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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to meet this Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland, with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other diplomats and they will be discussing the situation in Syria. The multi-lateral meeting will be held even though the United States halted direct talks with Russia on Syria because of Russian airstrikes on Aleppo. Kerry also will hold discussions with regional and international partners October 16 in London. Britain has warned that Russia faces becoming a pariah state for its bombing campaign in support of Syrian government forces. Henry Ridgwell reports. In an emergency parliamentary debate Tuesday, Britain's Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said Russia was becoming "a pariah nation." "If President Putin's strategy is to restore the greatness and the glory of Russia, then I believe he risks seeing his ambition turned to ashes in the face of international contempt for what is happening in Syria." Lawmakers repeatedly called for Britain to help enforce a no-fly zone to protect civilians. Henry Ridgwell, London. Burundi's parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill that calls for the country to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. The bill now awaits the signature of the president. Supporters of the bill charged that the court hurt Burundi's institutions and was being used as an instrument to intervene in national politics. The action is seen by many as isolating Burundi from the international community. German officials say a Syrian man under arrest for allegedly planning a bomb attack has killed himself in a detention center in Leipzig. Saxony's state justice minister said Jaber Albakr killed himself Wednesday evening. This is VOA news. Saudi Arabia says it will ease the blockade of rebel-controlled areas of Yemen to evacuate people wounded in an airstrike at a funeral. Peter Salisbury of the Britain-based research organization, Chatham House, says the situation in Yemen is getting worse every day. U.S. officials say Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a missile at a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Red Sea Wednesday. They say the rocket missed the target. The officials told VOA the attack was the second aimed at the same U.S. ship in the past four days. U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is vowing to finish his run for the White House on his own terms. Trump appears unconcerned that many Republican leaders have abandoned his campaign following news stories about his past statements demeaning women. Trump campaigned Wednesday in Florida. "The election of Hillary Clinton would lead, in my opinion, to the almost total destruction of our country as we know it." Nevertheless, a number of new opinion polls show Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, surging to a greater lead over him. The RealClearPolitics average of polls gives Clinton a 6.2 percent national lead. Clinton's campaign, sensing it is on the verge of winning, is considering [its] expanding its efforts into states that almost always vote Republican in presidential elections. That includes Georgia and Arizona. As Haiti continues to count its dead and assess damage following Hurricane Matthew, doctors and public health officials are warning of the risk of cholera. Unprecedented flooding has contaminated already-scarce safe drinking water, drastically increasing the risk of a cholera outbreak. Dr. Unni Krishnan is with Save the Children, Haiti. "This is a country with limited financial resources, poorest country in this hemisphere. So Haiti needs all the attention and support it can receive now." Once contracted, dehydration [causes] caused by cholera can kill children as quickly as six hours. The chief executive officer of the second largest U.S. bank will step down in the aftermath of a scandal over its sales practices. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank announced Wednesday John Stumpf has resigned effective immediately and will be replaced by chief operating officer, Tim Sloan. Stumpf will also relinquish his title as chairman. The company last month agreed to pay $185 million to settle allegations that its workers opened millions of accounts without customers' permission to reach aggressive sales targets. Briefly looking at markets, on Wall Street, U.S. stock indexes were mixed at the close of trade today. Markets in Europe were down. In Washington, I'm David DeForest. That's the latest world news from VOA. |