VOA NEWS

August 7, 2014

From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, Israel agrees to extend a 72-hour cease-fire with the Palestinians in Gaza. And a second Ebola death in Nigeria. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.



President Obama told reporters in Washington Wednesday that Gaza cannot sustain itself and is not capable of providing jobs and economic growth. He said he has no sympathy for the Hamas rulers, but that there has to be a shift in opportunities for the people of Gaza.

Meantime, Israel says it wants to extend the current 72-hour truce with Hamas. The truce is set to expire Friday morning local time. Israel did not say how long it's willing to extend it, but Hamas officials in Cairo said there is no agreement yet.

And at the U.N., Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says while he welcomes the current cease-fire, it comes at a price almost too much to bear. VOA's Margaret Besheer has details.

Arab nations called for an urgent meeting of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Ban Ki-moon told member states that only a negotiated, political settlement can bring security and peace to both sides.

"Do we have to continue like this: build, destroy, and build and destroy? We will build again - but this must be the last time to rebuild. This must stop now."

Mr. Ban also reiterated his anger over the deadly shellings of U.N. facilities in Gaza that house fleeing civilians, saying the U.N. flag must be respected and assure protection to those in need.

Margaret Besheer, VOA news, the United Nations.



The World Health Organization says it will convene an ethics panel next week to discuss whether the experimental drug ZMapp should be given to some Ebola patients across West Africa.

Two American medical missionaries who contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia appear to be showing signs of improvement after doses of the experimental serum in recent days.

In Liberia, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has declared a state of emergency as her country deals with the Ebola outbreak.

And in Nigeria, new signs of spreading of the disease - the country's second confirmed victim, as we hear now from Heather Murdock in Abuja.

Officials say a nurse who treated Nigeria's first Ebola patient two weeks ago died Tuesday of the disease.

The five other patients are now in isolation at a hospital in Lagos. They are all health workers that treated Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American who flew into Nigeria from Liberia with the disease and died on July 25th.

Nigerian Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu says the government is establishing a 24-hour-a-day Ebola command center and trying to prepare hospitals around the country in case the disease continues to spread.

Heather Murdock, for VOA news, Abuja.

And the World Health Organization now says the death toll from the outbreak of Ebola, centered in West Africa, is up to 932.



Officials in Cameroon say Boko Haram militants from neighboring Nigeria raided a remote northern border town Wednesday, killing 10 people and kidnapping a child.

The reason for the raid is unclear.

The militants are suspected in last month's kidnapping of a local religious leader in Cameroon and the deputy prime minister's wife.

Boko Haram extremists have killed thousands trying to turn northern Nigeria into a strict Islamic state.



President Obama and African leaders held talks in Washington on Wednesday on expanding trade, improving security and strengthening government accountability across Africa.

It was part of the three-day U.S.-Africa leadership summit involving some 50 African heads of state and government.

In his opening remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Obama said a "new Africa" is emerging.

He said increased business opportunities in Africa could help transform the relationship between the U.S. and the African continent.



Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has recalled investigators probing the shootdown of a Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine, saying fighting near the crash site makes it too dangerous to continue.

Meanwhile, fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists raged on Wednesday near the Russian border as NATO warned that the Kremlin could intervene with Russian combat troops under the guise of a peacekeeping operation.



And police in the Indonesian capital say they have identified several local supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIL, following the government's ban on support of the militant group.

According to the Indonesian chief of National Police, as many as 56 Indonesians have joined ISIL.



That's the latest world news from VOA.