VOA NEWS

May 29, 2015

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting. Baghdad hit by a pair of deadly car bombings.



Iraqi security officials say two car bombs exploded at two five-star hotels in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people.

The first explosion occurred in the parking lot of the Babylon Hotel late Thursday, killing six people and wounding 14 others.

Moments later, another car bomb exploded outside a former Sheraton Hotel, killing four and wounding 13 others.

Nobody claimed responsibility.



FIFA President Sepp Blatter says the corruption investigations into the practices of the football governing body brought "shame and humiliation" to the sport.

Speaking at the 65th FIFA annual congress in Zurich, Blatter said the federation faces more bad news and the next few months will not be easy, but it is necessary to begin to restore trust.

Two major European football associations called on Blatter to resign before FIFA presidential elections planned for Friday, but Blatter has refused.

The United States filed charges of corruption and bribery against the sport's international governing body Wednesday. Forty-seven counts are filed against 14 current and former top officials.



Burundi's Catholic Church says it is withdrawing its support of the country's upcoming elections after weeks of political unrest.

Burundi's Catholic bishops say it is asking its clergy who serve on electoral commissions to step down from those commissions.



A coalition of Syrian rebel fighters led by an al-Qaeda branch took over the last government-held city in northwestern Idlib province, bordering Turkey.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Syrian forces pulled out of Ariha Thursday after bitter fighting with the al Fateh army.

The number of casualties is unclear.



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U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says that defense officials are looking at ways to enhance efforts to train and equip pro-government forces in Iraq as they battle Islamic State fighters.

While on a trip to Asia, Secretary Carter said recent events in Iraq, where the militants seized the provincial capital of the sprawling Anbar province west of Baghdad, have shown the need for a "capable ground partner." The U.S. has been conducting airstrikes in Iraq since August, but so far ruled out sending in any ground troops of its own.



Human rights groups say there has been a surge of executions in Saudi Arabia. The country carried out its 89th prisoner execution this week, roughly the total number killed in all of 2014.

Human Rights Watch Middle East researcher Adam Coogle says officials are giving no reason for the increase.

"Because the Saudi Arabian authorities do not comment publicly on this issue other than to say that under Islamic law, it's their right to carry out execution. Because they don't release information, we really don't know for sure why there has been such a rise in the number of those executions over the last, really, eight to nine months."

The rise in executions began last August after Islamic State militants attacked cities and towns in Iraq and Syria.



The United Nations says a dramatic escalation in the conflicts raging in Africa's Sahel region is causing increased suffering for millions of people. Lisa Schlein has details.

The United Nations says providing emergency humanitarian aid to millions of people in the Sahel has become more complex and dangerous.

It says problems of acute child malnutrition and food insecurity, of disease epidemics and natural disasters, can no longer be tackled within a specific country alone. It says they have become regional problems and arise from the death, displacement and destruction of property caused by conflict.

Lisa Schlein, Geneva.



The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says the Asia Pacific reached the target of reducing rates of hunger in the region, marking a key element in the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals. Ron Corben has more.

The Asia Pacific, boosted by two decades of economic growth, has reduced chronic hunger and undernourishment among its populations, seen as key targets under the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goal project to boost global development.

On Thursday, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization said the Asia Pacific, in meeting the goal of lowering the number facing undernourishment, had lifted 236 million people from chronic hunger in the region since 1990.

Ron Corben, Bangkok, Thailand.



The Kremlin says a new presidential decree classifying Russian military losses in peace time as a state secret has nothing to do with Ukraine.

The decree previously limited secrecy classifications to war time deaths.



I'm Ray Kouguell in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.