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VOA news for Thursday, August 13th, 2015
From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Forrest reporting. A big explosion in China.
A shipment of explosives blew up in Tianjin, China, on Wednesday, killing 13 people and injuring 250.
There was no immediate explanation for the blast although it is believed to have occurred in a container at a warehouse for hazardous materials.
The Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group says it has beheaded a Croatian it abducted last month.
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović said authorities in Croatia could not "100 percent confirm" the death of Tomislav Salopek.
Since last year, the Islamic State has beheaded or executed more than 3,000 people.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has taken action in response to sexual abuse allegations against U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.
Mr. Ban spoke Wednesday at a news conference: "To victims, I say we stand with you. Please come forward. Please feel safe in knowing that we will do all we can to respond to these outrageous crimes.”
Mr. Ban asked for and accepted the resignation of his top envoy to the C.A.R.
Peace talks between Libya's warring factions ended Wednesday in Geneva without a resolution, but a United Nations envoy said the parties are determined to reach an accord on a unity government within three weeks.
As the negotiations broke up, U.N. special envoy Bernardino León said the two groups noted their need for progress.
The Chinese government allowed the value of its currency to drop again Wednesday.
The move prompted a second decline in major stock markets around the world. U.S. stocks initially declined Wednesday but recovered most of the losses by the close of trade.
This is VOA news.
Chinese media report a landslide has swept through a housing facility at a mining company in the northwest part of the country, leaving around 40 people missing.
The Xinhua news agency says the landslide in Shaanxi province buried five dormitories and three houses under about a million cubic meters of earth.
Local officials say police, firefighters, mining rescuers and paramedics were dispatched to the area.
Syrian activists say at least 36 people were killed Wednesday by rebel shelling and government airstrikes near Damascus.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held talks on Wednesday in Syria with President Bashar al-Assad. He is expected to discuss a proposed Iranian strategy to end Syria's civil war.
A conflict between the pygmy and Luba communities in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo appeared to have been sparked by discrimination, according to Human Rights Watch. Nick Long has more.
The United Nations reports hundreds of civilians have been killed in northern territories of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province since armed groups from the ethnic Batwa, or pygmy, and Luba communities started launching large-scale attacks on each other's villages two years ago.
In its report on the conflict released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch calls for DRC authorities with U.N. support to improve protection, investigate and prosecute those responsible for atrocities, and address the communal tensions and discrimination, which it says appeared to have sparked the fighting.
Nick Long, Goma.
Africa has marked a full year since its last recorded case of polio, a key step in the future eradication of the disease.
The last recorded case of polio on the continent was in Somalia last year.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced today that he has been diagnosed with cancer.
The 90-year-old Mr. Carter issued a brief statement saying that he would be undergoing treatment for the disease.
A spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she is turning over to the Justice Department the private email server she used to send and receive messages during her tenure as U.S. secretary of state.
Clinton has been pressured by Republican lawmakers to relinquish the server ever since it was revealed back in March that she used her personal email account to send official messages.
A South Korean man set himself on fire outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul during a protest against Japan's World War II era atrocities.
South Korea media say the 80-year-old suffered non-life-threatening burns and was taken away by ambulances after protesters doused the fire.
On Wall Street, U.S. stock indexes ended the day mixed.
I'm David Forrest in Washington.
That's the latest world news from VOA.
