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From Washington, this is VOA news. Hamas military commander rejects cease-fire with Israel. New EU sanctions against Russia. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.
The reclusive Hamas military commander surfaced to reject any cease-fire with Israel until the group's demands are met. Mohammad Deif appeared on Palestinian media Tuesday to repeat Hamas's demands that Israel end its blockade of Gaza. Deif is confined to a wheelchair because of an Israeli assassination attempt. A day of attacks from Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 100 Palestinians Tuesday, bringing a death toll in Gaza to more than 1,100. Most of the victims have been civilians including many children. Fifty-three Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the military operation against Hamas will not stop until Israel destroys a network of tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle weapons and terrorists into Israel. European Union governments have agreed to impose new sanctions against Russia that will target its defense sector. Washington is expected to follow. Lisa Bryant reports. Agreed to by European Union ambassadors meeting in Brussels, the new sanctions are expected to go into effect rapidly. While the details are still sketchy, the aim (is) to hit sensitive areas of Russia's economy, including its oil, technology, banking and defense sectors. The ambassadors also extended their list of people subject to EU travel bans and asset freezes. The 28-member bloc only recently slapped sanctions against Russia over its support of the rebellion in Ukraine, but sanctions widely considered to have limited effect. Analysts say strong pressure from Washington, coupled with the downing of the Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine that killed almost 200 Dutch citizens, has changed Europe's thinking. Lisa Bryant, for VOA news, Paris. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says there is not a "shred of evidence" that Russia seeks to end the violence and bloodshed in eastern Ukraine. The 39-year-old doctor who led the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone has died from the virus. Dr. Umar Khan's death comes less than a week after he tested positive for Ebola. Dr. Khan is credited with treating more than 100 Ebola patients. Three nurses at the same facility where he worked have died from the virus. The current Ebola outbreak began in February and health experts are calling it the worst on record. The World Health Organization reports close to 700 people in West Africa have died. Afghan officials say a suicide bomber killed a cousin of President Hamid Karzai in the southern province of Kandahar. Hashmat Karzai was an adviser to presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. He was hosting guests at his house for the Eid al-Fitr holiday when a man detonated explosives as the pair greeted one another. There is no claim of responsibility. The United States and India will be holding talks this weekend in New Delhi. It's the first high-level interaction between them since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over. Anjana Pasricha has details. For months, India-U.S. ties have grabbed headlines for the wrong reasons: Washington's denial of a visa to the Hindu nationalist leader who is now India's prime minister, and an ugly spat over an Indian diplomat's arrest in New York last December. But the mood is more positive as India's Bharatiya Janata Party government prepares to host U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for the fifth India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue, which will begin later this week. The issue of the visa denial was set at rest after Modi's election, when the U.S. government reached out to him and invited him to visit Washington in September. Anjana Pasricha, for VOA news, New Delhi. A U.S. federal judge ordered agents to seize one million barrels of Kurdish oil after crude is unloaded from a tanker off the Texas coast and brought ashore. One hundred million dollars worth of oil is waiting off the coast of Galveston. It's not clear who is buying the oil. The Iraqi government filed suit against the Kurdish regional government in a U.S. court, saying that Iraq's natural resources belong to Baghdad. It says the Kurds are trying to sell the oil without its permission. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook eastern Mexico Tuesday. No reports of injuries or major damage. Residents in eight Mexican states felt the quake from the epicenter in Veracruz to Mexico City, 500 kilometers away. I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |