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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting. Saudi Arabia's king is dead.
Saudi Arabia announced the death of King Abdullah, a long-time U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism and Islamic extremism. He is believed to have been 90 years old. His half-brother Prince Salman will succeed him. King Abdullah had officially ascended to the throne in 2006, but actually ruled since 1995 when his predecessor King Fahd suffered an incapacitating stroke. King Abdullah was suffering from pneumonia. Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his cabinet have submitted letters of resignation. The move comes in a political tug-of-war between the president and the Houthi militia that's been gripping the country since Monday. Speaking from Sana'a, the capital, Thursday, U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar said the political crisis would only be resolved if the rival groups honor earlier agreements calling for power-sharing and an end to violence. Twenty-one members of an international coalition against the Islamic State met in London Thursday to talks about strategies aimed at defeating the militant group. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said tackling the threat of IS is the challenge of our time. "The purpose of coming here is to bring everybody's best advice, everybody's thoughts about where there may be weaknesses, everybody's thoughts about things we can do better, put that together, improve our own performance and operations, and lay down the strategy for the days ahead." Secretary Kerry says Iraqi ground forces backed by international coalition partners have made some significant gains in the fight against Islamic State militants, including in some cases halting or reversing the group's momentum. This is VOA news. At least 13 people were killed Thursday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk when a trolleybus was hit in an apparent mortar attack. Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk blamed what he called Russian terrorists for the attack. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov countered by saying Ukrainian forces were responsible and he called it "a monstrous crime." The European Central Bank launched an ambitious stimulus program aimed to stop deflation and boost the ailing, 19-member eurozone. The bank plans to buy billions of dollars worth of eurozone bonds in the coming months. Lisa Bryant reports. On Thursday, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank will inject up to $1.3 trillion or more into the eurozone economy, by buying up government bonds. "We believe that the measures taken today will be effective, will raise inflation, medium-term inflation expectations, and basically will address the economic situation in the euro area." The ECB will begin buying nearly $69 billion worth of government bonds each month through September, 2016. Lisa Bryant, for VOA news, Paris. Partial results from Zambia's presidential election show ruling party candidate Edgar Lungu holding a small lead. The tally released by Zambia's electoral commission Thursday shows Lungu of the Patriotic Front party winning just under 51 percent of the vote. The poll was called to replace President Michael Sata, who died after a long illness last October. Final results are expected Friday. The Democratic Republic of Congo's Senate announced a one-day delay for its vote on a proposed electoral law that sparked days of violent protests. Senators say they'll vote on Friday. VOA's Gabe Joselow has more. The International Federation for Human Rights says at least 42 people have been killed in clashes with security forces in Kinshasa since Monday, when demonstrations erupted against the proposed electoral law. The organization called for Congolese authorities to put an end to what it called an excessive use of force against protesters. Opposition groups say the proposed law, which calls for a census before the next presidential election due in 2016, is a ploy to allow President Kabila to stay in power beyond the two terms mandated in the constitution. Gabe Joselow, Nairobi. The White House says President Obama will not meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli leader visits Washington in early March to speak to a joint meeting of Congress. A National Security Council spokeswoman says that as a "matter of long-standing practice and principle," the president does not meet with "heads of state" in close proximity to their elections. Prime Minister Netanyahu is scheduled to be in Washington March 3, two weeks ahead of his re-election bid in Israel. I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |