VOA NEWS

February 4, 2016

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. A temporary halt in Syrian talks.



The United Nations is postponing the Syrian talks in Geneva until the end of February.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura calls the delay a "temporary pause." He had been alternating between discussions with representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and with representatives of opposition groups.

"I've already fixed a date for the next talks, 25th of February, for I find that this stage very important to give an opportunity to those who have been insisting that the talks need to take place that they also address the issues which have been pending and unresolved."

Meanwhile, Syrian state television says the army and militias known as Popular Defense Committees have broken the rebels' three-year blockade around Nubul and Zahraa, part of the government's advance in Aleppo province in recent days.



Kurdistan's President Masoud Barzani has announced that it is time for the territory to hold a referendum on whether to declare independence from Iraq.

He said while the result of the referendum would not lead to an immediate break with Iraq, it would prepare for a future declaration of independence at what he called "an appropriate time and circumstance."



Somali authorities have found the body of a passenger missing from a plane that made an emergency landing at Mogadishu airport Tuesday. An explosion ripped a hole in the plane shortly after takeoff.

A government official says the body of the missing passenger was found in the nearby town of Bal'ad.

Officials say it will take days to determine what caused the explosion.



Latin American health ministers agreed on a public information campaign and an increase in the number of medical workers all to fight the Zika virus.



This is VOA news.



The United States and the European Union have reached an agreement on regulating cross-Atlantic data transfers.

European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova says the agreement marks the first time the United States has given the European Union "binding assurances" that public officials' access to personal information will be subject to clear limits, safeguards and oversight.



The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday the number of people apprehended trying to cross into the country from Mexico fell by 36 percent between December and January, reaching its lowest level in a year.



The High Court in Australia has thrown out a challenge to that country's offshore detention policy, a setback for opponents of the program. Phil Mercer reports.

Lawyers argued it was illegal for the Australian government to fund and run the offshore camps.

Acting for a Bangladeshi woman brought to Australia for medical treatment, they took their case to the High Court in Canberra, where they had hoped to have the offshore detention system declared unlawful.

However, after months of deliberation the judges decided that offshore processing of asylum-seekers was valid under the constitution.

The ruling means more than 250 migrants, including dozens of babies and children, are likely to be sent from Australia to Nauru.

Phil Mercer, Sydney.



Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has dropped his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Paul is a libertarian who often opposed American military intervention overseas.

He won little support in the crowded Republican field.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has also left the race.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump is now claiming that Texas Senator Ted Cruz stole his victory in the Iowa caucuses. Trump attacked Cruz for putting out a statement, which Cruz later retracted and apologized for, suggesting that another candidate was leaving the race.

Trump also accused Cruz of [trying] lying, rather, about Trump's policies and of sending some Iowa voters a mailing designed to look like an official document that accused them of a "voter violation."



South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar visits Egypt at the invitation of Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. A spokesman says the talks will center on getting Egypt to support the implementation of last August's agreement to end the South Sudan conflict.



Japan and South Korea joined the United States Wednesday in demanding that North Korea cancel plans to send a long-range rocket into space. They say the launch would violate United Nations regulations banning ballistic-missile and nuclear weapon development in the country.



In Washington, I'm David DeForest.

That's the latest world news from VOA.