JERUSALEM - A rocket attack is raising tensions on the Israeli border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military says Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket that hit the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon 12 kilometers away.  The Chinese-made Grad rocket landed near high-rise apartment buildings, causing damage but no injuries.
An eyewitness gave this […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economic recovery lost some momentum in April, May and June, as consumer spending cooled and the trade deficit grew.
Friday’s Commerce Department report says the gross domestic product grew just 2.4 percent in the second quarter. That is much slower than the 3.7-percent growth in the first part of the year.
The GDP […]

WASHINGTON - In a little more than three months, U.S. voters will go to the polls in congressional midterm elections that could have a major impact on President Barack Obama’s political agenda. 
Opposition Republicans are energized by this year’s elections and by predictions by political experts that they could gain enough seats to regain control of […]

JERUSALEM - Some German pilots that are part of NATO operations in Afghanistan are in Israel for training on special reconnaissance drones.  The Jewish state’s expertise is helping to train the Germans to protect ground troops and convoys in Afghanistan.
At Israel’s Ein Shemer air base, a Heron drone takes off for a training mission.  But […]

WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives has voted to pass a $59-billion emergency war-funding bill for the U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan and other Pentagon operational expenses. 
On the Senate side, the general chosen to be the chief of U.S. Central Command has condemned the leaks of tens of thousands of U.S. military documents on the […]

WASHINGTON - The Americans with Disabilities Act, also called ADA, is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of mental or physical disabilities. It regulates federal and local programs, transportation, public accommodations and commercial facilities, and has, by wide accounts, transformed the lives of the disabled.
On Monday, as one disabled activist commemorated […]

WASHINGTON - The United States says it has no intention of initiating military action against Venezuela in response to threats by the country’s president that he would cut off oil supplies if the U.S. backed an attack against Venezuela by Colombia.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Virginia Staab said Monday the United States enjoys a mutually beneficial […]

PHNOM PENH - A U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Cambodia has found a former Khmer Rouge leader guilty of numerous crimes against humanity, and ordered him to spend 19 years in prison.
Emotions were high in the war crimes court as the guilty verdict against Kang Guek Eav, also known as Duch, was announced for his […]

LONDON - The European Union and Canada have imposed new sanctions against Iran that target the country’s energy, foreign trade and banking sectors.
Their sanctions aim in part to curb investment and trade in Iran’s lucrative oil and gas industries.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the sanctions send a powerful message to Iran that its […]

JERUSALEM - Ten people have been injured in clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank.  Stone-throwing violence and fist fights broke out as dozens of Israeli settlers marched on the West Bank village of Burin and attacked Palestinians. 
The settlers set a Palestinian field on fire and damaged a new home.  Israeli troops […]

WASHINGTON - Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic, is celebrating 163 years of independence Monday.
Information Minister Cletus Sieh told VOA that, after five years of significant improvement, Liberians are thankful for electing President Sirleaf.
“When Madam Sirleaf was campaigning, she promised the Liberian people that, if she got elected, she would redeem our nation. Our nation, that had […]

CAIRO - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he is opposed to any further conflict in the north of the country, after a week of tribal clashes left at least 70 dead. There are conflicting reports that tribal mediators have reached a ceasefire between Houthi rebels and the rival Ben Aziz tribe.
Yemeni security forces paraded […]

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats say they are giving up plans to take up sweeping legislation on climate change and U.S. energy policy before their month-long recess in August. Instead, they will try to pass a more limited energy bill that will focus on responding to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 
Senate Majority […]

SEOUL - A large 4-day exercise involving U.S and South Korea forces is under way in the Sea of Japan.
It comes in response to the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, four months ago. An international investigation blamed a North Korean torpedo attack for the incident.
The war games off the east coast of […]

SEOUL - North Korea’s National Defense Commission threatened Saturday to wage a “sacred war” against the United States and South Korea, if the two nations go ahead with scheduled naval maneuvers beginning Sunday in the Sea of Japan.
Pyongyang said it will respond to the sea exercises based on the country’s “nuclear deterrence.”
North Korea routinely makes […]

SEOUL - Economists say new sanctions imposed by South Korea against North Korea are likely to worsen the country’s fragile economy. The United States has also announced a new round of financial sanctions, in part to attempt to further restrict funding and proliferation of North Korea’s weapons programs.
A North Korean newscaster reports on the country’s […]

WASHINGTON - In U.S. politics, some new public-opinion polls contain bad news for President Barack Obama and some good news for conservative activists who make up the so called Tea Party movement.  The new surveys appear less than four months before congressional midterm elections in November.  
In the latest Quinnipiac University poll, President Obama’s approval rating […]

WASHINGTON - The United States has announced new sanctions aimed at the leadership of North Korea. They were revealed in Seoul on Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That is where she and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates held an unprecedented joint meeting with their South Korea counterparts to discuss a perceived rising […]

JERUSALEM - Israel’s new anti-rocket system, called the Iron Dome, has passed final tests and will be deployed near the country’s borders by November.  The system was produced by the state-owned Rafael Arms Development Authority and is partially financed by the United States.
The Iron Dome will help neutralize the rocket threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon […]

SEOUL - The United States and South Korea formally announced Tuesday they will conduct naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, between China and the Korean Peninsula, in spite of Chinese government objections.  The announcement was made following a meeting between U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his South Korean counterpart ,Kim Tae-young.
According to a joint […]

NEW ORLEANS - U.S. officials say a cap on a damaged oil well in the Gulf of Mexico appears to have a small leak, but they say there are no plans to remove the cap from the well. Engineers are carefully studying the well for any evidence of problems.
Engineers spotted the leak in the containment […]

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and Afghanistan on Sunday signed a landmark trade agreement that has been heavily promoted by the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is in Pakistan for a two-day visit, looked on as the Pakistani and Afghan commerce ministers sealed the deal in Islamabad.
The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Pakistan at the start of a tour of South Asia aimed at refining the goals of the nearly 9-year war in Afghanistan.
She arrived Sunday in Islamabad where she will underscore the need for cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan in winning the war. 
Clinton will meet with […]

WASHINGTON - The Gulf oil spill could lead to some serious public health problems, according to a new report released this week.
As the environmental and economic disaster continues to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico following the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, attention has largely focused on efforts to cap the […]