Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Thursday, October 9th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, the latest on the Ebola outbreak, and saving a Syrian border town from Islamic State militants. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.
The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States died Wednesday in Dallas.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said Dr. Eric Duncan died 10 days after he entered the facility. He came to Dallas on September 20th from his native Liberia -- the epicenter of the West African Ebola outbreak.
The chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Thomas Frieden, says he is deeply saddened by Duncan's death, calling him a face that people associated with Ebola.
Frieden says there cannot be a zero risk for Ebola in the United States as long as the outbreak continues in West Africa.
The White House says the U.S. military is limited in what they can do to try to stop the Syrian border town of Kobani from falling to the Islamic State.
And the U.S. secretary of state says the strategy for the coalition battling Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq is still evolving. Mr. Kerry said decisions about the role of Turkey and other countries will be coming within hours or days.
"These things have to be done in a thoughtful and careful way so everybody understands who is doing what and what the implications are of their doing it and where you go as a result.”
Six coalition airstrikes Wednesday helped Kurdish fighters push back Islamic State militants.
Afghan authorities have executed five men convicted of gang rape, despite allegations of flawed legal proceedings.
Former President Hamid Karzai signed the execution order last month on the last day that he was in office.
This is VOA news.
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta appeared before the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Wednesday, a hearing that may determine whether the crimes against humanity case against him is dropped or postponed indefinitely. Judges are expected to make a decision by the end of the year. Lisa Bryant reports.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was greeted by cheering supporters outside the courtroom, but he remained silent during the three-hour hearing at the International Criminal Court. Instead, his defense lawyer, Steven Kay, made a vigorous argument the Kenyan leader be acquitted of the charges against him.
"He is entitled to his verdict of "not guilty' because there are no further inquiries going on. It is plainly not the case that was brought against him that can be sustained at all.”
Mr. Kenyatta faces five counts at the Hague-based court for his alleged role in overseeing post-election violence in Kenya between 2007 and 2008.
Lisa Bryant, VOA news, Paris.
Mali's foreign minister is warning his country is at risk of becoming a destination for "hoards of terrorists" as attacks by armed groups have increased. U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer has more.
Foreign minister Abdoulaye Diop called for all armed groups to renounce terrorism and accept the extended hand of the government.
He urged the U.N. Security Council to review and strengthen the mandate of its nearly 10,000-member peacekeeping force so that it could better protect civilians.
He spoke from Bamako via a video link and asserts here through an interpreter: "Perhaps the council should consider setting up a rapid intervention force which is capable of effectively fighting terrorists.”
He warned that drug traffickers and jihadists have returned to northern Mali and he expressed concern about increased attacks on U.N. peacekeepers.
Margaret Besheer, VOA news, the United Nations.
Three scientists - Americans Eric Betzig and William Moerner plus German Stefan Hell - have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. They were recognized for their development of microscopes so powerful they can be used to see how diseases develop inside the tiniest living cells. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the $1.1 million prize on Wednesday.
U.S. health officials say Americans are living longer than ever, with life expectancy moving up and death rates falling.
Using 2012 data, the government said Wednesday the life expectancy for a child born then is now nearly 79 years.
The infant mortality rate in the country dropped to a low of just under six deaths out of the first 1,000 births, although the U.S. rate continues to be higher than most European countries.
This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT "In loco parentis" is a Latin term meaning "in the place of a parent." It describes when someone else accepts responsibility to act in the interests of a child.
This idea developed long ago in British common law to define the responsibility of teachers toward their students. For years, American courts upheld in loco parentis in cases such as Gott versus Berea College in 9teen thirteen.
Gott owned a restaurant off campus. Berea threatened to expel students who ate at places not owned by the school. The Kentucky high court decided that in loco parentis justified that rule.
In loco parentis meant that male and female college students usually had to live in separate buildings. Women had to be back at their dorms by 10 or 11 on school nights.
But in the 1960s, students began to protest rules and restrictions like these. At the same time, courts began to support students who were being punished for political and social dissent.
In 1960, Alabama State College expelled 6 students who took part in a civil rights demonstration. They sued the school and won. After that, it became harder and harder to defend in loco parentis.
Students were not considered adults until 21. Then, in 1971, the 26th amendment to the Constitution set the voting age at 18. So in loco parentis no longer really applied.
Slowly, colleges began to treat students not as children, but as adults. Students came to be seen as consumers of educational services.
