VOA NEWS

December 24, 2016

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting.


The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution Friday that condemned Israel's practice of establishing settlements on Palestinian territory.

The resolution, which passed 14 to nothing in the Security Council with one abstention, calls on Israel to immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in occupied Palestinian territory, including in East Jerusalem.

The United States abstained from voting rather than exercise its usual veto. U.S. ambassador Samantha Power said the abstention was because the United States had reservations about the text.

"Some may cast the U.S. vote as a sign that we have finally given up on a two-state solution. Nothing could be further from the truth. None of us can give up on a two-state solution."

Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, said the resolution was a setback for Israeli-Palestinian relations.

"Instead of charting a course forward, you are sending a message to the Palestinians that they should continue on the path of terrorism and incitement."

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the resolution a triumph for international law.

"This is a day when the international community have utterly rejected the settlement activities, the policies of dictation, the policies of apartheid being employed by the Israeli ??? government."

White House deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said that despite the U.S. repeatedly standing up for Israel, its government had ignored repeated concerns about the growth of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.

He noted there are now 90,000 settlers living east of the barrier that Israel created.


This is VOA news.


An Islamic State-linked video released Friday purportedly shows the suspect in Monday's deadly truck attack on a German Christmas market calling for more attacks in Europe.

Twenty-four-year-old Anis Amri was fatally shot earlier Friday by police at a Milan, Italy, train station during a routine patrol stop.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said investigators are trying to learn if he had help from collaborators inside Germany.

She said "the Amri case raises some questions: questions not only related to the deed, but also to the time before that since he came to Germany in July of 2015. We will now forcefully examine how far measures of the state need to be changed."

Twelve people were killed and 56 injured when Amri allegedly plowed a truck through a busy Berlin Christmas market on Monday.


Malta's prime minister told a news conference Friday that two Libyan men who hijacked a plane and diverted it to Malta had a hand grenade and a pistol on them. He said a second pistol was found on the plane during a search by Maltese soldiers.

Joseph Muscat said that the hijackers eventually surrendered peacefully without making any conditions after the Maltese government insisted that all passengers had to be released.

"The two hijackers have been detained in custody and interrogations are ongoing. The rest of the crew and passengers are also being questioned to ascertain events."

Muscat said that once authorities had completed their interrogations, the passengers would be put on another Libyan aircraft and returned to Libya.


The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says that at least 5,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea this year.

UNHCR spokesman William Spindler says the 2016 mark is a new record according to U.N. figures. "The number of people who have lost their lives on the Mediterranean this year has now passed 5,000. That means that on average, 14 people have died every single day this year in the Mediterranean trying to find safety or a better life or safety in Europe."

The UNHCR said that around 100 people are missing and feared dead after two migrant boats sank off the coast of Italy on Thursday.


And President-elect Donald Trump is passing along what he called "a very nice letter" that he says was sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The letter says that serious and global regional challenges show the relations between Russia and the United States remain an important factor in securing stability.

The exchange comes on the heels of comments by both men about the need to strengthen their countries' nuclear arsenals.


I'm David Byrd in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.