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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting.
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej has died at the age of 88. The death of the deeply revered king is a stunning blow for a kingdom of 67 million people. "It is the saddest time in our Thai people because, because we love him so much." His son and heir apparent, the country's Crown Prince, has said he wants to mourn the loss of his father before ascending to the throne. The U.S. military said Thursday it struck three radar sites in Yemen with cruise missiles. The attack was in response to missile launches from territory controlled by Houthi rebels targeting a U.S. Navy destroyer. Peter Cook is a Pentagon spokesman: "I cannot tell you specifically who's operating these installations, understand you, where they're located, who's controlling that area now and that we responded in kind to these specific installations because the role we believe they played in targeting our forces." :Peter Cook. Twenty-one newly freed Chibok girls, kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, met with Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday in Abuja. The vice president denied press reports that the girls were exchanged for four captured Boko Haram militants. An official called their release "the product of painstaking negotiations and trust on both sides." Legendary American musician Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first songwriter to receive the award. The Swedish Academy said Thursday Dylan has been honored for having (quoting now) "created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." This is VOA news. First lady Michelle Obama says remarks about women and their bodies emerging from one of the presidential candidates are, in her words, "cruel and frightening." The first lady did not mention Republican candidate Donald Trump by name. But she described the situation in America's political campaign as not normal, disgraceful and intolerable. Meanwhile, Trump is defending himself against charges made by several women that say he groped them. He called their stories "totally, absolutely false," and that he [was not] had not even met some of his accusers. These latest stories follow an earlier release of a tape in which Trump is heard making remarks that demean women. May of Trump's supporters, though, are rejecting the charges. Top diplomats from the United States, Russia, and the Middle East will attempt to salvage a failed Syria cease-fire agreement on Saturday. The diplomats will hold talks in Lausanne, Switzerland. Those will be followed by separate meetings Sunday in London. A new United Nations report finds more than a million people have been killed in more than 7,000 natural disasters stretching over a 20-year period. Lisa Schlein reports. An analysis of 20 years of data shows earthquakes and tsunamis are the biggest overall killers, followed closely by climate-related disasters, which have more than doubled over the period. The report, however, notes over the last 15 years, weather-related disasters including drought, heat waves, floods and storms have become the main cause of loss of life. Haiti tops the list of the 10 countries with the most disaster deaths, followed by Indonesia and Myanmar. Lisa Schlein, Geneva. The United Nations has formally appointed former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres as secretary-general. He will replace current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the end of 2016. The Russian criminal correctional system will be reintroducing compulsory labor as a punishment starting January 1. According to the provision, compulsory labor will be an alternative to prison. Deputy director of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service told TASS that the new sentencing would be better than completely isolating convicts from society. From the VOA news center in Washington, I'm David DeForest. That's the latest world news from VOA. |