VOA NEWS

February 4, 2015

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting. Jordan promises revenge against Islamic State.



Jordan is vowing a "strong and earthshaking" response to the death of a Jordanian pilot captured by Islamic State militants after a video surfaced online appearing to show him being burned alive.

Jordan's King Abdullah also addressed his nation from Washington, where he cut short a visit to return to Amman, saying the killing of the pilot, Muath al-Kaseasbeh, will make the nation more united.

News agencies quoted security sources as saying Jordan plans to execute within hours the Iraqi woman whom Islamic State had demanded Jordan release. Sajida al-Rishawi already is on death row in Amman for her role in a 2005 suicide bombing.

Graphic images purporting to show the Jordanian pilot's murder were released Tuesday, but Jordanian state TV said he'd been dead since January 3.

President Barack Obama says the video is just one more indication of the Islamic State's "viciousness and barbarity."

"It, I think, will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of a global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated."



At least one person was killed and two others injured when a roadside bomb exploded in Egypt's second largest city, Alexandria.

Tuesday's blast happened just hours after two explosive devices were discovered and defused at different terminals at Cairo's international airport.

There has been no claim of responsibility for any of those incidents.



Fighting between the Ukraine military and Russian-backed separatists killed at least eight civilians in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine's military says five of its soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in the latest violence.



This is VOA news.



Three French soldiers were attacked Tuesday by a knife-wielding assailant outside a Jewish community center in the southern French city of Nice.

Two of the servicemen were injured and treated at the scene. The attacker was arrested.



A United Nations investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians is running into some trouble. Robert Berger explains.

Israel has welcomed the resignation of William Schabas, the head of a U.N. commission investigating whether Israel committed war crimes during the Gaza conflict last year.

Schabas is an outspoken critic of Israel and had previously offered consultancy services to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, or PLO.

Israeli officials accused Schabas of anti-Israel bias and they refused to cooperate with the U.N. inquiry.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that in the wake of Schabas's resignation, the U.N. commission should be scrapped.

Robert Berger, Jerusalem.

Mary McGowan Davis, a member of the independent commission of inquiry on Gaza, will replace Mr. Schabas.



The United States carried out a drone strike in Somalia against a senior leader from the militant group al-Shabab.

The Defense Department says the missile strike south of the capital, Mogadishu, last Saturday targeted Yusef Dheeq, the group's chief of external operations and planning for intelligence and security.

The results of the strike were not confirmed.



Hundreds of Chadian ground troops have entered northeastern Nigeria as part of a growing regional offensive against Boko Haram insurgents.

Witnesses say Chadian soldiers and vehicles crossed a bridge from Cameroon into the Nigerian town of Gambaru.



The World Food Program is scaling up its humanitarian operations in Malawi to help the country cope with some of the worst flooding it's seen in years. Lisa Schlein has details.

Aid agencies have been trying to help the more than 600,000 people affected by the flooding since Malawi's president declared 15 of the country's 28 districts a disaster.

WFP spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs tells VOA many people living in the worst flood-affected places and in remote areas are extremely difficult to reach.

"Roads, bridges are damaged or washed away. Some flooded areas remain cut off from markets and food supplies."

The agency says it urgently needs $17.5 million for its expanded flood-relief operation in Malawi.

Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.



The top U.N. court, the International Court of Justice, ruled Tuesday neither Croatia nor Serbia committed genocide during the 1990s Balkan wars. That's when Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia.



I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.