World

  Skirmishes between Serbian police and opposition protesters demanding arrests over a deadly roof collapse at a railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia, Nov. 20, 2024. belgrade, serbia — Scuffles erupted for a second day Wednesday in a northern Serbian city between police and opposition protesters demanding arrests over a deadly roof collapse at the city\'s railway station earlier this month. Anti-government protesters sought to block a courthouse in Novi Sad, where the roof collapse at the station on Nov. 1 killed 15 people and injured two others. Riot police pushed the protesters away from the building. A similar opposition action on Tuesday resulted in an hours-long standoff. The collapse in Novi Sad has triggered a wave of protests again...

  Elias Magosi, executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community, said the bloc problems in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique at a summit, Nov. 20, 2024, at Mount Hampden in Zimbabwe (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA) Mount Hampden, ZIMBABWE — The Southern African Development Community held an extraordinary summit of heads of state in Zimbabwe on Wednesday to discuss the post-election strife in Mozambique and the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mozambique has been rocked by violence since last month’s elections, with police accused of killing at least 30 protesters, according to civil society organizations there. The opposition accuses the FRELIMO government, which was represented by Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, of stealing t...

  Kyaw Swa Tun, a photojournalist, is released from Insein Prison in Yangon, Myanmar, on Nov. 14, 2024. (Credit: CJ) washington — Photojournalist Kyaw Swa Tun, who was released last week from Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison after serving more than two years, has recounted the brutal treatment he endured at the hands of prison guards in an exclusive interview with VOA. “When the authorities learned I was a journalist,” he said, “I was isolated, tortured privately and subjected to threats of further harm if any news about the prison leaked out.” Having been accused of “insulting the state,” Kyaw, 27, was sentenced to three years of hard labor in January 2023 under Section 505(a) of the penal code, one of several key amendments to Myanmar’s...

By RFA Burmese2024.11.20 Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. An ethnic minority militia in northern Myanmar detained more than 1,000 people suspected of online scamming, the majority of them Chinese nationals, and deported them back to China, a militia official told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. Online scamming centers have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years, especially in some of the more lawless parts of Myanmar, as well as in neighboring Laos and Cambodia. The centers are often run by Chinese gangs and are notorious for luring unsuspecting people into jobs that entail going online to contact and defraud people, many in China. Chinese authorities are keen to get the rackets based over the border in Myanmar shut down and so action against them has become a ke...

  FILE PHOTO: The logo of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is seen at its headquarters in Vienna VIENNA — Iran has defied international demands to rein in its nuclear program and has increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, according to a confidential report by the United Nations\' nuclear watchdog seen Tuesday by The Associated Press. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as of Oct. 26, Iran has 182.3 kilograms (401.9 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) since the last report in August. Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The IAEA also estimated in its quarterly report that as of Oct. 26, I...

  FILE - A police patrol car provided with aid from the Chinese government is seen in Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands, April 18, 2024. China has surpassed the United States and regained its place as the second-largest bilateral donor to the Pacific Islands, according to a new report published Wednesday by the Lowy Institute. Australia remains the largest donor. Every year, the Lowy Institute, an Australia-based research group, releases a Pacific Aid Map that tracks loans and grants to the region in detail. The 2024 map includes spending in the Pacific from 2008 to 2022. Over the past decade, China has invested billions of dollars in Pacific Island nations in a bid to increase influence in the region amid competition with the U.S. and its allies. Following a reduction ...

  FILE - Tourists visit Roman ruins in Palmyra, Syria, on May 11, 2023. Syrian state-run media reported on Nov. 20, 2024, that a strike on the historic town killed 36 people. Syrian leaders blamed Israel. DAMASCUS, SYRIA — Syria\'s state-run media said a strike on the country\'s historic town of Palmyra on Wednesday killed 36 people and wounded more than 50, an attack that Damascus has blamed on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment. The news agency SANA said the strikes also led to "significant material damage to the targeted buildings and the surrounding area. Palmyra is known for the historic Roman temple complex nearby. Israel frequently targets military sites and facilities associated with Iran-linked groups in Syria ...

By BenarNews Staff2024.10.28BANKOK, KUALA LUMPUR, JAKARTA Indonesia, Vietnam, and two other neighbors have announced plans to join BRICS, the geopolitical grouping partly led by powers challenging the U.S.-led world economic order, but officials said they didn’t expect the move to affect relationships with the West. Russia – one of the original members of BRICS, along with Brazil, India, China and South Africa – hosted a three-day gathering this week in Kazan, where it welcomed new partners. In a post on X, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam were among 13 listed as “Official BRICS Partner Countries,” but not full members. During a speech at the conference, Rafizi Ramli, Malaysia’s economy minister, pointed to barriers to obtaining development finances and a growing global debt as...

By Wai Mar Tun for RFA Burmese2024.11.20 Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. During his recent visit to China, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing promised top Communist Party officials that his regime will complete a census by the end of the year -- then hold “free and fair elections,” he revealed on Tuesday. Min Aung Hlaing said he will invite international observers to monitor the vote -- which opponents and rebel leaders have said would be a sham, and a way to legitimize the military’s grip on power. On Nov. 6, he traveled to Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, where he met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of a regional summit. The trip marked his first trip to China since Myanmar’s military seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat. On Tuesd...