U.S. President  Donald Trump boasted Sunday he may be the hardest-working president the country has ever had. Details of his daily work schedule leaked recently, showing in the past three months he spent about 60 percent of his day in “executive time,” periods when he had no official visitors or meetings scheduled. Often those hours… more

Officials signed a short-term agreement Sunday to boost South Korea’s contribution toward the upkeep of U.S. troops on the peninsula, after a previous deal lapsed amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for the South to pay more. The new deal must still be approved by South Korea’s parliament, but it would boost its contribution to… more

Almost half a century ago, the U.S.-backed Gen. Lon Nol led a coup in March 1970, overthrowing Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk while the monarch visited Moscow. Sihanouk took refuge in Beijing until 1975, when brutal Khmer Rouge guerrillas leading a resistance movement against Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic captured Phnom Penh on April 17 and took over the… more

The Trump administration’s new rules for a U.S. visa program widely used for technology workers are getting cautious praise from Silicon Valley amid surging demand for high-skill employees.    The H-1B visa program, which admits 85,000 foreign nationals each year, will give higher priority to people with postgraduate degrees from U.S. universities, under a final… more

The United States should not rule out Russian military involvement in Venezuela, according to the new head of U.S. Southern Command. Speaking exclusively in his first in-depth interview since taking command, Navy Admiral Craig Faller told VOA that Russia was acting like a “wounded, declining bear that’s just lashing out” against democratic interests in the… more

Navy Admiral Craig Faller, speaking exclusively in his first in-depth interview since taking command of the U.S. Southern Command, told VOA that Russia was acting like a “wounded, declining bear that’s just lashing out” against democratic interests in the region. …… more

Cultural Fusion, a blend of international styles and tastes, seems to be everywhere, from trendy restaurant menus to fashion runways to hit movies. Rendy Wicaksana of VOA’s Indonesia Service reports on an unusual fusion of classical Western orchestral music with the traditional sounds of Indonesian gamelan. …… more

President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, says she knew “literally almost nothing” about the Trump Organization’s work to possibly build a hotel, office and residential building in Russia while her father was running for the White House.   Ivanka Trump also tells ABC News in an interview aired Friday that she isn’t concerned any of her… more

The publisher of the National Enquirer said Friday it will look into claims of extortion and blackmail made by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who said the tabloid threatened to publish intimate photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the Enquirer obtained his private exchanges with his mistress. American Media Inc. said it “acted lawfully”… more

Rep. Chris Erwin finally won a seat in the Georgia legislature after a chaotic campaign in which a judge threw out the first election and ordered the vote to be redone in December. Now a court has ruled that illegal votes tainted the second election, forcing Erwin to prepare to step down and run for… more

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he did not plan to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline set by the two countries to achieve a trade deal. Asked during an event in the Oval Office whether there would be a meeting before the deadline, Trump said: “No.” When asked whether… more

A former business partner of Paul Manafort  who has been accused by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller of having ties to Russian intelligence attended the inauguration of President Donald Trump, according to a court transcript released Thursday. Russian-Ukrainian political operative Konstantin Kilimnik met with Manafort, who was Trump’s presidential campaign chairman, in January 2017 when he was in the U.S. capital… more

The Guantanamo Bay detention center would receive new prisoners for the first time in more than a decade under one option being considered as the U.S. withdraws its forces from Syria and works to resolve the fate of hundreds of captured suspected Islamic State fighters, officials say. U.S.-backed Syrian fighters have custody of nearly 1,000… more

Up to 5 million California customers could temporarily lose power this year in the name of wildfire prevention if regulators approve Pacific Gas & Electric’s $2.3 billion safety proposal submitted Wednesday. PG&E unveiled the preventive blackout strategy for the first time late last year, getting regulatory permission to turn out the lights on 570,000 customers… more

A roadmap for partial denuclearization is a realistic goal for President Donald Trump to set for the second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, because Pyongyang is unlikely to give up all its nuclear weapons in the near future, experts said. During their first summit, Trump and Kim agreed to “work toward complete… more

Army soldiers struggle to haul heavy sleds backward as fast as they can down a grassy field at Fort Bragg, filling the brisk North Carolina morning air with grunts of exertion and the shouts of instruction from their coaches. Watching from the sidelines, Sgt. Maj. Harold Sampson shakes his head. As a military intelligence specialist… more

Iraq’s most senior Shi’ite cleric has expressed his criticism of President Donald Trump’s recent statement that U.S. troops should stay in Iraq to keep an eye on neighboring Iran. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is the latest Iraqi official to criticize Trump’s remarks made to U.S. media in which he said U.S. troops are needed in… more

A West Virginia woman has been indicted on charges of threatening to kill President Donald Trump.   A federal grand jury in Wheeling on Tuesday indicted 25-year-old Taryn Corrinne Henthorn of Middlebourne.   Prosecutors say Henthorn made the threat on Facebook and elsewhere last month.   Henthorn faces up to five years in prison and… more

Vietnam’s selection as the venue for the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is largely a matter of convenience and security, but not without bigger stakes. Washington’s goal for the talks Feb. 27-28 is for North Korea to agree give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea frames the… more

Ivanka Trump and her brothers are responding to a new art exhibit that portrays the presidential daughter vacuuming crumbs. Ivanka Trump says in a tweet about the “Ivanka Vacuuming” installation: “Women can choose to knock each other down or build each other up. I choose the latter.” Her brother Donald Trump Jr. tweeted it’s “Sad,… more

A classified U.S. government report on foreign interference in the 2018 Congressional elections has concluded that outside meddling had no “material impact” on the integrity and security of the vote, leaving open the question as to whether there will be any sanctions for foreign influence campaigns. While the specific conclusions of the report by the… more

President Donald Trump is expected to declare near-total triumph over the Islamic State group in Syria in his State of the Union address Tuesday, but U.S. defense officials are increasingly fearful that the militants are simply biding their time until the Americans leave the battlefield as planned. IS militants have lost territory since Trump’s surprise… more

From Russia to Venezuela, U.S. lawmakers highlighted weighty global concerns and American foreign-policy challenges on the eve of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress. A top Democrat on Monday savaged Trump’s handing of matters on the world stage. “Tomorrow, the president will say, predictably, that the state of our union is… more

The town of Paradise, California was ravaged by a fire in November that killed more than 80 people and drove thousands from their homes. Now music is helping survivors with their recovery, as we hear from Mike O’Sullivan. …… more

A federal bankruptcy judge approved a major debt restructuring plan for Puerto Rico on Monday in the first deal of its kind for the U.S. territory since the island’s government declared nearly four years ago that it was unable to repay its public debt. The agreement involves more than $17 billion worth of government bonds… more

Grammy-nominated Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage was arrested by U.S. immigration officials on Sunday, who said he was illegally in the country and a convicted felon. The rapper, whose real name is Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, came to the United States from the UK as a teenager in 2005, overstaying his visa to settle in Atlanta,… more