At least 10 people have died in a fire in Paris, the deadliest in the French capital in more than a decade. Flames engulfed a nine-story apartment building early Tuesday morning, sending people to the roof and clambering across balconies to escape.
Associated Press correspondent Charles De Ledesma reports.
Officials say the death toll in the suspected arson attack on a residential building keeps rising, with more than 30 people including eight firefighters among the injured. Fleeing residents headed to the roof as flames engulfed the building before dawn.
A 40-year-old female resident of the building, said to have history of psychiatric problems, was arrested as police opened a probe into voluntary arson resulting in death.
It is the deadliest fire in Paris since the April 2005 hotel fire near the capital's famed Opera that killed 24 people.
The Taliban is reported to have killed 40 government troops in separate attacks in northern Afghanistan. The deadliest of the insurgent raids happened early Tuesday near the provincial capital, Kunduz.
The deputy chairman of the provincial council told Afghan media the attack killed at least 25 soldiers and three policemen in fighting that lasted for two hours.
The former president Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, has been released on bail to Belgium following his acquittal by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity.
The court said on Tuesday after Belgium said on Saturday that it had agreed in principle to host Gbagbo pending a possible prosecution appeal against his acquittal by the ICC, but the court said final arrangements were being made.
The 73-year-old former strongman and his aide have been staying in an undisclosed location since Friday when The Hague tribunal freed them both from detention.
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The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, General Joseph Votel, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he was not asked for his advice about a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria before President Trump announced his decision to do so.
Main independent Senator Angus King questioned Votel.
"General, were you aware of the president's intention to order the withdrawal of our troops from Syria before that was publicly announced?"
"I was not aware of the specific announcement. Certainly we were aware that he had expressed a desire and an intent in the past to depart Iraq, depart Syria."
"So you weren't consulted before that decision was announced?"
"We were not, I was not consulted."
Since the announcement, the Pentagon has confirmed some equipment [have] has been moved out of Syria. Other preparations to pull about 2,000 troops out of Syria have also been on going.
Pope Francis said on Tuesday the Vatican would be willing to meditate in Venezuela if both sides ask. But he said preliminary steps to bring the two sides together should happen first.
Angelina Jolie, the Hollywood actress who also is a U.N. refugee agency's special representative, visited camps in Bangladesh for Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on Tuesday.
She condemned the world's failure to prevent a crisis, in which 73,000 people have been driven from their homes.
"... an absolute right to return home, but only when they feel it is safe enough to do so voluntarily and they know that their rights will be respected."
Facebook is banning four armed insurgent groups in Myanmar from its platform.
In a written statement, the U.S.-based social media giant announced on Tuesday that the groups were banned [because] from the site and the statement also said it will remove "all related praise, support and representation" of the groups as soon as it becomes aware of that.
It called the four "dangerous organizations."
Zambia's profitable copper mining industry is making its citizens poor, according to a report by a southern African research group.
The report traces the troubled relationship at one mine in rural Zambia between that nation's internationally well-regarded First Quantum Minerals and the rural community that surrounds it.
A classified U.S. government report on foreign interference in the 2018 congressional elections has concluded that outside meddling had no material impact on the integrity and security of the vote. That left open the questions as to whether will be any sanctions for foreign influence campaigns.
You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. I'm Christopher Cruise, VOA news.
