Two Years After Crimea Annexation, Ukraine Struggles to Forge Peace
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Two Years After Crimea Annexation, Ukraine Struggles to Forge Peace by webdesk@voanews.com (Carla Babb)
Friday marks two years since Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. As VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports, the recent uptick in fighting against Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's east has shifted the political focus for both Ukraine and the West.
Justice Department, Ferguson Reach Compromise over Police Reform by webdesk@voanews.com (Smita Nordwall)
The U.S. Justice Department and the central U.S. city of Ferguson, Missouri, have reached an agreement that resolves a lawsuit filed by the federal government against the city over reforming its mostly white police department. The federal government, alleging a pattern and practice of unconstitutional police conduct, sued the city last month after city leaders voted to change the terms of a deal negotiators had been hashing out for months. The City Council in the St. Louis suburb where...
Two U.S. senators: Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican; and Chris Murphy, a New York Democrat; are introducing legislation aimed at countering propaganda from Russia, China and other countries. VOA News reports.
Pakistani Hindus Complain of Forced Conversion of Teenage Girls by webdesk@voanews.com (Ayesha Tanzeem)
In a village in the Umerkot district of Pakistan’s Sindh province, where Harya said she was kidnapped, hers was one of only two Hindu families. Her parents said she disappeared after going to fetch water from the village well. A few hours later, her family tracked footsteps from the well to an influential household in the village, but was told she was not there. Later that night, they called the police. It was not until a week later that some of the villagers told them what...
Musharraf Leaves Pakistan After Travel Ban Liftedby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who is facing treason and other charges, has left the country after having his travel ban lifted. The Supreme Court ordered the government earlier this week to lift the former president's ban. Musharraf flew to Dubai early Friday and is expected to go abroad for medical treatment for what he described as a "decade-old illness." The former ruler promised to return to Pakistan to face all pending charges...
Syria Shaky Truce Allows for Rallies Against al-Qaida Branchby webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
With Syria's shaky cease-fire holding, peaceful protesters have yet again taken to the streets in opposition-held areas of the country. But this time, in addition to President Bashar Assad's government, they have another despised authority they seek to topple - al-Qaida's affiliate in the country, the oppressive Nusra Front. The developments have raised questions as to whether the al-Qaida branch can be sidelined - or in fact even completely eradicated - from any future...
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Gongs have been used in religious rituals in Asia since ancient times. Their composition has changed little over the centuries. But the vagarities of the modern metals market has compelled a technological innovation in Myanmar. VOA Correspondent Steve Herman reports from Mandalay.
US Military Personnel Punished for Afghan Hospital Attackby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Officials say U.S. personnel who were involved in the devastating, half-hour aerial attack on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan have been or will be punished. Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S.-Central Command said "those individuals most closely associated with the incident have been suspended from their duties and were referred for administrative action." The punishments have not been publicly announced, but are reported to include letters of...
In the 1960s, as the drilling of tube wells began in eastern India, people were advised to switch to the practice of drinking groundwater to protect themselves from cholera and other water-borne epidemics. But the switch from traditional dug wells to tube wells proved fatal in the 1990s, when a high level of arsenic contamination was detected in water from tube wells in Bangladesh and in eastern India. Now, ponds provide a safer source of water. VOA's Maaz Hussain reports.
Congress Remains Divided Ahead of Obama's Cuba Visitby webdesk@voanews.com (Michael Bowman, Smita Nordwall)
U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba is being anticipated by many as a historic chance to thaw relations with Havana. Despite the reluctance of some in Congress, Obama has moved aggressively to restore economic and diplomatic relations with the communist island. National Security Adviser Susan Rice told the Atlantic Council Thursday, "As President Obama has repeatedly said, we know that change won’t come to Cuba overnight. But the old approach — trying to isolate Cuba, for...
Ahead of War Crimes Verdict, Karadzic's Divisive Bosnia Legacy Endures by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
The verdict that a U.N. tribunal will hand down next week in Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's trial for genocide has re-opened old wounds for many Bosnians, who for years feared him as the "master of life and death". The long-awaited decision by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, to be handed down on Thursday after a five-year trial, reminds Bosnians that Karadzic's legacy lives on in a country still divided along ethnic lines two decades after the war that...
Runaway Lion Claws Man on Nairobi Streetby webdesk@voanews.com (Mohammed Yusuf)
Kenya wildlife officials say a lion that escaped from Nairobi National Park attacked a man on a busy road in the capital Nairobi Friday. This is the third time in less than a month that lions have escaped from the zoo, triggering panic among city residents. Kenya Wildlife Service Director of Communications Paul Udoto says the fugitive lion clawed a 68-year-old man, and that the behavior of pedestrians and motorists was to blame. “A crowd that had formed around that lion had made...
