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ISTANBUL — Greece's leader arrived in Turkey's capital on Monday for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as both countries pursue a normalization program and seek to put aside decades-old disputes. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was welcomed by Erdogan and a military guard of honor at the presidential palace in Ankara before the leaders' fourth meeting over the past year. They are expected to hold two hours of discussions followed by a news conference. Turkey and Greece, which are NATO members, have been at odds for decades over a series of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean Sea and drilling rights in the Mediterranean, and have come to the brink of war three times in the last half-century. A dispute over energy exploration rights in 2020 led to the two countries' warships facing off in the Mediterranean. They agreed last December to put their disputes aside and focus on areas where they can find consensus. The list of items on the so-called positive agenda includes trade, energy, education and cultural ties. Since that summit in Athens, the regional rivals have maintained regular high-level contacts to promote fence-mending initiatives, such as allowing Turkish citizens to visit 10 Greek islands without cumbersome visa procedures. The propensity for quarrels remains, however. The recent opening of a former Greek Orthodox church in Istanbul for use as a mosque led to Greece accusing Turkey of "insulting the character" of a World Heritage Site. Turkey, meanwhile, criticized a Greek plan unveiled last month for "marine parks" in parts of the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Ankara said the one-sided declaration was "a step that sabotages the normalization process." But such low-level disputes are far removed from relations a few years ago, when energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean resulted in a naval confrontation and a vow by Erdogan to halt talks with Mitsotakis' government. The two countries are also locked in a dispute over Cyprus, divided since 1974 between its ethnic Greek and Turkish populations. For the past seven years, Turkey has rejected a long-standing agreement for a reunified Cyprus under a federal system. Instead, Ankara and the Turkish Cypriot administration, which is only recognized by Turkey, have proposed a two-state solution. Erdogan and Mitsotakis have sharp differences over the Israel-Hamas war, but are keen to hold back further instability in the Mediterranean as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine grinds on. The recent thaw in relations was partly helped by Greek solidarity after last year's devastating earthquake in southern Turkey. Erdogan has initiated a broader effort to reengage with Western countries following an election victory last year that saw him extend his two-decade rule by a further five years. Speaking before the meeting, Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said that the leaders would review progress in bilateral relations and the agreed upon areas of cooperation. "Our country seeks to maintain the climate of dialogue with the neighboring country," he said, adding that "we believe that dialogue is only positive for the two countries."

Washington — The spectacular auroras that danced across the sky in many parts of the world over the weekend are fading, scientists said Monday, as the massive sunspot that caused them turns its ferocious gaze away from Earth. Since Friday, the most powerful solar storm to strike our planet in more than two decades has lit up night skies with dazzling auroras in the United States, Tasmania, the Bahamas and other places far from the extreme latitudes where they are normally seen. But Eric Lagadec, an astrophysicist at France's Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, told AFP that the "most spectacular" period of this rare event has come to an end. The first of several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) -- expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun -- came just after 1600 GMT Friday, according to the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The event was later upgraded to an "extreme" geomagnetic storm -- the first since the "Halloween Storms" of October 2003 that caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged power infrastructure in South Africa. Excitement over the phenomenon -- and otherworldly photos of pink, green and purple night skies -- broke out across the world, from Austria to Australia's island state of Tasmania. The storm had been forecast to intensify again until 0600 GMT Monday, the NOAA said, adding that auroras could be viewable as far south as New York. But thousands of people who came out on Sunday night in the hope of seeing the aurora borealis over the Joshua Tree National Park in California instead saw the Milky Way. AFP pictures showed stars shining clearly in the night sky. Lagadec said that while there were further solar outbursts on Sunday, it is unlikely that more auroras will be visible to the naked eye in lower latitudes such as in France. "Only the most experienced photographers will be able to capture them" in such areas, said Lagadec, who was moved by witnessing an aurora during the event's peak on Friday night. The solar storm emanated from a massive sunspot cluster that is 17 times wider than our planet. The storm has not ended, and auroras are expected to continue in the far northern or southern regions where they are normally visible. But "the source of the storm is a sunspot that is now on the edge of the Sun, (so) we do not expect the next coronal mass ejections to head in Earth's direction," Lagadec said. Scientists had already warned that the intensity of anything seen on Sunday night would unlikely reach the level of Friday's show. "This is likely the last of the Earth-directed CMEs from this particular monster sunspot," Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the UK's University of Reading, told AFP. When charged particles from solar winds are captured by Earth's magnetic field, they accelerate towards the planet's magnetic poles, which is why auroras are normally seen there. But during periods of heightened solar activity, the effects extend farther toward the equator. Unlike during 2003's solar storms, no major disruptions to power or communications networks appear to have been reported this time around. Elon Musk's satellite internet operator Starlink said on X that its thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit had "weathered the geomagnetic storm and remain healthy". Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in around eight minutes, CMEs travel at a more sedate pace, with officials putting the current average at 800 kilometers (500 miles) per second. People with eclipse glasses can still look for the sunspot cluster during the day. Fluctuating magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic storms induce currents in long wires, including power lines, which can lead to blackouts. Long pipelines can also become electrified. Spacecraft are at risk from high doses of radiation, although the atmosphere prevents this from reaching Earth. NASA can ask astronauts on the International Space Station to move to better-shielded places within the outpost. Even pigeons and other species that have internal biological compasses can be affected.

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U.S. lawmakers, Capitol Hill staffers, famous athletes and international diplomats came together for a full day of soccer activities in Washington. The event raised money for youth soccer programs in underserved communities. Saqib Ul Islam has more from Audi Field in the U.S. capital. Igor Tsikhanenka contributed.

The South African government is hoping to strengthen protections for whistleblowers who report on corruption in business and government. Proponents say it's not only about making whistleblowers feel comfortable coming forward, but also about protecting them from retaliation. VOA’s Ihsaan Haffejee reports

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia — Cambodia and China begin their annual Golden Dragon military exercise this week to strengthen cooperation and exchange military experiences, a Cambodian official said Monday. A total of 1,315 military personnel from Cambodia and 760 from China will participate in the 15-day exercise, backed by three Chinese warships and 11 Cambodian ships, Cambodian army spokesperson Maj. Gen. Thong Solimo told journalists. He said the exercise, starting Thursday, is aimed at training to fight terrorism and provide humanitarian relief in both countries as well as in the region. The annual Golden Dragon exercises began in December 2016, shortly after Cambodia canceled similar exercises with the United States called Angkor Sentinel. China describes its friendship with Cambodia as "ironclad." Cambodia is China's closest ally in Southeast Asia, while China is Cambodia's most important ally and benefactor, with a strong influence on its economy. Cambodia has numerous Chinese-funded projects — particularly infrastructure, including airports and roads, but also private projects such as hotels, casinos and property development. More than 40% of Cambodia's $10 billion in foreign debt is owed to China. Beijing's support allows Cambodia to largely disregard Western concerns about its poor record on human and political rights, and in turn Cambodia generally supports Beijing's positions on foreign policy issues such as its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Cambodia recently reiterated its determination to go ahead with a Chinese-financed 180-kilometer (112-mile), $1.7 billion Funan Techo Canal project across four provinces in the southern part of the country to connect the capital, Phnom Penh, to the Gulf of Thailand. The plan has raised concern from neighboring Vietnam, where some analysts say the 100-meter (330-foot) -wide, 5.4 meter (18-foot) -deep canal could make it easier for China to send military forces southward, close to Vietnam's southern coast. Relations between Vietnam and its massive northern neighbor are often frosty because of Beijing's aggressive claims to maritime territories also claimed by Hanoi. China's involvement in Cambodia's Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand has also caused concern, with the United States and some international security analysts saying it is likely to become a strategic outpost for Beijing's navy. On Dec. 7, two Chinese naval vessels became the first ships to dock at a Chinese-financed new pier at the base, coinciding with a visit to Cambodia by China's top defense official. In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a three-day visit to Cambodia to affirm the countries' ties.

