AVIGNON, France — French prosecutors asked for the maximum 20-year prison sentence for Dominique Pelicot, who organized the repeated mass rape of his then-wife by knocking her unconscious with drugs and…

VOA Russian’s correspondent reports from Georgia, where the first session of the new parliament is meeting after the election won by the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party was boycotted by the…

London — Hundreds of homeowners in England and Wales were battling floodwaters Monday morning after the second major storm of the winter brought widespread disruption to the United Kingdom.  Several rail…

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — Anger and frustration from developing nations vulnerable to climate impacts are likely to linger following the conclusion of the climate change summit in Azerbaijan, COP29, as nations adopted…

Ukrainian officials said Monday a Russian attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv injured at least 15 people. Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on Telegram that Russia…

ROME — Foreign ministers from the world’s leading industrialized nations are meeting Monday, with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East entering decisive phases and a certain pressure to advance…

BUCHAREST — A Romanian hard-right NATO critic and leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu appeared in dead heat after the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, partial tallies showed, in a…

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is “incredibly concerned” about the escalating use of different types of weaponry in Russia’s nearly three-year war on Ukraine, his designated choice for national security adviser…

KYIV — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law granting debt forgiveness to new army recruits who enlist to fight in Ukraine. The measure, whose final version appeared on a…

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran said on Sunday that it would hold nuclear talks in the coming days with the three European countries that initiated a censure resolution against it…

paris — When Jean-Charles de Castelbajac watched as Notre Dame cathedral burned in April 2019, he felt compelled to act.  Returning home, the French fashion designer began sketching ideas, imagining the…

NEW YORK — The brooding waltz was carefully composed on a sheet of music roughly the size of an index card. The brief, moody number also bore an intriguing name, written…

BUCHAREST — Romanians vote on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election that may give a shot at victory to hard-right politician George Simion, who opposes military aid to…

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — Wealthy countries raised their offer of climate finance to $300 billion a year at COP29 on Saturday, raising hopes of a deal with developing nations that had dismissed…

Business owners in the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi wanted to find a way to say thank you to the thousands of members of the military who have spent years fighting…

KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine has lost more than 40% of the territory in Russia’s Kursk region that it rapidly seized in a surprise incursion in August as Russian forces have mounted…

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — Russia has included the territories it occupies in Ukraine in its recent greenhouse gas inventory report to the United Nations, drawing protests from Ukrainian officials and activists at…

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will travel to Italy over the weekend to attend a meeting of the Group of Seven major democracies next week, the State Department…

Sydney — The United States expects that thousands of North Korean troops massing in Russia will “soon” enter combat against Ukraine, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Saturday. About 10,000 North Korean…

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed that Russia had indeed launched an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile into Ukraine on November 21. She told reporters that Washington “was notified through…

European allies in the Baltic region are investigating how two fiber optic data cables were severed earlier this week — with suspicion falling on a Chinese vessel in the area….

London — European allies in the Baltic region are investigating how two fiber-optic data cables were severed earlier this week, with suspicion falling on a Chinese vessel in the area. Germany…

Europe must be ready to fill the potential gaps in funding and weapons for Ukraine that may arise when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski…

dublin — Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor sexually assaulted a woman at a party in Dublin in 2018 and must pay her nearly 250,000 euros ($259,950) in damages, a…