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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Joe Parker reporting. Journalist killed in Ukraine.
A prominent journalist was killed Wednesday in a car explosion in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv. Ukrainian media reported that 44-year-old Pavel Sheremet, a reporter with the country's top online news website Ukrainska Pravda, died when a blast tore through the car he was in as he prepared to go to work. Images from the scene showed a charred vehicle with all four doors open. The chief of Ukraine's national police said the blast was being investigated as a homicide and that an explosive device equivalent to 400 to 600 grams of TNT had been used. The killing of Sheremet, a pro-Western journalist born in Belarus but a Russian citizen, sent shock waves through Ukraine and its journalistic community. Ukrainska Pravda's founder was murdered in the year 2000 after exposing the corruption scandals of Ukraine's then-president, Leonid Kuchma. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared a three-month state of emergency following last week's thwarted coup in his country. Erdoğan Wednesday said the emergency is needed to hunt down all of those believed to be responsible for the coup attempt. Speaking after a meeting with his cabinet ministers, the Turkish leader said the state of emergency is not meant to curb basic freedoms, but instead to counter threats to Turkish democracy. State media say authorities are acting to close down 626 private schools and other educational establishments in the latest step of a crackdown after the botched coup. The schools are linked to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who set up a network of schools across Turkey to promote his teachings. In addition, Turkey has banned academics from leaving the country and urged those traveling abroad to return home. This is VOA news. Russia's top Olympic official said on Wednesday that he expected a final decision by Sunday over whether the entire Russian Olympic team will be banned from next month's games in Rio. The International Olympic Committee is examining its legal options following a report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren that accused Russia's sports ministry of overseeing doping of the country's Olympic athletes. Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov said the issue is to be resolved by Sunday and the most important issue is the approval of the Russian national team line-up for participation in the Olympics. Russian triple jumper Yekaterina Koneva was asked how she'd feel if all Russian athletes were banned from the games. She said "We will be crying. In fact, it's very sad and frustrating. All these thoughts in our head, what if we are not admitted, what do we do? But hope dies last. We still have another chance. It's tomorrow and I hope they will tell us something good." A man wearing a heavy coat with wires hanging out prompted a security alert and partial lockdown in central Brussels. But it turned out to be a false alarm. Authorities believe the man was a student majoring radiation levels in the Belgian capital. No explosives were found and the man was detained for questioning. AIDS looks vastly different today from the last time the International AIDS Conference was held in South Africa 16 years ago. For one thing, while new infections continue, more people are on treatment and babies are no longer have to get the virus if their mothers are infected. Carol Pearson files this report for VOA. There was a time when babies of HIV-positive mothers were born with the virus and routinely got sick and died. But now, all babies can remain AIDS-free even though their mothers are infected. Rachel Sturke is a senior scientist at a division of the National Institutes of Health. "Mother-to-child transmission is one of the greatest success stories in HIV research, but there are still 150,000 children in low- and middle-income countries who become infected with HIV every year." The challenge is getting HIV-infected women on treatment and keeping them on it for life. Carol Pearson, VOA news, Washington. This year, Thailand eliminated mother-to-child HIV transmission, the first country in Asia to do so. "Let's hear it for the next president of the United States of America, Donald Trump." The voice of Mike Pence, Indiana governor and soon to be Republican vice presidential nominee. He introduces the soon to be Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, as he arrived in Cleveland today. Governor Pence picked by the Republican nominee to be his vice president is set to make his case tonight when they should be elected as the next American leaders. For more, check out our website at voanews.com. Joe Parker in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |