World

  FILE - A Pakistani waits to open an internet page on a desktop in Lahore, Pakistan, Aug. 19, 2024. Pakistan's top cleric has declared that virtual private networks, or VPNs, are unlawful. WASHINGTON — Pakistan\'s top cleric has declared that virtual private networks, or VPNs, are unlawful, igniting a debate on privacy rights and access to information amid a government crackdown on the internet. Allama Raghib Naeemi, head of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), issued a decree saying it makes no difference whether a VPN is registered or unregistered. “If attempts are made to access indecent or immoral sites, character assassination is done, statements are being made against national security, or if various incidents of religious b...

  Major General Kenneth Chigbu, deputy theatre commander of Operation Hadin Kai is shown with poses for a group photograph with Alice Loksha, left, and Fayina Ali at Army Barrack Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on November 15, 2024. Abuja, Nigeria — Stability is returning to northeastern Nigeria after decades of insurgency as the military and the Borno State government work to reduce terrorist activities and rescue abducted civilians. Operation Hadin Kai, the military\'s counter-insurgency operation in the northeast launched in 2021, has rescued of numerous civilians held captive by insurgents. The deputy theater commander of Operation Hadin Kai, Kenneth Chigbu, praised the partnership with Borno State government. "The Bo...

  Scores of people march amid concerns about corruption in state enterprises, in Gaborone, Botswana, Nov 18, 2024. Gaborone, Botswana — Botswana’s new leader, President Duma Boko, has promised zero tolerance for graft in his administration. The pledge comes as scores of Botswana residents join in youth-led anti-corruption protests, urging the government to prosecute former officials accused of looting public coffers. Activist Setlhomo Tshwanelang mobilized the protests over alleged corruption within state enterprises. He said more demonstrations are on the way and the new government must prosecute anyone who stole public funds. Montshwari Mogopane, an investigator for Botswana’s Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, said his offi...

  Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping as they gather for a G20 Summit world leaders' group photo, in Rio de Janeiro, Nov. 19, 2024. Brasilia, Brazil — China\'s President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Brazil Wednesday, fresh off a warm reception at summits of the G20 and APEC groups, both held under the cloud of Donald Trump\'s White House return. Xi has said he would seek to "further enhance" ties with Brasilia when he meets counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, host of the G20 summit that closed in Rio Tuesday. The bilateral comes as China is looking with trepidation to a future after U.S. President Joe Biden, with whom Xi had led efforts to e...

  This photo taken on November 18, 2024 shows Myanmar farmer Hla Han, 52, who lost his leg after stepping on a mine, peeling garlic outside his house in Demoso township, eastern Kayah state. BANGKOK — Landmines and unexploded munitions claimed more victims in Myanmar than in any other country last year, a monitor said on Wednesday, with over 1,000 people killed or wounded in the country. Decades of sporadic conflict between the military and ethnic rebel groups have left the Southeast Asian country littered with deadly landmines and munitions. But the military\'s ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi\'s government in 2021 has turbocharged conflict in the country and birthed dozens of newer "People\'s Defense Forces" now battling to topple t...

  A Finnish soldier of the Karelia Brigade, one of the three Finnish Army readiness brigades, operates the K9 artillery, a 155 mm self-propelled howitzer during the NATO Exercise Dynamic Front, on November 17, 2024 near Rovaniemi, Finland. Rovaniemi, Finland — Thousands of NATO soldiers are taking part in large-scale artillery exercises in Finland\'s Arctic this month, seen by some as a signal to neighboring Russia over its war on Ukraine. Sounds of cannon fire and rocket artillery echo across the snowy, hilly Lapland landscape as some 3,600 soldiers from the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France and other NATO members conduct live fire drills throughout November. They are part of NATO\'s largest artillery exercise ever held i...

  Arshad Sharif, an anchor on Pakistan’s ARY News channel was killed in Kenya on October 23, 2022. WASHINGTON — The last time Javeria Siddique spoke with her husband, the renowned Pakistani news anchor Arshad Sharif, he was “happy and excited,” she said. Sharif was in Kenya after leaving his home country because of threats and legal issues. On that video call on October 21, 2022, he talked to all the family members, Siddique said, even the pets. “His dogs were so excited to see him on video call as they thought he had returned home,” Siddique told VOA. But the journalist never returned home. Two days after that call, Sharif was shot dead at a roadblock in Kenya. His death shocked Pakistan and led to competing theories about what happened. Was it, as Kenyan authoritie...

  FILE - An international sign warning about mines hangs beside a minefield at Bagram Air Base on, March 22, 2002. The United States will soon provide antipersonnel mines to Ukraine, a U.S. official confirmed late Nov. 19, 2024. The United States will soon provide antipersonnel mines to Ukraine, a U.S. official confirmed late Tuesday, in a move that followed Ukraine’s first deployment of long-range U.S.-supplied ballistic missiles in an attack on Russia. The official said the United States sought commitments from Ukraine on how it will use the mines, with the expectation they will be deployed only on Ukrainian territory in areas where Ukrainian civilians are not living. The official also pointed to the function of the mines, which they said require a battery for operation and ...

  Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visit the flood damaged town of Utiel, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain, in the aftermath of catastrophic deadly floods, on November 19, 2024. BARCELONA, Spain — Spain\'s royal couple returned Tuesday to the area devastated by last month\'s catastrophic flooding for the first time since enraged survivors pelted them and top elected officials with mud on their first visit to the disaster zone. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited the town of Chiva along with a central government minister and the regional leader of eastern Valencia, whom many citizens have slammed for bungling the flood response. No mud flew this time as Felipe and Letizia shook hands with people at the beginning o...

  People walk past an installation depicting barrel of oil with the logo of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) during the COP29 United Nations climate change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan November 19, 2024. Several international human rights organizations have raised alarm about Azerbaijan’s crackdown on rights defenders, government critics and journalists before the start of the COP29 climate change conference currently being held in its capital, Baku. “We urge every delegation attending COP29 to press the Azerbaijani government to end its clampdown on civil society, guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly throughout and beyond the conference, and take meaningful action to...