Gary Dickstein, an assistant vice President at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, says in loco parentis is not really gone. It just looks different. Today's parents, he says, are often heavily involved in students' lives. They are known as "helicopter parents." They always seem to hover over their children.
Gary Dickstein says these parents are likely to question decisions, especially about safety issues and grades. They want to make sure their financial investment is not being wasted.
As a result, "in loco parentis" has been replaced by what some administrators call a "partnership" between the school and the family. In fact, the orientation program for new students at Virginia Tech this summer includes a meeting for parents called "Parents as Partners.”
And that's the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Tuesday, October 7th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. A nurse in Spain becomes the first person to contract Ebola outside of West Africa's epidemic, and Australia's military joins a U.S.-led mission against Islamic State militants. I'm Michael Lipin reporting from Washington.
A Spanish nurse who treated an Ebola patient in Madrid has contracted the virus, becoming the first person to be infected outside of West Africa.
Spanish health officials said Monday the nurse was part of a medical team that treated a 69-year-old Spanish priest who died of Ebola in a Madrid hospital last month. The priest had been flown back from Sierra Leone, where he became infected.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he believes the chances of an Ebola outbreak in the United States are "extremely low.”
Speaking Monday, Mr. Obama said his administration is working on systems to screen airline passengers to identify people who might have the deadly virus. He also pledged to continue support for West African nations fighting the virus.
Australian war planes have flew their first combat missions over Iraq.
Australia's Defense Ministry said Monday two of its aircraft conducted the mission overnight in northern Iraq but did not fire on any targets.
The Australian military action is part of a U.S.-led effort to combat Islamic State militants who have taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria.
U.S. forces have conducted weeks of airstrikes against Islamic State targets in both nations.
The U.S. military said Sunday its most recent attacks involved destroying tanks and firing on militant positions in the Syrian towns of Raqqa and Al Mayadin, and hitting other targets near the Iraqi towns of Fallujah, Hit and Sinjar.
This is VOA news.
Hong Kong student activists leading a week-long occupation of city streets are set to have more talks with a government official on Tuesday to discuss how to start a dialogue on democratic reform.
The Hong Kong Federation of Students says it agreed on several terms of a public dialogue that could begin as early as this week. But it says there are still differences about what kinds of democratic reforms would be on the agenda.
Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said Monday his government's desire for a dialogue is sincere.
The activists have objected to a Chinese government ruling that Hong Kong can only elect its leader under universal suffrage in 2017 if candidates are vetted by a largely pro-Beijing committee.
Hong Kong officials have said they must abide by that ruling.
More reports about the Hong Kong protests have been among the top stories in global news programs in the past week. But Chinese state media have limited their coverage of the demonstrations and echoed Beijing's position that they are "illegal" and "doomed to fail." VOA's Bill Ide has more from the Chinese capital.
On the streets in Beijing, several people that we spoke with did not even know about the protests.
One Beijing resident and his friend told us they did not know about "Occupy Central" but began telling us about a recent spike in cases of dengue fever in Guangzhou, thinking that was the news we were referring to.
This older Beijing resident, surnamed Liu, says the United States has its own version of democracy and so does China.
He says China's version is both democratic and requires the centralization of authority. If there is democracy, but no central authority, then the country will be in chaos, he adds.
However, not all were convinced that the protests were bad.
One younger Beijing resident, surnamed Wang, says he has seen reports about the protests, but really does not understand what it is all about, adding that he would like to know more but cannot seem to find any information about their core demands.
Bill Ide, VOA news, Beijing.
The new head of NATO says the Western military alliance is concerned about the situation in Ukraine, which recently has seen repeated violations of a cease-fire between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
Speaking in Poland on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg [said] praised the Ukrainian government for, in his words, "doing a lot" to respect the cease-fire and reach a political solution to the conflict.
The former Norwegian prime minister also called on Russia to use "all of its influence" to ensure that the separatists respect the truce, as well.
In America, May and June are the traditional months for graduations. A listener in China, Jack Hoo from Jiangsu province, wants to know how American college graduates find jobs. Right now the answer is: not very easily.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers collects information on the college job market. NACE's latest survey in March found that employers expected to hire 22% fewer graduates this year than last. Most blamed the recession.
The most recent student survey showed that just 1/5 of those who looked for jobs before graduation have one by now. This is compared to 1/2 of students who had looked for a job by this time 2 years ago. But one difference: fewer of this year's graduates have started to search for jobs.
