The artistic director of Russia’s famed Bolshoi Ballet troupe was injured in an acid attack late Thursday by an unknown assailant. A spokeswoman for the Bolshoi told reporters Sergei Filin suffered severe burns to his face and eyes after a masked attacker splashed concentrated acid on him as he approached his home late at night. […]
IAEA, Iran Fail to Reach Deal on Nuclear Inspections
Posted January 18th, 2013 at 4:30 am (UTC-5)
The chief United Nations nuclear inspector says no deal has been reached with Iran to investigate that nation’s controversial nuclear program, but that a meeting will take place next month on the issue. International Atomic Energy Agency team leader Herman Nackaerts said Friday that two days of “intensive discussions” in Tehran failed to produce an […]
China Reveals Economic Gap Between Rich and Poor
Posted January 18th, 2013 at 3:20 am (UTC-5)
China has released statistics on the income gap between rich and poor after keeping the figures secret since 2000. Ma Jiantang, chief of the National Bureau of Statistics, told a news conference Friday that figures from 2003 to the present showed “the income gap was rather big.” The NBS used the “Gini coefficient” – a […]
US Sundance Festival Showcases International Film, Documentaries
Posted January 18th, 2013 at 2:00 am (UTC-5)
The annual Sundance Film Festival has opened in Park City, Utah, bringing 119 films from 32 different countries to a snow-covered ski town, in what has become known as Hollywood’s winter vacation. This 35-year-old festival was started by actor and director Robert Redford as a way to help independent filmmakers promote their work. Now, it […]
China Breaks Decline in Economic Growth
Posted January 18th, 2013 at 12:35 am (UTC-5)
Chinese officials say the country’s economic growth rose to 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, ending seven straight quarters of slowing down. The National Bureau of Statistics Friday said the growth rate for the period October through December was up from 7.4 percent the previous quarter. It said this brought the growth rate […]
Cyclist Armstrong Admits on Television to Illegal Doping
Posted January 17th, 2013 at 9:55 pm (UTC-5)
Retired star U.S. Cyclist Lance Armstrong has appeared on American television to admit using performance-enhancing drugs in all seven of his Tour de France victories from 1999 through 2005. The 41-year-old cancer survivor, who has repeatedly denied doping accusations, told interviewer Oprah Winfrey that he could not have won the seven titles without the banned […]
‘Dear Abby’ Advice Columnist Dies at 94
Posted January 17th, 2013 at 5:30 pm (UTC-5)
Long-time American newspaper columnist Pauline Friedman Phillips, who for decades wrote the syndicated advice column “Dear Abby,” has died. She was 94. Phillips’ publicist said she died Wednesday in Minnesota after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Phillips’ column — seen by millions of readers — competed for decades with another widely circulated advice column, […]
Pakistani Terrorist Sentenced in Chicago
Posted January 17th, 2013 at 2:10 pm (UTC-5)
Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for helping a terrorist group plot an attack on a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The defense says Rana was unwittingly lured into the plot by his lifelong friend, David Coleman Headley, an American of Pakistani origin who […]
Transplanted Feces Cures Drug-Resistant Gut Infection
Posted January 17th, 2013 at 1:45 pm (UTC-5)
A Dutch research team says transplanting human feces from a healthy person to a sick person can cure a common and severe intestinal infection that antibiotics cannot control. The human gut is filled with billions of useful and protective bacteria. But those bacteria can be wiped out when people with infections are treated with a […]
U.S. Set to Recognize Somali Government
Posted January 17th, 2013 at 1:00 pm (UTC-5)
The United States is set to officially recognize the government in Somalia, opening formal diplomatic relations for the first time since 1993. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are set to exchange diplomatic notes Thursday to confirm the new relationship. In an interview Thursday with VOA’s Somali Service, President […]
