VOA News On Wednesday, as poor weather bogged down forces advancing on the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, an aid agency warned that civilians there are in great danger as the battle for the city intensifies. «We are now bracing ourselves for the worst,» said the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Wolfgang Gressmann. «The lives of 1.2 […]readmore
VOA News The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it would observe a ‘humanitarian pause’ on Friday to allow both rebels and civilians to leave the embattled city. «A decision was made to introduce a ‘humanitarian pause’ in Aleppo on November 4 from 9:00 to 19:00,» the chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov said […]readmore
Heather Murdock VOA News BARTELLA, IRAQ — Soldiers say the Iraqi army is closing in on Mosul, fighting less than a kilometer from the city limits as it battles Islamic State militants in Iraq.But in cities and villages outside the front lines, some locals say they fear as long as militants control the provincial capital nowhere […]readmore
VOA News U.S. President Barack Obama weighed in Wednesday on the controversy over a planned oil pipeline in North Dakota, saying authorities will review alternative routes. Native Americans and other protesters have tried to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, arguing that the route goes through sacred Native American grounds and poses a risk […]readmore
VOA News The Pentagon says a senior al-Qaida external operations planner was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Syria. A «long-serving facilitator and courier» for al-Qaida who had ties to Osama bin Laden and other senior leaders, Haydar Kirkan, was killed on October 17 in Idlib province, Captain Jeff Davis said at a news […]readmore
It has been nearly four years since 20 children and six educators were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Over the past three years, filmmakers have followed the town and its families as they tried to understand and recover from the massacre. Their new documentary, «Newtown,» opened Wednesday in theaters across […]readmore
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration is reminding businesses, nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters, that the deadline to submit an SBA disaster loan application for losses caused by Hurricane Sandy is Dec. 1, 2016. On Dec. 2, 2015 following the Recovery Improvements for Small Entities (RISE) After Disaster Act, SBA’s Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet reopened […]readmore
Top officials of the U.S. central bank voted Wednesday to keep interest rates at the ultra-low level where they have been for nearly a year. The Federal Reserve said the job market was continuing to improve and that household spending was rising, but that business investment was soft and the rate of inflation remained below […]readmore
VOA News U.S. President Barack Obama says he believes the «republic is at risk» if Donald Trump wins next week’s election. Obama campaigned Wednesday for Democrat Hillary Clinton in Chapel Hill, North Carolina — a major battleground state that both candidates consider a must-win if he or she wants to take the White House. Obama […]readmore
VOA News U.S. law enforcement authorities have launched a civil rights investigation after an African American church was burned and spray-painted with the words «Vote Trump» in the southern state of Mississippi. The 111-year-old Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi, suffered heavy water and smoke damage in the fire late Tuesday. «We consider it […]readmore