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Academic analysis of US presidential candidates' speeches shows that Donald Trump's grammar more basic than his rivals
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Military personnel involved in devastating air strike on MSF hospital in Afghanistan have been or will be punished, US officials say
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Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, has lashed out at the American government, saying his fight with them is like "a bad dream"
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Two balsa rafts sailing from South America to Easter Island and back rescued were documenting climate change marine life and pollution in the Pacific
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Pictures of the day: 18th March 2016 by Telegraph Staff
Today: A playful polar bear, bike riders in the Pennines and Bagpuss
David Cameron says on Thursday that the UK supports the idea of sending tens of thousands of migrants back to Turkey from the Greek islands. Speaking in Brussels ahead of an EU summit on the migrant crisis, Cameron says the plan ‘was a good idea’
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Refugees light fires and brace another harsh night at a makeshift camp near Idomeni on Thursday night, as European leaders meet in Brussels for a summit on migrants. About 10,000 migrants have been in limbo for weeks after countries along the Balkan migration corridor shut their borders. Refugees Yashar and Mohammed say they hope the summit may lead to the reopening of the borders
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Despite impressive breakthroughs, Google's parent company is looking to sell - and Amazon could be in the frame.
Containing an unidentified white powder, the letter calls for the real estate tycoon to quit the Republican nomination race.
Echo Voyager can operate at a maximum depth of 11,000 feet for up to three months at a time.
Pope Francis is planning a trip to Armenia in June, a year after he termed the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians a genocide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin travelled to Crimea on Friday to mark the second anniversary of the peninsula’s annexation and inspect construction of a bridge meant to link it to mainland Russia.
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Morocco took offense at Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s description of its annexation of Western Sahara and prepared retaliatory measures.
As the Obama administration works to expand economic relations with Cuba, it is competing for influence with a familiar rival: China.
Turkey and the European Union embarked on a tough day of negotiations on how to manage the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
An incident in which a lion that had escaped from Nairobi’s national park has been roaming one of the Kenyan capital’s main avenues exemplifies how the city’s rapid development has eaten into wildlife habitats.
Ta ta for now
THERE is nothing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, likes more than taking everyone by surprise. Except, perhaps, demonstrating that his country is an independent actor on the world stage that has to be taken seriously. Thus, the announcement from the Kremlin on March 14th that Russia was partially withdrawing its forces in Syria was vintage Putin. His message was that Russia’s military objectives had been achieved and it was now time to support peace talks in Geneva that were due to resume on the same day. Better still, from Mr Putin’s point of view, he left everyone else guessing about his real intentions and what he might do next.
A number of things can, however, be construed from Mr Putin’s démarche. The first is that Russia is not pulling out its forces completely. It will retain its naval presence in Tartus; at least a dozen fast jets will continue to fly from its air base near Latakia; about 1,000 military advisers and special forces will stay; and the recently-installed S-400 air defence system covering the north-west of the country will also be kept in place. Should the fragile “cessation of hostilities” that Russia and America brokered last month fall apart, it can re-escalate very quickly. But for now, Russia can cut the $3m a day cost of its military operation, while preserving much of the leverage it has bought.
The second is that Mr Putin’s claim that his forces had “fulfilled their main mission in Syria” was revealing. Gone was any attempt to cling to the fiction that the intervention had been primarily aimed at hitting Islamic State (IS) rather than to preserve the imperilled regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator. The 9,000 or so sorties that have been flown by Russian planes since October shifted the military balance in favour of the regime. Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoygu, boasted that his forces had helped the government regain control over more than 400 “populated areas” and 4,000 square miles (10,000 sq km) of territory.
But while the survival of the regime was the objective, it is now clear that Mr Putin was never inclined to give Mr Assad the kind of military blank cheque needed for him to take back all or even most of the country. Mr Assad’s bullish talk of recent weeks and his unwillingness to engage seriously with the UN-sponsored Geneva peace process appear to have gone down badly in the Kremlin. Whether that means, as some suggest, that Mr Putin is ready to abandon Mr Assad so long as he has a say in who succeeds him, is less certain. But Mr Assad has been reminded not to try being the tail that wags the dog.
That leads to a third conclusion. John Kerry, America’s secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, his Russian opposite number, are known to have discussed the possibility of a federal structure for Syria as the only way to bring peace. The outlines of a partition that would be acceptable to Russia are already visible.
Underpinned by Russian and Iran, the minority Alawite sect to which Mr Assad belongs would control territory in the west, running roughly from Latakia in the north down to Damascus in the south; an autonomous Syrian-Kurdish region in the north-east, known as Rojava, would be established; the rest of the country would be left to the Sunni opposition, who would be helped by Western and Russian air power to expel IS from its stronghold in Raqqa.
Unfortunately, the facts on the ground do not yet support such a simple solution. One of many obstacles to such a carve-up is that some big cities, such as Aleppo and Homs, remain highly contested. In the past few weeks, pro-regime forces have more or less encircled Aleppo. But a fourth conclusion is that Russian and Iranian military advisers may not have much confidence in the ability of the Syrian army, depleted by five years of conflict, and a gaggle of Shia militias to conduct a successful offensive against the strongly-defended city. The Iranians have quietly also been pulling out some of their military personnel as their battlefield losses have mounted.
What all this means for the talks in Geneva being orchestrated by the UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is too early to say. Iran and Saudi Arabia are still at loggerheads; the conflict between Turkey and the Kurds becomes ever more bitter. And above all, despite Mr Putin’s implicit message to both Mr Assad and the opposition that neither of them can expect to get all they want, there is scant sign from either of a readiness for compromise.
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David Cameron urges action to destroy boats close to the Libyan shore, ahead of gruelling night of talks over Turkey's 'blackmail' deal
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