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Voice of AmericaVoice of America is an international news and broadcast organization serving Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East and Balkan countries
Tensions rose higher between Pakistan and the United States this week after a tribal court gave a long prison term to a Pakistani doctor who tried to help U.S. forces gather information about Osama bin Laden. American forces later killed the terrorist, and the doctor's actions angered many Pakistanis. Some critics say the case of Dr. Shakil Afridi has some parallels to the plight of a U.S. citizen who sold U.S. secrets to Israel, and who is serving a life term in an American ...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA is predicting a near-normal hurricane season in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins and a below-normal season in the Central Pacific.
Many residents of the U.S. Atlantic coast head into this year’s hurricane season, which starts June 1, with still-vivid recollections of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction. The 2008 storm flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
And this August ...
A spokesman for the African Union Mission in Somalia says that AU and Somali forces have pushed Islamist militants out of a town on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu.
Paddy Ankunda said Friday that the troops crossed into Afgoye earlier in the day and that most of the town was now under their control, while some fighting with al-Shabab militants was still going on.
The capture of Afgoye represents a major advance for African Union and Somali troops, who have made strong gains ...
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Some 700 people in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli staged a rally Friday to demand the release of Sunni Islamist leaders who they said were detained for opposing Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. The demonstration comes amid fears that the conflict in Syria could further enflame sectarian tensions in Lebanon.
Hundreds of Sunni Islamists known as Salafists Friday demonstrated in the northern Lebanese city, Tripoli. They were demanding the release of some 200 ...
Despite some reports of irregularities, Egypt’s historic elections were remarkably clean.
Observers say that virtually all of the candidates violated the election rules by transporting voters to the polls, giving speeches during the official period of silence, handing out sugar and cooking oil, or leaving campaign posters up by voting booths. But there were no reports of systematic vote rigging, marking a major step forward in the nation’s path toward greater transparency and democracy.
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A Voice of America reporter has been detained in the Ethiopian capital while trying to cover a demonstration Friday.
Witnesses to the arrest said that reporter Peter Heinlein and his translator Simegineh Yekoye were detained while seeking to interview protesters during a Muslim demonstration following Friday prayers in Addis Ababa.
Another Western reporter said there was a heavy police presence at the demonstration and that he also was stopped by police and told to leave the area.
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ABUJA - Globally, the number of maternal deaths has been cut in half since 1990. But, in Nigeria 40,000 women die each year because of pregnancy complications. Aid organizations say poverty, isolation and dangerous traditions are the heart of the problem while some mothers say there are simply no doctors at the hospital.
A United Nations study indicates that a third of the women who die from childbirth yearly are in two countries: India, the world's second-most ...
Study: Dementia in Middle Income Countries Rivals that of First WorldFri, 25 May 2012 14:38:02 -0400
One of the largest studies ever conducted of dementia in moderate-income countries has found the incidence similar to that in more affluent Western countries.
For years, health experts have believed that dementia -- the degenerative loss of memory and other brain functions -- was less common in middle-income countries than in wealthier, developed countries. But when researchers from Kings College, London conducted a 10-year survey of six developing countries -- Cuba, China, the ...
Makerere professor of medicine says newly established consortium has revolutionized training of Ugandan doctors
Egypt's Ahmed Shafiq was former president Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister before he lost power in last year's pro-democracy protests.
The former Air Force commander was appointed prime minister in hopes of appeasing the popular revolt. But because of that connection to Mubarak, he is viewed with some suspicion by activists involved in the 2011 movement and polarized voters.
Shafiq graduated from the Egyptian Air Force Academy and later earned a ...
Dr. Bruno Kubata, coordinator of African Research for Health Initiative, says systems are being created to improve well being of Africans
List focuses on threats to biodiversity
Egypt's presidential race appeared headed on Friday to a decisive and polarizing runoff between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate and another with strong ties to former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.
Preliminary counts from Egypt's first free presidential race show the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi in the lead and former prime minister and secularist Ahmed Shafiq a strong second.
