【常速英语广播5分钟】英语新闻20200221,22
VOA NEWS
February 22, 2020
This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd.
U.S. and Afghan officials announced a reduction-in-violence agreement with the Afghan Taliban Friday, in which both sides agree to stop offensive battles against each other. We get more from VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb.
A pause in fighting between the Taliban and Afghan and U.S.-led international forces is now underway - a first step, officials say, that could lead to the end of the 18-year war in Afghanistan.
One major concern is whether the Taliban will be able to keep its sprawling network of fighters off the battlefield.
If successful, U.S. and Taliban negotiators will sign a historic agreement on February 29, leading to political talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
Officials say the United States would gradually draw down its forces to 8,600, with a senior U.S. defense official adding non-U.S. international forces there would reduce troop numbers by about 20 to 30 percent.
Carla Babb, VOA news, the Pentagon.
FBI officials have told Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that Russia is trying to help his campaign. In response, Sanders said his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin was stay out of U.S. elections.
As AP's Sagar Meghani reports, the news came after intelligence officials told lawmakers Russia was trying to help President Trump's campaign.
Intelligence officials have warned lawmakers Russia is again interfering in the presidential race to help the Trump campaign.
Three people familiar with a closed-door briefing say the warning came last week infuriating President Trump who complained Democrats would use the information against him. The president has long dismissed the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered to boost his 2016 campaign.
This warning is raising questions about whether his administration's taking the right steps to fight more meddling.
Sagar Meghani, at the White House.
For more, visit our website. This is VOA news.
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Iranian health authorities, meanwhile, reported two more deaths from the new virus.
The number of U.S. virus cases continues to rise with the return of cruise ship passengers from the Diamond Princess. AP's Mike Gracia reports.
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The CDC says more confirmed cases are likely among the passengers who were on the Diamond Princess which was quarantined in Japan. More than 300 passengers from the cruise ship were flown back to the U.S. last weekend and are under quarantine for two weeks at military bases and hospitals.
I'm Mike Gracia.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres made an impassioned call Friday for an end to the conflict in Syria. Speaking in New York, Guterres said the situation has become what he called a "man-made humanitarian nightmare."
"For almost a year, we have seen a series of Syrian government ground offensives supported by Russian airstrikes. This month, there have been repeated deadly clashes between Turkish and Syrian government forces."
Guterres said that something greater is required, announcing that the U.N. is revising its plans and is asking its donors for an additional $500 million over the next six months to aid the humanitarian crisis in Syria.
The latest offensive in the regions of Aleppo and Idlib has uprooted nearly one million people, most of them women and children who have fled clashes to seek sanctuary further north near the Turkish border.
For more, visit voanews.com. I'm David Byrd, VOA news.
VOA NEWS
February 21, 2020
This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd.
Trump loyalist and political trickster Roger Stone was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in jail in a case marked by an extraordinary move from Attorney General William Barr and tweets from the president. AP's Sagar Meghani has more.
Stone is now facing 40 months in federal prison after being convicted last year of witness tampering, lying to Congress and other charges.
Justice Department prosecutors originally recommended a seven-to-nine-year sentence but Barr backed off that following complaints from President Trump.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone merited a significant sentence but said the seven-to-nine-year recommendation was excessive.
The 67-year-old Stone's lawyers asked for no prison time, citing his age, health and lack of a criminal record.
He is the sixth Trump associate or adviser convicted on charges stemming from the special counsel's Russia probe.
Sagar Meghani, Washington.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump expressed hope that Roger Stone will get a new trial and be exonerated. VOA's Steve Herman has details.
The president, speaking in Las Vegas to former prison inmates reentering society, said he hopes a judge will agree with him that Stone deserves a new trial because one of the jurors allegedly posted anti-Trump material on social media.
"It's my strong opinion that the forewoman of the jury, the woman who was in charge of the jury, is totally tainted."
Trump added he'll let the process "play out" for now but at some point will decide whether to intervene using his presidential clemency powers.
Steve Herman, VOA news, at the White House.
For more on these stories, be sure to visit our website voanews.com. You can also follow us on the VOA mobile app. This is VOA news.
Hundreds of people gathered in Berlin and Hanau, Germany, for vigils to remember the victims of a mass shooting that left nine people dead.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told those gathered in Hanau, the site of the killings, that the attack has left Germans speechless, sad and angry.
"... das macht uns fassungslos, das macht uns traurig ..."
He said what has happened is what we all fear deeply, which is to lose loved one.
In Berlin, mourners gathered and lighted candles at the Brandenburg Gate.
A 43-year-old German who posted a manifesto calling for the "complete extermination" of many "races or cultures in our midst" shot and killed nine people of foreign background, most of them Turkish, in an attack on a hookah bar and other sites in the Frankfurt suburb on Wednesday.
He was later found dead at his home along with his mother, and authorities said they were treating the rampage as an act of domestic terrorism.
The United Nations is "very alarmed about the safety and protection" of civilians in Idlib and its surrounding areas in Syria.
Stéphane Dujarric is a spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general.
"We remain very alarmed about the safety and protection of over three million civilians in Idlib and its surrounding areas in the northwestern part of Syria, as reports of airstrikes and shelling continue to take a heavy toll on the civilian population."
According to the U.N., hostilities are now approaching densely populated areas such as Idlib city and Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which has among the highest concentration of displaced civilians in northwest Syria and also serves as a humanitarian lifeline.
Dujarric said, "A massive cross-border operation in the northwest of the country is underway to assist civilians as needs are growing."
The United States on Thursday slapped sanctions on five Iranian officials in charge of vetting candidates for the Islamic republic's parliamentary elections Friday.
The Treasury Department said in a statement it imposed the sanctions on the members of Iran's Guardian Council and its election supervision committee over their role in disqualifying several thousand candidates, including sitting members of parliament.
Brian Hook is the U.S. special representatives for Iran.
"The five officials being designated today have denied the Iranian people free and fair parliamentary elections."
The sanctions mean that any U.S. assets of the officials will be frozen and that transactions with them will be a crime for anyone in the United States.
Friday's vote is seen largely as a popularity contest for the ruling clerics at a time when tensions between Washington and Tehran have been high.
For more, visit voanews.com. I'm David Byrd, VOA news.