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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. Voters in the Midwestern U.S. state of Indiana went to the polls today in the latest U.S. presidential primary election.
Shortly after the polls closed, Republican front-runner Donald Trump was projected by networks to be the winner, beating Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich. The victory is believed to put Trump on the path to clinching the Republican Party's presidential nomination. On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a slim lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as the vote count began. But media reports say the contest is too close to call. A team led by the U.S., Russia and the U.N. is working to finalize a plan that could lead to the restoration of a cessation of hostilities in Syria, where fighting between the government and rebels could hinder efforts to fight the Islamic State group. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said military-to-military teams are working on details. He commented Tuesday, a day after holding emergency talks in Geneva with officials including U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. Kerry also spoke by phone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. A U.S. Navy SEAL has been killed by enemy fire during an Islamic State attack on a Kurdish Peshmerga position in northern Iraq. The death was announced Tuesday in Germany by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. "An American service member was killed in Iraq in the neighborhood of Irbil." A press secretary said the service member was "advising and assisting Peshmerga forces." A top French trade official says trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union are likely to grind to a halt, that, he says, due to the U.S. reluctance to make concessions. This is VOA news. The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution on Tuesday demanding all parties protect hospitals, health care providers and medical facilities against violence and be held accountable in case they don't. Gerard van Bohemen [a new] is the New Zealand ambassador to the United Nations: "Today, the Council has spoken with one voice to deliver a firm response to this growing global problem. We are shining a light on behavior that is becoming all too prevalent but should just not be happening." The adoption of the resolution in the U.N. followed a series of attacks on hospitals in war zones worldwide. The European Commission is due to release details of a plan to overhaul the EU asylum system Wednesday. The plans are expected to touch off renewed debate on how Europe should handle the influx of migrants. Transparency International says roughly one in three people in the Middle East and North Africa have had to pay a bribe for public services. A Transparency report released Tuesday says bribes are commonly used to obtain public services, in court systems and among regional police, as well as for medical care, documents, permits and electric and water service. The rights group Amnesty International says more than 1,000 Iraqis are being held without charge at makeshift counterterrorism centers throughout the country. Amnesty says many of the detainees were taken when Iraqi forces recaptured their towns from Islamic State forces. Many are suspected of collaborating with the militant group. Counter-terrorism officers tell Amnesty they lack personnel to carry out investigations in a timely manner and don't have the resources to treat detainees humanely. The governor of the southeastern U.S. state of Georgia has vetoed a bill backed by his fellow Republicans that would have allowed college students to carry concealed guns on campuses across the state. Tuesday's veto came nearly a month after Governor Nathan Deal angered many in his state by vetoing religious liberty legislation that would have extended legal protections to opponents of same-sex marriages. Nigeria's vice president says the previous government stole some $15 billion of public money through fraudulent arms agreements. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said Tuesday the money was lost due to "corrupt practices in security equipment spending" during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. The Kenyan Red Cross has located the father of a baby who was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building, more than three days after the building came down. The Red Cross reported the early morning rescue, saying the baby girl was taken to a Nairobi hospital with dehydration but no sign of other physical injuries. In Washington, I'm David DeForest. That's the latest world news from VOA. |