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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. Nigeria's government says it hopes to contact Boko Haram after a new video surfaced online Sunday showing as many as 50 of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014.
The militant group says several girls have died, and they are demanding a prisoner exchange for the rest. The fastest man in the world will be crowned Sunday at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, with Jamaican runner Usain Bolt seeking an unprecedented third straight gold medal in the 100-meter dash. In all, 22 medal events were on Sunday's schedule for 12 sports. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is set to say Monday how he will combat Islamic terrorism. Trump has for months said he would be tougher on jihadists than President Barack Obama Trump's vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, says Trump will offer "specifics" about how he will combat the Islamic State group. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has moved to roughly a seven percentage point lead over Trump in national opinion surveys. Volunteers are cleaning up debris after racial rioting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The city erupted in violence after the fatal shooting of a man by police on Saturday. Police say the 23-year-old man [died after] who died had a "lengthy arrest record." Tom Barrett is the mayor of Milwaukee: "A Milwaukee police officer with six years of experience started chasing the individual who was running to the east. He ordered that individual to drop his gun. The individual did not drop his gun, held the gun, or I should say I don't know that for a fact, but had the gun with him." That's Tom Barrett. This is VOA news. A U.S.-backed coalition of Syrian fighters, fresh from driving Islamic State extremists from a northern city, says it will now target another IS-held town near the Turkish border. The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by U.S. air power, announced on Sunday "the creation of the Al-Bab Military Council" with the aim of liberating the town and the region around it. The siege of Manbij, a key outpost on a jihadist supply route to the self-declared IS capital, Raqqa, ended Friday, when Islamic State forces abandoned the city after two months of fighting. Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, have begun an operation to retake villages around Mosul from Islamic State militants. Peshmerga officials said Sunday several villages have been secured. Clouds of smoke could be seen rising in the area as fighting continued. The military operation is a major step in the attempt to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group. Hundreds of protesters braved heavy rain in the Philippine capital, Manila, Sunday, to denounce President Rodrigo Duterte's plan to honor the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos with a state burial in a heroes' cemetery. Protests were also held in other parts of the country, but Duterte is standing firm on his decision to move Marcos' body from his hometown to the National Heroes' Cemetery in Manila next month. Thai police say they know who was behind a recent series of bombings, and that at least one man has been detained for questioning. A police spokesman said an investigation is progressing. Thai officials have been searching for those responsible for 11 small bomb attacks that killed four people and wounded dozens of others in several key towns Thursday night and Friday morning. Police said they do not suspect international Islamic militant groups were behind the attacks, instead calling them "acts of sabotage" likely carried out by a local group with a political agenda. New York police are searching for the gunman who killed a Muslim cleric and an associate as the two left afternoon prayers Saturday. Police released a sketch of the gunman, depicting a dark-haired, bearded man wearing glasses. They have not announced a motive for the slayings, but activists near the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in the Ozone Park section of Queens are calling it a hate crime. About 100 protesters gathered Saturday at the scene of the shooting, chanting, "We want justice!" From the VOA news center in Washington, I'm David DeForest. That's the latest world news from VOA. |