The runoff, to be held on June 16-17, would offer Egyptians a stark choice between ...
Scholar Urges Increased Investment in Health Research in South AfricaFri, 25 May 2012 14:05:49 -0400
Bongani Mayosi, professor of medicine at University of Cape Town, expresses concern about decline in health conditions
LISBON -- Free state-funded health care is one aspect of the post-WWII political settlement of which Europeans are most proud. But now it could be under threat as governments are strapped for cash, and in Portugal, one of the continent’s poorest performers, the question of whether free health provision is still affordable is pressing.
Portuguese citizens have their vices like anyone else. But if their health deteriorates, they know, like most Europeans, there is a high quality yet mainly ...
The United States has strongly condemned this week's violence in Mali and called on coup leader Amadou Sanogo and his allies to stand aside and allow for the restoration of civilian rule.
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ate Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said Friday that the U.S. calls on Mali's soldiers to return to their roles as defenders of the constitution. She said U.S. will "remain alert" to any efforts, civilian or military, to deprive Mali's citizens of a speedy ...
Asian-Americans suffer the highest rates of long-term unemployment of any group in the United States, according to a recent study issued by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
While the overall Asian-American unemployment rate sits at 7.1 percent, lower than the national average of 8.1 percent, the latest data show that just over half of unemployed Asian-Americans have been without work for longer than six months. That is up from 48.7 percent in 2010.
For unemployed ...
Dr. Hassan Mshinda, Director General of Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology, hails efforts in reducing malaria ailments
A new study has found that shorter-acting methods of birth control, such as the Pill and the contraceptive patch, are much less effective at preventing unintended pregnancies than long-acting birth control methods such as intrauterine devices, or IUDs, and implants.
There are approximately six million pregnancies in the U.S. each year, and about half of them are unplanned. Approximately half of the unintended pregnancies are due to contraceptive failure, especially among younger ...
Ofir Drori is a former Israeli military officer, who says he fell in love with Africa when he was a teenager. Today, his work in the region is putting poachers and traffickers of endangered species behind bars. He now lives in Cameroon and is the co-author of a new book called The Last Great Ape .
Ofir Drori traveled to Kenya between high school and the start of his military service. He's been fascinated ever since.
"I chased giraffes, zebras. I saw all ...
French President Francois Hollande has defended his plan to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by the year's end, during a surprise visit to the restive country Friday.
During his brief visit to Afghanistan, President Francois Hollande met with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, and French forces in the country's restive Kapisa province - many of whom will be heading home this year.
Hollande told the soldiers that although France will withdraw its combat troops by the ...
Greece's caretaker prime minister, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, said Friday the country's European neighbors want it to stay in the euro currency zone, but that Athens must also adhere to the austerity spending plan it agreed to in exchange for billions of dollars in new rescue funds.
Pikrammenos met with other European heads of state earlier this week in Brussels. On Friday, he told Greek President Karolos Papoulias that the country's creditors elsewhere in Europe think it is ...
Dr. Budzanani Tacheba, director of Cluster Development at the new Botswana Innovation Hub, praises strong public-private partnerships in health research
Linda Ringe
HARARE - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has urged Western countries to suspend sanctions on Zimbabwe and its president - Robert Mugabe - to give the country a chance to implement reforms. The call came as Pillay ended her landmark five-day visit Friday.
Navi Pillay, a former South African High Court judge who has also served on the International Criminal Court, told reporters here in Harare Friday that sanctions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu ...
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi was not his Islamist group's first choice for its presidential candidate. But he got the job when the Brotherhood's lead candidate was disqualified and then became a front-runner in a show of the group's political muscle.
During the campaign, Morsi delivered fiery speeches and vowed his presidency would be based on Islam but not be a theocracy.
Morsi was born in the Nile Delta in 1951 and received an engineering degree ...
Suspected suicide attackers have set off a car bomb near a police station in central Turkey, killing one policeman and wounding nearly 20 civilians.
Turkey's interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin, said two suspects sped through a checkpoint Friday and detonated the bomb outside a police station in the town of Pinarbasi in Kayseri province.
Sahin said police spotted the car in neighboring Kahramanmaras province, where it ignored calls to stop at the checkpoint. He said security ...
But it’s only a fraction of the 'Sea of Grass' that once grew there
Relations between the United States and Russia are in a holding pattern until after the U.S. presidential elections in November, according to experts on diplomacy between the two nations.
According to this analysis, once the new American president is chosen and Vladimir Putin settles in as the new Russian president, U.S./Russia relations should resume a level of cooperation established in recent years.
Putin was sworn in as president this month, succeeding Dmitri Medvedev, who ...
More than 3,000 Rwandan children die every year from diarrhea. But health officials say that’s about to change with the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine. Rwanda is the latest in a growing number of African countries to receive the vaccine.
It’s estimated that worldwide more than 1200 children die each day from rotavirus infection. Almost all of them are in developing countries.
"Rotavirus is the leading cause of diarrhea. In fact, in Africa, 40 percent of children who are ...
WASHINGTON - A new study has found that babies born by Caesarean section are twice as likely to become obese by the age of three as newborns delivered vaginally, and authors of the report say women who plan to deliver their babies via C-section because it is more convenient might want to reconsider their options.
The study, conducted by researchers at Children's Hospital in Boston, monitored 1,250 women from before their 22nd week of pregnancy until they delivered their babies at ...
Nick Long
For about two decades, several species of fish commonly known as Asian carp have been swimming up the Mississippi River. The non-native fish, imported to help control algae in commercial fish farms, have been gobbling up food native fish need to survive. The U.S. government is spending millions to keep these invasive species from migrating through Chicago to the Great Lakes. And now the battle has spread north to Minnesota. However, critics say an all-out war on the Asian carp could be ...
BANGKOK - Burma’s opposition said leader Aung San Suu Kyi next week will take her first trip outside the country since 1988. The National League for Democracy said she will attend the World Economic Forum in Bangkok ahead of a tour of Europe. Thailand hosts a large community of Burmese activists and exiles and they are quite excited about her trip.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win on Friday said Aung San Suu Kyi will arrive in Bangkok mid-week. He said the democracy leader will meet Tuesday morning ...
NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Burma Sunday, becoming the first Indian leader to travel there in a quarter century.
Although Singh will be the first prime minister to visit the country since 1987, it is not the first time that India is engaging Burmese leaders.
New Delhi established relations with Burma’s military junta despite international criticism in the
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mid-1990s, and there has been a steady stream of high level visits between India and ...
WASHINGTON - After lung cancer, prostate cancer is the most prevalent killer of men in the United States. So when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that men stop having a test that can tell if they have prostate cancer, it stirred up controversy in the medical community.
For years, men over the age of 40 were told to get a simple blood test to see if they have prostate cancer. But the rationale behind the new recommendation is that treating the cancer can ...
French President Francois Hollande says he plans to pull all of his country's 2,000 combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, but that France will continue to support the war-torn country.
During an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Friday, Hollande said some 1,300 other troops will remain in the country in a support role. They will be training Afghan security forces and looking after equipment.
The newly-elected French leader said the early withdrawal will be closely ...
Click to see video report by Suzanne Presto
The California-based company, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has managed a feat only accomplished by four governments. On Friday, it docked its spacecraft with the International Space Station.
SpaceX's Dragon capsule made history when it approached the International Space Station, becoming the first private spacecraft ever to do so. The robotic capsule free floated 10 meters away from the orbiting lab, ...
ISLAMABAD - This week's sentencing of Shakil Afridi, a Paksitani doctor who helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden, to 33 years in prison for alleged treason has added new strains to Pakistan’s already problematic relationship with the United States.
The reaction among top U.S. leaders was outrage. They demanded Pakistan immediately release the doctor. Officials in Islamabad, however, insist Dr. Afridi’s case was decided in accordance with the country’s justice ...
The discovery of oil offers tremendous opportunities for Uganda. It also poses several risks if the country succumbs to what some analysts call the oil curse – or the diversion of revenues for development through mismanagement and corruption.
Many are concerned about the way the government has handled the Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs), or contracts with the oil companies.
"The details of the PSAs have not been made public," said Joel Barkan, a professor emeritus of political ...
BEIJING - China Friday pushed back against U.S. criticism of its human rights record in the past year, calling it "filled with prejudice." But while Beijing defended its record, blind lawyer and government critic Chen Guangcheng says the country has progress to make in ensuring the rule of law.
China’s government criticized the U.S. State Department’s annual assessment of human rights issues that said Beijing had increased efforts to silence dissidents and lawyers through the use of ...
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the "stepped-up security crackdown" by the Syrian government is leading to "massive violations of human rights" by both sides of the conflict.
In a report to the U.N. Security Council Friday, Ban said the presence of unarmed U.N. observers is "having a calming effect" but the overall level of violence in Syria remains "quite high".
Earlier Friday, the activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ...
LONDON - The Summer Olympics start in London in about two months, on July 27, and while interest has started to build a little, the city is not overflowing with excitement.
At Trafalgar Square, in the heart of the city, the official Olympic countdown clock gets a steady stream of people posing for pictures. But most of them are foreign tourists.
Many Londoners appear indifferent, worried or actually hostile toward the Games.
"I think it is a waste of ...
MANILA - In the Philippines, the new school year begins in June and a few dropouts in the Manila area are hoping to be back in a regular classroom by then. Right now, a pilot program of the national education system is helping them catch up at "pushcart classrooms." These mobile classrooms travel to street corners in six of the most impoverished neighborhoods of the metro area, complete with books, supplies, a meal and throngs of volunteers.
On a street corner in ...
Hurricane Bud has slightly weakened as it continues on a path across the Pacific Ocean toward the southwestern coast of Mexico.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says the storm is carrying maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers an hour, making it a Category Two storm on the five level scale that measures a storm's potential destructive power.
Hurricane and tropical storm warnings are in effect for Manzanillo north to Cabo Corrientes and the surrounding areas. ...
A U.S. soldier has been convicted in a civilian federal court in connection with a failed plot to attack a Texas restaurant popular with troops from a U.S. Army post.
Private First Class Naser Jason Abdo was convicted Thursday of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder of U.S. military officers or employees, and possessing a weapon to commit violence.
The 22-year-old Abdo was arrested last July after he bought smokeless gunpowder and other weapons. The ...
Ukraine opposition lawmakers have physically blocked the parliament speaker's podium to prevent debate on a language law that sparked a brawl, sending a lawmaker to the hospital.
Parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn on Friday said the fight showed that the body could no longer work together and called for the chamber to be disbanded and early elections be held. The idea was dismissed by most parties because elections are scheduled for October.
Lawmakers loyal to President Viktor ...
CAIRO - As election officials count the vote from Egypt's historic presidential election, the Muslim Brotherhood is claiming its candidate is in the lead. But Mohamed Morsi appears to be just one of several candidates who are doing well in a race that is headed to a run-off.
Preliminary results indicate Muslim Brotherhood contender, Mohamed Morsi, is ahead with about 30 percent of the votes tallied so far.
But it's not clear who might be in second place and ...
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says "significant differences" remain over Iran's nuclear program following two days of talks in Baghdad. She also says Pakistan's conviction of a doctor who helped in the capture of Osama bin Laden is "unjust."
Secretary Clinton says the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany set forth detailed proposals on all aspects of Iran's uranium enrichment during this week's talks in Baghdad. Iran, she ...
As Egyptians wrapped up two days of voting in a historic presidential election, early indicators showed the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamist candidate taking the lead among the five presumed front-runners.
A spokesman for the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi said Thursday the candidate was ahead in nationwide exit polls conducted by the organization's campaign workers. All five front-runners voiced optimism about their prospects even as several acknowledged Morsi’s relatively strong ...
