Month: July 2019

In the early hours of Monday, India is set to launch a mission to an uncharted area of the moon, marking a significant milestone in its steadily expanding ambitions in space. If successful, India would become the fourth country to land a probe on the moon after the United States, Russia and China and secure its place as a leading space-faring nation. India’s most powerful rocket launcher is scheduled to carry the Chandrayaan-2, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, from Sriharikota in eastern India. It will have a lunar orbiter, lander and rover. The real test of the mission will come about 50 days later, around Sept. 6, when the lander will attempt a controlled landing on the lunar surface at the South Pole of the moon, which no country has attempted so far. This July 2019, photo released by the Indian Space Research Organization shows its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MkIII-M1 being prepared for its July 15 launch in Sriharikota, an island off India’s southeastern coast. South Pole “The challenge is to demonstrate our capacity to undertake such a complex mission for the soft and precise moon landing on the South Polar region for the first time,” according to P. Kunhikrishnan, director, UR Rao satellite center at the Indian Space Research Organization. Space scientists say that the moon’s South Pole is interesting because it holds the promise of water. The lunar rover will operate for 14 days, mapping the moon’s surface and through experiments look for signs of water …

The power of song can heal the hearts and bring people together.  A girls’ chorus named Pihcintu sings to do just that.  Most members are from war-torn countries and refugee camps around the world. Together they sing as one and spread a message of hope. VOA’s June Soh caught up with the group in Washington and has this story narrated by Carol Pearson    …

At a time when podcasts, e-books and smartphones are blossoming, old-fashioned books are still popular in the United States. That is why tiny free libraries, where people exchange books, are sprouting up across the nation to help book lovers. For VOA, Iryna Matviichuk visited some exchanges in the Washington area. Anna Rice narrates our story.   …

Tall buildings made of wood are beginning to pop up around the world, from the United States and Canada to Norway and soon England. Builders say wood may well be the construction material of the future. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.   …

Extracting venom from snakes, scorpions and other venomous animals has become a lucrative business. The number of companies producing venom for antidotes has dropped and the demand has risen, according to market research groups. Two businessmen in Herat, Afghanistan, have opened a venom extraction laboratory in a nation that is home to 27 species of snakes and an unknown number of scorpion species. Khalil Noorzai has more in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.   …

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service. WASHINGTON — Sometimes history has a funny way of confounding its chroniclers. In a recent Financial Times interview, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the liberal world order obsolete. Sitting with reporters at the Kremlin hours before attending the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, where he roundly condemned open-door policies toward migrants, the Russia leader decried “the so-called liberal idea” as a moribund enterprise at odds with “traditional values” of ordinary people the world over. “Our Western partners have admitted that some elements of the liberal idea, such as multiculturalism, are no longer tenable,” Putin said, criticizing immigration policies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and touting President Donald Trump’s continued push to build a wall as part of a broader crackdown on migrants. It was 30 years ago this summer, just months before another wall came tumbling down, that a young economist named Francis Fukuyama published his landmark essay, The End of History?, in which he asked whether liberalism had triumphed over competing ideologies. Because the highest aspiration of all humans is recognition and acceptance of their rights, he argued, liberalism would inevitably triumph. But as even the Stanford scholar himself now acknowledges, there are competing elements in human nature, and the sometimes predominant human desire for freedom is eclipsed, especially in the face of tumultuous change and uncertainty, by an equally predominant desire for the security of strongman rule. VOA’s Russian Service sat down with Fukuyama to get his take on Putin’s …

The UN Human Rights Office is calling on Yemen’s Appellate Court to dismiss the death sentences handed down on 30 people earlier this week by the Houthi authorities in the capital Sana’a. Most of the 30 men sentenced to death are academics, students and politicians.  The UN human rights office says they have been affiliated with the Islah party, a group that has been critical of the Houthis.   The Houthi rebels, believed to be backed by Iran, have been at war with the Saudi-backed Government of Yemen for more than four years. Human rights spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani says the men have been languishing in prison since their arrest in 2016.   She says they were charged in 2017.  While they have had dozens of hearings in court since then, she says none has been able to present a proper defense. “The arrests also took place without warrants for the most part and they were held without being brought to a court for several months or up to a year in many cases…And suddenly, in fact it came as a surprise to all of us,” said Shamdasani. “Suddenly on Tuesday, the court read out the judgement and the convictions and the sentencing.” US Wants Military Coalition to Safeguard Waters Off Iran, Yemen Under the plan, the United States would provide command ships and lead surveillance efforts for the military coalition, and allies would patrol waters and escort commercial vessels The 30 men are charged with allegedly participating in an organized armed …

