VOA NEWS

January 5, 2015

From Washington, this is VOA news. Search continues for AirAsia fuselage in Java Sea. Boko Haram seizes Nigerian military base. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.



AirAsia officials say four more bodies were recovered from the Java Sea on Sunday as Indonesian teams continued searching for the wreckage of a passenger jet that disappeared one week ago.

Bad weather is hampering efforts to locate most of the 162 people believed to have been killed aboard the flight. Ron Corben reports.

The search for bodies and debris from the aircraft moved into a new phase Sunday with deployment of locators to pinpoint signals from the jet's vital black box data recorders.

Indonesian TV Sunday continued almost blanket coverage of the tragedy, pointing to the difficult tasks of recovering bodies and transporting them to Surabaya to be formally identified.

On Sunday up to 90 divers from Russia and Indonesia had hoped to dive to locate flight data recorders. But sea conditions continued to frustrate their efforts.

Ron Corben, VOA news, Bangkok, Thailand.

Nine of the 34 bodies found have been identified.



Suspected Boko Haram militants have seized a military base in the northeast Nigerian town of Baga.

Local residents said the armed Islamist group overwhelmed troops after an hours-long battle at the facility near Lake Chad.

The base is used by a multinational task force mandated to fight transnational crime and incursions.



A suicide car bomber in Somalia's capital Mogadishu killed at least four people near the city's international airport. The bomber also died.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack Sunday.



This is VOA news.



Israel is weighing more steps to punish the Palestinians for their efforts to join the International Criminal Court even as it froze $125 million in tax revenues it collects for them.

The Palestinians rely on the monthly tax revenue transfer in order to run their government and pay salaries for civil servants.

The Palestinian bid to join the Hague-based court could lead to war crime charges against Israel, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday that his country would not allow its military to be prosecuted.



The Islamic State released a new propaganda video, this one showing a British hostage depicting life as normal in the militant-controlled Iraqi city of Mosul.

In an eight-minute video posted on jihadi websites, the hostage, photojournalist John Cantlie, claims "life in Mosul is business as usual."

He said residents in Iraq's second-biggest city taken over by Islamic State insurgents last June are not "living in fear."

During the documentary-style video, he visits a market, a hospital and a police station.

Britain says it is studying the content of Cantlie's Mosul video.



Pakistan says its airstrikes have killed 31 militants and a suspected U.S. drone strike another seven insurgents in the tribal regions along the Afghan border.

Islamabad says its air force destroyed four terrorist hideouts and a suicide bomber training center in the Tirrah Valley of the Khyber tribal district.



Thousands of police officers and mourners from around the United States gathered Sunday in New York Sunday to honor Wenjian Liu, a policeman shot to death last month in a targeted attack.

The city's mayor, Bill de Blasio, and family members eulogized the officer, who was slain alongside his partner as they sat in their patrol car late last month.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed Liu and Officer Rafael Ramos before shooting himself in a nearby subway station.



Jury selection for the trial of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev is set to begin Monday.

Tsarnaev is facing 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction, in the killing of three people and injuring more than 260 with two homemade bombs at the race's crowded finish line in April, 2013.

Tsarnaev is 21 years old.

He faces the death penalty if convicted.



The new U.S. Congress convenes Tuesday, with Republicans controlling both Houses of Representatives and the Senate, and the conservatives determined to reverse some of President Obama's policies.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking on CNN television Sunday, said voters want compromise and progress on key issues.

The Republican leader has said the Senate's first major test will be approving the Keystone oil pipeline.



I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.