The Australian government is facing mounting opposition to its pioneering carbon trading scheme after it unveiled legislation it hopes to pass by the middle of this year. Australia is proposing what could be the most sweeping cap-and-trade system in...
Israel says indirect negotiations with the militant Islamic group Hamas have failed. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says his government will not accept the group's demands in exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Palesti...
Heavy fighting in Somalia's capital between Islamist rebels and government forces has killed at least 13. The clashes come a day after Somalia's new president returned to the country from neighboring Djibouti. A Somalian boy wounded in a mortar atta...
U.S. President Barack Obama says Congress is flirting with catastrophe by failing to agree on a massive economic stimulus package. Mr. Obama spoke after the government reported another month of severe job losses in the United States. President Barac...
Presidential transitions always present the opportunity to reflect on the past and look toward the future, often at the same time. That is the case this week in Washington as preparations continue for Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama as the na...
One of the major foreign policy challenges facing the Obama administration will be how to revive the Middle East peace process. Senior Correspondent Andr de Nesnera spoke with three former senior U.S. government officials about the situation in the...
Negotiators from ZANU-PF and both Movement for Democratic Change party factions Thursday signed a 46-page constitutional amendment to enable formation of a unity government. Peta Thornycroft reports from Harare the signed agreement now needs to be a...
Malaysia's ruling party has postponed a crucial December election to choose its leaders. VOA correspondent Nancy-Amelia Collins in Jakarta has more. The United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, the biggest party in the coalition that has ruled...
The secretary general of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change says President Robert Mugabe is not ready to enter into a genuine cooperative government under the country's power-sharing agreement. For VOA, Peta Thornycroft has this report from Z...
An icon of New York's Coney Island, the Astroland amusement park, is closing its doors after nearly 50 years. Victoria Cavaliere reports that Astroland's owners and the residents of Coney Island say the shutdown marks the end of an era and also brin...