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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Christopher Cruise reporting.
The Thai official overseeing the rescue operation of a soccer team trapped in a flooded cave says the 12 teenage boys and their 25-year-old coach may not all be extracted at the same time. The official said it depends on their health. Cave diver Claus Rasmusen says swimming out underwater could be highly demanding for the boys. "If you don't know how to swim and you are in very black environment which could potentially kill you inside a cave, it's not a good environment to learn in. So nobody will teach anybody a full cave course, but trying to get them comfortable with masks, with the breathing, completely different. They're creating an environment that can make them safely get away, that's feasible." Officials are still deciding on the best way to get the team out of the cave. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the EU will make every effort to avoid a trade war with the U.S. Associated Press correspondent Charles De Ledesma reports. Merkel has told German lawmakers that "It's worth every effort to try to defuse the conflict" with Washington "so that it doesn't turn into a real war," she says, while stressing the point, "but of course, there are two sides to it." She added that the good functioning of the world economy depends on countries working together as partners as well as imposing tariffs on EU steel and aluminum. The Trump administration is mulling over whether to include cars, trucks and auto parts, something that would be painful for Germany with its major auto industry. I'm Charles De Ledesma. The U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has reportedly told German carmakers that President Trump would suspend threats to impose tariffs on cars imported from the European Union if the EU lifts duties on American cars. This is VOA news. A man and woman are in a critical condition and they're being tested for exposure to an unknown substance near the British town where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned in March. This is deputy chief constable Paul Mills. "Our enquiries, supported by local partner agencies and the Counter Terrorism Policing Network, are ongoing and a full multi-agency response has been coordinated, which currently consists of 12 partner agencies." Police initially believed the couple had taken (heroin or) crack cocaine from a contaminated batch of drugs. More than three days after they were found, tests are still being conducted to try to figure out what made them ill. Iran says it will remain in the 2015 nuclear deal only if its benefits are guaranteed by other signatories. The statement came after the United States withdrew from the accord. Reuters Scarlett Cvitanovich reports. On a visit to Vienna, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the U.S. withdrawal was illegal and no one would benefit from it. Rouhani is in Europe to gather support ahead of a meeting on Friday where Iran's foreign minister will meet with counterparts from the five global powers still party to the deal. The five - Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - have all said they will still support it. Victims of child sexual abuse are calling for the Vatican to dismiss an Australian archbishop who was sentenced to a maximum 12 months in detention for concealing child sexual abuse in the 1970s. Philip Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide, is the most senior Catholic in the world to be convicted of the offence. Correspondent Phil Mercer reports for VOA from Sydney. Archbishop Wilson is unlikely to go to jail butt could spend up to a year in home detention, most likely with a relative where his movements would be monitored. The sentence was handed down by a magistrate in the city of Newcastle north of Sydney who said the Catholic cleric had shown no remorse but covering up the crimes of a pedophile priest who's abused altar boys in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales in the 1970s. Wilson was told he'd ignored the plight of the children who came to him for help to protect the reputation of the church. Phil Mercer, for VOA news, Sydney. A U.S. federal district judge has extended by 20 days the housing aid program helping Puerto Ricans still unable to return home after last year's Hurricane Maria damaged thousands of homes as well as the U.S. territory's power grid. Hundreds of Puerto Ricans are affected by the decision. 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. I'm Christopher Cruise, VOA new. That's the latest world news from VOA. |