Still, NACE found no big increase in graduates who plan to stay in school and avoid the job market. About 27% said they plan to go to graduate school, compared to about 24% a year ago.
Engineering and accounting graduates were more likely to have started their job search already and to have accepted a job. These are among the best paid professions for people with just a college degree. On average, engineering majors expect to start at about $62,000/year. Accounting majors expect about $45,000.
So how can students increase their chances for a job? Mimi Collins at NACE says the most effective tool is a school's career counseling center. Counselors can help students with job applications and preparing for interviews. They also let students know about job openings and events like job recruitment fairs. They can also help 1st-year students decide what to study.
Another way to look for a job is to do an internship. This is when a student gets experience in a position that may or may not be paid. The latest NACE survey found that 73% of graduates who did get jobs had completed an internship.
The group reported in March that employers expected to increase hourly wage offers for college interns by 5% from last year. But, because of the economy, employers reduced the number of internships available by 21%.
And that's the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can find our Foreign Student Series on studying in the United States at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Sunday, October 5th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Protesters rally in defiance in Hong Kong. An international presence against Ebola in Sierra Leone. I'm Vincent Bruce reporting from Washington.
Late Saturday, leaders of Hong Kong's main student union conditionally agreed to new negotiations with authorities.
Earlier in the day, it was Leung Chun-ying, chief executive of city's business district, declaring the city streets must be reopened by Monday morning.
That was soon followed by 1000s of defiant pro-democracy protesters staging a huge rally in the business district.
The health ministry of France says a French nurse who contracted Ebola in Liberia while working for Doctors Without Borders has recovered. She was treated at a hospital near Paris.
Also Saturday, a hospital in the German city of Hamburg says it has successfully treated and discharged a Senegalese scientist who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone.
In Sierra Leone, Anthony Banbury of the United Nations talked about some of the emergency support offered by the world body.
"UNMEER will be focusing on supporting a logistics response, will be bringing in helicopters and cars and motorcycles so community mobilizing, mobilization workers can have better transportation access.”
The World Health Organization says the current outbreak of the disease-- the worst on record-- has infected more than 7,400 people in West Africa.
A suicide bomber has killed at least 4 people in a predominantly Shiite area of the Pakistani city of Quetta.
Police say the man detonated his explosives in a busy bazaar.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the Hazara neighborhood.
This is VOA news.
The United States says the Swedish government's newly announced recognition of a Palestinian state is premature.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki: "We believe international recognition of a Palestinian state is premature. We certainly support Palestinian statehood, but it can only come through a negotiated outcome, a resolution of final status issues and mutual recognitions by both parties.”
Psaki said Israelis and Palestinians must be the ones to agree on the terms on how they live in the future two states.
Fighting in northern Syria continued Saturday as Islamic State militants continued closing in on a Kurdish town near the Turkish border.
Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes are trying to defend the town of Kobani from the militant advance.
The parents of U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig threatened in the Islamic State group's latest beheading video have appealed to his captors to "show mercy" and let him go.
Ed and Paula Kassig of the U.S. state of Indiana made their plea in a video statement released Saturday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to do everything possible to defeat the Islamic State militant group a day after the video surfaced showing the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning.
After meeting with his security team, Cameron said in a broadcast message that the Islamic State group must be held responsible for Henning's murder.
"As a country what we must do with our allies is everything we can to defeat this organization in the region, but also to defeat it at home. And we must do everything we can to hunt down and find the people responsible for this.”
North and South Korean officials have agreed to resume high-level talks sometime in late October and early November. The talks have been stalled for several months.
The new agreement to hold talks follows a rare and sudden visit to South Korea by a delegation of 3 senior North Korean officials.
West African leaders hope to contain the spread of the Ebola virus by December of this year, but say it can only be done with a robust international help. Countries most hit by the deadly virus, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, are appealing to the international community to join the effort. They met at a U.S.- African forum in Washington DC.
U.S. officials say they do not believe a sick passenger removed from an international flight that landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in the northeast U.S. state of New Jersey is infected with the Ebola virus.
Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dressed in hazmat suits met United Flight 998 from Brussels Saturday and escorted a man who had been vomiting and his daughter off the plane. They are believed to have come from Liberia.
There is more on all of these stories at our website voanews.com. I'm Vincent Bruce reporting from Washington.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Friday, October 3rd, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, the Hong Kong protests are continuing. We'll also have the latest on the Ebola outbreak. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.
Hong Kong student leaders spearheading days of mass protests have agreed to 11th-hour talks with the pro-Beijing government aimed at easing the crisis that has brought much of the city to a standstill.
The agreement announced early Friday came just hours after the territory's embattled chief executive offered to have his Chief Secretary Carrie Lam meet with protest leaders. In extending the offer, however, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying refused a key student demand that he step down.
As the resignation deadline passed, there were no reports of violence.
Federal and state health officials are looking at as many as 100 people who may have had direct or indirect contact with the 1st Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States.
But the head of the Centers for Disease Control, Tom Frieden, says he is confident the spread of the disease can be contained.
Officials say none of the 12 to 18 people who had close contact with the patient show any signs of the disease.
They are being monitored for 21 days. That's the Ebola virus incubation period.
The patient has been identified as Liberian national Thomas Duncan. He is in serious but stable condition in isolation at a Dallas hospital.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is calling for "decisive action" to fight the Ebola outbreak that's killed more than 3,300 people in West Africa.
"We are behind the curve in the sense that the disease is increasing faster than the international response. We now need to step up the international response in a really meaningful way.”
Secretary Hammond spoke at a conference Thursday in London.
This is VOA news.
Nigeria's military is standing by its assertion that the self-proclaimed leader of militant group Boko Haram is dead.
The military's comments Thursday came after the insurgents released a new video that shows the purported Abubakar Shekau asserting he is alive and that his group is running an "Islamic caliphate" in territory it controls.
The Nigerian Defense Headquarters insisted the man in the video, who it says actually is a militant named Mohammed Bashir, was killed last month during a battle in the town of Kondunga.
Turkish lawmakers have authorized military forces in Syria and Iraq in a vote that could allow the country to battle Islamic State militants near Turkey's border.
The law also allows foreign forces to operate from Turkey against the Islamic State.
And 100s of protesters took to the streets in the central Syrian city of Homs on Thursday after a double bombing killed dozens of children outside a primary school a day earlier.
Protesters called for the resignation of the Homs governor.
Syrian state media also said at least 25 children and 8 adults were killed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 47 children were killed.
Shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Thursday killed a Swiss employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Western journalists in Donetsk and Russian news agencies reported the building housing the local office of the Red Cross in the center of the rebel-controlled city was hit during the shelling.
At least 7 people were killed when a bomb exploded on a passenger bus in northwest Pakistan. 4 people were also injured in Thursday's attack, which took place on the outskirts of Peshawar, the region's main city.
No one claimed responsibility for that attack.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching a massive nationwide cleanliness drive to spruce up the country. Anjana Pasricha has a report.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi literally wielded the broom Thursday in a poor colony housing sanitation workers in New Delhi before administering a pledge to 10,000s of school children and government officials to spend 2 hours every week in cleaning up the country.
He asked people to make a beginning with themselves, their families, neighborhoods, workplaces and villages.
Ministers, lawmakers and school principals also picked up brooms and trash cans to sweep streets and clear garbage to raise public awareness of better sanitation in a country where cleaning is considered a task to be done by lower castes.
Anjana Pasricha, New Delhi.
And get more on that story and the rest of the hour's news. Check at our website at voanews.com.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Friday, October 3rd, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, the Hong Kong protests are continuing. We'll also have the latest on the Ebola outbreak. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.
Hong Kong student leaders spearheading days of mass protests have agreed to 11th-hour talks with the pro-Beijing government aimed at easing the crisis that has brought much of the city to a standstill.
The agreement announced early Friday came just hours after the territory's embattled chief executive offered to have his Chief Secretary Carrie Lam meet with protest leaders. In extending the offer, however, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying refused a key student demand that he step down.
As the resignation deadline passed, there were no reports of violence.
Federal and state health officials are looking at as many as 100 people who may have had direct or indirect contact with the 1st Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States.
But the head of the Centers for Disease Control, Tom Frieden, says he is confident the spread of the disease can be contained.
Officials say none of the 12 to 18 people who had close contact with the patient show any signs of the disease.
They are being monitored for 21 days. That's the Ebola virus incubation period.
The patient has been identified as Liberian national Thomas Duncan. He is in serious but stable condition in isolation at a Dallas hospital.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is calling for "decisive action" to fight the Ebola outbreak that's killed more than 3,300 people in West Africa.
"We are behind the curve in the sense that the disease is increasing faster than the international response. We now need to step up the international response in a really meaningful way.”
Secretary Hammond spoke at a conference Thursday in London.
This is VOA news.
Nigeria's military is standing by its assertion that the self-proclaimed leader of militant group Boko Haram is dead.
The military's comments Thursday came after the insurgents released a new video that shows the purported Abubakar Shekau asserting he is alive and that his group is running an "Islamic caliphate" in territory it controls.
The Nigerian Defense Headquarters insisted the man in the video, who it says actually is a militant named Mohammed Bashir, was killed last month during a battle in the town of Kondunga.
Turkish lawmakers have authorized military forces in Syria and Iraq in a vote that could allow the country to battle Islamic State militants near Turkey's border.
The law also allows foreign forces to operate from Turkey against the Islamic State.
And 100s of protesters took to the streets in the central Syrian city of Homs on Thursday after a double bombing killed dozens of children outside a primary school a day earlier.
Protesters called for the resignation of the Homs governor.
Syrian state media also said at least 25 children and 8 adults were killed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 47 children were killed.
Shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Thursday killed a Swiss employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Western journalists in Donetsk and Russian news agencies reported the building housing the local office of the Red Cross in the center of the rebel-controlled city was hit during the shelling.
At least 7 people were killed when a bomb exploded on a passenger bus in northwest Pakistan. 4 people were also injured in Thursday's attack, which took place on the outskirts of Peshawar, the region's main city.
No one claimed responsibility for that attack.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching a massive nationwide cleanliness drive to spruce up the country. Anjana Pasricha has a report.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi literally wielded the broom Thursday in a poor colony housing sanitation workers in New Delhi before administering a pledge to 10,000s of school children and government officials to spend 2 hours every week in cleaning up the country.
He asked people to make a beginning with themselves, their families, neighborhoods, workplaces and villages.
Ministers, lawmakers and school principals also picked up brooms and trash cans to sweep streets and clear garbage to raise public awareness of better sanitation in a country where cleaning is considered a task to be done by lower castes.
Anjana Pasricha, New Delhi.
And get more on that story and the rest of the hour's news. Check at our website at voanews.com.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Beijing warns against foreign interference in Hong Kong protests. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says Iran bigger threat than Islamic State. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.
Tens of 1000s of pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong are defying government demands to leave the streets of the Chinese territory even as Beijing warns against foreign interference.
Police fired volleys of tear gas at the protesters in the financial district of the city before pulling back at midday Monday because they said the protest appeared to be weakening. But the crowds grew again in the evening as people got off work.
In Washington, the White House says it is closely watching the situation in Hong Kong, urging authorities there to show restraint and calling for the protesters to remain peaceful.
Kurdish militias in northern Syria continued clashing with Islamic State militants Monday as coalition forces capped off their 1st week of airstrikes with fresh attacks on militant positions in Syria and Iraq.
U.S. Central Command says Jordan and the United Arab Emirates participated in the most recent coalition strikes in Syria.
The joint forces hit ISIS vehicles, weapons and compounds in several parts of the country.
The United Nations opened the headquarters of its new mission to combat Ebola Monday, assembling a team in Ghana's capital, Accra, to coordinate the international response.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the mission will help to unify the response to the Ebola outbreak, coordinating international aid and providing support to the affected countries.
The World Health Organization says the Ebola death toll in West Africa has now surpassed 3,000.
This is VOA news.
The United States is giving an additional $83,000,000 in emergency aid for refugees fleeing the fighting in South Sudan.
The U.S. State Department says the conflict there threatens to create a famine and that more than 2,000,000 people are already facing crisis levels of food insecurity.
Afghanistan has a new President. Ashraf Ghani took the oath of office Monday in the country's 1st democratic transfer of power. Ayaz Gul reports from Islamabad.
The inauguration ceremony at Kabul's Presidential palace took place before a large number of foreign dignitaries, including neighboring Pakistan's President Mamnoon Hussain and senior U.S. Presidential adviser John Podesta.
Moments after taking the oath, President Ashraf Ghani swore in election rival, Abdullah Abdullah, as chief executive of his so-called national unity government.
In his inaugural speech, President Ghani urged the Taliban and other anti-government insurgents to join peace talks to put an end to bloodshed in the country.
President Ghani said security is a main demand of all Afghans and he will go to any extent to restore peace in the country.
Ayaz Gul, Islamabad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accusing Iran of trying to bamboozle the world into a deal to end sanctions while still allowing it to build a nuclear bomb.
Mr. Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly Monday that Iran is on a mission to spread an Islamic revolution around the world.
He said a nuclear-armed Iran would be more dangerous than the Islamic State group.
