VOA news for Friday, December 15th, 2017

VOA news for Friday, December 15th, 2017 Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Anne Ball reporting. Standing in front of large pieces of debris, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told a news conference at a military base in Washington D.C. that the U.S. has "undeniable" evidence that Iran is illegally supplying weapons to rebels in Yemen as part of a "pattern" of bad behavior in the region. Haley said the pieces were from a short-range missile recently fired by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen into Saudi Arabia that struck a civilian airport. She said the activity is not just limited to Yemen. "What we're also seeing is activity in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and we'll be able to show all of those. And there is more coming. This is not it. There is a lot more of uncomfortable evidence that the international community will look at and realize how dangerous this is.” Iran's U.N. mission put out a statement immediately after Haley's comments, dismissing the allegations as "unfounded, and at the same time, irresponsible". An Islamic extremist suicide bomber killed 18 people at a police academy in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday. Somalia's acting police commissioner, Mukhtar Husein Afrah, said police were preparing for the 74th anniversary of Police Day and a suicide bomber came in and blew himself up. Afrah said 18 police officers were killed and 15 were injured. Somalia's al-Shabaab extremist rebels claimed quick responsibility. This is VOA news. Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed for the first time to place "liaison officers" at each other's military headquarters for better coordination, and Islamabad is awaiting a formal response from Kabul to its proposal for opening a wide-ranging bilateral dialogue. Prime ministers of the Visegrad Group held a meeting in Brussels on Thursday to tackle Europe's migrant crisis. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said something else needs to be done. "We have to solve this problem by fighting against this migro-mafia, which is making billions of euro of money and is bringing these unhappy people to Europe promising them the better future which they will not have.” Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban said the group was prepared to participate financially in the fight against illegal migration in North Africa and Libya, in particular. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned against the danger of "sleepwalking" into war. Doug Bernard has more. Guterres said that Security Council resolutions on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs must be fully implemented by Pyongyang and other countries and urged leaders to find a peaceful solution. "I think it is important for all parties to understand the urgency of finding a solution, avoiding the kind of confrontation that could have tragic consequences for everybody.” Guterres made the comments to reporters after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo just days after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions. The White House said Wednesday that no negotiations could be held with North Korea until it improves its behavior. The White House has declined to say whether President Donald Trump gave approval to Tillerson's overture. Doug Bernard, VOA news. The U.S. on Thursday voted to dismantle the two-year-old "net neutrality" rules that guaranteed equal access to the Internet. The new policies reduce regulation of major Internet service providers and hand them sweeping powers to decide what web content consumers can access. The Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission voted three to two to adopt the "light touch" plan for regulating major telecommunications companies. From Washington, I'm Anne Ball. That's the latest world news from VOA.