VOA NEWS

July 31, 2014

From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, U.N. school in Gaza gets direct artillery hit. Concerns mounting about Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.



The United Nations says all indicators are that Israeli artillery hit a U.N. school in northern Gaza Wednesday, killing at least 15 people who were sheltering there. Some of those were children. VOA's Margaret Besheer reports.

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson was emotional as he spoke about the attack which also injured more than 100 people.

"Sometimes you run out of words." He said U.N. officials received the news of the attack with "shock and dismay."

The elementary school in Jabaliya is the fifth U.N. school sheltering Palestinian families to be attacked since hostilities began.

"They were there under U.N. protection, under our protection, and after warnings from the Israeli Defense Forces who had numerous times been informed about the presence of over 3,000 civilians at this location."

Speaking in Costa Rica on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the attack, saying "Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children."

Margaret Besheer, VOA news, the United Nations.

Israel says it was responding to mortar fire from near the school. It has consistently condemned Hamas for using civilians, including infants, as human shields by launching attacks from civilian areas.

The White House condemned Wednesday's shelling but did not blame anyone for it.

Israeli shells also killed 16 at a Gaza market.



Two U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Liberia have been isolated after suspected exposure to Ebola although neither one is showing symptoms of the deadly virus.

As a precautionary measure, the U.S. Peace Corps is temporarily removing its volunteers from Liberia, as well as Sierra Leone and Guinea due to the increasing spread of the Ebola virus.

In Sierra Leone, Anja Wolz of Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, said her medical crew is confined to its field hospital as the disease spreads.

"At the moment, as MSF only has a capacity to work in the case management centers. We don't have a capacity to go outside. The situation is quite difficult. I would say we are on the top of an iceberg at the moment because a contact tracing is not really functioning. And this is one of the major issues that we have. Because to find the patients as soon as possible and to refer them to case management center, it's the basic for an Ebola outbreak."

The World Health Organization reports almost 700 people have died from Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone during the current outbreak. It began back in February. There is no vaccine nor cure for the disease.



Russia banned imports of fresh produce from Poland Wednesday, a day after the European Union and the United States hit Moscow with tough new sanctions for its role in the Ukrainian crisis.

Moscow also warned it could extend the import ban to the entire 28-member EU.

Russian ban comes just two days after Poland demanded new Western sanctions to punish the Kremlin for supplying Ukrainian rebels with missiles that downed a Malaysian airliner on July the 17th.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the EU-U.S. sanctions, which target Moscow's energy, defense, technology and finance sectors, destructive and shortsighted.



Pakistan says it's repulsed an attack on a military outpost by Afghanistan-based militants, killing at least seven attackers. That story now from Ayaz Gul.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry summoned a senior Afghan diplomat to lodge a strong protest about what it called "another attack launched by terrorists from across the Afghan border." It urged the Kabul government to take effective steps to stop what it said was the use of Afghan soil for repeated cross-border fire and physical aggression against Pakistan.

The incident comes while Pakistani troops are conducting counterinsurgency operations in another border area farther south, the tribal region of North Waziristan. Afghanistan has long asserted that the area serves as a training and recruiting ground for the Afghan Taliban insurgency.

Ayaz Gul, for VOA news, Islamabad.



North Korea has fired four more short-range projectiles into the sea, the latest in a series of missile and artillery tests.

The South Korean Defense Ministry says the North fired two Wednesday morning and two more later in the day from an area northeast of Pyongyang. The type of projectile used is not yet known.



That's the latest world news from VOA.