Ukrainian Orthodox leaders on Saturday approved the creation of a unified church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected a leader to head the new church, officials said.    The leader of the new autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be Metropolitan Epiphanius, a 39-year-old bishop from the Kyiv Patriarchate.      The vote, which was held Saturday at a closed-door synod in Kiev’s St. Sophia Cathedral, is certain to anger authorities…

Former top U.S. intelligence officials are warning the guilty plea by a former Russian graduate student and self-proclaimed gun-rights advocate should serve as a wake-up call about the Kremlin’s brazen desire and ability to interfere with the American political system. Maria Butina, a 30-year-old native of Siberia, entered the plea Thursday in Washington, admitting she worked with a top Russian official, and two other Americans, to infiltrate U.S. conservative groups…

Police fired tear gas to disperse “yellow vest” demonstrators who converged on central Paris Saturday for the fifth straight weekend to protest the high cost of living and their belief President Emmanuel Macron is out of touch with working people. Scuffles erupted between protesters and police, who fired tear gas on demonstrators as they scurried down side streets of Paris’ famed Champs-Elysees boulevard. Sixty people had been arrested in the…

French officials say a fourth victim of the Christmas market shooting in Strasbourg has died. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte Friday identified the victim as Italian journalist Antonio Megalizzi. Police killed the alleged assailant in the market attack Thursday and searched for other potential suspects Friday. The Islamic State terror group, without providing evidence, claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack that wounded more than a dozen people, and left a country…

Kosovo’s parliament has voted to convert and expand its lightly armed security force into a standing army, a move backed by the United States but opposed by neighboring Serbia.    Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic responded by saying Belgrade would request an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting over the vote. He called it the “most direct threat to peace and stability in the region.”    Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Thursday that…

China has rallied the power of its one-party state behind tech giant Huawei to boost public support for the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou. But the case is getting increasingly complex with the arrest of two Canadian citizens in apparent retaliation as Meng awaits possible extradition to the United States from Canada. VOA’s Bill Ide files from Beijing. …

The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the pope and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics. Ukraine’s Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, and Ukrainian authorities have ramped up pressure on priests to support the move. The Ukrainian…

Anticipating a fifth straight weekend of violent protests, Paris’ police chief said Friday that armored vehicles and thousands of officers will be deployed again in the French capital. Michel Delpuech told RTL radio that security services intend to deploy the same numbers and strength as last weekend, with about 8,000 officers and 14 armored vehicles again in Paris. Delpuech said the biggest difference will be the deployment of more groups…

The Kremlin said Friday that the allegations against the Russian woman who pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to being a spy are  “unfounded.”   Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday,”We consider the accusations against her as absolutely unfounded.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he believed Maria Butina’s guilty plea is part of a plea bargain “… the likes of which are common in the U.S. … part of…

French police have launched an operation in the Strasbourg neighborhood where a gunman killed three people late Tuesday at a Christmas market, according to multiple media reports. Reports from AFP, Reuters and The Associated Press, citing on-scene journalists and an unnamed police official, said armed police cordoned off an area in the Neudorf district, a short drive from where the suspect exchanged gunfire with police. The police official told AP…