A team of teenage Gambian students are upset and mystified at being denied visas to attend a major global robotics contest in Washington later this month. This comes days after an Afghan girls team was also turned down by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Neither team was given any reason. “It’s very disappointing, knowing that we are the only two countries that aren’t going to take part in the competition,” Gambian student Fatoumata Ceesay said. The two teams will instead enter the competition via Skype. But the video link is …

Ahead of the Independence Day celebration, many museums across the country inaugurate special exhibits dedicated to the most important moments in American history. VOA Russian’s Maxim Moskalkov went to a vast display at the  National Museum of American History. … From: MeNeedIt

Lawyers from around Africa gathered in Cameroon this week to call for tougher legislation against counterfeit medicine.   Sixty tons of counterfeit medicine was burned after being seized by customs officials in Cameroon, who say the stockpile had an estimated value of $80,000. Customs official Marcel Kamgaing said the imitation medicine was being used to treat everything from diabetes and hypertension to cancer and erectile dysfunction. He said the forged drugs were destined for sale at shops and roadside pharmacies. He says illicit drugs are very dangerous to the health …

The U.N. children’s fund warns tens of thousands of malnourished children are at great risk in Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan, which are on the brink of famine. UNICEF reports an estimated 4.7 million children in the three cholera-stricken countries are malnourished. Of these, UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac tells VOA, more than one million are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. “Let me remind you that a child who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition are nine times more likely to die of disease than a well-nourished child,” he said. “So, …

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled Monday that Environmental  Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt lacks the authority to suspend rules that oil and gas companies monitor and fix methane gas leaks. Two of the three judges on the panel wrote that an order delaying such a rule is the same thing as revoking it. Pruitt said in April he wanted to put its enforcement on hold for 90 days, later saying he wanted to extend it for two years. He argued that oil and gas companies are already monitoring methane …