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From Washington, this is VOA news. Russian authorities have given permission to opposition leaders to hold a march in Moscow Sunday in memory of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. I'm David Byrd reporting from Washington.
Nemtsov was to have led an anti-war and anti-Putin rally in Moscow. Instead, as many as 50,000 people are expected to come out to pay tribute to the man whom U.S. President Barack Obama called a "tireless advocate" for the rights of the Russian people. Mikhail Kasyanov is a former Russian prime minister who worked with Boris Nemtsov: "We live in an environment right now where society is split quite heavily in support of the current regime and in opposition to it and therefore we feel and we see more and more extreme expressions against liberal democrats, against us." Police are hunting for the gunmen who shot Nemtsov four times from a car while he and a female companion crossed a bridge over the Moscow River Friday night just steps from the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin says the shooting looks like a contract killing and he called it a provocation. The Kremlin says Mr. Putin will personally oversee the investigation. Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine continued withdrawing tanks and other military vehicles Saturday from the front lines, obeying a cease-fire reached in mid-February. Ukraine said there was a decrease in violence Friday night into Saturday. The Ukrainian military reported its first deaths in three days earlier Friday. A Ukrainian military spokesman said that three government soldiers were killed and seven wounded in clashes with separatists in the east. President Petro Poroshenko blamed separatist rebels. This is VOA news. An Egyptian court has declared the Palestinian group Hamas a "terrorist organization," saying it targets both civilians and security forces on Egypt's Sinai peninsula. The court said it has documents proving that Hamas has colluded with the Muslim Brotherhood in carrying out attacks on security forces. Saturday's ruling further separates Egypt from Hamas, which once enjoyed warm relations with the Cairo government, the now banned Muslim Brotherhood and former President Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted in 2013. Thousands of Cameroonians marched through the center of the capital, Yaounde, Saturday to oppose the militant group Boko Haram and support troops fighting to stop Boko Haram attacks. Cameroon has joined Nigeria, Chad and Niger, all of which share borders in the area where Boko Haram is active, in a military coalition to fight the Islamist group. One of the rally organizers told VOA that the march is a sign of solidarity with the millions of people suffering because of Boko Haram's activities. Nearly 150,000 people have been displaced inside Nigeria, where Boko Haram is based. Two hundred thousand others have left Nigeria for other countries. Car bombs in Iraq targeted a market and a checkpoint north of Baghdad Saturday, killing more than a dozen people. One device exploded Saturday near the market in the town of Balad Ruz, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding at least 15 others. Later near the city of Samarra, a suicide bomber detonated at a military checkpoint, killing at least eight people. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. And President Barack Obama says he is committed to middle-class economics and to ensuring that all hard-working Americans get the secure and dignified retirement they deserve. In his weekly address Saturday, the president said most financial advisers are good at prioritizing their clients' futures, but there are some who direct their clients toward bad investments in return for backdoor payments kickbacks and hidden fees. Mr. Obama said that is why earlier in the week he urged the Labor Department to update rules and require that retirement advisers put their clients' best interests first. "What I won't accept is the notion that there's nothing we can do to make sure that hard-working, responsible Americans who scrimp and save can retire with security and dignity." Mr. Obama said that bad financial advice that results from conflicts in interests costs middle-class and working-class families about $17 billion per year. For more, please log on to our website voanews.com. I'm David Byrd in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |