|
From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting.
A frantic travel schedule for both presidential candidates has Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton crisscrossed the country trying to get votes in key states. In Wilmington, North Carolina, Saturday, Trump told supporters he has upset the establishment. "And this was an easy decision. I went from being the ultimate insider to being an outsider like they've never seen before. We are doing so well. This is a movement like they've never, ever seen before." Hillary Clinton had to shorten her marks to supporters in Florida because of a torrential rain storm. But she called for everyone to get out and vote on Tuesday. "As your secretary of state, I traveled to 112 countries. I've stood up for human rights, women's rights, worker rights and LGBT rights. I have spent my career fighting for kids and families, and if you elect me, that's what I'll keep doing." Clinton is scheduled to campaign in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she will appear with pop star Katy Perry. Trump began the day in Florida, then went to North Carolina, then Nevada and will end Saturday in Colorado. Newly released voting figures show that 33 million Americans have already cast their ballots for the next president. The U.S. military says this week's deadly clashes with Taliban insurgents in northern Afghanistan "very likely" harmed civilians. Provincial authorities say Thursday's pre-dawn joint counterinsurgency airstrikes near the city of Kunduz killed at least 33 civilians, half of them children. Two U.S. soldiers and several Afghan commando forces were killed before the airstrikes were called in. For more, log on to our website. This is VOA news. Turkish police used water cannon and tear gas on hundreds of protesters Saturday in Istanbul to disrupt a march in support of an opposition newspaper whose staff had earlier been arrested as part of an ongoing government crackdown. The protest erupted hours after Turkish authorities ordered nine executives and journalists from the opposition secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper to be held for trial. Prosecutors linked the arrests to the newspaper's alleged support for a fugitive cleric suspected of orchestrating a failed coup attempt in July, and for its alleged links to Kurdish militants battling the Ankara government. Iraqi military forces continued to battle their way through the city of Mosul Saturday. As Edward Yeranian reports, the Iraqis are meeting stiff resistance from Islamic State fighters inside the city. Iraqi government forces traded artillery fire with Islamic State militants as they attempted to advance into areas of eastern Mosul. On the western side of the Tigris River, which divides the city, satellite images revealed that Islamic State has created a no-man's land near a strategic former military base and outside the city's main airport. Buildings which might have been used for cover by advancing Iraqi forces have been destroyed. Edward Yeranian, for VOA news, Cairo. Pope Francis has denounced the "scandalous" amounts of money that governments and world institutions have found to save ailing banks but not suffering people, including migrants who are dying as they try to cross the Mediterranean. The pontiff Saturday denounced these policies as he described the current treatment of migrants in the Mediterranean as shameful He said the Mediterranean has become a cemetery and not only the Mediterranean Sea. The cemeteries are all the walls in the Mediterranean region, walls covered with the blood of innocent people. Thousands of migrants have perished trying to cross both the Mediterranean and the Aegean from Africa and Turkey to Europe. And, Nigerian army officials say government troops rescued one of the Chibok schoolgirls [trapped] kidnapped, that is, by Boko Haram Islamic extremists more than two years ago. A military spokesman said the girl was found late Friday in Borno State. She was found carrying a baby boy. Some 276 girls were abducted from a school in northeastern Chibok town in April of 2014. For more, log on to our website voanews.com. I'm David Byrd in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |