Hello, I’m Amy Macue with the BBC News.
The United States has called for a new focus on power-sharing in Burundi, saying that today’s presidential election was not free or fair. The US State Department said
it would review all aspects of its partnership with Burundi, including imposing targeted visa restrictions. A spokesman John Kirby spelt out US concerns.
The US warns that this presidential election in Burundi cannot be credible, because electoral process there has been tainted by the government’s continued harassment
of opposition and civil society members, closing down media outlets, and of course, their intimidation of voters. We believe that the election today risks unraveling
the Arusha Agreement, which states clearly that no Burundi President shall serve more than 2 terms in office.
3 Spanish journalists have gone missing in Syria. The Spanish Press Federation said they’ve been out of contact for more than a week. The government in Madrid fears
they may have been kidnapped. The freelance journalists were last known to be reporting from the Aleppo Region of northern Syria.
The US military says a leading Al-Qaeda operative Muhsin al-Fadhli has been killed during an American airstrike near the Syrian town of Sarmada. He died earlier this
month. Rajini Vadyanathan reports.
A seasoned, knowledgeable and dangerous terrorist who actively sought to harm the US and its allies has been taken off the battlefield for good. Those are the words of
one senior Congressman who described Muhsin al-Fadhli’s death. Al-Fadhli was a key figure in the Khorasan, a network of Al-Qaeda militants who’d been sent from
Pakistan to Syria to plot attacks on the west. A fundraiser for the terror group, he’d been wanted by the US authorities for some time, and had a bounty of 7 million
dollars on his head.
In Turkey, angry protests broke out at the funeral procession for victims of the suicide bomb attack in the southeastern border town of Suruc on Monday, the worst
attack of its kind on Turkish soil. Chanting moaners accused the government of encouraging the Islamic State group in Syria that is believed to have carried out the
attack.
Thousands of supporters of a right-wing nationalist group in Ukraine have taken part in an anti-government rally in the capital Kiev. The organization known as Right
Sector is demanding a referendum on whether to impeach the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. David Stern was at the rally in Kiev.
This was the second major rally by Right Sector in just a matter of weeks in the center of Ukrainian capital. A large number of those who gathered wore camouflage
uniforms of various volunteer groups fighting Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukraine. Right Sector is itself a volunteer battalion as well as a political party.
Its political support so far has been minimal and the party failed to enter parliament in elections last year.
World news from the BBC.
The Nigerian presidency says the World Bank has pledged just over 2 billion dollars to help rebuild the northeast of the country that’s been devastated by Boko Haram
Jihadists. The statement came after President Muhammadu Buhari met representatives of the World Bank on a trip to Washington.
Shares in the US technology company Apple have fallen sharply despite the announcement of a big increase in sales. Apple’s sold 47 and a half million iPhones in the
past 3 months. From New York, Michelle Fleury reports.
The company wouldn’t reveal how well its newest product the Apple Watch sold. Chief executive Tim Cook would only say that demand had exceeded supply. But neither
this nor 50 billion dollars of revenue in 3 months could stop investors from being disappointed. Shares in Apple actually fell by 8% in after-hours trading on the
American stockmarkets. A sign of how Apple’s great success has created huge expectation.
The Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has seen her government’s popularity drop to a new low. A poll suggests it has the backing of only about 7% of Brazilians
compared to 41% ahead of last year’s elections. Ms. Rousseff is facing a deepening political crisis, driven by economic recession and a massive corruption scandal.
In the latest spark between Republican contenders in the US presidential race, the entrepreneur, Donald Trump, has given out the mobile phone number of one of his
rivals. At a rally, Mr. Trump urged his supporters to call the South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham, describing him as an idiot.
The veteran actor Theodore Bikel who was best known for his leading role in the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof has died. He was 91. He was the first to play the
stage role of Captain von Trapp in the original 1959 production of the sound of music. Bikel also starred in many films and sang folk songs in more than 20 languages.