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

An Iraqi general says special forces troops have taken control of the state television building inside Mosul. The government troops entered the city for the first time since 2014. Major General Sami al-Aridi said the troops engaged in fierce fighting with IS militants.

As fighting escalates in another place, Aleppo, the United Nations warns both the Syrian government and rebel forces that they may be guilty of war crimes. Lisa Schlein takes a look.

Rebel forces seeking to break the siege of eastern Aleppo have intensified attacks on western Aleppo, which is under Syrian government control. As a consequence, civilian casualties are mounting.

The United Nations says in the past few days, more than 40 people have been killed and many injured.

U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokesman Jens Laerke says this was due to the high number of rockets indiscriminately launched by armed opposition groups on civilian areas in western Aleppo.

Lisa Schlein, Geneva.

An independent investigation into July's political unrest in South Sudan's capital has concluded that U.N. military and mission personnel failed to protect civilians and aid workers.

The investigation found that "a lack of leadership on the part of key senior mission personnel resulted in a chaotic and ineffective response to the violence."

A U.N. spokesman said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked for the force commander of the U.N. mission in South Sudan to be replaced.

The United States has imposed sanctions on a Yemeni money exchange and the two brothers who own it, that for doing business with the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula terrorist group.

This is VOA news.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump rallied supporters on Tuesday in states they see as crucial to winning the November 8th U.S. presidential election.

Clinton is making stops in three cities in Florida. Recent opinion polls show Trump with a 1 percentage point edge over her in that state.

Trump visited two states Tuesday where polls are putting Clinton ahead, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

National surveys continue to show Clinton leading Trump by about 2 to 4 percentage points.

Democrats are fighting to win enough seats to [win] gain control of the U.S. Senate. After six years of Republican control, Democrats hope to regain the upper hand by winning several key races. The fate of the Senate rests in the hands of voters from about six states, three of whom are historically Republican.

Amnesty International is demanding Russia immediately and unconditionally release Ildar Dadin, a(n) anti-Kremlin protester jailed for participation in "unauthorized" demonstrations.

In a statement Tuesday, the rights group also urged Russian authorities to investigate allegations of torture described in a letter from prison. Dadin alleges "beatings, humiliation and rape threats."

Last December, a Moscow court sentenced him to a three-year prison term for repeated anti-government street protests.

Italy observed All Saints' Day Tuesday, and earthquake aftershocks continued to hit the central part of the country. Thousands of people were left homeless by a weekend quake.

Aftershocks were coming at a rate of several per hour.

The civil protection agency estimates that a total of about 100,000 people have been affected in some way by Sunday's quake.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi went to Perugia on Tuesday and President Sergio Mattarella is expected to visit affected areas on Wednesday.

Civil society activists in India and Pakistan are urging the governments of both of those countries to de-escalate military tensions and resume peace talks.

The two nations have been firing at each other over the Kashmir Line of Control for weeks.

The Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum For Peace and Democracy fears that the fighting could escalate into a full-blown war between the two countries.

Also in that part of the world, for the first time the U.S. government is publicly warning of the possibility of terrorist attacks in India carried out by the Islamic State group.

China debuted its J-20 stealth fighter Tuesday at Airshow China in the city of Zhuhai.

Two of the planes made a brief appearance at the show's opening ceremonies. The planes performed a series of maneuvers and generated enough noise to set off car alarms in a nearby parking lot.

From the VOA news center in Washington, I'm David DeForest.

That's the latest world news from VOA.