VOA NEWS

April 5, 2014

From Washington, this is VOA news. Pakistan to close its borders with Afghanistan with the election on Saturday. Suspected cases of Ebola in Mali. I'm Vincent Bruce reporting from Washington.



Pakistan says it has closed all border crossings and deployed additional troops to help Afghanistan conduct Saturday's presidential polls peacefully.

In Islamabad, Ayaz Gul has a report.

The Pakistan military said late Friday that all crossing points into Afghanistan will remain closed until conclusion of polling there on Saturday.

The army says that all routes leading toward the border with Afghanistan are being strictly monitored and aerial surveillance will be carried out to prevent "any untoward cross-border movement."

Pakistan's foreign policy and national security advisor, Sartaj Aziz, tells VOA that peace in his country is linked to stability in Afghanistan.

Aziz reiterated that Islamabad wants to maintain friendly ties with Kabul, and hopes Afghanistan will emerge stronger and more unified after the election.

Ayaz Gul, for VOA new, Islamabad.



Afghan officials say a policeman shot two foreign female journalists, killing one and wounding the other on the eve of the country's presidential election.

The dead journalist is identified as 48-year-old Anja Niedringhaus, an award-winning German photographer who was working for the Associated Press. AP reporter Kathy Gannon was in stable condition after being wounded twice.

Authorities say the police officer was arrested following the incident inside a heavily-guarded district compound in a remote part of the eastern province of Khost.



U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the Obama administration is reevaluating its role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process after both sides broke parts of an agreement on talks about [a two-state nation] a two-state solution.

While neither side has told him they want to quit the peace process, Kerry says it is clearly time for "a reality check."

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Friday the situation is difficult but the process can still be completed.

"It's really easy to write the story that Middle East peace is dead. That's not a hard story to write, because what's true in the past, you know, statistically tends to continue being true in the future. But what we're trying to do is make sure that's not the case. So I think until we get to the end of this process, we should all be cautious about making predictions about what will come next. And look, this may not work, but the parties have said they want to continue. Our team is continuing, and we'll see if we can make some more progress."



Officials in Mali are investigating three suspected cases of Ebola amid a regional outbreak of the deadly disease.

Mali's minister of health announced the suspected cases Friday.

[Health workers] Those three people have been placed in isolation, where they are receiving treatment. Health workers have sent biological samples to be tested at a lab in the U.S. city of Atlanta.

More on these stories at voanews.com.



Military investigators have released more information about the Fort Hood, Texas, solider who shot and killed three people and injured 16 others Thursday.

Chris Gray, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, says 34-year-old Army Specialist Ivan Lopez may have argued with soldiers from his unit shortly before opening fire.

However, Gray says a concrete motive for the shooting has not been established.



British Foreign Minister William Hague says Europe should continue its "strong and united" response to Russia's escalation of the Ukrainian crisis.

Hague spoke Friday before a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Athens.



Twenty years after Rwanda's 1994 genocide, a government campaign encourages reconciliation by taking on the taboo subject of ethnicity.

VOA's Gabe Joselow reports from Kigali.

In high schools and universities, corporate offices and government ministries, Rwandans are engaging in a dialogue about ethnicity in a campaign called Ndi Umanyarwanda, or I Am Rwandan.

One of the campaign's main proponents, member of parliament Edouard Bamporiki, says the idea is to start a conversation about the ethnic roles created by the genocide, while reaffirming a national unity.

The initiative is one of many Rwanda has employed to try to unite communities divided by one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

Twenty years ago, 800,000 people were killed in a country-wide campaign of violence.

Gabe Joselow, VOA news, Kigali.



In the economic news, U.S. employers added 192,000 jobs in March, a positive sign for the U.S. economy after an unusually cold and snowy winter that slowed growth.



In stocks, the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite all lost points on Friday.



[For all] More on all of these stories 24 hours a day, visit us at voanews.com. I'm Vincent Bruce, VOA news.