his even after release from prison, he is not quite free. The Rev. John Sanqiang Cao was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison while coming back from a missionary trip in Myanmar. Now…
read morewashington — At least 54 people have lost their lives to cholera in Somalia in recent months. Nine of those deaths occurred within the past week, marking the highest weekly death toll this year, humanitarian group Save the Children said. In an interview with VOA Somali, Mohamed Abdulkadir, acting operations director for Save the Children Somalia,…
read morewashington — The number of arrests for illegally crossing the U.S. southern border with Mexico nudged upward February over the previous month. But at a time when immigration is increasingly a concern for voters, the numbers were still among the lowest of Joe Biden’s presidency. According to figures from Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agents…
read moreDES MOINES, Iowa — The Mega Millions jackpot climbed to an estimated $1.1 billion after no one matched the game’s six numbers Friday night, continuing a stretch of more than three months without a big winner. The numbers drawn were: 3, 8, 31, 35, 44, 16. The jackpot increased after a drawing for an estimated $977…
read moreWASHINGTON — The U.S. Congress early Saturday overwhelmingly passed a $1.2 trillion budget bill, keeping the government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago and sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law and avert a partial shutdown. The vote on passage was 74-24. Key federal agencies including the departments of…
read morewashington — The sun is setting on Stumpy, the gnarled old cherry tree that has become a social media phenom. This year’s cherry blossom festivities in Washington will be the last for Stumpy and more than 100 other cherry trees that will be cut down as part of a multiyear restoration of their Tidal Basin home.…
read moreDALLAS — It has been 15 years since the last fatal crash of a U.S. airliner, but you would never know that by reading about a torrent of flight problems in the last three months. There was a time when things like cracked windshields and minor engine problems didn’t turn up very often in the news.…
read moreUS President Joe Biden is putting women’s health and reproductive rights at the center of his campaign in the run-up to the November 5th election. Biden, a Democrat, will face the Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, who has spoken about abortion but has not fully clarified his position. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports. …
read moregeneva — The World Health Organization warns that hunger, poverty, malnutrition, and disease have reached alarming levels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially in the east, where a resurgence of fighting between armed groups and government forces has uprooted millions of people from their homes. “DRC is the second-largest displacement crisis globally after Sudan, with…
read moreA new Texas law prohibits public universities from having special programs supporting minority and LGBTQ students. Critics say these diversity, equity and inclusion programs are discriminatory and divisive. But many students say they are needed. Deana Mitchell has the story from the Texas capital. …
read moreMaputo, Mozambique — U.S. officials pledged $22 million in new funding Thursday to help Mozambique fight Islamist militants in the country’s troubled, oil-rich Cabo Delgado, where an insurgency has intensified in recent weeks. The United States already had pledged $100 million. At the end of a five-day visit to Maputo, Anne Witkowsky, U.S. assistant secretary of…
read moreNairobi, Kenya — With a week until Easter, chocolate lovers should brace themselves for higher prices when they purchase their favorite seasonal treats. A nonprofit environmental group says cocoa costs three times more than it did a year ago because of climate change and the El Nino weather effect. Prices reached $8,000 per ton this week,…
read moreIn early March, the annual U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps Trials for injured veterans took place near Las Vegas. This year, for the first time, the United States welcomed a Ukrainian team. Omelyan Oshchudlyak spoke with one of the Ukrainian participants. VOA footage by Yuriy Dankevych. …
read moreU.S. Customs and Border Protection has set up temporary centers to help expedite the processing of migrants entering the country. Cesar Contreras toured one of the facilities opened last year in El Paso, Texas, in this story narrated by Veronica Villafañe. …
read moreGuatemala city — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that a Texas law giving state authorities the power to arrest and deport migrants who have entered the country illegally is unconstitutional. “It is our strongly held view as a matter of law that SB4 [the Texas law] … is unconstitutional and it is our…
read morewashington — There definitely were no Muppets during the Permian Period, but there was a Kermit — or at least a forerunner of modern amphibians that has been named after the celebrity frog. Scientists on Thursday described the fossilized skull of a creature called Kermitops gratus that lived in what is now Texas about 270 million…
read moreLONDON — As the United Nations observes World Water Day on Friday, there is a growing risk of conflict over water resources as climate change takes hold, the international body said. Meanwhile, nongovernmental aid agency Oxfam accused global corporations of “grabbing” water from poorer countries to boost profits. Declaring this year’s theme Water for Peace, the…
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