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This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd in Washington.
President Donald Trump toured fire-ravaged areas of California where the death toll from the so-called Camp Fire reached 71 people, with hundreds more missing. The president toured what was left of the town of Paradise, which was consumed by the fire. He praised the efforts of local law enforcement and firefighters and pledged to work with California's government to prevent such fires in the future. "I think we're all on the same path. We do have to do management, maintenance. And we'll be working also with environmental groups, they've really, I think everybody's seen the light. And I don't think we'll have this again to this extent. We're going to have to work quickly." Meanwhile, the Woolsey Fire in southern California has killed at least three people and [scourged] scorched, that is, huge swaths of land near Los Angeles. Heavy rain is in the forecast for next week which could compound problems by causing mudslides in areas that are stripped of vegetation. The Trump administration is taking issue with reports that cite a U.S. official as saying American intelligence agencies have concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. AP's Ben Thomas reports. The State Department says reports that the government "has made a final conclusion about the role Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have played in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi are inaccurate." Those reports cited a U.S. official who wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says "there remain numerous unanswered questions," and the department "will continue to seek all relevant facts." The Saudi government has denied the claim that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi's killing. Ben Thomas, Washington. For more, visit our website. This is VOA news. The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that U.S.-led coalition airstrikes killed more than 40 people in the village of Abu Husn in the region of Deir el-Zor near the Iraqi border. We get details from Edward Yeranian in Cairo. Arab media announced the deaths of several dozen people, most of whom appeared to have been Islamic State group fighters, during bitter fighting in the Deir el-Zor region of eastern Syria not far from the Iraqi border. Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that about three dozen Islamic State fighters were killed in the airstrikes on the village of Abu Husn. A number of civilians and family members of the Islamic State fighters were also killed. Abdel Rahman insisted that it was the highest death toll in coalition airstrikes since U.S.-aligned Kurdish fighters launched their attack against this particular northeastern Syrian Islamic State pocket in September. Edward Yeranian, for VOA news, Cairo. One person was killed and several others injured as French protesters from the "yellow vest" movement blocked roads and fuel depots in anger over fuel tax hikes Saturday. Reuters Lucy Fielder has details. Thousands of protesters paralyzed roads across France on Saturday in a backlash against higher fuel taxes. At one blockade in the southeast, a driver panicked when protesters surrounded her car. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said she accidentally knocked down and killed a female demonstrator. "Sixteen people were lightly injured and one critically in other accidents, too, some occurring as drivers tried to get round the blockades." About 50,000 people took part in the mass action, the Interior Ministry estimated. The diesel tax hike is meant to encourage drivers to switch to greener cars. Nearly 3,000 migrants who traveled from Honduras have reached the Mexican border with California as AP's correspondent Julie Walker reports. The vast majority of migrants are camped at a sports complex in the Mexican city of Tijuana, sleeping on a dirt baseball field. The city opened the complex after other shelters were at capacity. As President Trump left to visit the California wildfires, he made clear again the U.S. troops he sent to the border were there to keep the migrants out. "We're not letting people into our country illegally and we're not doing a release, we'll do a catch. But we're not doing releases. So if they think they're going to be released into our country like in the old days ...." Tijuana's mayor called the migrants' arrival an "avalanche" the city is ill-prepared to handle. He expects they'll need shelter for at least eight months while they seek asylum in either Mexico or the U.S. I'm Julie Walker. For more on these stories, visit our website voanews.com. I'm David Byrd, VOA news. |