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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting. The nuclear security summit has wrapped up here in Washington, with President Obama saying the world has made progress, but there is still more work to do in reducing the nuclear arsenal.
Speaking at a news conference at the conclusion of the two-day summit, Mr. Obama said world leaders have made "significant, meaningful" progress in securing nuclear materials so terrorists can't get them. But the president added there is still a large amount of nuclear and radioactive material that needs to secured. "Nevertheless, as I said earlier, work is by no means finished. There is still a great deal of nuclear and radioactive material around the world that needs to be secured." Mr. Obama said that the dozens of leaders attending the summit agreed to keep strengthening nuclear facilities against cyber attacks and to bolster defenses against nuclear smuggling. The president said the vision of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons might not be realized in his lifetime, but in his words, "the work has begun." The two-day summit included talks on how to prevent terrorist groups like the Islamic State from getting nuclear material to make so-called dirty bombs. North Korea's nuclear program was also discussed. North Korea has begun jamming GPS signals in South Korea, affecting some communications and navigation systems, and it also said Friday it is blocking a number of popular websites. Pyongyang has been sending signals from ground-based transmitters on frequencies overlapping those used by GPS satellites, so the jamming did not cause any significant, widespread effect. But GPS problems were reported by more than 50 airliners flying over the Korean Peninsula. For more on these stories, visit our website. This is VOA news. The United States has killed a senior member of the al-Shabaab militant group in a drone strike in Somalia. U.S. defense and Somalian government officials say Hassan Ali Dhore led a team of al-Shabaab assassins. He was on the Somalian government's "most-wanted" list for attacks in Mogadishu. At the Pentagon, press secretary Peter Cook confirmed the U.S. carried out the airstrike Thursday in cooperation with Somali forces. He said Dhore planned and led previous attacks that killed at least three U.S. citizens, and that he was suspected of plotting further attacks against Americans in the east African country. The U.N. refugee agency is calling for safeguards before refugees and migrants are deported [to] from Greece to Turkey as required under a deal reached with the European Union. As Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva, the UNHCR says measures must be taken to ensure that the human rights of all those returned are protected. The U.N. refugee agency says many of the necessary safeguards are lacking. The agency reports 51,000 refugees and migrants are in Greece. Five thousand are on the islands and the rest on the mainland. UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming notes on the island of Lesbos, some 2,300 refugees and migrants are crammed into a detention center meant to hold 2,000 people. "People are sleeping in the open and food supply is insufficient, and anxiety and frustration are widespread." She says uncertainty, lack of information and the limited capacity of Greek authorities to register asylum claims are creating a chaotic situation throughout the country. Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva. The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the United States needs more funding to protect Americans against the Zika virus. Dr. Tom Frieden told a summit on the virus that most of the urgent imperative is to reduce the risk to pregnant women and their developing fetuses. The Zika virus has been associated with severe birth defects in infants. The mosquito-borne virus has been linked to microcephaly, in which babies' brains and sculls do not develop to normal size. The U.S. economy had a net gain of 215,000 jobs in March while the unemployment rate increased. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose slightly to five percent as hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans resumed their search for work. Data show that eight million Americans are still unemployed. Another 6.1 million who want full time work can find only part-time jobs. I'm David Byrd in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |