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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Bob Doughty reporting. U.S. inadvertently killed hostages in a drone strike.
A U.S. counterterrorism operation in January accidentally killed two hostages, one American aid worker and one Italian man, held by al-Qaeda on the Afghan-Pakistan border, the White House said. President Barack Obama personally apologized for the incident. An official statement said there was "tremendous sorrow" over the death of the two innocent hostages. American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto had been working on aid projects in Pakistan. Mr. Obama said from the White House earlier today, "As president and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the ones that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni. I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the United States government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families." Mr. Obama told reporters "Based on the intelligence that we obtained at the time, including hundreds of hours of surveillance, we believed this was an al-Qaeda compound, that no civilians were present and that capturing these terrorists was not possible." European Union leaders are considering a plan to resolve the continent's migrant shipwreck crisis by taking military action to destroy smugglers' boats in Africa so they cannot be used to ferry refugees on a perilous journey across the Mediterranean to the southern shores of Europe. The heads of state of the 28 EU countries met in Brussels Thursday in the aftermath of last weekend's Mediterranean disaster, in which about 800 or more people drowned, with only 28 rescued, when a migrant boat headed from Libya to Italy capsized. This is VOA news. Warplanes pounded Houthi rebels' targets in Yemen Thursday two days after what was supposed to be the official end of the Saudi-led bombing campaign. Witnesses say the raids hit areas around the main southern port city of Aden, where fighting continues between the Houthis and supporters of the country's ousted government. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon informed the Security Council that he is nominating Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as his new special envoy to Yemen. Cheikh Ahmed, who has been serving as U.N. Ebola chief, would replace Jamal Benomar, who resigned last week after losing support from Gulf countries for his mediation efforts in Yemen. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday top Chinese nuclear experts have expanded their estimate of North Korea's nuclear capability beyond previous U.S. estimates, making Pyongyang's arsenal a potential regional security threat. VOA's Victor Beattie reports. The Wall Street Journal says the Chinese estimate that the North may already possess 20 nuclear warheads was relayed during a closed-door meeting with U.S. nuclear specialists at the China Institute of International Studies in February. Recently, U.S. experts suggested North Korea had between 10 and 16 nuclear bombs. Troy Stangarone, owner of the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute, says if the Journal report is true, it underscores the growing difficulty of reaching any kind of denuclearization agreement with North Korea. "It raises questions of what would North Korea do to take and give up its nuclear arsenal, how likely it is to do so." Earlier this month, the head of U.S. Northern Command, Admiral William Gortney, warned that Pyongyang is now capable of launching a nuclear armed missile that can reach the United States. But he said he has no indication it has been tested. Victor Beattie, VOA news, Washington. Five months after her nomination by U.S. President Barack Obama, Loretta Lynch is expected to finally be confirmed by the Senate as the nations next attorney general. Lynch's nomination had been held up for weeks after Senate Democrats held up passage of legislation aimed at cracking down on human trafficking due to an anti-abortion amendment inserted into the bill by Republicans. The impasse over the abortion measure was broken off earlier this week when a handful of Republicans and Democrats reached a compromise. A U.S. public opinion survey shows Republican Senator Marco Rubio leading the large group of hopefuls for the party's 2016 presidential nomination. The poll also shows Rubio doing [better than] better against likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a potential general election matchup than the other Republican presidential hopefuls. Rubio trails the former secretary of state by two percentage points. I'm Bob Doughty in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |