Dorian Jones ISTANBUL — The Turkish government crackdown that followed the failed July coup is expanding to businesses, with the assets of major multibillion-dollar conglomerates seized, along with hundreds of smaller companies. Earlier this month, three of Turkey’s most prominent businessmen, the Boydak brothers, appeared in handcuffs at their mother’s funeral. Their multibillion-dollar Boydak Holdings was […]readmore
Carla Babb Jamie Dettmer VOA News The general running the coalition’s ground campaign in Iraq is urging Iraqi forces fighting for Mosul not to «go so fast that they start to give opportunity to the enemy.» «I’m not telling the Iraqis not to rush to Mosul. I’m telling them, ‘You’ve got the momentum — sustain […]readmore
Luis Ramirez LONDON — Ecuador’s decision to temporarily cut Julian Assange’s internet access is a sign that the WikiLeaks founder could be overstaying his welcome at the country’s London embassy — or so some in Britain hope. British officials have long expressed frustration at Ecuador’s decision four years ago to let Assange take refuge in the […]readmore
Carla Babb PENTAGON — The flow of foreign fighters traveling from Latin America to join Islamic State forces in the Middle East has been “significantly curtailed,” a top U.S. admiral said Tuesday.Navy Admiral Kurt Tidd, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees American military activities in Central America, South America and the Caribbean, told reporters […]readmore
VOA News The lower house of Russian parliament, Duma, has unanimously approved a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin to suspend a deal with the United States on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium. Earlier this month, Putin said there is an “emerging threat to strategic stability” as a result of Washington’s «unfriendly actions.» Putin said […]readmore
Carla Babb VOA News PENTAGON — More than 100 American troops are accompanying Iraqi and Kurdish peshmerga forces in their push to take back the city of Mosul from Islamic State forces. Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters Tuesday the Americans are assisting about 10,000 Kurds, 18,000 Iraqi Security Forces and another couple thousand […]readmore
After years of bitter legal wrangling, the Austrian government announced plans Monday to demolish the house where Adolf Hitler was born and replace it with a new building in efforts to erase any link to the Nazi dictator’s birthplace. Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said in an exclusive interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse the Hitler […]readmore
Margaret Besheer VOA News UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations is bracing for what could be its biggest humanitarian challenge. As Iraqi and Kurdish forces move to liberate Iraq’s second-largest city from Islamic State fighters, the U.N. said Monday as many as 1 million civilians could try to flee the fighting. «Of the million, upward of […]readmore
Jeff Seldin PENTAGON — One day into the Iraqi-led operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State terror group, a hopeful Pentagon proclaimed the effort “ahead of schedule,” well aware the outcome could have a significant impact on U.S. strategy in the region. About 30,000 Iraqi troops and 4,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters began advancing on […]readmore
VOA News The prisoner who wrote Guantanamo Diary, a memoir recounting his daily life as a detainee in a controversial U.S. military prison, has been released from captivity after 14 years. Mohamedou Ould Slahi, 45, has gone home to his native Mauritania after spending more than a decade at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Mauritanian had […]readmore