VOA NEWS

November 11, 2015

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. Myanmar's election returns trickling.



Myanmar's National League for Democracy party accused the Union Election Commission Tuesday of intentionally delaying the release of parliamentary election results. Those few results that have been released show the NLD with a huge lead over the ruling Union Solidarity Development party, which is backed by the military.



The Russian government says allegations that its athletes were part of widespread doping and efforts to cover it up are "groundless." A Kremlin spokesman says evidence has not been presented to back the claims.



Monday, the World Anti-Doping Agency issued a report implicating athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors and various Russian institutions, including the country's anti-doping agency and a laboratory in Moscow in the scandal.



U.N. human rights officials call the deteriorating political situation in Burundi explosive. The United Nations is urging that greater international pressure be put on the government to stop violence there. Lisa Schlein reports.

Until now, the situation in Burundi mainly has been a political crisis. Observers say President Pierre Nkurunziza - who won a disputed third term in July - is determined to do whatever it takes to remain in power. U.N. human rights officials say they worry that this situation could rapidly turn into an ethnic, as well as a regional, conflict.

The United Nations documented 510 human rights violations last month in Burundi, including 55 extrajudicial killings, up from 40 in September.

Lisa Schlein, Geneva.



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The European Union criticized Turkey in a report Tuesday, saying the country has shortcomings in its democratic standards and has regressed on freedoms of expression and assembly.

The report on Turkey's possible membership in the EU was held until after elections earlier this month that returned President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's party to a majority in parliament.



British Prime Minister David Cameron called Tuesday for the European Union to make a number of reforms ahead of his country's referendum on whether to leave the 28-nation bloc.

"If we vote to leave, then we will leave. There will not be another renegotiation or another referendum. So I say to my European counterparts with whom I am negotiating, this is our only chance to get this right for Britain and for the whole European Union."

Among the demands are protections for the one-third of EU nations that do not use the euro currency. Cameron said if the EU becomes a "single currency club" then it would not be one for Britain.



The European Union says its asylum processing system is so clogged that it would take a year to process all pending migrant applications even if the current influx of people stopped immediately.

That analysis from the Malta-based European Asylum Support Office came Tuesday. Thousands of migrants, many of them from Syria and Afghanistan, continue arriving daily on Greek islands, pushing westward through the Balkans to Western Europe.



The Central African Republic has set December 27 as a new date for presidential and legislative elections.

Officials say a second round of elections would be held if necessary on January 31.



Russia hopes a second round of talks on Syria will come up with an agreed-upon list of terrorist groups operating in the country.

The second round of talks is scheduled for Saturday in Vienna.

Speaking Tuesday in Sochi, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says such a list is necessary "so that no one has any doubt in regard to the orientation of one or another armed group" in Syria.



The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday it is appealing a court ruling that blocked President Barack Obama's plan to shield as many as five million illegal immigrants from being deported.

The country's top law enforcement agency said it disagrees with a court decision Monday against an executive order Mr. Obama issued nearly a year ago and will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.



The U.S. Senate Tuesday gave final approval to the National Defense Authorization Act, which stipulates that terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo, Cuba, [may be moved] may not be moved to facilities on U.S. soil.

The White House says that's just keeping "the status quo."



I'm David DeForest in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.