Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text Thursday, April 9th, 2015 From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting. Boston Marathon bomber convicted on all counts. A U.S. jury Wednesday convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of helping his brother carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured another 264. The jury deliberated for more than 11 hours over two days before convicting Tsarnaev, who is 21, of all 30 charges he faced. Seventeen of those charges carry a possible death penalty. VOA's Fatima Tlisova was in the courtroom when the verdicts were announced. "All the charges include the conspiracy, using, use of weapons of mass destruction, murder of four people. All of charges were recognized as guilty.” The case against Tsarnaev now heads to a second phase, with the jury hearing more testimony before deciding whether to send him to life in prison or death. The Tsarnaev lawyers contend the older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, who was killed in a police shootout, was a driving force behind the attack. A state-run media outlet in Iran reports Iranian navy ships have left for waters near Yemen, amid a Saudi-led airstrike campaign to halt the advance of Iranian-backed Shiite rebels in the country. Iranian Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari says the fleet will provide safety for "Iran's shipping lanes" and protect the country's "interests in the high seas.” A former detainee of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was arrested in Uganda on suspicion of playing a role in the killing last month of a prosecutor who handled terror cases. Jamal Kiyemba, Ugandan, was arrested along with three others in the capital, Kampala. Officials say the U.S. government personnel supported the operation leading to his arrest. This is VOA news. Kurdish security officials say the Islamic State group has freed at least 216 members of Iraq's Yazidi community who had been held captive for eight months. According to eyewitnesses, the handover took place Wednesday in the northern province of Kirkuk and that most of the Yazidis who were released were elderly and in poor health. The reason for their release was not clear. Iraqi security forces, meanwhile, have launched a new offensive against Islamic State fighters in Anbar province in western Iraq, seeking to build on momentum gain following last week's defeat of the militants in the northern city of Tikrit. An Afghan national army soldier opened fire on U.S. troops in Jalalabad Wednesday, killing one American before being killed in return fire. The gunfire erupted just after Afghan provincial officials met with a U.S. embassy official in the provincial governor's compound. There has been no claim of responsibility. India's envoy to Pakistan brushed aside Islamabad's assertions that rapid increases in its nuclear arsenal, including short-range "tactical" nuclear weapons, are serving as a deterrent to another war between the two countries. Ayaz Gul has details. Pakistani authorities insist the nuclear weapons have deterred another war with India, helping to maintain regional peace. India envoy to Pakistan T.C.A. Raghavan dismisses these assertions, saying an increase in the nuclear arsenal is not a way of building confidence. "I believe the way forward is to address issues of political trust, address issues of concern with regard to terrorism and extremism.” Indian diplomat Raghavan disagreed with suggestions the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States sets an example for India and Pakistan to work together to ease growing nuclear dangers in South Asia. Ayaz Gul, for VOA news, Islamabad. A white police officer in the southwestern U.S. state of South Carolina was dismissed after a video showed him firing repeated shots at a fleeing, unarmed black man and killing him after a traffic stop. Officer Michael Slager was fired and accused of murder in the killing last Saturday of 50-year-old Walter Scott after the policeman pulled him over for driving with a broken brake light in North Charleston. The video, taken by a bystander with a cellphone camera, shows Slager firing eight times at Scott, who was running away. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. They held bilateral talks in Moscow Wednesday. Mr. Putin indicated Russia could lift its embargo on food imports from Greece. Mr. Putin also said that the leader of Greece did not ask for any financial aid. I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA.

• published: 09 Apr 2015
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