Syrian rebel groups have launched a major offensive this week against government troops in a Syrian province in what is seen by analysts as a new twist to the ongoing conflict in the northwestern part of the country. Rebel fighters affiliated with the Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation said Tuesday that they have begun targeting Syrian regime forces in the northern part of Hama, a province bordering the flashpoint province of Idlib, which is the last rebel stronghold in Syria. The new assault is primarily aimed at targeting villages from which government forces launch attacks on Idlib, according to a rebel source quoted by German news agency DPA. This “military operation that opposition groups have started positions belonging to regime troops came about after government forces deployed military reinforcements in the countryside of Hama and Idlib in order to launch a large military offensive,” the unidentified rebel source said.   Hama province has largely been under the control of the Syrian regime with parts of it briefly captured by rebel groups and Islamic State (IS) militants during different stages of Syria’s civil war. For weeks, Syrian government troops, backed by Russian warplanes and Iranian militias, have been trying to dislodge …

A Yemeni Houthi rebel attack on an airport in southern Saudi Arabia has killed one civilian and wounded seven others, the Saudi-led military coalition said Sunday. Coalition officials say the parking lot at the Abha airport, which services a resort, was hit. It gave no other details including whether it was struck by a missile or a drone. The Houthi rebels say they flew drones over the Abha and Jizan airports, but the Saudis did not confirm Jizan was also targeted. A Houthi missile struck Abha last week, wounding 26. Human Rights Watch condemned the attack as a possible “war crime” and the Saudis promised to take “stern action.” The Saudi coalition is helping the Yemeni government try to push the Iranian-backed Houthis out of the capital, Sana’a. While Iran admits support for the Houthis, it denies Saudi allegations of arming the rebels. A diplomatic quartet made up of Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and United States issued a statement Sunday condemning the Houthi attacks on the airports and what it calls Iranian “destabilizing activity” in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East. The statement demands Houthis end all restrictions on food and emergency aid deliveries in Yemen …

Chinese President Xi Jinping may have encouraged North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to renew talks with the U.S. during his recent visit to Pyongyang, but without a concrete road map for denuclearization, diplomacy is meaningless, experts say. “The international community hopes that North Korea and the United States can talk and for the talks to get results,” Xi told Kim on Thursday, according to Chinese media. Xi left Pyongyang early Friday afternoon. It was the first visit by a Chinese president in 14 years. Pyongyang’s denuclearization talks with Washington have been stalled ever since the Hanoi summit in February, which was cut short without producing any deals. ‘Didn’t get a positive response’ According to Chinese media, Kim told Xi that North Korea took many positive steps to reduce tensions but “didn’t get a positive response from the relevant side,” referring to the U.S. Kim added, “North Korea is willing to exercise patience and, at the same time, hopes the relevant side can meet North Korea halfway, seek a solution that accords with both side’s reasonable concerns, and promote results for the talks process of the peninsula issue.” Evans Revere, acting assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific at …

VOA’s Turkish Service contributed to this report. ISTANBUL — Turkey’s opposition won decisively in the controversial re-vote in the Istanbul mayoral election. The victory is a significant defeat for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who lost his Istanbul power base of 25 years. Erdogan’s candidate Binali Yildirim was quick to congratulate his opponent Ekrem Imamoglu for his victory. “My rival is ahead, and I am congratulating him and wishing him success,” Yildirim said. “Elections mean democracy and these elections revealed one more time that it works perfectly in Turkey.” Erdogan also congratulated Imamoglu in a tweet, “the national will has been manifested again,” wrote Erdogan. Provisional results indicate Imamoglu increased his winning margin to over 700,000 votes with 54% of the total votes, up from the razor-thin majority of 13,000 in the March poll.  Erdogan successfully got election authorities to annul that victory on the technicality of ineligible election monitors.  Imamoglu speaking to reporters in his election headquarters said his win was a boost for democracy. “This is a new beginning. A period of love, tolerance, respect has started,” he said, “and waste, ostentation, arrogance, and discrimination is over.” With news of Imamoglu’s victory spreading across the city, celebration broke out. …

The ruling party candidate in the re-run of Istanbul’s mayoral election, Binali Yildirim, has conceded defeat to opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu. Sunday’s vote was held because election authorities controversially annulled Imamoglu’s initial historic election victory in March on a technicality after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan disputed the defeat of his candidate. Electoral authorities rejected Erdogan’s AKP Party’s claims of voting fraud, but ordered a revote on the grounds a number election officials were ineligible. The opposition condemned the decision and claimed the Sunday vote is now more than just about who runs the city. In a sign of the importance of Sunday’s election, voting was brisk from the moment the Kadikoy district ballot station opened, in a city where people traditionally vote late.  Early heavy voting  was reported across the city. “The election is very important for Turkey, this will change the face of Turkey,” said retiree Cengiz Demir, one of the first to vote in Kadikoy district. “We have to return to democratic settings. Maybe more than a majority have had enough of one man rule,” he added. One man rule is a reference to President Erdogan who many of his opponents accuse of undermining democracy and turning Turkey …

