From Washington,this is VOA News.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has arrived in South Sudan to discuss that nation's ongoing violence.

Mr. Bashir made no comment upon his arrival and then headed to a meeting with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir.

The Sudanese Information Minister says he thinks Mr. Bashir can play a role in helping the two sides in South Sudan find a solution.

The negotiations to end fighting that began in mid-December were planned to begin in Ethiopia last week, but the delegations have not been able to overcome issues such as rebel demands for the release of detained politicians.

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The U.S. Congress, back to work Monday after the holiday break, has a list of potentially contentious issues to consider in an election year that will determine control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

One of the first items up for a vote is the extension of emergency unemployment benefits. A majority vote of Senate vote on the extension is scheduled for Monday. Majority Democrats need just a handful more votes from the Republicans for it to pass democrat led senate.

The U.S. Senate appears set to confirm Janet Yellen as head of the country's central bank.

The Senate is scheduled to vote late Monday on her nomination to be chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, and analysts say she has enough votes to win confirmation.

Thousands of African migrants are marching for a second-straight day in Tel Aviv to protest what they say is harsh treatment by the Israeli government.

The march Monday includes stops at the embassies of the United States and several European countries, as the migrants try to draw attention to their desire for asylum and an end to laws that could place them in detention or forbid them to work.

The representative for the U.N. refugee agency in Israel, Walpurga Englbrecht, criticized Israel's policy in a statement Sunday. She highlighted a new detention facility in Israel's southern desert that she said appears to operate as a place from which "there is no release."

Preliminary results from the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh indicate the ruling Awami League has won the poll, boycotted by the main opposition party.
 
Anjana Pasricha has more.

This was one election in which the counting of votes did not matter because more than half the seats were uncontested. Nevertheless, preliminary results confirmed Monday that ruling Awami League candidates won more than three quarters (232 according to preliminary counts) of the 300 elected seats, giving it a sweeping majority in parliament. Its allies will control most of the other seats.    

The opposition, which did not participate in the elections, has called on the government to nullify the vote. It says low turnout confirmed the election was a farce.

With the situation volatile, troops continue to patrol streets in Dhaka.

Anjana Pasricha NEW DELHI.

A U.S. gun manufacturer has turned down a multi-million dollar opportunity to sell arms to Pakistan, citing concerns the weapons would be used against American soldiers.

Nick Young, founder of Desert Tech, said on his company's Facebook page that it had been approached to "legally supply" sniper systems to Pakistan.

However, Young said the Utah-based company's "greatest fear" was that the equipment might be used against U.S. troops. He said he started the company "to protect Americans, not endanger them."

The contract was reported to be worth as much as $15 million.

Officials in northwest Pakistan say an explosion at a tribal elder's house has killed at least nine people, including three children.

Authorities say several people were wounded in the blast Monday in the reception area of the elder's house in a remote village in the Khyber tribal district, close to the Afghan border.

There was no claim of responsibility.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he is using Saudi Arabia's Arab Peace Initiative as part of his framework for a deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

Kerry made a brief visit to Riyadh Sunday for talks with Saudi King Abdullah, who Kerry says enthusiastically supports peace efforts.

People in much of the United States are dealing with the coldest weather in the last 20 years.

The National Weather Service is calling the air mass sweeping across the country "dangerously cold," and has posted wind chill warnings for Monday that stretch from North Dakota to New York in the north and as far south as Alabama.