Russia has announced the dates of its next manned space flights, after delaying previously scheduled missions following the crash of an unmanned Soyuz rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station. In a statement Tuesday, Russia’s space agency Roskosmos said the next manned space flights are now set for November 12 and December 20. The […]
Russia Announces Next Manned Space Flights
Clinton: Repression of Religious Freedom Emboldens Extremists
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says ongoing repression and violations of religious freedom around the world “embolden extremists” and “fuel sectarian strife.” Clinton made the comments Tuesday in Washington at the release of the biannual International Religious Freedom Report She cited Monday’s attack by gunmen on Shi’ite pilgrims in Iraq, calling it a “hateful, […]
Indian Police: Top Pakistan-Based Militant Killed in Kashmir
Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir say security forces have killed a top commander of a Pakistan-based militant group. Abdullah Uni, an operational commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was killed Tuesday in a gunbattle with Indian forces in the Kashmiri town of Sopore. Lashkar-e-Taiba was blamed for the 2008 terrorist attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, which killed […]
Clinton: Iran’s Possible Release of US Hikers ‘Encouraging’
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she is encouraged by comments from Iran’s president announcing that two American hikers convicted of spying in Iran will soon be freed. In an interview broadcast Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a correspondent for the American television network NBC that he thinks Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal […]
Merkel: Europe Must Avoid ‘Uncontrolled’ Greek Default
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the 17-nation bloc that uses the euro currency must do everything it can to avoid an “uncontrolled insolvency” by Greece. The German leader said Tuesday that the effects would be far-reaching if Athens defaults on payments for its international bailout loans. She said the danger is “very big” that with […]
Russia Slams EU Plan for Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline
Russia has criticized a European Union decision to open discussions with former Soviet states Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on a pipeline project that could deliver the Caspian region’s vast natural gas reserves directly to western Europe. In a statement Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said such an agreement would fail to take into account […]
Recession Boosts US Poverty Rate
The recession raised the percentage of people living in poverty in the United States in 2010 to the highest level in seventeen years. Tuesday’s report from the Census Bureau says the poverty rate was just over 15 percent, an increase of seven-tenths of a percent from the prior year. That totals up to just over […]
Burmese Activist Urges Democracy Dialogue Without Pre-Conditions
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she will continue pressing the country’s new, nominally civilian government for the release of all political prisoners, but that she does not believe a prisoner release should be a condition for further talks. The Nobel laureate spoke Tuesday in Rangoon to a reporter for VOA’s Burmese service, […]
British Parliament Again Calls James Murdoch on Phone-Hacking Scandal
British lawmakers say they will recall News International’s deputy chief operations officer, James Murdoch, for questioning in connection with the phone-hacking scandal at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid. Murdoch will face new questions about whether he knew that phone-hacking was widespread at the newspaper. It will be his second public questioning since lawmakers […]
Recession Boosts US Poverty Rate
The recession raised the percentage of people living in poverty in the United States in 2010 to the highest level in seventeen years. Tuesday’s report from the Census Bureau says the poverty rate was just over 15 percent, an increase of seven-tenths of a percent from the prior year. That totals up to just over […]