VOA NEWS

May 4, 2019

This is VOA news. I'm Steve Miller.



More than 1,000 people have died from Ebola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since August. DRC's health minister said hostility toward health workers continues to hamper efforts to contain the second-deadliest outbreak of the virus.

The executive director of the World Health Organization's health emergencies program, Michael Ryan, warned of further danger.

"We are anticipating a scenario of continued intense transmission."

The outbreak declared almost nine months ago already has caused the most deaths behind the 2014 to 2016 outbreak in West Africa's Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia that killed more than 11,000 people.



U.S. President Donald Trump says he has had a very positive hour-long phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Venezuela and other issues.

VOA's White House bureau chief Steve Herman has the details.

Trump's call on Friday with Putin came as top U.S. security officials met at the Pentagon to discuss options about Venezuela.

The president describes his exchange with Putin about Venezuela as "very positive."

"He is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela other than he'd like to see something positive happen for Venezuela and I feel the same way."

Tension has grown in recent days between Washington and Moscow over the increasingly destabilizing events in Caracas. The Trump administration has accused the Russians of preventing Venezuelan President Nicholás Maduro from giving up power and fleeing the country.

Steve Herman, VOA news, at the White House.



May 3 is World Press Freedom Day and more than 100 events took place around the world. But for the first time, the main celebration was taking place in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Ethiopia had been infamous for jailing journalists.



This is VOA news.



Fighting raged in the battle for the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Friday, with neither faction able to secure gains.

VOA's Heather Murdock has more.

Soldiers say fighting has been fierce around the Libyan capital, Tripoli, overnight and throughout Friday, with neither side moving much as they battle for key strategic points around the city, including a hospital, the airport and important supply lines held by the eastern forces of Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar's forces are known as the Libyan National Army and this fight began in early April when Haftar announced his intention to take over Tripoli in a few days.

Reporting from Tripoli in Libya, I'm Heather Murdock, VOA news.



Young people in South Africa are expected to stay away from next week's vote in large numbers.

Reuters Lucy Fielder reports they cite corruption at the top and a lack of jobs as reasons they are disillusioned.

"I wanna be partake in the forthcoming elections." "The reason I won't vote is because I'm unemployed." "I don't think I'm going to vote."

A message from South Africa's despondent and often jobless youth. Young people are turning their backs on elections next Wednesday and they make up more than 60 percent of eligible voters who haven't registered.

What makes voter apathy even more striking among young black South Africans is that their parents were out vote for the first time only 25 years ago when apartheid ended.

That was Reuters Lucy Fielder.



A Vietnamese woman who spent more than two years in a Malaysian prison on suspicion of killing the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was freed on Friday.

Reuters Francesca Renai has that story.

Doan Thi Huong was charged along with an Indonesian woman with poisoning Kim Jong Nam, a critic of Pyongyang, by smearing his face with a chemical weapon known as VX at Kuala Lumpur Airport in February, 2017.

The murder charge against Huong was dropped last month after she pleaded guilty to an alternate charge of causing harm.

Her co-accused was also freed in March after prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her.

Both women could have faced the death penalty.

Defense lawyers maintained the women were pawns in an assassination orchestrated by North Korean agents.

That was Reuters reporter Francesca Renai.



At least three people have died since Cyclone Fani crashed into the eastern coast of India, bringing heavy rain and winds to the coastal state of Odisha Friday.

Officials say more than 160 people were wounded at the onset of the storm. More than one million heeded government warnings and moved into storm shelters before the storm came ashore.

The storm moved over the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal by Friday evening and officials say more than 100 million people are in the path of the cyclone.



I'm Steve Miller, VOA news.