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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. The Pentagon says U.S. military forces have conducted airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Libya.
Officials say the strikes in the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte came at the request of the U.N.-backed Libyan Government of National Accord. Peter Cook is a spokesman for the Pentagon. "These are targets, for example, I can detail today[was] one of the targets struck today was a tank. It is that kind of precision location, precision target, that we'll be targeting that the GNA at this point felt like that would be a helpful support for their efforts." U.S. strikes will continue to target Islamic State forces in Sirte in order to enable the government to deny IS a safe haven in Libya. A Russian military helicopter was shot down Monday in northwestern Syria. All five people aboard were killed. Russia's Defense Ministry says the helicopter was hit as it returned from delivering humanitarian aid in the city of Aleppo. Turkish forces Monday detained 11 soldiers suspected of attacking a hotel where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was staying during an attempted coup in mid-July. The captures were made near the resort town of Marmaris, and followed the detention last week of several other soldiers accused of targeting Mr. Erdoğan. U.S. political surveys are showing that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton regained her edge over Republican Donald Trump after last week's Democratic Party convention. Trump enjoyed a similar bump in polling against Clinton after the Republican convention two weeks ago. CBS News said Clinton leads Trump 46 percent to 39 percent. A CNN-ORC poll released later Monday had Clinton holding a larger of 52 to 43 percent lead. This is VOA news. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday that his country is not seeing tangible economic benefits from the recent nuclear agreement signed with six world powers. He made the criticism in a speech in Tehran. World powers agreed to drop economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions designed to prevent Iran's development of nuclear weapons. Mr. Khamenei complained that the sanctions are only being lifted gradually and that foreign companies are not yet investing in Iran. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control warned pregnant women Monday not to travel to an area in Florida where new cases of the Zika virus have been found. Governor Rick Scott %says officials are on the lookout for the disease. Florida officials discovered ten more cases of Zika, increasing the total now to 14. Health officials believe the spread of the disease is limited to a square mile area in Miami-Dade County just north of downtown Miami. A U.S. electronics technician with the Federal Bureau of Investigation has pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of the Chinese government. Kun Shan Chun, who was born in China and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, admitted in federal court in New York City Monday to giving sensitive information to China. He was released on bail and is scheduled to be sentenced in December. Taiwan's president has for the first time formally apologized to the country's indigenous people for centuries of mistreatment. Tsai Ing-wen apologized Monday for what she called the suffering and injustice done to Taiwan's indigenous community over the past 400 years. The president said a justice and historical commission will be established. New security laws went into effect Monday in Malaysia. Critics say the new measure gives Prime Minister Najib Razak sweeping emergency powers which could be used to trample on human rights. The new law enables him to suspend civil liberties whenever he believes there is a security threat. A Nigerian commission has found that the army killed 348 people from a Shiite sect last December. The commission called for the prosecution of those involved. The judicial inquiry said in its report published Monday that the Nigerian army used excessive force during a three-day raid on the city of Zaria. On Wall Street, U.S. stock indexes were mixed on Monday. From the VOA news center in Washington, I'm David DeForest. That's the latest world news from VOA. |