VOA News Transcript Videos Week 47, 2014

Monday, November 17th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. President Obama confirms death of a U.S. hostage by Islamic State. World leaders criticize Russian President Putin over Ukraine intervention. I’m Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.

President Obama confirmed the death of American hostage Abdul-Rahman Kassig, saying the aid worker was killed “in an act of pure evil” by Islamic State militants.

Confirmation of Kassig’s death came following a review of a video released Sunday by Islamic State that purported to show extremists beheading 18 Syrian soldiers, and concluded with a militant claiming to have killed the American.

The video did not show Kassig’s beheading.

World leaders gathered at the close of the G20 summit in Australia sharply rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.

President Obama said Sunday Moscow will remain isolated internationally and Mr. Putin continues to violate international law and treaties that are aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine.

“At this point the sanctions that we have in place are biting plenty good. We retain the capabilities and we have our teams constantly looking at mechanisms in which to turn up additional pressure as necessary.”

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot called on Mr. Putin to atone for the shooting down of a Malaysian passenger jet over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, while British Prime Minister David Cameron called the Russian leader a “bully.”

Leaders of the G20 representing the world’s largest, advanced and developing economies did manage to adopt a plan to boost global economic growth by more than $2 trillion over five years by investing in infrastructure and increasing free trade.

This is VOA news.

A female suicide bomber blew herself up at a market in northeast Nigeria, killing at least 13 people.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast Sunday in Azare, a town in Nigeria’s Bauchi state.

The similar bombings have been carried out in the region by the Islamist militants of Boko Haram, who are waging an insurgency against the government.

Earlier Sunday, the Nigerian army said it had pushed Boko Haram militants out of northeastern town of Chibok, the home of more than 200 schoolgirls the group kidnapped earlier this year.

The hardest hit of the West African nations facing the deadly Ebola outbreak, Liberia, is setting a national goal of recording no new cases by Christmas, December 25th.

In a nationwide radio address Sunday, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that her country’s path to recovery will be difficult, but that Liberia’s health care system must be better prepared for any future disease epidemic.

More than half of West Africa’s almost 5,200 Ebola deaths have been recorded in Liberia.

The U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, will be opening 10 new Ebola Community Care Centers this week in Sierra Leone’s Bombali district, one of the areas hardest hit by the deadly virus. Lisa Schlein has details.

UNICEF representative in Sierra Leone Roeland Monasch, speaking from Freetown, says the focus of these centers is to isolate all Ebola cases to avoid infecting others and to provide infected people with safe care in the community.

The centers will be run by the government of Sierra Leone through its District Health Management Team, with the participation of local non-governmental organizations.

Monasch says a recent national survey regarding Ebola shows knowledge and awareness of the disease is exceptionally high in Sierra Leone.

“Stigma and discrimination reduced significantly. But, misconceptions, although also reduced, remain.”

Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.

Burkina Faso’s military rulers say the country’s new interim civilian leader will be announced no later than today.

Politicians and representatives of the army, civil society and religious and traditional leaders met Sunday to name an interim president to lead the country back to civilian rule after longtime President Blaise Compaore abruptly stepped down last month.

A female member of Afghanistan’s parliament survived a suicide bombing that did claim the lives of at least three bystanders and wounded more than 10 others, including the lawmaker.

Police say Shukria Barakzai was traveling in a convoy through Kabul on Sunday when the bomber detonated the explosives. Barakzai was slightly wounded in the attack, but is listed in good condition.

The women’s rights advocate is a strong supporter of President Ashraf Ghani.

I’m Ray Kouguell in Washington.

That’s the latest world news from VOA.