Bangkok — Refugees from Myanmar seeking shelter from their country’s grinding civil war in neighboring India tell VOA they fear a wave of arrests and forced returns following the Manipur state government’s recent moves to start deporting them. Earlier this month, on May 2, Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh announced the deportation of 77 “illegal immigrants from Myanmar” on his social media page, calling it the “first phase.” In comments on social media again last Wednesday, the chief minister said the process of deporting some 5,400 more “illegal immigrants” was “underway.” The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says nearly 60,000 refugees have fled to India since Myanmar’s military toppled the country’s democratically elected government and seized power in 2021, setting off a bloody civil war that has claimed thousands of lives. The refugees are spread across three provinces in India’s far east on the border with Myanmar, but authorities in Manipur have taken the most aggressive steps to send them back. Officials there blame the refugees for fueling the state’s own spate of deadly communal clashes over the past year. India does not officially recognize refugees and has not signed the U.N. refugee convention. Refugees in Manipur say the recent deportations have put them on edge. Some have begun to relocate to avoid the government’s anticipated dragnet. “That is the very thing we are afraid of. That’s why … we moved here to another border village, because we are afraid of the Manipur government,” said Seithang Haokip, speaking with VOA by phone from a hiding place a few kilometers from the border. “All of us are very afraid of both sides, from both sides, of being arrested by the Manipur government and by the Myanmar military regime,” he said. Seithang Haokip said he crossed into India illegally about two years ago from Myanmar’s Chin state, where he had joined a nationwide civil disobedience movement and was helping lead local strikes against the regime. He and others say they fear for their lives if they were to be arrested and returned to Myanmar. “They [the Myanmar military] already opened many files on me, so military junta already wanted me, so definitely they will arrest me and they will put [me] in jail for long time, or they can maybe kill me,” said Myo, another refugee from Myanmar who is in hiding near the border. Myo asked that his full name not be used for his safety. Myo told VOA that he also crossed into India illegally a few years ago after joining Myanmar’s civil disobedience movement. He and his wife and son now share a small hut with two other families. He said they all have been on constant alert since the news of the recent deportations. “When we hear [sounds] of truck or car or police or army coming around us, we are ready to run away or hide, so this kind of fear every day,” said Myo. “We all feel like that. This is a signal that we are no more safe in India,” he said. Right groups say their fears are well founded. United Nations investigators have accused Myanmar’s junta of widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the rape, torture and murder of both civilians and rebel fighters in detention. They say indiscriminate air and artillery attacks against the resistance have razed whole villages. Some 2.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting inside Myanmar itself, according to the U.N. In April, the junta also began enforcing a years-old conscription law that requires all men between the ages of 18 and 35 serve at least two years and banned military-age men from leaving the country. At 31, Salai Dokhar, another refugee, said he could be forced to fight for a military he loathes and ordered to kill his fellow countrymen if sent back to Myanmar. Even in the relative safety of New Delhi, India’s sprawling capital, more than 2,000 kilometers from the border, he said he too has a growing fear of being arrested and deported. “I stay home. Except for emergency issues I never go out. We have to hide ourselves from the authorities to [not] be arrested,” Salai Dokhar said. “Most of the people who entered to India are not safe in the hands of the [Myanmar] military, including me,” he added. With the civil war in Myanmar still raging, Human Rights Watch says Indian authorities should allow the refugees to stay until they feel ready to return on their own. “Conditions are extremely dangerous for civilians in many parts of Myanmar, where there is an ongoing armed conflict. Many civilians have been forced to flee to seek safety in India,” Meenakshi Ganguly, the group’s deputy Asia director, told VOA. “The Indian authorities should protect their rights,” she added. “Although India has not signed the refugee convention, it is still obliged to not forcibly return refugees to Myanmar when there are such extreme risks to life and liberty.” In a statement last week, the International Commission of Jurists said India was bound by other conventions it has signed to not force people back to countries where they are likely to be in danger. The commission has also urged Indian authorities to stop the deportations. Refugees say they believe authorities in Manipur are currently holding well over 100 people from Myanmar in detention centers and fear that any day they may be the next to be deported. The state government and chief minister of Manipur did not reply to VOA’s requests for an interview or for comment. Refugees and rights groups say the state’s deportation drive is political, motivated by a bid for votes by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in a nationwide general election that started in April and runs until June. Biren Singh, a member of the Hindu nationalist BJP, has blamed the refugees for stoking the communal clashes that have torn through Manipur since May 2023, pitting the majority and predominantly Hindu Meitei against the minority Kuki, who are mostly Christian. The Kuki are also kin to the ethnic Chin of western Myanmar, who make up many of the refugees in Manipur. “Unfortunately, the refugees from Myanmar are being used by the ruling Biren Singh government in Manipur, and his BJP party, to stoke communal divisions. For petty political gains, the Biren Singh administration has created rifts between communities that will take a long time to heal, with hundreds killed and tens of thousands displaced,” said Ganguly. “They detain the Myanmar refugees to play their political games in general election,” echoed Salai Dokhar, an ethnic Chin himself. “We are in a political game, for sure.”

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Fifty-year-old Yevhen Savchenko has been serving as an official chaplain for Ukraine’s Armed Forces since late 2023, often performing his duties on the front line. Savchenko is also the father of eight children and pastor of an evangelical Baptist church in Ukraine’s Luhansk region. Anna Kosstutschenko spoke to him during a mission in the Donbas region. VOA footage and video editing by Pavel Suhodolskiy.

BANGKOK — The whereabouts of a Chinese citizen journalist who served four years in prison for reporting on the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan and was expected to be released Monday are unknown, raising concern from activists. Zhang Zhan, who had been sentenced to four years in prison on charges of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a vaguely defined charge often used in political cases, has finished serving her sentence at Shanghai's Women Prison. Ren Quanniu, a former lawyer who previously represented Zhang, said he could not reach her father and expressed concern that Zhang would be released only to be put under another form of control by police. Monday was the last day of her four-year sentence, confirmed Ren and Jane Wang, another overseas activist who launched the Free Zhang Zhan campaign in the U.K. Zhang was among a handful of citizen journalists who traveled to the central Chinese city of Wuhan after the government put it under total lockdown in February 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. She walked around the city to document public life as fears grew about the then-mysterious coronavirus. Other citizen journalists have also spent time in jail for documenting the early days of the pandemic, including Fang Bin, who published videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the outbreak. Fang was sentenced to three years in prison and released last April. Chen Qiushi, another citizen journalist, disappeared in February 2020 while filming in Wuhan. Chen in September 2021 resurfaced on a friend's live video feed on YouTube, saying he had suffered from depression but did not provide details about his disappearance. During her prison stay, Zhang staged a hunger strike and was hospitalized at one point in 2021. Zhang's family has faced police pressure during her stay in prison, and her parents have declined interview requests from media. Her family at times could only speak to their daughter by phone at the prison. Shen Yanqiu, who had planned to go with Zhang's family to receive her at the prison, declined to speak to The Associated Press, saying she had been "invited to drink tea," a euphemism for a police interrogation. Calls to Zhang's brother went unanswered. Calls to the Shanghai Prison Administration office also went unanswered. China' s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin declined to comment on the case when asked Monday, saying "I'm not aware of the situation." The coronavirus remains a sensitive topic in China. In the first week of May, a Chinese scientist who was the first to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus staged a protest after authorities barred him from his lab, after years of demotions and setbacks. An Associated Press investigation also found that the government froze domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Rescue teams in South Africa forged ahead Monday with efforts to find any survivors still trapped under rubble a week after an apartment building that was under construction collapsed. Their hopes were boosted over the weekend when one of the construction workers was found alive after six days without food and water. Authorities said 24 construction workers who were on the site when the unfinished five-story building came down have been confirmed dead, while another 28 are missing, raising the possibility that the death toll could ultimately be above 50. More than 600 emergency services and other personnel have been involved in the search for survivors in the wreckage of the building in the city of George on South Africa's south coast, which collapsed last Monday. There were 81 workers on the site when it collapsed, and 29 have been pulled out alive, the city said. It said 13 of them remained in a hospital without giving details of their condition. The city has previously said that many of the survivors were in critical condition when they were found. The disaster management team overseeing the emergency response maintained that the operation was still rescue rather than recovery, pointing to the survivor pulled out on Saturday. The man, who was identified as 32-year-old Gabriel Guambe, was in stable condition in the hospital and "remarkably sustained only minor injuries," the city said. Guambe was trapped in the rubble for 118 hours, it said. His survival underlined rescuers' hopes that there may be more people alive in what they called voids in the ruins of the building — areas where there are gaps between the concrete that might have allowed some workers to survive the collapse. Rescue teams have been using cranes and other heavy machinery to move some of the thousands of tons of concrete in an attempt to reach deeper into the wreckage. Sniffer dogs were also being used and one was responsible for locating Guambe. Many of the workers were foreign nationals from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi and authorities were calling for translators to help communicate with survivors. They also said it was making the identification of victims difficult. Multiple investigations into the cause of the building collapse were underway, including by police, who declared the site a crime scene. The construction company responsible is being investigated to see if it followed proper safety protocols. People began leaving flowers around the edge of the site as a mark of respect for the victims, while the city and the disaster response team issued a joint statement asking South Africans to observe a moment of silence at 2.09 p.m. on Monday, the exact time the building collapsed last week.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

London — British police have charged three men with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service amid growing concern that hostile states are trying to interfere with democracy and economic activity in the U.K.  The three men were among 11 people arrested earlier this month in Yorkshire and London by counterterrorism police using provisions of a new law that allows suspects in national security and espionage cases to be detained without warrant. The eight other suspects were released without charge.  Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, are also charged with foreign interference, the Metropolitan Police Service said. They will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday.  "A number of arrests were made and searches carried out across England as part of this investigation," Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's counterterrorism command, said in a statement. "While led from London, the Counter Terrorism Policing network has been crucial to disrupting this activity."  The announcement comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak prepares to deliver a speech on Monday in which he is expected to say that Britain is facing an increasingly dangerous future due to threats from an "axis of authoritarian states," including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Tensions with China flared last year after a parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing, charges that Chinese officials called a "malicious smear."  Hong Kong's security bureau, Hong Kong police and the office of China's foreign ministry in Hong Kong didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.  The British government last year passed a new national security act that gave police additional powers to tackle foreign espionage. The legislation was needed to combat the "ever-evolving" threat of foreign interference and in "response to the threat of hostile activity from states targeting the U.K.'s democracy, economy, and values," the government said.  The arrests in the current case were made on May 1 and 2. The investigation is continuing, police said. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.