VOA NEWS

April 26, 2015

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting. The death toll continues to rise after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal and the Himalayan region.



As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the quake destroyed parts of Kathmandu, triggered an avalanche on Mt. Everest and devastated the mountainous area.

The massive scale of the tragedy unfolded in the hours after the earthquake flattened homes, damaged buildings and split open walls and roads in the bustling Kathmandu Valley -- home to 2 and a half million people and Nepal's main cities.

But the devastation could be much wider. India is assisting a rescue effort in the tiny neighboring country. One plane with a 40-member disaster rescue team and relief supplies has been dispatched and three more are scheduled to arrive later Saturday.

Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar says the effort will be scaled up on Sunday.

Anjana Pasricha, for VOA news, New Delhi.



The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State says its military forces carried out airstrikes in Syria and Iraq Friday and Saturday.

In Iraq, coalition forces conducted 11 airstrikes approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, using fighter, attack, bomber and remotely piloted aircraft.

The airstrikes near Fallujah, Mosul, Ramadi and Tal Afar struck and disabled or destroyed Islamic State fighting positions, vehicles and heavy machine guns.

In Syria, near Kobani, coalition forces conducted four airstrikes using fighter aircraft.

But Islamic State militants exploded three suicide car bombs at the border crossing between Iraq and Jordan on Saturday, killing at least four Iraqi soldiers.



This is VOA news.



Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate and its allies seized the last major government-held town in Idlib province on Saturday, giving the rebels a possible route to the coastal heartland of the Assad regime.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the al-Nusra Front and the Islamist Brigades took full control of the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughur on Saturday after four days of fighting with Syrian forces.

Analysts say the fall of Jisr al-Shughur opens the strategic route for the rebels to neighboring Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast, a bastion of support for President Bashar al-Assad.



Vote counting is underway in Togo's presidential election, with President Faure Gnassingbe seeking a third five-year term.

As Anne Look reports, opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre, who also ran for president in the last election, is expected to come in second in the single-round presidential poll.

Voters started lining up as early as 5 a.m. in the capital, Lome.

President Faure Gnassingbe is seeking a third term. The Gnassingbe family has ruled Togo since the current president's father took power in a military coup in 1967.

The opposition says it's time for a change.

Politician Jean-Pierre Fabre is Mr. Gnassingbe's top challenger. Casting his ballot, Mr. Fabre said this act of voting is crucial.

Anne Look, VOA news, Dakar.



President Obama used his weekly media address to press for approval of his Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal.

The president said the new trade deal is needed to ensure the United States keeps pace with China in negotiating trade pacts across the world.

Mr. Obama said if the United States does not lock in new trade rules for the 21st century, then China will write those rules.

"It's got strong provisions for workers and the environment -- provisions that, unlike in past agreements, are actually enforceable. If you want in, you have to meet these standards."

Mr. Obama is pushing Congress to give him trade promotion authority where Congress could vote "yes" or "no" on trade deals but could not make any changes in them.

In a rare confluence of opinion with his Republican opponents, Congressman Paul Ryan gave the Republican response. He, too, called for the president to have trade promotion authority in order to pass [the trade] the TPP trade pact.



For more on these stories, you can always log on to our website www.voanews.com. I'm David Byrd in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.