A team of researchers across three universities is working on a cell-killing machine invisible to the naked eye. “We want to be bacteria’s worst nightmare,” said James Tour, T.T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry at Rice University in Houston. He is also a professor of materials science and nanoengineering, and computer science. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose one of the biggest threats to global health, according to the World Health Organization. Researchers at Rice University, Durham University in Britain and North Carolina State University may have discovered a way to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Harmful Bacteria’s Worst Nightmare May Be a Microscopic Drill video player. Embed Copy Harmful Bacteria’s Worst Nightmare May Be a Microscopic Drill They’re experimenting with tiny, manmade nanomachines that can drill into a cell, killing it. The machines are single molecule motors that can spin at about 3 million rotations a second when a blue light shines on them. As they spin, they drill into the cell. Harmful bacteria cannot mutate to overcome this type of weapon, Tour said. “We may have found something that the cell could never build a resistance to,” he added. The nanomachines are so small that about 50,0000 of them can fit across the diameter of a human hair. In comparison, only about 50 cells can take up that amount of space. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are not the only enemies this weapon can fight. Cancer killer The nanomachines can drill into cancer cells, causing the cells’ nucleus to disintegrate into fragments. “We’ve tried …

A report submitted to the UN human rights council this week accuses Nicaragua of continuing to repress, threaten and harass human rights defenders and other opponents one year after the government’s violent crackdown on nationwide demonstrations. More than 300 people were killed, 2000 injured, and hundreds arbitrarily arrested during last year’s violent repression of peaceful nationwide protests.  More than 70,000 people also fled into exile to escape the heavy-hand of the Nicaraguan government.   U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, says peaceful protests and dissent continue to be repressed in Nicaragua.   She says more than 440 imprisoned protestors have been released, but more than 80 remain in custody under severe conditions. “Our Office has received allegations that some of them were subjected to torture or ill-treatment by correction officers. . . . We are deeply concerned that human rights defenders and community leaders continue to be targets of attacks, of threats, harassment and constant surveillance,” Gilmore said. Nicaragua Says Released all Considered Political Prisoners President Daniel Ortega’s government said in a statement that it has complied with a 90-day period for releasing such prisoners as part of negotiations this spring, a period that expired Tuesday Gilmore says people are deprived of the right to freedom of expression, including freedom of the media.  She says journalists and other media workers are threatened, harassed and censored.  She notes two prominent journalists were detained for more than five months under terrorism charges. She urges the government of President Daniel Ortega …

New Zealand has held its first public fire-arms collection event in Christchurch Saturday as part of the government’s response to the city’s mosque shootings in March.  Ownership of the types of high-powered weapons used in the attacks that killed 51 people has been restricted. There were long lines at a racecourse in Christchurch as gun-owners waited to hand in weapons that are now illegal.  It is the first of more than 250 buy-back events that will be held across New Zealand.  The police expect that tens of thousands of guns will be surrendered, although the exact number is unknown. Semi-automatic weapons were outlawed following attacks on two mosques in Christchurch that left 51 people dead.  The government said the law would remove the most dangerous guns from the community. New Zealand Announces Assault Weapons Ban in Wake of Christchurch Mass Shootings Nearly one week after 50 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand were gunned down, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed an immediate ban on all military-style semi-automatic and automatic assault rifles. The ban, which Prime Minister Ardern announced Thursday in Wellington, includes high-capacity magazines, which can hold multiple rounds of ammunition, and accessories that can convert ordinary rifles into fast-acting assault rifles. Chris Cahill, from the New Zealand Police Association, which represents officers, believes the buy-back scheme will go smoothly.  “We know the vast majority of firearms owners are law-abiding citizens,” said Cahill. “While disappointed they have to lose these sorts of firearms they understand why and they want to …

Islamic State media operatives appear to have regrouped, at least in part, intent on showing the world that the terror organization is living up to its motto of “remaining and expanding” despite its lack of a physical caliphate. For almost a month, the group’s core media channels have been pumping out a series of videos showing fighters pledging allegiance, or renewing their pledges, to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.   Intelligence officials and analysts say, so far, the group, also known as ISIS or by its Arabic acronym, Daesh, has produced and disseminated eight of these videos under the title, “The Best Outcome is for the Pious.”   The video series “aims at proving that ISIS has not been defeated and that its militants in several parts of the world remain loyal to their leaders,” a U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA. IS media operatives issued the most recent of the videos this past Wednesday, the first-ever video from the terror group’s Turkish province. “If you think that by weakening the Islamic State and its soldiers, that they will divert from their path or leave their jihad, you have great delusions,” said a fighter, identified as Abu Qatada al-Turki, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. Turki further threatened Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling him an “arrogant tyrant.” “Do not think that the swords of the soldiers of the Caliphate are far from you or from those who stand on your side,” he warned. Previous videos highlighted fighters …

South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar has agreed to a face-to-face meeting with President Salva Kiir, a step that could energize the lagging talks on a government for the civil war-wracked country. In a letter dated July 8 and sent to President Kiir’s security adviser, Tut Gatluak, Machar said he is ready to talk with the president as long as he can freely move about in South Sudan. The Kiir administration invited Machar to meet with Kiir after the government and opposition groups missed a May deadline to form a transitional government of national unity. The period was extended for another six months. In the letter viewed by VOA, Machar said he will meet Kiir to discuss the challenges of implementing pre-transition activities since recent months have passed “without substantial progress.” Norway Ambassador to South Sudan Lars Anderson said two months of the six-month extension of the pretransitional period have already come and gone with little to show. He said the parties to last year’s peace deal must implement security arrangements immediately in order to pave the way for the formation of a unity government on time. “There shouldn’t be more extensions. That is clear from the agreement they have, according to themselves. Now it’s fairly predictable by November there will be another form of political crisis around that. And it is really going to be up to the parties how they manage this,” Anderson told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. Representatives of the various parties who sit on the …

Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. U.S.: Undocumented people on alert for federal immigration raids, again. For the second time in a month, there is talk of federal raids to detain undocumented immigrants across the United States. It’s a fearful time for those who are vulnerable. U.S.: Break in the border spike A months-long increase in border apprehensions reversed in June, shortly after the U.S. brokered a migration deal with Mexico amid threats of a tariff. It’s also the time of year when temperatures creep up in the southwestern U.S., leading to fewer attempts to enter the country through some of the nation’s remotest, most desolate areas. But it’s too early to say whether the downward trend in border arrivals will continue. U.S.: Questions over fast-tracking asylum procedures As the U.S. faces a monumental backlog of asylum cases and an increase in families and unaccompanied children seeking sanctuary in the country, the Trump administration wants to speed up the process. The move worries many immigration lawyers who tell VOA that hurrying cases could jeopardize asylum-seekers’ ability to seek help or advice. U.N.: Bachelet blasts Washington over border facilities The UN’s top human rights official joined a chorus of condemnation over the condition of migrant detention facilities in the southwestern …

Federal prosecutors say a Pennsylvania man sexually molested four teenage girls at a Kenyan orphanage he founded with a church’s help. U.S. Attorney William McSwain announced charges Friday against 60-year-old Gregory Dow of Lancaster, hours after Dow was taken into custody. McSwain says Dow fled Kenya in September 2017 after being accused in that country of sexual abuse of girls at the Dow Family Children’s Home in Boito, Kenya. A tipster contacted the Lancaster County prosecutors’ office last year. That started an investigation that produced the new charges that he violated a U.S. law against sexual contact with minors in foreign countries. Dow told the LNP newspaper this year that he had not done anything wrong. He is expected to appear in federal court in Philadelphia on Friday. …

Egypt’s legendary movie critic and film historian Youssef Cherif Rizkallah, the man who helped popularize Hollywood movie reviews on Egyptian and Middle East televisions, died Friday. His death comes two days after revealing he had kidney problems. He was 76. The famed broadcast journalist, best known as Egypt’s mobile movie encyclopedia, was an invaluable film resource for Arab media. He wrote thousands of movie reviews for Egyptian and Arab newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows.   Italian actress Claudia Cardinale holds an old photo that was presented to her at a press conference by Festival Artistic Director, Youssef Cherif Rizkallah, Cairo Egypt, Nov. 11, 2015. Rizkallah, who prepared and co-hosted three iconic and popular movie review shows on Egyptian television, including, Oscar, Telecinema, and The Magic Lantern, started his career as a news editor with the Egyptian TV News in the 1960s after graduating with a political science degree at Cairo University. In the 1980s, he hosted a show that introduced Hollywood stars to Egyptian and Arab audiences. The Jesuit-educated movie critic, Rizkallah, was drawn most in his early career to romance and classical storytelling of Hollywood greats like Michael Curtiz, David Lean, Blake Edwards, Richard Attenborough, Garry Marshall, and Rob Reiner.   He introduced several Hollywood stars via satellite on Egyptian televisions, including actress Meryl Streep and American film actor and director Peter Bogdanovich.    “It is a sheer joy for me to invite Hollywood stars to Egypt, watch their movies and write about them,” he once said. He helped …

Women in the Syrian city of Raqqa say their lives have changed dramatically after U.S.-backed forces freed their city from the Islamic State terror group. …

