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Thursday, May 28th, 2015
From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Forrest reporting. A scandal in world football.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says corruption and bribery has plagued football's governing body FIFA for over two decades.
Lynch spoke at a news conference Wednesday in New York as federal charges were unveiled against 14 people. She says since 1991, two generations of FIFA officials used their positions to solicit bribes from sports marketers in exchange for commercial rights to soccer tournaments.
"Now in many instances, the defendants and their co-conspirators planned aspects of this long-running scheme during meetings held here in the United States, they used the banking and wire facilities of the U.S. to distribute bribe their payments, and they planned to profit from their scheme in large part through promotional efforts directed at the growing U.S. market for soccer.”
The U.S. indictments include 47 counts against 14 current and former top officials.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Islamic State militants executed 20 men at the ancient Roman theater in the Syrian city of Palmyra.
In Iraq, meanwhile, suicide bombings killed at least 17 Iraqi soldiers in Anbar province as pro-government forces continue their campaign to force the Islamic State group from the area.
The Kremlin Wednesday refused to comment on a Western journalist's account of a huge Russian military build-up near the Ukrainian border.
A Russian military spokesman called questions about a potential large-scale invasion of Ukraine inappropriate.
Two human rights organizations are accusing the government of Gambia of illegally holding friends and relatives of people accused of involvement in a coup attempt late last year.
This is VOA news.
The United States says there is no thought of extending nuclear talks with Iran beyond the June 30 deadline for a final agreement.
State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Wednesday the U.S. and its five negotiating partners are united in their efforts to reach an accord by the end of next month.
Airstrikes on the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, Wednesday killed at least 36 pro-rebel troops.
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition is waging an air campaign against the Houthi insurgent group that overran parts of the country earlier this year.
The Pentagon says a U.S. military laboratory in the state of Utah accidentally sent live anthrax spores to civilian commercial labs in nine states and a military lab in South Korea.
A Pentagon spokesman reassured the American public there is no known risk and no suspected or confirmed cases of infection in lab workers.
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum Wednesday joined an already crowded field of Republicans who say they will seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
"I am proud to stand here, among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for president of the United States.”
Santorum spoke at a factory near his boyhood home in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth has made a formal speech to Parliament, laying out the agenda of the conservative government, including a promise of an in-or-out popular vote on European Union membership.
She also announced the continuation of the gradual devolution of power from the central government at Westminster to constituent nations.
"My government will also bring forward legislation to secure a strong and lasting constitutional settlement, devolving wide-ranging powers to Scotland and Wales." The queen appeared before the lawmaking body on Wednesday.
A report by the United Nations finds that just under 800 million people around the world are going hungry. That's a drop from the past 25 years. Lisa Schlein takes a look.
The report is a joint effort by the United Nations' three major food agencies -- the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Program.
The report's hunger map shows wide differences among the regions persist. It finds large reductions in hunger in East Asia and very fast progress in Latin America and the Caribbean, southeast and central Asia, as well as some parts of Africa.
It says sub-Saharan Africa still has the highest prevalence of undernourishment in the world.
Lisa Schlein, Geneva.
Taking a look at markets on Wall Street, U.S. stock indexes were up at the close of trade today.
I'm David Forrest in Washington.
That's the latest world news from VOA.