Tuesday, November 18th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, the latest on the Ebola outbreak. Plus, more on the Islamic State beheadings. Hello everyone, I’m Steve Norman.
A U.S. surgeon who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone has died of the disease at a special isolation treatment unit in the U.S. state of Nebraska.
Dr. Martin Salia was admitted to the bio-containment unit after a long trip from Africa late Saturday afternoon. Forty-four-year-old Salia was the chief medical officer at the United Methodist Kissy Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when he was tested positive last week for Ebola.
The current outbreak of Ebola is the worst on record. It has killed at least 1,577 people, most of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve [says] said Monday that a French citizen who joined Islamic State extremists in 2013 is believed to be among the knife-wielding extremists lined up behind their kneeling victims in the latest video.
Cazeneuve said that there was a “strong presumption” that the man was 22-year-old Maxime Hauchar, who had been monitored by French authorities since he left for Syria in 2013.
He called on all French citizens, especially young people who are the primary targets of the Islamic State recruitment, to realize the terrible reality of the militants’ actions.
On Sunday, President Obama confirmed the slaying of an American aid worker who had been beheaded by the Islamic State group along with a dozen Syrian soldiers.
This is VOA news.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the U.S. military is accelerating its training and advising mission in Iraq as forces there continue to battle the Islamic State militants. We get more now from VOA’s Carla Babb.
Secretary Hagel says the military has moved some of the U.S. special operations forces in Iraq into early missions with Iraqi forces in volatile Anbar province.
“Just to kind of continue the mission, accelerate the mission of preparing for training and equipping, and the things we need to do to start setting that up.”
Hagel said the troops moved into Anbar province over the last couple of days. He said General Lloyd Austin, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, recommended the effort.
The Pentagon says the U.S. military plans to train 12 brigades to fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq. Nine of those will be Iraqi Security Force brigades, while the other three will be Kurdish peshmerga forces.
Carla Babb, VOA news, Fort Irwin, California.
European Union foreign ministers moved Monday to ratchet up sanctions against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. It comes amid reports of intensified fighting in the region.
The move follows elections led by the separatists earlier this month in areas under their control, which were denounced by Western governments, as well as an upsurge in fighting between rebel and government forces despite the cease-fire reached in early September. Witnesses reported fresh shelling in and around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Monday.
Meantime, Moscow continues to deny supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Hong Kong police are expected to take action this week to clear areas that have been occupied by protesters since late September.
News of the impending action comes as a new survey by The Chinese University of Hong Kong indicates a shift in public sentiment, with most now saying the protests should end.
Leaders of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the main organizers of the protests, say they are urging their followers not to resist the authorities and to avoid confrontations.
The demonstrators have been calling for fully democratic elections in 2017.
The European Commission has adopted protective measures to try to contain a bird flu outbreak after new cases were reported in Britain and the Netherlands.
The Dutch government has reported the highly contagious H5N8 strain at a poultry farm. British authorities reported a case at [a Dutch] a duck farm in east Yorkshire. And the commission said it’s probably identical.
EU officials say the outbreaks may be linked to bird flu recently found in Germany.
H5N8 can potentially affect humans but it has never been found in humans unlike H5N1, which has killed 400 people, mostly in Asia and the Middle East.
That’s the latest world news from VOA.

Wednesday, November 19th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Palestinians kill five in attack on Jerusalem synagogue. President Obama calls for a push forward in fight against Ebola. I’m Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.
A policeman wounded by gunfire in Tuesday’s terrorist attack on a Jerusalem synagogue has died. That brings the death toll up to five.
The other victims were rabbis with dual citizenship, three Americans and a Briton. Seven other people were wounded.
Two Palestinians armed with guns, knives, and a meat cleaver burst into the synagogue during a morning prayer service Tuesday and attacked worshippers. Police shot the two terrorists to death.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack. But the militant group Hamas celebrated it as another act avenging Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
Here is Mark Regev, an Israeli spokesman: “This morning’s horrendous terror attack in Jerusalem against innocent worshippers is motivated by the same hatred, by the same Islamist extremism that beheads innocent civilians in Iraq and Syria.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered police to tear down the homes of the two attackers and speed destruction of houses belonging to those behind earlier terror strikes.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is accusing the United States of seeking to “subdue” his country just days after getting a frosty reception at the G20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia, and fresh accusations that Moscow is putting increasing military pressure on Ukraine.
When asked at a meeting of supporters in Moscow Tuesday whether the U.S. is trying to “humiliate” Russia, Mr. Putin said no one has ever been able to subjugate Russia, and never will.
This is VOA news.
Two new videos by jihadi groups show the conflicting roles of Europeans in brutal struggles waged by militant Islamists as both victims and as perpetrators. One shows French and Dutch hostages pleading for help. Another appears to show a Frenchman, and possibly another, involved in an execution of Syrian solders. Lisa Bryant reports.
French authorities confirm that a new video showing Frenchman Serge Lazarevic asking France to help liberate him was authentic. The video was posted by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which captured Lazarevic and another hostage three years ago in Mali. The other hostage, Phlippe Verdon, was shot dead in 2012. The video also shows a Dutch hostage.
Lazarevic is the last Frenchman being held hostage. Another hostage, Hervé Gourdel, was executed in September.
Lisa Bryant, Paris.
President Obama says the fight against Ebola has a long way go despite success in treating cases diagnosed in the United States.
Speaking Tuesday at the White House after a briefing with his Ebola response team, Mr. Obama said the continuation of the outbreak in Africa makes clear how important it is to sustain the fight against the disease.
“The bottom line, though, is that we know how to treat this disease given that it has emerged as such a large, significant outbreak in these areas, and we recently saw some cases in Mali. It underscores how important it is to continue to push forward.”
President Obama said until the outbreak is ended in West Africa, there is still “some measure of risk” to people around the world.
A key U.N. human rights committee adopted a resolution urging the U.N. Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
North Korea has repeatedly denied committing human rights atrocities and accuses the United States and its allies of trying to discredit and overthrow the leadership in Pyongyang.
Japan’s prime minister is calling for snap elections and delaying a controversial sales tax increase — all part of efforts to solidify his political support and fight off recession.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced he will dissolve parliament this week and hold elections next month. That’s two years ahead of schedule.
A new report just out says the number of people killed in terrorist attacks rose more than 60 percent between 2012 and 2013, due largely to unrest in the Middle East and Nigeria.
The report by the Institute for Economics and Peace says there were just under 18,000 deaths from terrorism in 2013, up about 7,000 from the year before.
The Australian-based group says more than 80 percent of those deaths occurred in five countries. They are Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
I’m Ray Kouguell in Washington.
That’s the latest world news from VOA.

