VOA’s Turkish and Kurdish services contributed to this report. ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party suffered heavy losses in Sunday’s local elections, losing critical cities across the country, while the main opposition party is on course to win the capital Ankara. In Istanbul, election results remain too close to call, with opposition claimsRead more

Pope Francis on Sunday defended his decision to  refuse to accept the resignation earlier this month of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was convicted of failing to report sexual abuse allegations to police. Francis, who spoke with reporters on his return from a two-day trip to Morocco, said a final decision wouldn’t be made untilRead more

One of Russia’s richest women, S7 Group co-owner Natalia Fileva, has died in a small plane crash in Germany, the Russian airline operator said Sunday. Fileva, 55, was aboard a single-engine, six-seat Epic LT aircraft that crashed and burned in a field as it approached the small airport at Egelsbach, a town in southwestern Germany,Read more

Comedian and political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was the top vote getter, ahead of incumbent president Petro Poroshenko, in Ukraine’s first round of presidential elections, according to exit polls Sunday, leading the two candidates into a run-off election. Zelensky, a comedian who plays the role of the president in a television comedy series, was projected toRead more

Pope Francis sought to encourage greater Christian-Muslim dialogue on Sunday, telling his flock that showing the country’s Muslim majority they are part of the same human family will help stamp out extremism. On his second and final day in Morocco, Francis told Catholic priests and sisters that even though they are few in number, theyRead more

North Korea said Sunday it wants an investigation into a raid on its embassy in Spain last month, calling it a “grave terrorist attack” and an act of extortion that violates international law. The incident occurred ahead of President Donald Trump’s second summit with leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi on Feb. 27-28. A mysteriousRead more