World

  FILE - People hold a banner during a public rally held for the Myanmar community in Australia calling for ASEAN to not support the Myanmar Military Junta, outside the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit venue, in Melbourne, Australia March 4, 2024. UNITED NATIONS — Myanmar\'s desperate military junta is ramping up attacks on villages that have fallen to opposition groups, carrying out beheadings, gang rapes and torture, with women, children and the elderly among the victims, the U.N. independent human rights investigator for Myanmar said in a new report. Thomas Andrews, a former U.S. congressman from Maine, said in the report to the U.N. General Assembly circulated Friday that the junta has responded to military defeats and the loss of terri...

  Rescuers check a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Chiyah, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Nov. 22, 2024. Israeli forces launched strikes Friday on Beirut’s southern suburbs and areas in southern Lebanon identified by Israel Defense Forces as Hezbollah strongholds. Video provided by news organizations showed strikes in Baabda, Choueifat, Hadath and Dahiyeh. In a post on its X social media account, the IDF said its air force completed a series of attacks on headquarters used by Hezbollah in the Dahiyeh area in Beirut. The post said the attacks were to damage the ability of Hezbollah to strike Israel, including production sites and warehouses of weapons in Dahiyeh. The IDF also said from its X account that its jets earlier ...

  FILE - A TV screen shows an image of soldiers believed to be from North Korea standing in line to receive supplies from Russia during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 21, 2024. Sydney — The United States expects that thousands of North Korean troops massing in Russia will "soon" enter combat against Ukraine, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Saturday. About 10,000 North Korean soldiers were believed to be based in the Russian border region of Kursk, Austin said, where they were being "integrated into the Russian formations." "Based upon what they\'ve been trained on, the way they\'ve been integrated into the Russian formations, I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soo...

  FILE - Independent candidate Venâncio Mondlane holds up his finger after casting his vote in general elections in Maputo, Mozambique, Oct. 9, 2024. MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE — Mozambique’s presidential election runner-up, Venâncio Mondlane, has placed conditions on his participation in a meeting with the country’s president to end weeks of political unrest over disputed elections. Mondlane delivered his proposal along with a proposed agenda and wants to meet Tuesday with President Filipe Nyusi and the three other presidential candidates. Among his demands, Mondlane requests that the legal proceedings against him be dropped and that his participation be virtual. He also wants the release of all those arrested as part of the violent protest...

  FILE - Venancio Mondlane gestures to supporters gathered to celebrate the results in the local elections in Maputo, Mozambique, Oct. 12, 2023. Mondlane finished second in Mozambique's presidential election on Oct. 9, 2024. MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE — The runner-up in Mozambique\'s October 9 presidential elections, Venancio Mondlane, has accepted President Filipe Nyusi\'s offer to join discussions with him and three other candidates in hopes of ending weeks of postelection protests and violence that have left at least 30 people dead in the southeast African country. Nyusi called for dialogue during a state-of-the-nation address Tuesday, saying the demonstrations were limiting the activities of companies, stalling shipments from ports and ...

  FILE - Chinese and U.S. flags are seen in this illustration created on Jan. 30, 2023. Chinese hackers are positioning themselves in U.S. critical infrastructure IT networks for a potential clash with the United States, a top American cybersecurity official said Friday. Morgan Adamski, executive director of U.S. Cyber Command, said Chinese-linked cyber operations are aimed at gaining an advantage in case of a major conflict with the United States. Officials have warned that China-linked hackers have compromised IT networks and taken steps to carry out disruptive attacks in the event of a conflict. Their activities include gaining access to key networks to enable potential disruptions such as manipulating heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems in server rooms, or di...

  Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor arrives at court for a civil trial on allegations against him of sexual assault, in Dublin, Nov. 19, 2024. dublin — Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor sexually assaulted a woman at a party in Dublin in 2018 and must pay her nearly 250,000 euros ($259,950) in damages, a jury decided on Friday. The jury of eight women and four men reached its verdict in the civil trial at Ireland\'s high court after six hours and 10 minutes of deliberation. The plaintiff, Nikita Hand, alleged that McGregor sexually assaulted her on Dec. 9, 2018, and that another man, James Lawrence, did the same, the court heard during two weeks of evidence. The jury found that Lawrence did not assault Hand. McGregor left the court without comm...

  A map of part of the Balkans, including North Macedonia and Montenegro. washington — Menacing incidents aimed at two female journalists in Europe within one week underscore the threatening environment for media, say analysts. In the first incident, in North Macedonia, journalist Miroslava Simonovska received threats online from a fake Facebook profile bearing her name and image. The threats included messages that read “We are following you” and “We are taking pictures of you,” according to the Coalition for Women in Journalism, or CFWIJ. The second incident was more violent. Montenegrin journalist Ana Raickovic was physically attacked by a local businessman. Raickovic, editor of the crime section for the daily newspaper Pobjeda, was threatened outside a restaurant ...

  FILE - Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski speaks to reporters during his visit in Kyiv, Dec. 22, 2023. Europe must be ready to fill the potential gaps in funding and weapons for Ukraine that may arise when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Friday. In an exclusive sit-down interview with VOA Eastern European Bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze, Sikorski noted that Trump and fellow Republicans appear reluctant to continue robust U.S. support for Ukraine, and he said it would be crucial to leverage frozen Russian assets to sustain Ukraine\'s defense. Sikorski also called on EU nations to increase defense spending to meet the challenges posed by Russia’s aggression. Sikorski sa...

  A mother and her child sit patiently, waiting for their turn to receive ready-to-eat therapeutic food at Koat Nutrition Center in Akobo East, South Sudan. (Sheila Ponnie/VOA) JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN — The international community warns that as many as 2 million children and 1 million pregnant or lactating mothers in South Sudan are facing acute malnutrition. Poor access to safe drinking water, sanitation and the spread of disease continue to fuel the crisis. The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report shows that nearly 8 million of South Sudan’s 12 million people will face acute food insecurity during the 2025 lean season, which begins in April. The country is still reeling from decades of war and intercommunal violence, UN...