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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting.
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has declared a state of emergency. In a broadcast statement Tuesday, Mr. Jammeh said the state of emergency would last until the nation's Supreme Court rules on his complaint of voting irregularities in last month's election. Mr. Jammeh is refusing to accept the results of the vote in which he lost opposition leader Adama Barrow. The Supreme Court has postponed its ruling until May even though Barro'w inauguration is scheduled for Thursday. The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, has placed its military force on standby in case Mr. Jammeh does not step down on January 19. More than 50 people were killed when a Nigerian military jet mistakenly bombed a camp for homeless people Tuesday. Aiming for Boko Haram militants, the attack struck Rann - a refugee camp for internally displaced people. The aid group, Doctors Without Borders, said it treated 120 wounded people at its facility in North Borno state. The group put the death toll at 52. The underwater search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been suspended. Crews completed their deep water sea search off the Indian Ocean without finding a trace of the airliner Officials had recommended that search crews head north to a new area. But Australia has nixed that idea. President Barack Obama is commuting the prison sentence of Bradley, now known as Chelsea, Manning. Manning is the former Army intelligence analyst, who leaked classified documents. Manning, who underwent a gender change while in prison, is one of 209 inmates whose sentences the president is shortening. This is VOA news. British Prime Minister Theresa May has laid out the objectives of what she hopes will be - her nation's clean break with the European Union. The hard Brexit she laid out in a speech Tuesday will mean that Britain will leave the single EU market and break with the European Court of Justice. It will assume control of its own borders. "We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave. No, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. And my job is to get the right deal for Britain as we do." Paul Nuttall, who is the head of UKIP, the political party that has been supporting Brexit all along, was supportive of May's remarks. "She said that we would definitely be leaving the single market, which was pretty much a red line for my party UKIP because we want to be able to control our borders. We don't want to pay a membership fee. We don't have to comply with the EU regulations and directives. So broadly very good. Our concern is that she isn't moving quickly enough." :Paul Nuttall of UKIP. Antonio Tajani of Italy has been elected new president of the European Parliament. Tajani is from a center-right party in his home country. He won after four rounds of voting Tuesday night in Strasbourg. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a broad defensive globalization and free trade Tuesday at a Swiss forum of global economy leaders. Mr. Xi told the World Economic Forum in Davos that nations should remain committed to free trade and investment and reject protectionism. The address came just three days before the United States inaugurates a new president who campaigned on promises to defend U.S. manufacturers and workers, in part, by imposing tariffs on imports from China and Mexico. Russian President Vladimir Putin is blaming the outgoing U.S. administration of attempting to undercut President-elect Donald Trump by spreading erroneous information. At a Moscow news conference Tuesday, Mr. Putin said last week's release of an unverified dossier containing salacious allegations about Trump was part of an effort by U.S. President Barack Obama's administration to, in Putin's words, "undermine the legitimacy of the president-elect." That's Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani. He said Tuesday he would not consider renegotiating the Iran nuclear agreement with the incoming Trump administration, which has repeatedly denounced the accord. Speaking at a news conference Tuesday on the first anniversary of the agreement's signing, Mr. Rouhani said there would be "no sense" in trying to renegotiate it now. From the VOA news center in Washington, I'm David DeForest. That's the latest world news from VOA. |