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From Washington, this is VOA news. Israeli airstrike hits another U.N. school. Afghan presidential vote ordered resumes. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.
At least 10 people were killed and another 35 wounded Sunday at a U.N.-operated school sheltering displaced people in Gaza. U.N. officials said it appeared to be the result of an Israeli airstrike. Witnesses say the explosion in Rafa occurred as people were waiting in line for food. It is the third time in ten days a U.N. school was hit in attacks that have drawn international condemnation. This latest drew a strong rebuke from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who called it a "moral outrage and a criminal act." The United States said it was appalled. The airstrike on the school came as Israel pulled some troops from Gaza and redeployed others within the Palestinian enclave. An Israel military spokesman said its forces were extremely close to completing the mission to destroy tunnels Hamas has used to store weapons and sneak into Israel to carry out attacks. The Israeli army says more than 50 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel Sunday. Syrian rebels have killed 10 Lebanese soldiers in a cross-border raid, involving some of the worst spillover of violence since Syria's civil war broke out more than three years ago. The fighting erupted at the border town of Arsal. Lebanese officials say Syrian rebels have captured at least 12 members of Lebanon's security forces. Chinese officials say an earthquake in a remote mountainous region of the southwest killed at least [five hundred], rather, 357 people and collapsed thousands of buildings. More than 1,400 people were injured in Sunday's quake. Many are still missing. The epicenter was in southwestern Yunnan province. The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.1. Officials in Afghanistan have resumed a full-ballot audit of the country's presidential election after U.N.-led attempts failed to convince Abdullah Abdullah to rejoin the process because of differences with his opponent Ashraf Ghani. Ayaz Gul reports. Commission spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor says the auditing of more than eight million votes is taking place in the presence of hundreds of international and national observers, journalists and representatives of presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. The spokesman explained that the framework for inspecting the votes has been developed by U.N. experts and representatives of the two presidential candidates, and the commission played no role in it. The election dispute began when Abdullah, who led the first round of the Afghan presidential election, rejected the outcome of the runoff vote that put rival candidate Ghani well ahead of him and the Ghani team colluded against him. Officials have denied the charges as unfounded. Ayaz Gul, for VOA news, Islamabad. Deadly clashes between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists continued Sunday. Officials in Donetsk say six people were killed in shelling between the two sides. Three other people were killed in Luhansk. Meanwhile, the remains of more victims from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 arrived in Kharkiv Sunday to be prepared for transportation to the Netherlands. The investigators are focusing on recovering several dozen bodies still missing more than two weeks after the Malaysian plane was shot down, killing all 298 passengers and crew. Somali officials say a bomb blast in the capital killed three women and wounded at least seven other people. The victims are municipal street cleaners who were working when the bomb exploded Sunday in Mogadishu's Hodon district. There has been no claim of responsibility. Libya says 22 people were killed in a day of fighting in Tripoli between rival militias vying to take control of the capital's international airport. The interim government announced the death toll Sunday from the fighting the day before between Islamist militias from the coastal city of Misrata and the mountain town of Zintan, combatants who once fought side by side to oust longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Fifty African heads of state are planning to attend a three-day Africa summit beginning Monday here in Washington, where the U.S. will unveil almost $1 billion in business deals, more funding for peacekeeping and commit billions of dollars to food and power programs in Africa. A top U.S. health official says the American doctor who contracted the deadly Ebola disease in Liberia seems to be improving. The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tom Frieden, says it is encouraging Dr. that Kent Brantly, now in a special isolation unit at a hospital in the southern state of Georgia, appears to be getting better. The doctor returned to the U.S. Saturday. I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |