VOA NEWS

September 1, 2014

From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, unrest in southeastern Ukraine. Suspected Ebola case found in Sweden. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.



Pro-Russia separatists have fired on a Ukrainian broader patrol ship in the Sea of Azov which borders the entire southeastern coast of Ukraine, where government forces have been fighting to seize back control from the pro-Russia separatists.

Meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin is calling for talks on statehood in the east.

And European Union leaders meeting in Brussels say they have asked the European Commission for a list of new measures to take against Russia.

Herman Van Rompuy is EC chairman: "The European Council says, says that it stands ready to take further significant steps in the light of the evolution of the situation on the ground and it requests the commission to urgently undertake preparatory work, together with Action Service and present proposals for consideration within, within a week."

The statement by EU leaders demands that Russia immediately withdraw all of its military assets and forces from Ukraine.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Russia denies its troops are in Ukraine.



Iraqi officials say their forces have ended a siege by Islamic militants on the northern town of Amerli, where thousands of people have been trapped for over two months with dwindling food, water and medical supplies.



Swedish medical authorities are investigating a possible case of Ebola at a hospital in Stockholm.



This is VOA news.



Media reports are saying a man who recently traveled to a "risk area" for the virus is suffering from a fever and is being treated in an isolation unit in Stockholm.

They released no other details about the case.

Last week, Senegal became the fifth country linked to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed more than 1,500 people this year, most of them in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The World Health Organization has warned that the 6-month-old outbreak is escalating, with 40 percent of the cases occurring within the last month.



The prime minister of Lesotho is in South Africa to discuss recent unrest in his country.

Thomas Thabane is to meet with South African President Jacob Zuma and Lesotho's Deputy Prime Minster Mothetjoa Metsing, whom Thabane has accused of orchestrating the unrest.

He described it as a coup attempt. But a military spokesman says the military was trying to secure the country before a mass anti-government demonstration scheduled for Monday.



[As Islamist militia groups in Libya say] An Islamist militia group in Libya says it's taken control of the residential annex of the vacated U.S. embassy in Tripoli, that is, a month after American diplomats fled to escape the violent clashes between rival militias in the Libyan capital.

News agencies reported on Sunday that the Dawn of Libya, an umbrella group for Islamist militias, said it had been in control of the U.S. compound for about a week, seizing it from a rival militia after weeks of fighting for control of Tripoli and its international airport.

Increasing violence has wracked Libya in the three years since long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled.



A boat carrying at least 100 sub-Saharan African migrants has capsized off the Libyan coast.

The Libyan coast guard said Sunday it found the damaged rubber boat about 50 kilometers east of Tripoli and about 15 kilometers offshore.

French news agency reported that 15 bodies were found floating in the sea, including two women and two children.

Many African migrants attempt to flee across the Mediterranean Sea to a new life in Italy, but passengers' poorly equipped boats have often proved powerless.



Israel says it is appropriating 400 hectares of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, one of the biggest seizures for the Jewish state in decades.

Israel's army says it is declaring that the land is "state-owned" under orders from political leaders. It is in reaction to the kidnapping and murders of three Israeli teenagers in June in Bethlehem.

The U.S. State Department is calling the Israeli land takeover "counterproductive" in peace efforts and is asking Israel to reconsider.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat is condemning the move as part of what he calls Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.



That's the latest world news from VOA.