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President Obama prepares to say he will lead a coalition to fight the Islamic State group, and U.S. lawmakers send mixed messages about how to deal with the militants ahead of Mr. Obama's speech. I'm Michael Lipin reporting from Washington.
In the coming hour, President Barack Obama is due to present a plan to lead an international coalition to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The White House released excerpts of Mr. Obama's televised address, in which he says his objective is to degrade and ultimately destroy the militant group through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy. He says the plan will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. Earlier, Mr. Obama authorized $25 million in spending to provide immediate military assistance to the Iraqi government. U.S. lawmakers have been speaking out about the Islamic State threat ahead of Mr. Obama' speech. VOA's Michael Bowman has more from Capitol Hill. As the president prepared to address the nation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged colleagues not to prejudge Obama's message. "Would it not be a good idea for us to stand back a little bit and see what the president of the United States has to say tonight? Let's allow him to speak to our country, to our fellow citizens, and lay out his plan." Lawmakers are keenly aware that many U.S. voters are war-weary, yet alarmed by Islamic State radicals. Republican Senator Ted Cruz: "We are tired of sending our sons and daughters potentially to die in distant lands. No one wants to see an extended engagement in Iraq." Michael Bowman, VOA news, the Capitol. And, this is VOA news. A young American woman who was engaged to an Islamic State fighter has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in the United States. In a court appearance in the state of Colorado on Wednesday, 19-year-old Shannon Conley admitted that she planned to help jihadists in Syria, including the man she met online. The Muslim convert said she attended a military-style training camp in the United States, learned to shoot guns and received a certificate in nursing so that she could support Islamist fighters in the Mideast. Conley will be sentenced in January and faces up to five years in prison. All to listen to President Obama as he speaks out about the Islamic State threat, go to our website at voanews.com. We're providing live coverage beginning at midnight 30 Universal Time on Thursday. An American charitable group, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says it will provide $50 million to health workers fighting a growing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The Seattle-based foundation says it will immediately give funds to the United Nations and international aid agencies to purchase badly-needed supplies and support emergency operations in the affected African countries. The foundation also says it will work with partners to speed up the development of Ebola therapies, vaccines and diagnostic tests. Thousands of Pakistanis fled their homes on Wednesday as monsoon flooding worsened in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, where a major river burst its banks. The death toll from the flooding in Pakistan and neighboring India has climbed to at least 457. In Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab, a government official told VOA that more than one million residents have been affected. In Indian-administered Kashmir, rescue workers were continuing efforts to evacuate thousands of people stranded by the floods. The earth's ozone layer is recovering thanks to global actions starting in the 1980s. That's when nations began phasing out the use of man-made gases that damaged the fragile high altitude screen. Damage to the ozone layer is believed to have contributed to increased levels of skin cancer and crop damage around the world. But for the first time in 35 years, scientists have been able to confirm a statistically significant and sustained increase in stratospheric ozone. Scientists say ozone levels climbed four percent in key mid-northern latitudes, about 50 kilometers above the earth's surface. The ozone layer had been thinning since the late 1970s mostly because of the effects of chlorofluorocarbons called CFCs which destroyed ozone molecules. I'm Michael Lipin in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |