VOA NEWS

May 1, 2018

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Christopher Cruise reporting.



There were two deadly suicide bombings in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Monday. Twenty-six people were killed, including nine journalists.

The attack began during the early morning rush hour, with a suicide bomber on a motorbike blowing himself up near an office of the National Directorate of Security, the country's intelligence agency.

Associated Press correspondent Joseph Krauss reports.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group, which has an increasingly powerful affiliate in Afghanistan. They tried a number of attacks recent months. Unlike the Taliban, which tends to mostly target security forces and government targets, the Islamic State affiliate has repeatedly targeted civilians in Afghanistan.

That was AP correspondent Joseph Krauss.

This was the deadliest ever assault on media workers in Afghanistan.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Monday of "brazenly lying" about its ongoing nuclear weapons development in violation of the 2015 international agreement that sought to limit Iran's nuclear program.

"We've known for years that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program called Project Amad. We can now prove that Project Amad was a comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons. We can also prove that Iran is secretly storing Project Amad material to use at a time of its choice to develop nuclear weapons."

In a televised address to the nation, Netanyahu displayed what he described as an Israeli intelligence coup: copies of what he said "half a ton" of documents, charts, blueprints, photos and videos documenting the Iranian nuclear program.



This is VOA news.



America's new top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has ended his first foreign trip with a call for peace.

Correspondent Robert Berger reports for VOA from Jerusalem.

The peace process suffered a setback in December when U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, sparking anger across the Arab world.

The Palestinians who see Jerusalem as the capital of their future state have boycotted the Trump administration since then.

Pompeo did not meet with Palestinian officials during the trip and he praised plans to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14.

Robert Berger, for VOA news, Jerusalem.



The porn actress who claimed she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006 is escalating her legal fight.

AP correspondent Ben Thomas reports.

Stormy Daniels is suing President Trump for defamation. The actress whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford filed the complained in federal court in New York. At issue is a Trump tweet about a composite sketch that Daniels says depicted a man who threatened her in 2011 to stay quiet about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

In the tweet, Trump says the man never existed and calls the sketch "A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools."

The complaint says Trump tweet was false and defamatory and says Daniels has been exposed to death threats and other threats of physical violence.

Ben Thomas, Washington.



President Trump attempted to reset his relationship with Africa on Monday as he hosted Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Trump has been criticized for reportedly making derogatory comments about Africa.

During a joint news conference at the White House, the president refused to retract his comments.

"I don't think it would, number one, and there's no reason to apologize. Our immigration laws in this country are a total disaster. They're laughed at all over the world, they're laughed at for their stupidity."



A group of about 150 Central American migrants are waiting at a U.S. border crossing in southern California after American border agents said the port of entry didn't have enough space to accommodate them.

The migrants traveled together to try to seek asylum in the United States from Central America.

It's not clear how long the migrants might need to wait to be seen by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials.

Organizers of the caravan say they want the most vulnerable cases to cross the border first, including children who have been threated.



You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. From the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington, I'm Christopher Cruise, VOA news.

That's the latest world news from VOA.