VOA NEWS

March 17, 2015

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting. Israeli parliamentary elections about to begin.



Israelis will go to the polls Tuesday to elect a new parliament. No party is expected to win more than one quarter of the seats. VOA's Scott Bobb has a preview.

Thousands of people rallied in Tel Aviv to support a final push by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Tuesday's parliamentary elections.

Opinion polls released Friday -- the last day for polling allowed before the election -- show the prime minister's Likud party trailing by several seats behind a center-left alliance led by the opposition Labor Party.

A center-left alliance led by Labor leader Isaac Herzog surged in the final days of the campaign.

Scott Bobb, VOA news, Jerusalem.



U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met again in Switzerland Monday as they continue to push for a breakthrough by the end of the month in the long-running negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.

The Iranian delegation later headed to Brussels for meetings with European ministers.

The parties have set a June 30 deadline to finalize a comprehensive accord.



Nigeria's military says it recaptured the key town of Bama in the country's northeast from Islamic militants who have controlled it since September.

There is no independent verification of the report.

Bama is the second biggest city in Borno state.



A U.N. panel investigating Eritrea says it has found "very clear patterns" of human rights violations and a total absence of the rule of law.

The chairman of the U.N. commission of inquiry addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. Mike Smith said under the Eritrean government's rules, national service is universal and indefinite and that "most Eritreans have no hope for their future."



This is VOA news.



An American health care worker being treated for Ebola deteriorated to critical condition Monday.

The patient was flown home last week from West Africa and is now at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

The unidentified clinician tested positive for the Ebola virus while volunteering with the Partners in Health -- an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone.

Ten health care workers who came in contact with the patient in Sierra Leone were flown to the U.S. on Sunday. All were staying near hospitals with high-level biocontainment units capable of treating Ebola in case they become sick.



The Obama administration is abandoning plans to cut the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 5,500 by year's end amid requests from military leaders to keep more troops there.

Although no final decision on numbers has been made, the officials say most of the almost 10,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan are expected to stay well into next year.



Hundreds of Pakistan's minority Christians rallied in the eastern city of Lahore Monday. They are blocking roads and shouting slogans in a second day of protests against twin suicide bombings outside two churches in the city that left 15 people dead.

Hundreds of police were deployed to the area as Christian schools were closed for the victims' funeral services.

A militant group attached to the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the blasts.



Russia's President Vladimir Putin showed up. He appeared in public Monday following days of rumors that he was either ill, had died, had been ousted in a palace coup. Mr. Putin appeared with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev at St. Petersburg's Constantine Palace before the two held talks.

Mr. Putin was last seen in public March 5.



The United States and Germany have vowed to continue punishing Russia with economic sanctions for its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and warned of new measures if Moscow fails to fully back a cease-fire it endorsed last month.

In Washington Monday, the U.S. State Department accused Moscow of carrying out a "sham referendum" in Crimea last year ahead of a vote in the Russian parliament to annex the peninsula.

In Berlin, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Ukraine's visiting President Petro Poroshenko.



Kurdish forces in Iraq are investigating two more possible chemical weapons attacks by the Islamic State group.

The allegations follow similar claims made Saturday by Kurdish officials. They said militants used chlorine gas to target peshmerga forces.



And Syria's President Bashar al-Assad says he is awaiting action from Washington to match the words of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who expressed interest in negotiating with the Syrian leader's government.

Mr. Kerry says ultimately they have to reach a deal with the leader for a political transition of power.



I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.