• published: 27 Apr 2014
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Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text Sunday, April 27th, 2014 From Washington, this is VOA news. Ukraine cites Russia for airspace violation. U.S. President Obama is in Malaysia. I'm Vincent Bruce reporting from Washington. Ukraine's prime minister says Russian military aircraft repeatedly crossed into Ukraine's airspace in what he called Russian aggression designed to undermine global security. Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Rome during a trip to Italy that included talks with Pope Francis told reporters Saturday that Russian forces had "violated" Ukrainian airspace seven times overnight. "We do understand the reason Russian military did it. The only reason is to provoke Ukraine to strike missile and to accuse Ukraine of waging the war to Russia." On Friday, U.S. military officials also said Russian aircraft had flown into Ukrainian airspace, a charge Russia denies. VOA correspondent Brian Padden in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk says anti-American sentiment appears to be on the rise among pro-Russian separatists. Padden reports an angry mob confronted him as he tried to cover a rally in front of an occupied building. "As we were walking away, the crowd just got more angry and started following us and one guy tried to grab my colleague's camera. I tried to stop him. [He]Then he grabbed me and another guy came with a baton. But before anything could really deteriorate into a real scuffle, the police kind of came between all of us and pulled us out and we just kept walking. But they followed us for a good 20 meters, yelling, continuing to yell at us to 'Get out,' to 'Go home.'" Saturday, President Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Malaysia in nearly half a century. Mr. Obama arrived in Kuala Lumpur, the third stop on an Asian tour aimed at reassuring allies in the region. VOA White House correspondent Luis Ramirez traveling with the president has a report. With a red carpet and an elaborate honor guard at a ceremony in central Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's King Sultan Abdul Halim and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak welcomed Mr. Obama on this two-day visit aimed at strengthening already robust trade and security ties. Malaysia is predominantly Muslim and the national mosque is on the president's itinerary as a gesture of good will. He comes to Malaysia as the country remains preoccupied with last month's mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people aboard. At a state dinner Saturday, the Malaysian monarch thanked Mr. Obama for U.S. cooperation in the ongoing search for the missing plane. Luis Ramirez, VOA news, Kuala Lumpur. More details on these stories at voanews.com. Fifteen deaths have been reported in Iraq following attacks Saturday as the country approaches parliamentary elections. Officials say at least six people died in two separate attacks in the capital, Baghdad. All violence elsewhere killed nearly ten people. Saturday's violence happened a day after at least 33 people were killed in bombings at a campaign rally for Shiite political organization. Egyptian authorities have detected the country's first case of the deadly SARS-like virus called the Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. Egypt's state-run news says a 27-year-old Egyptian who recently traveled to Saudi Arabia tested positive for the disease Saturday morning. Doctors are treating him at a Cairo hospital. It appears no candidate won a [major] majority in Afghanistan's April 5th election so there will be a second runoff vote between Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani. The runoff should be held within 15 days of final results due on May 14th. A permanent museum to remember the Tiananmen crackdown of 1989 has officially opened in Hong Kong. Rebecca Valli reports from Hong Kong for VOA. While references to the crackdown are banned on the mainland, activists and politicians in Hong Kong have long called on Beijing to offer a full account of what happened on June 4th, 1989. In 1989, Chen Qinghua was a representative sent by the Hong Kong Student Association to support the student movement, which had been demonstrating for months against corruption and calling for political reform. He says that in the late evening of June third he was at a medical station near Tiananmen Square and what he saw filled him with disbelieve and anger. "Starting from 10:30, 11 o'clock, people were brought in with gun wounds. Some of them were dead on arrival." The government in China says the protests were counter-revolutionary and insists that China has moved on from that political turmoil. Rebecca Valli, reporting for VOA news, Hong Kong. NATO and British officials say five international troops have been killed in a British military helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan. No further details at this time. More details at voanews.com. I'm Vincent Bruce, VOA news, reporting from Washington.