Women in the Syrian city of Raqqa say their lifestyle drastically changed after U.S.-backed forces freed their city from the Islamic State terror group. The Syrian Democratic Forces liberated the city in October 2017. Since then, Raqqa residents have been determined to bring a sense of normalcy back to their city, which was once the de facto capital of IS’s self-proclaimed caliphate.  Throughout the partially restored market in downtown Raqqa, shops selling women’s clothing and cosmetics now openly showcase their merchandise, something unthinkable during IS rule. “Now, I can exhibit anything I want in front of my store,” said a 37-year-old man who owns a women’s boutique.   “When Daesh was here, we had to hide things like revealing clothes and lingerie in the back of the store. Men couldn’t sell these things to women, so we had to hire women to sell to other women,” he told VOA, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.  Under IS rule, strict social codes were imposed on the local population. Men and women who were not related weren’t allowed to interact.  Women, in particular, were required to wear black dresses covering their entire bodies and faces. Those who disobeyed received harsh punishments, including imprisonment and flogging. “I remember how my friend’s older sister was humiliated on the street by two female IS members because they thought her face wasn’t covered properly,” said a 21-year-old woman who was a teenager when IS ruled Raqqa. She declined to be identified for security reasons.  A …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could be facing his biggest political challenge, with the resignation of his former economic czar Ali Babacan threatening to split his ruling AKP Party. Party discontent is escalating amidst economic malaise and deteriorating human rights. “Under the current conditions, Turkey needs a brand-new vision for its future,” Babacan said Monday upon resigning. “It has become inevitable to start a new effort for Turkey’s present and future. Many of my colleagues and I feel a great and historic responsibility toward this effort.” New political party Babacan is expected to launch a new political party as early as September. A founding member of AKP, Babacan served as foreign and economy minister in the early years of the party’s rule. He is widely credited with presiding over Turkey’s economic transformation with unparalleled record growth. “We can normalize the society, end the polarization within society,” said Osman Can, a former national AKP board member, who now supports Babacan’s movement. “We can normalize relations with the United States and Europe. We can also be a hope for the region. This is why I am hopeful, for Babacan lives as a conservative but his thinking is liberal.” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a meeting of a pro-government trade-union, in Ankara, Turkey, July 10, 2019. Erdogan has confirmed that he fired the Central Bank chief over his refusal to cut interest rates. The AKP originally was a coalition of liberals and religious conservatives, ushering in wide-ranging democratic reforms in its early years of …

Sudan’s ruling military council has foiled a coup attempt, a top general announced on state television Thursday, saying that 12 officers and four soldiers had been arrested. The announcement came as the ruling military and civilian protesters agreed last week to end a political impasse after the army in April ousted longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir on the back of a popular uprising. “Officers and soldiers from the army and National Intelligence and Security Service, some of them retired, were trying to carry out a coup,” General Jamal Omar of the ruling military council said in a statement broadcast live on state television. “The regular forces were able to foil the attempt,” he said, but did not say when the attempt was made. Omar said of the 12 officers arrested, five of them were retired, and that security forces were looking for the mastermind of the attempted coup. FILE – People walk past graffiti reading in Arabic “Freedom, Peace, Justice and Civilian” in the Burri district of Khartoum, Sudan, July 10, 2019. “This is an attempt to block the agreement which has been reached by the Transitional Military Council and the Alliance for Freedom and Change that aims to open the road for Sudanese people to achieve their demands,” Omar said. The announcement late Thursday came as legal advisers of the ruling military council and protest leaders were going through the details of the agreement at a luxury hotel in Khartoum. The landmark agreement that aims to form a new joint …

Two senior human rights officials say they want the 5,600 refugees and migrants in Libyan detention centers freed and their protection guaranteed. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and International Organization for Migration Director Antonio Vitorino issued a joint statement Thursday. They said if Libya cannot guarantee safety for the migrants, they need to be evacuated to other countries “where accelerated settlement is needed.” The two officials described Libya as a place where “suffering and risk of human rights abuses continue” for refugees. “A safe, managed process of release with proper information on available assistance is essential for all.” Grandi and Vitorino also said migrants picked up in the Mediterranean Sea must no longer be sent back to Libya, as it cannot be considered a safe port. They pointed to last week’s airstrike on a detention center near Tripoli, which killed more than 50, as one of the perils faced by refugees returned to Libya. FILE – Debris covers the ground and an emergency vehicle after an airstrike at a detention center in Tajoura, east of Tripoli in Libya, July 3, 2019. They called on European Union nations to resume search-and-rescue operations in the dangerous waters and said all member states should share this responsibility, along with halting penalties for charity-run rescue ships. The two said more help was needed for the 800,000 migrants in Libya so that “living conditions are improved, human rights are better protected, and fewer people end up being driven into the hands of smugglers and human traffickers.” Refugees from North …