India says it is proud of its secular credentials as it rejected a U.S. report that said that religious freedom in the country has come under attack in recent years. The latest U.S. State Department Report on International Religious Freedom released Friday said that right wing Hindu-groups claiming to protect cows that Hindus consider holy had used “violence, intimidation, and harassment” against Muslims and low-castes. It also noted that Christians have been targeted for proselytizing. In a statement, the Indian Foreign Ministry said that no foreign government had the right to criticize its record. “We see no locus standi for a foreign entity to pronounce on the state of our citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.” It said that India is proud of “its status as the largest democracy and a pluralistic society with a longstanding commitment to tolerance and inclusion.” New Delhi’s sharply worded statement comes ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to India starting Tuesday. His talks in New Delhi are expected to lay the ground for a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Japan later next week. The …

Thousands of supporters of LGBT rights marched in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv under a heavy police presence. They marched in the center of the capital on June 23 while waving rainbow and Ukrainian flags as thousands of police and National Guard troops stood by to ensure order. Organizers of the “March of Equality” said about 8,000 people took part in the event. Several Western diplomats are also attending the event. ​Organizers said they had invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to join the parade. “Unfortunately, there was no reaction from the president,” Ruslana Panukhnyk, director of the NGO KyivPride that organizes the parade, told AFP. Opponents held up antigay banners and shouted “Shame” as the procession began. Police said that nine people were arrested on suspicion of preparing provocations against participants in the Kyiv Pride event. Organizers have said that their goal is to promote “full respect” for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) minority. The Pride parade has been held in Kyiv since 2016 amid protests by opponents, including right-wing activists and representatives of religious organizations. Attacks and harassment against gays and other minorities are fairly common in Ukraine. Last year, activists for transgender rights were …

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he wants to give opposition Democratic lawmakers “every last chance” to stiffen the country’s asylum laws and immigration policies before launching nationwide raids to deport undocumented migrants. Trump, without identifying the details of what he wants, said the lawmakers who oppose his tough immigration stance could “quickly negotiate simple changes to Asylum and Loopholes. This will fix the Southern Border, together with the help that Mexico is now giving us. Probably won’t happen, but worth a try. Two weeks and big Deportation begins!”  I want to give the Democrats every last chance to quickly negotiate simple changes to Asylum and Loopholes. This will fix the Southern Border, together with the help that Mexico is now giving us. Probably won’t happen, but worth a try. Two weeks and big Deportation begins! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2019 Trump had called for the raids in more than a dozen major U.S. cities to start Sunday, but abruptly called them off on Saturday. Vice President Mike Pence told the CNN television network, “We’ve got to close the loopholes” at the border, where he said more than a million undocumented migrants, mostly from Central America, are …

When the 12 young boys and their soccer coach walked into a cave complex in northern Thailand a year ago Sunday, they didn’t know their lives were going to forever change. Rising floodwater quickly trapped the youngsters inside the Tham Luang cave complex, setting off a more than two-week ordeal that the world watched with rapt attention and that left the members of the Wild Boars soccer club with a survival tale that propelled them into celebrities. Nine of the boys and their coach were on hand Sunday in the northern town of Mae Sai to mark the anniversary along with some 4,000 others by taking part in a marathon and bike event to raise money to improve conditions at the cave. “I want to thank everybody who has put so much effort and sacrifices to save all of us,” said Ekapol Chantawong, the former coach of the Wild Boars who led the boys on the ill-fated visit to the cave. Ekapol stood in front of a bronze statue of Lieutenant Commander Saman Gunan that has been erected to honor the former Thai navy SEAL who died while working on the search and rescue. The boys spent nine nights lost …

An unprecedented shutdown of mobile data across swathes of Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state entered a third day Sunday, blocking villagers from the internet in areas where the army is accused of abuses in its battle with ethnic rebels. Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) ordered all mobile phone operators on Friday to suspend internet data in nine townships across Rakhine and neighboring Chin State. “As a basis for its request, the MoTC has referenced disturbances of the peace and internet services to coordinate illegal activities,” Telenor Myanmar said in a statement. The decree was made under the Telecommunications Law, hitting all mobile operators for an unspecified period. Myanmar’s army is fighting ethnic Rakhine rebels who want greater autonomy from the central state. The Rakhine are Buddhists and are also fighting in northern Chin state which borders their homeland. The Rakhine accuse the army of committing abuses — including arbitrary arrests — against them, while the military confirmed it shot dead six Rakhine detainees in late April. Civilians have been killed in crossfires and shellings, even while taking refuge in monasteries. Villagers in Rakhine said the mobile data ban had cut them off from the outside world, where few have …