Thursday, November 20th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. President Obama to unveil his unilateral immigration plan. France deploying more fighter jets against Islamic State militants. I’m Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.

The White House says President Barack Obama will address the nation Thursday night to announce details about an executive action he is taking on immigration reform.

Reports say the plan will eliminate the threat of deportation for five million undocumented immigrants, strengthen border security, and broaden assistance to undocumented residents who were brought to the U.S. as children.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will not open its bases to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group until his demands are met. Dorian Jones reports.

President Erdogan, addressing reporters before leaving for Algeria Wednesday, ruled out the use of key air bases by anti-Islamic State forces unless Turkey’s demands are met in the war against the militants.

“The international community has not yet taken the steps we have recommended,” he says.

Mr. Erdogan also warned that an agreement to train Syrians to fight against the Islamic State still has not been finalized.

The diplomatic pressure on Ankara will continue with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden due to visit Istanbul at the end of the week.

Dorian Jones, Istanbul.

France is sending six fighter jets to the Middle East to increase its strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq.

The six Mirage jets will be based in Jordan to reinforce French aircraft already in the region.

French officials also say they have now identified a second Frenchman in an Islamic State video showing the severed head of an American aid worker and beheadings of at least 18 Syrian soldiers.

This is VOA news.

Russia’s foreign minister is calling on Ukraine’s government to hold direct talks with separatists to end their seven-month conflict.

In a speech Wednesday before the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for the establishment of stable contacts between Kyiv and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine with the goal of reaching “mutually acceptable agreements.”

However, in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said his government will not hold negotiations with what he called Russian “terrorists.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that his country wants a relationship with the United States based on “respect,” a day after accusing the U.S. of seeking to “subdue” Russia.

Speaking at a Kremlin ceremony during which a group of new ambassadors to Russia presented their credentials, Mr. Putin said Russia is ready for “practical cooperation” with the United States based on respect for each other’s interests, equal rights and noninterference in internal affairs.

The new U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Tefft, was among diplomats who presented credentials to President Putin.

A World Bank official says the Ebola epidemic will not be as costly to the West African economy as previously feared, thanks to effective containment efforts.

Francisco Ferreira, the bank’s chief economist for Africa, says he expects the cost of the epidemic to be between $3 and $4 billion.

Last month, the World Bank said the economic impact could be as high as $32 billion if the virus spread significantly outside the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The U.N. warns that conflict and insecurity in Africa’s Sahel region are worsening the humanitarian crisis there. Lisa Schlein has details.

The humanitarian problems afflicting the nine countries in the Sahel are enormous. The United Nations reports 25 million people in the region do not have enough to eat. It says 6.4 million children are acutely malnourished. And half of the 1.2 million children under age five who die each year are dying from malnutrition-related causes.

