Section: Voice of America (USA)
Problems Ahead as Europe Develops New Security Strategy
German Brigadier General Erich Vad, a security adviser to his country’s chancellor from 2007-13, is worried that Russia’s increasing willingness to project its power abroad could cause big problems for Europe. Divisions within the European Union and the shifting sands of global power have prompted the EU to re-assess its security...
NATO Chief Sounds Alarm Over Russian Buildup
NATO’s secretary-general sounded the alarm Thursday over the build-up of Russian military forces from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean and called on the U.S.-led alliance to come up with a response. Jens Stoltenberg said the Russians have concentrated military forces in Kaliningrad, the Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean, where they...
Juncker: Ukraine Must Reform to Get EU Visa-free Travel
The European Union wants Ukraine to pass a set of judiciary and human rights reforms before granting Ukrainian citizens visa-free access to the 28 countries of the bloc, the head of the EU Commission told Ukraine’s president in a letter on Thursday. Grappling with pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country and a shattered...
Western Officials: Russia’s Syria Gamble Faces Increasing Odds
The battle between Syrian forces — backed by Russian air power — and rebel fighters played itself out on social media over the course of several hours. “Reports that Jaysh Al-Fatah has began its long-awaited offensive on Morek,this is going to be decisive,” tweeted Abdel Rahman, a self-described history major with more than 3,300 followers, who...
Ukraine PM: Country Risks Losing Foreign Support Over Reform Delay
Ukraine risks losing the support of its Western backers if squabbles between the government and parliament delay or derail its reform efforts, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said on Wednesday. Ukraine has promised to revamp its tax system under an International Monetary Fund-led bailout program. But a failure to agree the size of tax cuts has...
US Diplomat Sees ‘Some Pullback’ of Weapons from E. Ukraine
A top U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday that there have been signs that Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine are pulling back some of their weapons. “We are now starting to see for the first time some pullback of Russian and separatist weapons,” Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told a hearing in the U.S. House of...
Egypt, Britain Call for ‘Tightest’ Security at Sharm El-Sheikh
Egypt’s president and Britain’s prime minister have agreed on the need for tighter security at the Egyptian resort Sharm El-Sheikh, the starting point for a Russian jetliner that crashed over the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday. According to the British prime minister’s office, David Cameron and President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi spoke...
Russian Propaganda: ‘The Weaponization of Information’
When a Russian news outlet edited the U.S. ambassador into a picture of an opposition rally, the U.S. Embassy countered by editing the ambassador into a series of improbable photos — for instance, on the moon and at an ice hockey rink. The idea was to show that the original photo was propaganda, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Benjamin Ziff...
Task Force Warns of Deepening Global Crises
A group of U.N. experts tasked with forecasting the next disasters likely to require billions of dollars in humanitarian aid has warned of deepening crises in global hot spots from Burundi to Afghanistan over the next six months. The biannual “Alert, Early Warning and Readiness Report” said Libya could fall apart, Burundi could see...
Russian Families Begin Identifying Plane Crash Victims
Russian families have begun the process of identifying the bodies of victims of Saturday’s crash of a Russian jetliner in Egypt. The Associated Press said the first 10 bodies have been identified. A spokesman for Russia’s emergency situations ministry told AP that a total of 140 bodies, and more than 100 body parts, were flown to St....