He grimly warned that Islamic militants believe in a master faith as the Nazis titled a master race in the 1930s.
The prime minister said all Muslim militants, including Islamic State, Hamas, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, share the same fanatical idealism and that Iran could be their power base.
News reports say the intruder who climbed a fence at the White House ran across the lawn and into the building earlier this month, getting farther inside than U.S. Secret Service has publicly acknowledged.
The New York Times, The Washington Post and network TV news programs all cite unidentified sources, who say the intruder rushed past a guard at the front door and ran down a hallway past a staircase leading to the Obama family living quarters before he was subdued.
The Secret Service had said the man, 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez, was arrested just inside the main entrance to the White House.
The Service also initially said he was unarmed, but it was later revealed that he was carrying a knife.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine killed at least 12 soldiers and civilians in another blow to an already shaky cease-fire.
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists exchanged shells and gunfire over the past 2 days near the rebel-held city of Donetsk.
A Ukrainian spokesman says a rebel shell hit an armored vehicle near the Donetsk airport. 3 civilians were killed.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Monday, September 29th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, numerous hurt in Hong Kong demonstrations. The latest on the Ebola outbreak. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.
Riot police in Hong Kong continued to face off with pro-democracy protesters, firing volleys of tear gas as the protest spread early on Monday. At least 26 people were injured in those clashes.
The demonstrators are part of a mass civil disobedience movement calling for less political intervention from Beijing in the former British colony Here in the U.S., President Obama said Sunday that he and the country's intelligence leadership underestimated the extent to which extremist groups like the Islamic State were organizing in weakened Syria.
In an interview with CBS news, Mr. Obama also said Washington miscalculated the Iraqi military's ability to fight the militants alone.
Airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition continued on Sunday against Islamic State targets, hitting oil refineries near Syria's border with Turkey.
The Wall Street Journal reporting Sunday that doctors are in short supply and countries are scrambling to find more resources for the Ebola outbreak.
The newspaper also reported the existing bed capacity for Ebola patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea is about 820, short of the !2,900 beds that are currently needed, according to the World Health Organization.
Libya's internationally-recognized parliament swore in Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni's government on Saturday.
The al-Thinni government is based in the city of Tobruk after it fled Tripoli following an Islamic militia from the city of Misrata seizing the capital.
Get more news at voanews.com. This is VOA news.
A car bomb exploded Sunday in Yemen at a hospital run by Houthi insurgents, with authorities reporting a significant number of casualties.
That attack occurred in Maarib province, about 175 kilometers northeast of the capital Sana'a.
The field hospital has been used by the Houthis to treat their wounded from battles with rival Sunni Islamist leading up to the Houthi takeover last week of the capital.
The bomb blast occurred as 100s of Yemenis took to the streets Sunday in Sana'a demanding that the Houthi insurgents leave.
The U.S. State Department said the United States is stepping up efforts to work with the international community to pursue sanctions against individuals who are threatening Yemen's peace, stability and security if they do not immediately stop such activities.
African conflicts such as the sectarian strife in the CAR highlighted over the weekend at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. More now from VOA's Margaret Besheer.
At the General Assembly annual debate, the Central African Republic's transitional President, Catherine Samba-Panza, spoke of the sectarian violence that has displaced !100,000s in her country this year.
She welcomed the deployment this month of !7,000 U.N. peacekeepers.
On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosted a high-level meeting on the conflict in South Sudan. President Salva Kiir failed to show up at the session, but touched on the political problems between himself and rival Riek Machar, telling the General Assembly that his rival had staged a coup.
Margaret Besheer, VOA news, the United Nations.
More than !18,000 Indian Americans gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a rousing reception Sunday as he spoke in New York's Madison Square Garden.
India's new leader assured the Indian expatriates that his government will not do anything to let them down. Mr. Modi said that there is an atmosphere of hope and enthusiasm in his country.
He won election in May, but his trip to the United States is a marked turnaround from 2005, when the U.S. denied him a visa for his alleged complicity in sectarian violence in his home state of Gujarat.
Russia's foreign secretary says relations between Moscow and Washington need, in his words, a "new reset" referring to President Obama's efforts to improve ties with Russia in the early days of his administration.
In a Russian television interview on Sunday, Sergei Lavrov blamed the United States for the strained ties between the 2 countries.
Washington and the European Union have accused Moscow of supporting a pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukraine and have imposed financial sanctions, which have been repeatedly tightened since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
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