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This is VOA news. I'm Marissa Melton.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has removed most of the children from a remote Border Patrol station in Texas following reports that more than 300 kids were detained there with inadequate food, water and sanitation. AP correspondent Ben Thomas reports. The Border Patrol station is in Clint, Texas, near El Paso. Attorneys who visited last week told the AP they saw teens trying to take care of infants and toddlers, 15 children sick with the flu,10 in medical quarantine, a 4-year-old who'd gone days without bathing and others hungry and inconsolable. But Customs and Border Protection officials tell the office of Congresswoman Veronica Escobar there are now just 30 children at the facility. It's unclear where the children have been moved but Escobar says some were sent to another facility in El Paso, a temporary site but one equipped with air conditioning, roll-out mattresses, showers and medical facilities. Ben Thomas, Washington. The alleged leader of Saturday's coup attempt in Ethiopia's northern Amhara state has been shot and killed. A reporter in the state capital told VOA's Horn of Africa service that General Asamnew Tsige was killed in the capital Monday while trying to escape from security forces. Meanwhile, state media says an official wounded during Saturday's coup attempt, regional prosecutor Migbaru Kebede, has also died. Gunmen broke into a meeting in [Bahar Dar] Bahir Dar, pardon me, on Saturday, killing regional president Ambachew Mekonnen and one of his senior advisers. Georgia's ruling party has announced "large-scale political reform" in response to thousands of protesters demonstrating [in the Geor...] in the streets of the Georgian capital calling for government reform, a snap election and the resignation of the interior minister. Protests began Thursday in response to a visit to the [Russian] Georgian parliament by a Russian lawmaker. This is VOA news. U.S. President Donald Trump says the letter he sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a "very friendly" response [in res...] to a letter he received from Kim earlier this month. North Korean state media on Sunday reported Kim received a letter of "excellent content" from Trump. The White House says "correspondence between the two leaders has been ongoing." President Trump imposed what he described as "hard-hitting" new financial sanctions on Iran on Monday. He said he is specifically targeting the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "The supreme leader of Iran is the one who ultimately is responsible for the hostile conduct of the regime." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the action would literally lock up tens and tens of billions of dollars of Iranian assets. Trump said Iran will decide how long the sanctions remain in place. "America is a peace-loving nation. We do not seek conflict with Iran or any other country. I look forward to the day when sanctions can be finally lifted and Iran can become a peaceful, prosperous, and productive nation. That can go very quickly, it can be tomorrow, or it can also be in years from now." The U.S. leader calls his order a strong and proportionate American response to Tehran's shootdown last week of an unmanned U.S. drone, which Washington says occurred in international airspace near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran claims it occurred in Iranian airspace. Clashed erupted in southern West Bank between Israeli security services and Palestinians on Monday against the [upcomning] upcoming Peace to Prosperity workshop in Bahrain. The 50-billion-U.S.-dollar economic plan published on Saturday calls for massive infrastructure projects and job creation for Palestinians. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh points out the plan does not address the core issues of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. "What Israel and the United States are trying to do now is simply to normalize relations with the Arabs at the expense of the Palestinians. This is something that we don't accept and this is something that is totally rejected." Neither Israel nor the Palestinians will have official representation at the two-day summit. The U.S. delegation is to be led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. A U.S. citizen has been "attempting to overthrow the state." Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, 55, pleaded guilty to wanting to incite protests in Vietnam but he denied encouraging people to attack government offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. He is expected to be deported to the U.S. after he finishes his sentence and the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi says it's "disappointed" by the verdict. Nguyen was born in Vietnam but has lived in the United States since childhood. He was arrested last year while visiting his birthplace. I'm Marissa Melton, VOA news. |