VOA news for Monday, May 23rd, 2016
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VOA news for Monday, May 23rd, 2016
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. The Afghan intelligence agency confirms that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan near the Afghan border.
The Pakistani government says it was informed by the U.S. after the drone strike had already been carried out and accused the U.S. of violating its "sovereignty.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke Sunday during a visit to Myanmar. "Mansoor posed a continuing imminent threat to U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, to Afghan civilians, Afghan security forces and resolute support coalition members across the country.”
Taliban officials have privately confirmed the death of their leader.
In a news conference during a one-day visit to Myanmar, Kerry hailed the nation's transition to democracy.
In a joint appearance with Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's de facto leader, the secretary urged Myanmar's new government to continue its work on implementing reforms on human rights.
Aung San Suu Kyi said she welcomes a scrutiny that is inherent in the remaining sanctions.
"I'm not afraid of sanctions, we'll get over this and I'm sure that the time will come soon when the United States will know that this is no longer the time for sanctions." :Aung San Suu Kyi.
U.S. President Barack Obama is in Vietnam for a three-day visit. Mr. Obama hopes to strengthen U.S. economic and strategic ties to that country.
The president plans to hold a series of high-level meetings Monday with Vietnamese officials.
He hopes his trip to Vietnam and Japan will draw the U.S. closer to Asian-Pacific nation anxious about an increasingly aggressive China.
This is VOA news.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is urging the media not to speculate about what caused EgyptAir flight 804 to crash last week.
During a speech to ministers and members of parliament, Mr. Sissi said an investigation into the incident "could take a long time.”
The flight recorders still need to be recovered from the bottom of the Mediterranean.
Here is Sherif Fathy. He is Egypt's civil aviation minister. "We haven't recovered them yet. We haven't, I haven't got any information from the military operation team that is in charge of the search.”
EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed in the Mediterranean Sea on its way to Cairo from Paris, killing all 66 people aboard.
Here is the latest on the U.S. presidential campaign.
Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders has intensified his fight with Democratic Party leaders by supporting a challenger to the head of the Democratic National Committee. Sanders accuses the party establishment of trying to anoint Hillary Clinton as its nominee.
Meanwhile, the latest public opinion poll shows Republican Donald Trump and Clinton are locked in a virtual dead heat. It also finds a majority of voters view both of them unfavorably.
In Turkey, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been selected leader of the country's ruling party, becoming the presumptive prime minister. Dorian Jones reports.
Thousands of members of Turkey's ruling AKP Party crammed into a congress hall in Ankara to elect unopposed Binali Yildirim as its new leader and the country's presumptive prime minister. Yildirim, the transport minister, is one of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's closest and longest-serving allies.
Yildirim pledged to carry out his president's ambitions.
Dorian Jones, Istanbul.
Vote counting in Austria's presidential election shows Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer and Green Party-backed Alexander Van der Bellen in a statistical dead heat. The winner will not be determined until Monday when nearly 90,000 absentee ballots are counted.
With virtually all of the ballots tallied, euro-skeptic Hofer held 51.9 percent of the vote to Van der Bellen's 48.1 percent.
Greek lawmakers approved new spending cuts and tax hikes Sunday. The actions were demanded by European creditors in exchange for a new infusion of bailout money The legislation, which also provides a mechanism to slash spending in case of future budget overruns, comes two days ahead of a key meeting of Eurozone finance ministers set to determine Greece's degree of compliance with last year's bailout terms.
From the VOA news center in Washington, I'm David DeForest.
That's the latest world news from VOA.
