VOA NEWS

June 6, 2016

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. The last of the state presidential primary elections [is] in this year's U.S. political campaign takes place this week.



The largest of Tuesday's five elections is in California. It is expected that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will wrap up the Democratic presidential nomination although she faces a strong challenge from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Polls show a tight race between the two in California. Both would like to finish off with a win there.



A senior Chinese military official, Admiral Sun Jianguo, on Sunday rejected U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter's recent statement that China is isolating itself with its actions in the South China Sea.

Carter said the Chinese government is "erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation" [in its] by its militarization of disputed islets.

Admiral Sun says his country was not isolated in the past, is not isolated now and will not be isolated in the future.



An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sunday denounced [a U.S.] a recent U.S. State Department report that identified his country as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

He charged that U.S. ally Saudi Arabia was the real leader in funding terrorist activity.

The U.S. State Department published its annual report Thursday, in which it said Iran increased its support of Palestinian militants in Gaza last year and supported Hezbollah fighters trying to maintain the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.



Taliban militants opened fire Sunday in a courthouse in eastern Afghanistan. They killed seven people, wounded 21.

They say it's a revenge attack for last month's execution of some Taliban prisoners.



This is VOA news.



A veteran American journalist and his Afghan translator were reported killed in Afghanistan Sunday. The two came under attack while traveling with an Afghan army unit in southern Helmand province.

The U.S.-based National Public Radio identified the dead as photojournalist David Gilkey and translator Zabihullah Tammana. Two other journalists in their convoy were reported unharmed.



The Syrian army is moving into the northern province of Raqqa, home of the de facto capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate of the Islamic State group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Syrian troops have reached the "administrative border" of Raqqa province, backed by Russian airstrikes.



The answer to the question "Should all Swiss citizens receive an unconditional basic income each moth?" is a resounding no.

More than three quarters of Swiss voters have rejected a basic monthly income for the whole population.

Proposal supporter Gabriel Barta was not surprised at the outcome. "It's being rejected by three people out of four. That means one person in Switzerland out of four not only knows what the basic income is, which they didn't a few years ago, but is actually voting for it."

Switzerland is the first to hold a referendum on that issue.



Pope Francis canonized two new saints on Sunday: the Polish founder of the first men's religious order dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and a Lutheran convert who hid Jews during World War II.

Pope Francis canonized the Polish priest, Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, and a Swedish nurse and Catholic convert Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad during a Mass Sunday in St. Peter's Square.



Flood waters on the River Seine began receding Sunday in Paris. The waters allowed the museum curators, merchants, transit operators and the general public some relief from the city's worst flooding in three decades.

By late Sunday, emergency workers had downgraded public warnings elsewhere in northern Normandy as villages and towns surrounding the capital began to dig out and assess damage.



Voters in Peru elected a new president.

Most recent public opinion polls indicated that candidates Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Kuczynski were tied in a runoff election.



The president-elect of the Philippines says he will pay a bounty to people who kill drug dealers.

Rodrigo Duterte said during his campaign he would unleash the military and police on drug dealers.

Late Saturday, he invited the general public to join them.

Speaking to a large crowd, he said he would pay $107,000 for dead drug dealers.



In Washington, I'm David DeForest.

That's the latest world news from VOA.