Voice of America International News

Nadeen, who was waiting for the release of her brother, Ahamd al-Seifi, after he served 15 years in Israeli jails, is comforted by a relative, Feb. 23, 2025.

Students talk in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 4, 2025. Books line the shelves of one of the libraries in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 3, 2025. Sand surrounds a hut in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 4, 2025. A child rides his bike in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 4, 2025. Animals roam near homes surrounded by sand in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Jan. 13, 2025. Farmer Med Mahmoud works in his palm tree farm in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 4, 2025.

FILE - Station director Saba Chaman, right, and her colleague work in a studio at Radio Begum in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 28, 2021.

A European and German flags wave at the Reichstag building, the house of German parliament Bundestag at the eve of the national election in Berlin, Feb. 22, 2025.

This photo taken on Feb. 21, 2025 shows an aerial view of apartment blocks in the Kai Tak district of Hong Kong.

Nadeen, left, who was waiting for the release of her brother, Ahamd al-Seifi, after he spent 15 years in Israeli jails, is comforted in the West Bank on Feb. 23, 2025, after receiving news that Israel delayed the scheduled Saturday release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Friends of Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov cheer as they gather to watch his release by the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, in Herzilya near Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 22, 2025.

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, welcomes Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he arrives for a meeting with European leaders on Ukraine and European security at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Feb. 17, 2025. US President Donald Trump returns to the White House from National Harbor following his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference annual meeting, Feb. 22, 2025.

Congolese police officers board trucks after an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb. 22, 2025.

Police officers remove anti-far-right protesters blocking the route of a far-right demonstration, a day before the German election, in Berlin, Germany, on Feb. 22, 2025.

A railway worker guides a train in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 13, 2025. Vietnam's National Assembly on Feb. 19 approved the use of Chinese loans to build an $8 billion rail link from its largest northern port city to the border with China.

FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy casts his ballot as his wife, Olena, stands nearby at a polling station during a parliamentary election in Kyiv on July 21, 2019.

Dana Shem Tov, sister of Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, reacts as she watches his televised release by Hamas militants at the family home in Tel Aviv on Feb. 22, 2025. A woman mourns at a memorial for deceased hostages Shiri Bibas, her two children, Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz at “Hostages Square,” while Israelis gather while waiting for the release of six hostages in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 22, 2025. Omer Wenkert, a hostage held in Gaza since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, is escorted by Hamas militants as he is released in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip, on Feb. 22, 2025.

A mahout sprays water over elephants during their daily bath in a river, at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala on Feb. 16, 2025 as Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage marked its 50th anniversary. Tourists take pictures as elephants return to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage after taking their daily bath in a river in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025. Elephants stroll across the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025.

People wear merchandise in support of US President Donald Trump at a vendor booth during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 21, 2025.

A poster shows pictures of the Bibas family, top row from second left: Yarden, Shiri, and their sons Ariel and Kfir, who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Feb. 21, 2025. Words above read, '37 members of Kibbutz Nir Oz are still missing.' Palestinian Hamas militants and people gather at the site of the handing over of the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 20, 2025.

FILE - Students attend a new student orientation at the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, Texas, Aug. 22, 2015.

People displaced by armed gang attacks take refuge in the town hall of the Kenscoff neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 13, 2025.

FILE - U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speaks at the White House in Washington on Feb. 3, 2025. Bessent spoke with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng by phone on Feb. 21, expressing frustration with that nation's efforts at rebalancing its economy.

Members of the M23 movement monitor the area following the takeover of the city at the Place de l'Independance in Bukavu on Feb. 20, 2025. M23 rebels guard outside the South Kivu province administrative office, at the center of east Congo's second-largest city, Bukavu, Feb. 16, 2025.

FILE - A member of the local police patrols a checkpoint for Islamic State militants in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, July 7, 2018. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Feb. 20, 2025, that Islamic State and other terrorists could be operating in Afghanistan.

map of chechnya

A poster shows Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped to Gaza with her husband and two young sons on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Feb. 21, 2025. Palestinian militants and members of the Red Cross gather near vehicles on the day Hamas hands over deceased Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. People react at the so-called "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 20, 2025, as the bodies of four people, including two children, are handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza.

In this photo provided by the Australian Defense Force, the People's Liberation Army-Navy Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang travels in the Torres Strait off Australia's coast, on Feb. 11, 2025.

FILE - In this file photo dated May 1, 2019, a woman and child sit on a hill overlooking the Euphrates River as families picnic on May Day, in Derik, Syria.

FILE - U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive for a news conference in the White House on Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington.

FILE - Somali National Army soldiers stand guard against al-Shabab militants in the Middle Shabelle region in Somalia, Dec. 10, 2012. Somali officials say more than 100 militants were killed Feb. 20, 2025, during al-Shabab attacks on military bases in the region.

FILE - Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, speaks to journalists in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 18, 2024. FILE - Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa walks in the presidential palace in Damascus, Dec. 28, 2024.

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a hearing at his impeachment trial over his short-lived imposition of martial law, at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, Feb. 20, 2025.

FILE - A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul, Aug. 14, 2023. ICC chief prosecutor’s announced, Jan. 23, 2025, seeking arrest warrants for Akhundzada and a close associate accused of crimes against humanity.

Ivorian troops take part in a ceremony marking the handover to them of the French military base in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Feb. 20, 2025. The sign reads: "See you soon."

FILE - The National Endowment for Democracy's Democracy Service Medal is displayed at the Library of Congress in Washington.

FILE- The "Visit Rwanda" logo is seen on the sleeve of Arsenal's Norwegian midfielder Martin Odegaard during a club friendly football match between Arsenal and Sevilla at the Emirates Stadium in London. July 30, 2022.

FILE - German Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wear protective suits during their visit to the semiconductor manufacturer of Infineon Technologies AG in Dresden, Germany, July 13, 2023.

FILE - Workers inspect railway tracks, which serve as a part of the Belt and Road freight rail route in Sichuan province, China, March 14, 2019.

FILE - Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev delivers a speech during the Heads of State of Central Asia Summit session in Astana, Kazakhstan, Aug. 9, 2024. (Kazakhstan's Presidential Press Service/handout via AFP)

This photograph shows a damaged hospital following a Russian drone strike in Odesa on Feb. 19, 2025.

FILE - U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deliver remarks on the Australia - United Kingdom - U.S. (AUKUS) partnership,in San Diego, California March 13, 2023.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One, Feb. 19, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from Florida.

After Russia's drones attacked Odesa, Ukraine, this week, thousands in the city were left in the dark, Feb. 19, 2025.

A meeting at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Feb. 19, 2025. The WTO on Wednesday described its discussions on trade tensions as "constructive," after China accused the U.S. of imposing "tariff shocks" that could upend the global trading system.

These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on Feb. 19, 2025, show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt.

Governor Omid Khoshnaw told VOA that many Sunni Arab leaders live in Irbil, benefiting from the security and quality of life in the Kurdish capital.

The Koolboks website's home page on Feb. 19, 2025, offers the company's solar-powered freezer. Koolboks also produces refrigerators and other cooling devices.

FILE - Afghanistan's minister for refugees Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, center, looks on as he arrives to inspect a refugee camp near the Afghanistan-Pakistan Torkham border in Nangarhar province on Nov. 2, 2023.

Candles with the pictures of Pope Francis are seen outside Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Feb. 19, 2025, where the pontiff has been hospitalized since Feb. 14. FILE - Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrives at The Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on Feb. 17, 2025. A group of children from a primary school pray for Pope Francis in front of the statue Pope John Paul II outside Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Feb. 19, 2025. Faithful pray for Pope Francis' health during a Mass in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb. 18, 2025.

A Chinese coast guard ship moves through seas within the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone on Jan. 13, 2025. (Philippine Coast Guard via AP) FILE - A Philippine navy helicopter takes off after a military exercise on Nov. 6, 2024, off Loaita island, locally called Kota island, in the disputed South China Sea, Philippines.

Head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak meets with U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg, in Kyiv, Feb. 19, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters) Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gives a press conference in Kyiv on Feb. 19, 2025.

FILE - A mining machine is seen at the Bayan Obo mine containing rare earth minerals, in Inner Mongolia, China, July 16, 2011.