VOA news for Tuesday, April 26th, 2016
VOA news for Tuesday,
April 26th, 2016
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
From
Washington, this is VOA news. I'm
David DeForest reporting.
President Barack Obama orders an increase in the number of
U.S. special operations forces in
Syria.
Mr. Obama is urging
European nations to ramp up their contributions to the coalition fighting the
Islamic State group.
Speaking at an industrial trade fair Monday in
Hanover, Germany, the
U.S. president says up to 250 additional personnel will join a team of about 50 U.S. troops in Syria.
"Just as
I've approved additional support for
Iraqi forces against
ISIL, I've decided to increase U.S. support for local forces fighting ISIL in Syria.”
Earlier this month, the
United States announced the deployment of an additional
200 troops and several
Apache attack helicopters to
Iraq.
Diplomatic sources say a group of Taliban negotiators has arrived in
Pakistan for "exploratory" meetings with authorities in
Islamabad.
The sources say the visit is part of efforts that Pakistan is making to facilitate resumption of
Afghan peace and reconciliation talks.
But when contacted by VOA, a Taliban spokesman said he was unaware that the delegation had traveled to
Pakistan.
The development comes as the same day as
Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani told parliament that Pakistan is to blame for not stopping fugitive Taliban leaders from plotting violence in
Afghanistan.
Saudi Arabia unveiled a long-term plan that could result in its most significant economic changes in decades. The plan would propose a shift away from the dependence on petroleum as the country's most valuable asset.
Saudi Arabia's economy has been hit hard by sharp drops in crude oil prices, forcing the world's largest exporter of oil to find new sources of income.
This is VOA news.
The United States has pledged $
10 million to aid those affected by the fallout of the
Chernobyl disaster. The announcement coincides with the 30th anniversary of the
Ukraine nuclear accident.
The April 26,
1986, explosion at
Chernobyl's
No. 4 reactor forced the evacuation of 350,
000 residents working and living in the surrounding area.
Republican presidential front-runner
Donald Trump is ridiculing his two rivals' efforts to derail his campaign.
Trump's challengers,
Texas Senator Ted Cruz and
Ohio Governor John Kasich, announced a plan Sunday to run in selective primaries to try to deny Trump of first ballot victory at the party's July convention.
Trump calls it a "horrible act of desperation.”
"If you add up the both votes, and if you add up the both delegates they're way behind me, so it doesn't matter. But it takes two guys, longtime politicians, to try and get together to try and beat Trump, and yet they're way behind.”
The Cruz-Kasich strategy signals a marked shift for
Cruz, who has previously rejected overtures to join with
Kasich to try to block Trump.
Iran has threatened legal action against the United States if $2 billion in frozen funds are diverted to compensate
American families of people killed by Iran-sponsored terrorism.
Iran's
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said his government will hold the
U.S. government responsible for protecting Iran's frozen funds.
A car bomb in a predominantly
Shiite commercial district in eastern
Baghdad Monday exploded, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding 38.
Saudi-led coalition forces in
Yemen say they have killed more than 800 al-Qaeda fighters in a single attack.
The death toll in the strike on the militant-held town of
Mukalla could not be independently verified.
A military general in
Burundi was shot and killed while dropping his daughter off at school.
General Athanase Kararuza, an adviser to Burundi's vice president, was killed along with his wife and one of his bodyguards in
Bujumbura.
Meanwhile, the
International Criminal Court has announced it will examine outbreaks of killings, torture, rapes and other crimes in Burundi over the past year.
Here is chief prosecutor
Fatou Bensouda: "Because all these acts appear to fall within the jurisdiction of the
ICC, I have decided to open a preliminary examination into the situation in Burundi since April of
2015.”
A preliminary examination is not an investigation but instead a process of determining whether a formal investigation is necessary.
On
Wall Street, U.S. stock indexes down at the end of trade today.
In Washington, I'm David DeForest.
That's the latest world news from VOA.