Early poll results put Mauritania ruling party candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani comfortably ahead after Saturday’s presidential election, taking 50.41% of the ballot with more than half votes counted, data from the electoral commission showed. His nearest rival, Biram Dah Abeid, a prominent black Mauritanian slavery campaigner, has got 18.72% so far, the figures showed on Sunday. Mohamed Ould Boubacar, who is backed by Mauritania’s biggest Islamist party, has 18.13%, with support for the other two candidates in single figures. About 850,000 votes out of 1.5 million have been counted. The election was the first in the sparsely populated Saharan nation’s history since independence from France in 1960 to choose a successor to a democratically elected president. Outgoing President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz surprised many of his compatriots and international observers by stepping aside after serving the maximum two five-year elected terms in Mauritania, a country of fewer than five million people comprising a large chunk of the western Sahara Desert. His decision bucked a trend in which African leaders, including in Rwanda and Congo Republic, have changed or abolished term limits to cling to power. Ghazouani, insider, former general and defence minister, has been heavily tipped to win from the …

China’s agricultural deputy minister Qu Dongyu has been elected as the new director general of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).   Qu is the first person from a Communist country to hold the FAO director-general’s chair. He will succeed Jose Graziano da Silva from Brazil for a 4-year term. …

Millions of Istanbul residents voted Sunday in a re-run of a mayoral election that has become a referendum on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies and a test of Turkey’s ailing democracy. In the initial March 31 vote, the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate secured a narrow victory over Erdogan’s AK Party (AKP) in Turkey’s largest city, a rare electoral defeat for the president. But after weeks of AKP appeals, Turkey’s High Election Board in May annulled the vote citing irregularities. The opposition called the decision a coup against democracy, which has raised the stakes for round two. “It is really ridiculous that the election is being re-run. It was an election won fair and square,” said Asim Solak, 50, who said he was voting for the opposition candidate in the CHP stronghold of Tesvikiye. “It is clear who canceled the election. We hope this election re-run will be a big lesson for them,” he said. Win Istanbul, win Turkey Polling stations across Istanbul opened at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT), with 10.56 million people registered to vote in a city that makes up nearly a fifth of Turkey’s 82 million population. Voting ends at 5 p.m. Results will be announced in …

U.S. military cyber forces launched a strike against Iranian military computer systems Thursday as President Donald Trump backed away from plans for a more conventional military strike in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone, U.S. officials said Saturday. Two officials told The Associated Press that the strikes were conducted with approval from Trump. A third official confirmed the broad outlines of the strike. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the operation. The cyberattacks, a contingency plan developed over weeks amid escalating tensions, disabled Iranian computer systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers, the officials said. Two of the officials said the attacks, which specifically targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps computer system, were provided as options after two oil tankers were attacked earlier this month. The IRGC, which was designated a foreign terrorist group by the Trump administration earlier this year, is a branch of the Iranian military. The action by U.S. Cyber Command was a demonstration of the U.S.’s increasingly mature cyber military capabilities and its more aggressive cyber strategy under the Trump administration. Over the last year, U.S. officials have focused on persistently engaging with …

Museums across the United States are striving to be more accessible to everyone. That includes touchable versions of photographs and paintings for people who may not be able to see them. At a recent expo by the American Alliance of Museums in New Orleans, new technology was used to help the visually impaired “see” art and pictures. VOA’s Deborah Block tells us more. …

Concrete military walls and police security checkpoints are seen on every corner of Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul.  The robust security presence signals a major effort to protect civilians and government officials from terrorist attacks.  But the very real threat of violence, like a suicide attack, doesn’t stop Kabul residents from living and enjoying their daily lives.  VOA’s Ahmad Samir Rassoly gives us a unique view of a typical night in Kabul. …

The world may be moving toward renewable energy sources, but fossil fuels are still the fuel of choice for the transportation industry. Especially when it comes to moving big things like planes and cargo ships, it’s all about petroleum. But Swiss researchers are looking to at least make the creation of fuel a carbon neutral process. …

Eighteen people were killed when an under-construction building in Cambodia collapsed early Saturday, an official said, as rescuers struggled to reach missing workers feared trapped under a mountain of twisted steel and rubble. The seven-story steel and concrete structure in the coastal town of Sihanoukville, west of the capital Phnom Penh, was a Chinese-owned project. At least 24 people were injured and some workers had been trapped inside the building soon after it collapsed, according to the office of the spokesman for the local province of Preah Sihanouk. “The steel structure has collapsed on itself and we don’t dare move it,” the spokesman, Oar Saroeun, told Reuters Saturday. “We can only wait and listen for any signs of life. … We are afraid more of it will collapse on them. … We will work through the night to remove the steel.” A statement issued Sunday by Preah Sihanouk Province officials said 40% of the debris from the site had been cleared. It was not clear how many more people were missing. Photos of the scene shared on social media showed groups of rescuers working their way through a crumpled heap of steel girders and concrete. Preah Sihanouk province and its largest town, …