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VOA news. I'm Christopher Cruise reporting.
At least 150 people have been killed in 24 hours of clashes in the Yemeni port city of Hodeida, medics said Monday, as Britain's top diplomat visited the Gulf trying to boost international calls for a cease-fire. A Hodeida resident reported an ebb in fighting around the city by Monday evening, but U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned of a possible "catastrophic situation" if the port is destroyed. Government loyalists supported by a Saudi-led coalition are fighting to oust the Iran-backed Houthi rebels from the strategic Red Sea city, whose docks are a lifeline to 14 million Yemenis at risk of starvation. Palestinians have fired dozens of rockets at southern Israel. Israel has responded with airstrikes on Gaza a day after deadly clashes on the Israel-Gaza border. Afghan officials say at least six people were killed in a suicide bomb blast near a check post in front of a high school in central Kabul on Monday. Islamic State's Afghan affiliate, known as IS Khorasan Province, claimed responsibility for the attack. Deadly wildfires raging Monday at several sites in the western U.S. state of California, 31 people are dead, more than 200 missing. Associated Press correspondent Rita Foley reports. [This is the true ....] In the vast state along the Pacific Ocean, officials said that 150,000 residents have been displaced as high winds and tinder-dry conditions have helped fuel blazes that have torched more than 1,000 square kilometers of forestlands, residential communities and business districts. Twenty-nine of the deaths happened in a northern California fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. That fire is still only 25 percent contained. This is VOA news. The human rights group Amnesty International said Monday it is stripping Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi of its top honor because of what it called her failure to speak out about or halt grave atrocities against her country's Rohingya Muslim population. VOA correspondent Margaret Besheer reports. From 1989 to 2010, Myanmar's military-led government repeatedly confined Aung San Suu Kyi to house arrest. During that time, Western governments and human rights groups, including Amnesty, continuously advocated for her release. But since becoming the country's de facto civilian leader in April 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi and her administration have failed to condemn or try to stop atrocities perpetrated by the military against minority Rohingya residents in Rakhine State. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirming that his country has heard a recording provided by Turkey of the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. On Saturday, Turkey's leader said he'd given recordings of the killing to some countries. The Canadian leader, however, is the first head of state to officially confirm that his country's intelligence has head the tapes. But he told reporters in Paris that he personally has not heard the recordings and he didn't divulge any of the content. Associated Press correspondent Charles De Ledesma. The man who created Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Black Panther and the X-Men has died. Marvel Comics' artist Stan Lee passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 95. Associated Press entertainment correspondent Margie Szaroleta looks back at his career. Stan Lee said he kept an encyclopedia of Marvel Comics' characters at hands because he created so many that he couldn't remember them all. He was the top writer at Marvel Comics and eventually its publisher. Lee was also the king of the cameo. He appeared in hundreds of Marvel films, TV shows, video games and even the comics themselves. He joked in a 2007 Associated Press interview he should get at award just for that. "I'm hoping that eventually the Academy will have a category for Best Cameo of the Year." Lee also published several books, including The Superhero Women in 1977 and How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way the following year. The death of his wife of 69 years in 2017 left a void that resulted in a struggle between his would-be friends, lawyers and advisers. In July, lawyers for his daughter were granted an elder abuse restraining order against his former manager. Douglas Rain has died. He was the voice HAL 9000 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rain was 90. 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 news. |