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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Anne Ball reporting.
An outcry on Capitol Hill over the Trump administration's delay in implementing Russian sanctions just hours before President Donald Trump's first State of the Union address to lawmakers. Last year, Congress overwhelmingly approved mandatory penalties against those who do business with Russia's defense and intelligence sectors. The Trump administration says the law already has had a cheering effect even before the sanctions take effect. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has accused the administration of dragging its feet. "President Trump has failed time and time again to stand up to Vladimir Putin, despite the assault that he carried out on our democracy in the 2016 elections." Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told a Senate panel the administration is still looking at imposing sanctions based on a list of Kremlin-affiliated business moguls his department published Monday. "... no way be interpreted as we're not putting sanctions on any of the people in that report." U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver his first State of the Union speech Tuesday night before the joint session of Congress, and some of the excerpt that have been coming out says he is asking both parties to come together on infrastructure and saying much more work needs to be done to battle against the Islamic State. He is following a long tradition of inviting guests to show policies most important to him. There will be two couples whose daughters were killed by MS-13 gangs, highlighting Trump's push to keep illegal immigrants from coming into the United States. This is VOA news. (The) U.N. special envoy on Syria says participants at peace talks in Sochi, Russia, have agreed to establish a committee that will draft the country's new constitution. Staffan de Mistura told reporters in New York via telephone late Tuesday from the Black Sea resort that Russia, Iran and Turkey had each given him a list of 50 proposed candidates to be on the committee. He said it would include representatives from the Syrian government, opposition and independents. De Mistura said he is "determined" to make the constitutional committee a reality. The veteran diplomat would not give a timeline for when he would announce his criteria or convene the committee to begin drafting the constitution. Opposition leader Raila Odinga was greeted by thousands of supporters in a Nairobi park Tuesday afternoon. After swearing an oath of office as "the people's president," Odinga called it a "historic day for the people of Kenya." Kenya's attorney general said that Odinga declaring himself president would be considered an act of high treason, an offense punishable by death. After Odinga's "swearing-in" Tuesday afternoon, he promptly changed his Twitter handle to "President of the Republic of Kenya." Pakistan disclosed Tuesday it recently extradited 27 suspected Taliban and Haqqani militants to Afghanistan as part of an effort to stop insurgents from using Pakistan for terrorist activities. The disclosure comes amid growing accusations the militants plotted recent bombings from Pakistan - bombings in Kabul that killed and wounded hundreds of people. [Afghan is also] Afghanistan is also asking the U.S. government to stop deporting Afghan nationals, saying it has no [rape] repatriation agreement with the United States. Pope Francis is sending Archbishop Charles Scicluna to Chile to investigate [a] the bishop accused by abuse victims [for] of covering up the country's notorious pedophile priest. Greg Burke is a Vatican spokesman: "He was a former prosecutor here in the Vatican. He is currently the president of what is the equivalent of a court of appeals in this matter. Archbishop Scicluna will to Chile as soon as possible." The Vatican said that Scicluna will travel to Chile to listen to those who have expressed the desire to provide elements. That's the latest world news from VOA. I'm Anne Ball in Washington. |