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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. Turkey readies itself for the return of hundreds of migrants.
The operation is set to begin on the Greek island of Lesbos, where thousands of migrants are being held. Turkish officials say they expect up to 500 people to arrive Monday. Later, migrants from other Aegean islands will be sent there. German refugee official Heiko Werner says migrants will present a number of needs. "To have shelter for the people, to have food and medical treatment, but yet also an asylum issue here, everyone who comes here, we must find out what he or she wants and give them the opportunity to tell that and then to have a decision what happens to them." Under an EU-Turkey agreement, those who reach the shores of Greece unlawfully will be returned to Turkey unless they qualify for asylum. Limited flights are beginning from the airport in Brussels where suicide bombers carried out an attack nearly two weeks ago. The blasts there and at a nearby metro station killed 32 people and destroyed the airport's departure area. The head of the Brussels airport company announced the implementation of temporary repair work and security features. The airport plans to return to full operations in a number of months. Syria said Sunday its forces have seized another town, Qaryatain, from the Islamic State group. State media said the seizure of the town gives the government a strategic victory. Azerbaijan announced a unilateral cease-fire Sunday in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Fighting with Armenian forces in the region left 30 soldiers dead Saturday. The outbreak of violence is the worst in Nagorno-Karabakh since 1994 when the two sides ended a war over the territory. This is VOA news. Arab news outlets say Yemen President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi dismissed his prime minister and vice president in a major government shakeup. The action comes ahead of United Nations-brokered peace talks with Iran-backed Houthi rebels later this month. A leak document, a leak of documents, rather, concerning the offshore holding of current and former world leaders has revealed possibly embarrassing information about their financial affairs. The 11.5 million records from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian-based worldwide financial firm, were linked to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists says on its website that it and more than a hundred other news organizations have investigated the material. The ICIJ says the information involves more than 125 politicians and celebrities around the world, including associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who were said to have moved as much as $2 billion through offshore bank accounts over a nearly 40-year period. Here is the ICIJ's Michael Hudson: "We just know that people close to Putin or linked by friendship or by business relationships are involved in a lot of transactions that are very untransparent, that are being done in a quiet and perhaps even secretive way, that moving large chunks of money that raises a very serious question." :Michael Hudson. Businessman Donald Trump stirred up controversy this past week on such subjects as abortion, NATO, nuclear arms and the proper treatment of women. Political analysts are suggesting Trump's surge toward the nomination is being slowed. Republicans and others are questioning Trump's views and say his chances are bleak of winning November's election. Pakistan's military says it has killed more than 250 militants and lost eight soldiers in counterinsurgency operations near the Afghan border in the last two months. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is accusing President Barack Obama of criticizing him behind his back concerning the issue of press freedom during a visit last week to Washington after the two leaders met on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit. Mr. Obama said Turkey's approach to the press is one that could lead the country down what he called a "troubling path." The U.S. Senate gets back to work Monday after a two-week recess with the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy in the spotlight. Last week, three senators met with President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Most notable was Mark Kirk. He is the first, and so far the only, Republican to sit down with the federal appellate judge. From the VOA news center in Washington, I'm David DeForest. That's the latest world news from VOA. |