Most worrisome of all, it says, is the fear that West Africa’s Ebola epidemic might take hold in the region. Senegal, which has had one case of Ebola and no deaths, has successfully stopped the disease from spreading. But, Mali, which has confirmed a fifth case of Ebola, remains on high alert.

Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.

At least six people have died in a once in a lifetime winter storm, which is about to get worse.

The northeastern U.S. city of Buffalo, New York, is buried under more than 1.5 meters of snow and can expect as much as another meter by nightfall Thursday.

Winter is officially still another month away.

I’m Ray Kouguell in Washington.

That’s the latest world news from VOA.

Friday, November 21st, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. President Obama to unveil an immigration reform plan in about an hour. Final push underway on Iran nuclear talks. I’m Ray Kouguell in reporting from Washington.

The White House says President Barack Obama is bypassing Congress on immigration reform because the country can no longer wait to fix a broken system.

Mr. Obama will unveil his plan during a televised White House speech one hour from now.

Senior administration officials say the plan will protect as many as 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation. Parents whose children are citizens or in the U.S. legally would to qualify for work permits.

It also will broaden protection for those who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children.

Many Republicans are outraged that the president is using an executive order to put forth his plan, instead of the usual congressional legislative process.

President Obama’s remarks can be heard live starting 1:00 Universal Time Friday on voanews.com.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is in Ukraine for talks with the country’s leadership on the possibility of fresh assistance to the Kyiv government as it does battle with a pro-Russian insurgency near the Russian border.

Vice President Biden will meet today with President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk as controversy swirls over renewed calls for Washington to supply lethal aid to the Ukrainian military.

A doctor in Mali has died of Ebola after treating an imam who succumbed to the disease, raising the Ebola death toll in the West African country up to seven.

Health authorities in Mali say they are monitoring 338 people linked with the country’s other six fatal Ebola cases. Most of them are under daily surveillance.

This is VOA news.

A U.N. commission is looking into allegations of “widespread and systematic violations” by Eritrean authorities against the country’s citizens. There are reports of thousands of Eritreans fleeing the country each month. Lisa Schlein reports.

The U.N. refugee agency reports more than 6,000 Eritreans have fled to Ethiopia over the past month for fear of being recruited into the national army.

The chairman of the commission, Mike Smith, says those numbers are a sign something is seriously wrong.

“People do not put themselves at risk and go through the sorts of traumas without having some sort of a reason behind it.”

The commission has sent a letter to the Eritrean government and has met with representatives at the U.N. mission in Geneva requesting permission to enter the country to carry out its investigation.

Smith tells VOA the group has not yet received a response to its request.

Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.

Police arrested seven people in Nigeria’s national assembly Thursday when security forces tried to block the speaker of the House of Representatives from going inside.

Police fired tear gas when violence erupted between security forces and supporters of House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal.

The lawmakers were meeting to debate President Goodluck Jonathan’s request to extend the state of emergency in three northeastern states, where the army is battling radical Islamist group Boko Haram.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Vienna for high-level nuclear talks as a deadline looms just four days from now, and that will be for a comprehensive agreement on Iran’s atomic program. VOA’s Al Pessin has more.

Secretary Kerry and other Western officials say Iran must still make the strategic decision to accept limits on its nuclear program — a move that would contradict the so-called “red lines” set by Iran’s supreme leader earlier this year.

On Thursday, the Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying the negotiators are talking about another extension until March of next year.

But earlier Thursday in Paris, Secretary Kerry said the opposite.

“We’re not talking about an extension, not among ourselves. We have not talked about the ingredients of an extension or we’re talking about getting an agreement.”

Still, Kerry said he would be willing to look at the possibility of an extension if the talks go to “the final hour.”

Al Pessin, VOA news, Vienna.

North Korea is threatening to conduct a new nuclear test in response to a U.N. committee’s condemnation of alleged human rights abuses by Pyongyang.

A U.N. General Assembly committee resolution recommends the Security Council refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.

North Korea says the resolution is “filled with vicious slanders.”

I’m Ray Kouguell in Washington.

That’s the latest world news from VOA.

Saturday, November 22nd, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. President Obama to unveil an immigration reform plan in about an hour. Final push underway on Iran nuclear talks. I’m Ray Kouguell in reporting from Washington.