VOA News Africa

Former French President Giscard d’Estaing Dies at 94

Valery Gis­card d’Es­taing, the pres­i­dent of France from 1974 to 1981 who became a cham­pi­on of Euro­pean inte­gra­tion, died on Wednes­day. He was 94.Giscard d’Es­taing’s office said he passed away in his fam­i­ly home in the Loir-et-Cher region, in central

US Tightens Definition of Service Animals Allowed on Planes

The Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment issued a final rule Wednes­day cov­er­ing ani­mals on air­lines. It decid­ed that only dogs can fly as ser­vice ani­mals, and com­pan­ions that pas­sen­gers use for emo­tion­al sup­port don’t count.  The rule aims to set­tle years of tension

Lon Adams, Slim Jim Jerky Recipe Creator, Dies of COVID-19

RALEIGH, N.C — Alon­zo “Lon” T. Adams II, the man who cre­at­ed the for­mu­la for Slim Jim beef jerky sticks, has died from com­pli­ca­tions of COVID-19. He was 95.   Lynn Bar­row of Brown-Wynne Funer­al Home in Raleigh, North

Britain Approves Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine, Raising Hopes of Return to Normality

Britain says it plans to start inject­ing peo­ple with the Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cine as ear­ly as Mon­day after becom­ing the first coun­try to approve a COVID-19 vac­cine fol­low­ing large-scale clin­i­cal tri­als. The British gov­ern­ment approved the use of the coro­n­avirus vac­cine on

Thai Prime Minister Not Guilty; Protesters Decry Justice System

Thailand’s high­est court on Wednes­day acquit­ted Prime Min­is­ter Prayuth Chan-Ocha of wrong­do­ing linked to his stay in an army house long after he retired from the mil­i­tary, a case that could have seen him removed from office and offered a way

China Proposes New Restrictions on Foreigners, Religious Services

China’s gov­ern­ment is con­sid­er­ing requir­ing for­eign vis­i­tors who want to hold a reli­gious activ­i­ty to first pro­vide exten­sive infor­ma­tion about who is attend­ing and what they are read­ing, before the ser­vice can receive gov­ern­ment permission.Authorities say they are propos­ing the

Official: Over 1,000 Chinese Researchers Have Left US Amid Tech Theft Crackdown 

WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 Chi­nese researchers have left the Unit­ed States amid a U.S. crack­down on alleged tech­nol­o­gy theft, John Demers, the U.S. Jus­tice Depart­men­t’s top nation­al secu­ri­ty offi­cial, said Wednes­day. William Evan­i­na, chief of the coun­ter­in­tel­li­gence branch

Hundreds Flee as Indonesian Volcano Spews Lava, Ash 

LUMAJANG, INDONESIA — Hun­dreds of Indone­sians have fled their vil­lages after a rum­bling vol­cano spewed hot ash thou­sands of meters into the air and belched lava down its crater. Mount Semeru on Java island spout­ed the tow­er­ing col­umn Tuesday,

Former Astronaut Kelly Sworn In as US Senator

What It Means to Become Pres­i­dent-Elect in the US In the Unit­ed States, Demo­c­rat Joe Biden is being called the pres­i­dent-elect. Pres­i­dent-elect is a descrip­tive term not an offi­cial office. As such, Biden has no pow­er in the gov­ern­ment, and

Uzbek Journalists Push Back Against Media Regulator

In Uzbek­istan, the fight for greater press free­dom is at a turn­ing point as jour­nal­ists push back against warn­ings from the gov­ern­ment media reg­u­la­tor that cov­er­age of issues, includ­ing the pan­dem­ic and ener­gy short­ages, is in vio­la­tion of legal norms.The Agency