VOA NEWS

October 31, 2014

From Washington, this is VOA news. Burkina Faso under state of emergency. Shootings stoke Jewish-Muslim tensions in Jerusalem. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.



Burkina Faso's president declared a state of emergency and dissolved the government Thursday after protesters attacked parliament and other government buildings as the army appeared to take control of the country.

The army chief issued a statement that a transitional body will seek a return to constitutional order within 12 months.

The unrest erupted as lawmakers prepared to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow President Blaise Compaore to run for another term in next year's elections.

He has ruled the country for 27 years.



The global medical charity Doctors Without Borders says mandatory quarantines for U.S. health care workers are having a "chilling effect" on its ability to fight Ebola in West Africa.

The group says the quarantines for those returning from Africa are not based on established medical science.

Doctors Without Borders says the quarantines are undermining its efforts.

The group says it supports American volunteer nurse Kaci Hickox, who is defying a 21-day quarantine in the northeastern U.S. state of Maine after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

Hickox says she has no symptoms, has tested negative for Ebola, and says the quarantine violates her civil rights. She refused to comply with the state's order by going on a bicycle ride with her boyfriend Thursday.

President Obama says the decision to quarantine health workers who had direct contact with Ebola patients should be based on science, not fear.



U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told a group of European leaders that nations from around the world need to do more to confront what she calls "the greatest public health crisis ever."



This is VOA news.



Ambassador Power explained her words.

Ambassador Power says the initial international response is making a difference and has created what she called "the first tangible signs" that the virus can and will be beaten. But she said many countries have not done enough and called on them not to assume the job is done.

"The international community is not yet doing enough to stem the tide of the epidemic, causing devastating heartbreak to countless families and allowing a global threat to metastasize."

Ambassador Power said governments need to stop spreading fear, in part by unnecessarily putting restrictions on returning volunteers who have been to the infected countries.

Al Pessin, VOA news, London.



The Swedish government officially recognized the state of Palestine on Thursday.

Sweden's foreign minister says she hopes the country's decision would help provide the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process and that other EU nations would follow.



It was also a day of more violence. A politically motivated shooting occurred as Robert Berger has details.

Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian who allegedly ambushed a right-wing Israeli activist in Jerusalem hours earlier.

Police say the suspected gunman shot and seriously wounded American-born Rabbi Yehuda Glick.

The rabbi was attacked after leaving a conference promoting Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount, the site Muslims revere as the Mosque of Al Aqsa.

The site, which is the holiest place in Judaism and third holiest in Islam, is a flashpoint of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Police anti-terror units tracked the assailant to his home in a mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem, where he was killed in a shootout.

Robert Berger, for VOA news, Jerusalem.



Iraqi authorities are alleging that Islamic State militants executed more than 200 people this week when they resisted the insurgents' takeover of their territory.



Russia, locked in a bitter standoff with Ukraine over a pro-Russian rebellion in Ukraine's east, agreed to resume natural gas deliveries to its neighbor in a deal brokered by the European Commission.

The agreement announced in Brussels Thursday sets the price at $378 per cubic meters for the duration of the contract and blunts the threat of severe gas shortages in energy-dependent Ukraine as the winter approaches.



The U.S. economy expanded at a solid 3.5 percent annual rate in July, August and September. The Commerce Department says third quarter growth was helped along by exports and spending by consumers and government.



I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.