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From Washington, this is VOA news. Palestinians seek membership with International Criminal Court. Bad weather hampers hunt for AirAsia debris in the Java Sea. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally asked to join the International Criminal Court with the apparent intention of bringing war crimes charges against Israel. Mr. Abbas signed the agreement to recognize the court on Wednesday. He said the U.N. Security Council let the Palestinian people down when it rejected a statehood resolution on Tuesday. Mr. Abbas said the Palestinians want to complain about what he called aggression against them and their land. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening unspecified retaliation for the ICC request. New Year is making its way around the world. New Zealand, Australia and Asia celebrated the start of 2015 with huge fireworks displays. A giant clock on Auckland's landmark Sky Tower counted down the minutes Wednesday night until the New Year before fireworks launched from the tower lit the nighttime sky. In Sydney, more than 1.5 million revelers massed in warm summer weather along the shores of the city's harbor to watch a spectacular eruption of pyrotechnics. New York City, with the most prominent New Year's celebration in the U.S., is readying itself to drop the crystal ball five hours from now. Several hundred thousand spectators (are) expected on hand. A suicide bomber attacked a gathering of Shiite Houthi rebels in central Yemen, killing at least 23 people. The blast occurred Wednesday as the people were celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad at a cultural center in the central city of Ibb. There has been no claim of responsibility for the Wednesday attack. This is VOA news. The World Health Organization says the death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is now up to 7,905. Medical experts say that the outbreak which began more than a year ago may wind down by the end of 2015. The WHO says there are signs transmission rates have slowed up in Sierra Leone, although the western part of that nation is still experiencing the most intense transmission of all the affected countries. Officials in Gambia say President Yahya Jammeh is back in the country a day after an apparent coup attempt. Mr. Jammeh returned to Banjul Wednesday though there were still conflicting reports about whether he had been in France or Dubai when the coup attempt occurred. Security forces locked down the city and patrolled the streets after the violence Tuesday at the presidential palace. The Pentagon confirms that a victim of a U.S. airstrike on Saakow, Somalia, was the chief of Islamic militant group al-Shabab's intelligence and security wing. A Defense Department spokesman says a Hellfire missile strike on a vehicle killed al-Shabab security chief Tahlil Abdishakur on Monday. The first two bodies recovered from the crash of the AirAsia flight have arrived in the city of Surabaya, where Indonesian forensic experts will identify the remains. Emergency teams have found seven bodies in the Java Sea since spotting wreckage Tuesday two days after the flight carrying 162 people disappeared en route from Surabaya to Singapore. Stormy weather and high waves are hampering efforts to learn what happened. Ron Corben reports. Heavy, grey clouds and rain forced Indonesian rescuers to call off the search for the missing AirAsia flight 8501 which went down Sunday over the Java Sea on a flight through severe monsoon storms. After the sighting of debris Tuesday, relatives of those on board had hope for a quick recovery of bodies from the crash scene. Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo said weather was hampering recovery operation. Ron Corben, Bangkok, Thailand. Officials say sonar images suggest a portion of the plane is lying upside down on the bottom of the sea in an area 30 to 50 meters deep. In southern Italy, officials are scrambling to provide shelter for hundreds of migrants found aboard a freighter left adrift at sea. Italian authorities took command of the vessel Tuesday night, guiding it to the port of Gallipoli. More than 900 migrants are said to be aboard, including Syrian refugees. A U.S. federal judge ruled the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will begin Monday, rejecting defense requests for a change of venue and a delay in the trial start date until September. Tsarnaev will be tried on charges of killing three people and injuring more than 260 with two homemade bombs at the race's crowded finish line in April, 2013. I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |