VOA NEWS

February 13, 2019

VOA news. I'm Christopher Cruise reporting.



Members of the House and Senate are said to be optimistic about a deal that's been negotiated to provide money for border security and to keep the government open.

But President Trump said on Tuesday he is not thrilled with the agreement.

"I can't say I'm happy. I can't say I'm thrilled. But the wall is getting built, regardless. It doesn't matter because we're doing other things beyond what we're talking about here."

The deal reportedly grants far less than the $5.7 billion President Trump is seeking for a border wall, a wall between the United States and Mexico.



North Korea's nuclear and other military capabilities remain unchanged and still pose a threat to the United States and its allies. That word from the top U.S. military commander in South Korea on Tuesday.

General Robert Abrams, head of U.S. Forces Korea, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said, "Little to no verifiable change has occurred in North Korea's military capabilities," despite the North's public statements about denuclearization.



The Afghan Taliban preparing to enter new talks with the United States.

Associated Press correspondent Charles De Ledesma reports.

The Taliban announced a 14-member negotiating team ahead of talks this month with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been meeting with the insurgents to try to end America's longest war. The group includes five former inmates of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay who were released in 2014 in exchange for a captured American soldier and the jailed younger brother of the leader of the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction.

The Taliban are refusing to meet directly with the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.



The Afghan government on Tuesday fired its election commission more than three months after chaotic parliamentary elections, the results of which have still not been announced.



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At least 17 people died on Tuesday as a fire tore through a budget hotel in New Delhi before dawn. The Hotel Arpit Palace is in a congested part of central New Delhi.



Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in some Sudanese cities on Tuesday, protesting against the now three-decade-long autocratic rule of President Omar al-Bashir.



The Mexican drug lord nicknamed "El Chapo" has been convicted in a federal court in New York.

Associated Press correspondent Warren Levinson reports.

The jury returned a verdict against the notorious drug lord Joaquín Guzmán on its sixth day of deliberation. The drug trafficking charges could put the 61-year-old defendant in prison for life.

He was accused of smuggling 200 tons of cocaine and of using torture and murder to cement his control of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

He was famous for escaping from prisons in Mexico and the trial was held under extraordinary security before an anonymous jury.

Guzmán will likely be sent to a U.S. maximum security prison to prevent another escape.

Deliberations by the jurors were complicated by the complexity of the trial. They were tasked with making 53 decisions about whether prosecutors had proved various elements of the case.



The Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó says humanitarian aid will be brought into the country on February 23 even though President Nicholás Maduro has refused to let it in.

Guaidó is recognized by the United States and 50 other countries as the interim president of Venezuela. He spoke Tuesday to thousands of supporters who were demonstrating as part of an ongoing campaign to break the military's support for Maduro and force the socialist leader from power.

Maduro continues to enjoy the support of the country's powerful military, however. He said the opposition rallies are part of an attempt by the United States to overthrow the government. He refuses to allow the emergency supplies to enter the country.



A leading agency said on Tuesday that the number of child soldiers, especially girls, found being recruited around the world has risen dramatically in recent years as armed conflicts that target children have intensified.

Instances of girls found used by armed groups jumped fourfold last year from the year before to nearly 900 although the London-based rights group Child Soldiers International said the actual number is likely to be far higher.

Children are recruited to be fighters, informants, looters, messengers, spies and as domestic and sexual slaves, it said.

They are particularly vulnerable in conflict-torn countries in the Middle East as well as in South Sudan, the DRC and the Central African Republic.



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.