|
This is VOA News. I'm Joe Ramsey.
Lebanon's health minister says nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded on Tuesday when pagers they were carrying exploded in an operation being blamed on Israel. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem. Lebanese officials said the deaths and large numbers of injuries were caused when pagers exploded, calling on the public not to use any pagers in their possession. Israeli analysts said it was the biggest security breach Hezbollah had suffered since the war with Israel began almost a year ago and showed Israel's intelligence capabilities against Hezbollah. Lebanese press reports said the pagers were relatively new and had been given to the Hezbollah operatives in the past few months. They had been using pagers to communicate as Israel is able to track and record cell phones. Linda Gradstein, VOA News, Jerusalem. Israel said on Tuesday halting Hezbollah's attacks in the country's north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon. AP correspondent Charles De Ledesma reports. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to take heavier military action to halt the near-daily attacks, which began shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Jerusalem has regularly launched airstrikes in response and has targeted and killed senior Hezbollah commanders. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. Hezbollah has said it would halt the attacks with a cease-fire in Gaza, and the U.S. has pressed for restraint. I'm Charles De Ledesma. Volunteers and emergency workers raced to secure river banks in Poland's historic city of Wroclaw on Tuesday as nearby municipalities advised residents to evacuate and authorities across Europe said 22 people have died in floods. This is VOA News. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday state law enforcement will launch a state-level criminal probe of Sunday's apparent attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump. AP correspondent Sagar Meghani reports. Ryan Routh was charged with federal gun crimes yesterday. Governor Ron DeSantis says Florida prosecutors will run their own investigation, saying the state has jurisdiction over the most serious offense. "... which is attempted murder." And he wants to make sure Routh is held fully accountable. "We have a strong interest in the state of Florida of bringing this suspect to justice to the fullest extent of the law." More federal charges are also possible as Attorney General Merrick Garland's Justice Department seeks a grand jury indictment. "We will spare no resource in this investigation." Sagar Meghani, at the White House. A small town in the U.S. Midwestern state of Ohio finds itself at the center of a controversy involving fake news about migrants eating residents' pets, cats and dogs. VOA Creole traveled there and has this report narrated by Elizabeth Cherneff. Although local authorities confirmed there is no evidence of migrants eating pets, the rumor has prompted numerous bomb threats, forcing school closures and is negatively affecting Haitians' lives in Springfield. A Haitian migrant who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity for security reasons says an angry resident pulled a knife on him. "The guy turn and say you've ... Haitians, then he pull a knife on me." The migrant issue goes beyond allegations of eating pets. There are more than 15,000 Haitian migrants living in Springfield, which has a total population of 60,000. For VOA Creole in Springfield, Ohio, Elizabeth Cherneff, VOA News. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was briefed last week on elements of a Ukrainian plan to push Russia to end the war, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday. U.S. U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said earlier the U.S. had seen the plan and she said it lays out a strategy and a plan that can work. Miller told a news briefing Blinken had learned about the plan during a visit to Kyiv and shared the ambassador's assessment. Facebook owner Meta said on Monday it was banning RT and Russian state media networks from its platforms, claiming the outlets had used deceptive tactics to carry out covert influence operations on-line. The ban strongly criticized by the Kremlin marks a sharp escalation and measures by the world's biggest social media company against Russia's state medias after years of more limited steps like blocking the outlets. I'm Joe Ramsey. VOA New... |