From Washington, this is VOA news. Hello, I'm Steve Miller.

A huge car bomb exploded on a busy street in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu Saturday, killing at least 20 people and destroying several buildings. Conway G. Gittens reports.

A fiery car bomb rocking the streets of Mogadishu Saturday, killing at least 20. The blast in the Somalian capital occurring in a busy street home to government office, hotels and restaurants.

A Reuters eyewitness on the scene says the bomb was powerful enough to set dozens of vehicles on fire and destroyed several buildings in the area. Chaos ensuing the aftermath as soldiers fired indiscriminately and even journalists were attacked.

No group claiming immediate responsibility but attacks like these have been carried out in the past by the Islamist group, al-Shabaab.

The al-Qaeda-linked group is seeking to topple what is seen as a weak government in an effort to put strict Islamic rule in place.

Reporter Conway G. Gittens.

Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani, on Friday said that Iran will not renegotiate the nuclear deal following President Donald Trump's decision not to decertify it.

Rouhani said that Iran is not a nation that will yield to forceful talking.

Defying Trump, Rouhani said Tehran will double its efforts to expand the country's defense capabilities, including the country's ballistic missile program despite the U.S. pressure to suspend it.

Army officials in Myanmar said they have reopened an internal probe into the behavior of Burmese troops in Rahkine State, where Myanmar military forces are accused of committing widespread atrocities. Thousands have fled into neighboring Bangladesh since August.

It's not clear when the military will release its findings.

This is VOA news.

Islamic State is on the verge of defeat in their de facto Syrian capital of Raqqa, with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters telling Reuters the city could be cleared over the weekend.

A U.S. military official speaking on behalf of the coalition says about 100 Islamic State members have surrendered in the span of a single day.

There are also reports that some remaining IS militants are being bust out of the city in a deal brokered with the coalition.

Coalition representatives couldn't immediately confirm. Yet it would follow a pattern seen in other Syrian battles.

Raqqa has been under siege since June and Islamic State's loss there will be considered a major milestone for the international effort to destroy their self-declared caliphate.

But like what's happened to Mosul in Iraq and other former IS territories, there is now a delicate path forward to reconstruction and reconciliation for those have lived under years of their rule.

The battle for Raqqa has taken a heavy toll on civilians. Human rights groups believe hundreds have been killed in the fighting after months of shortages in food and medicine.

That was David Doyle.

A report in British media that Iran was behind a cyber attack carried out on the country's parliament earlier this year comes a day after the UK government urged the United States not to further endanger the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran. Francis Maguire has that story.

Timing of the revelation coming just a day after the United Kingdom joined other European countries, including fellow NATO allies France and Germany, in warning the U.S. against harming the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Britain's parliament was hit by a "sustained and determined" cyber attack in June designed to identify weak email passwords.

The Times said that the incident was Iran's first significant cyber attack on a British target but it was initially blamed on Russia. And according to the paper, the motive for the attack hasn't been established while the hackers weren't seeking simple financial gain.

Neither Britain's National Cyber Security Centre nor the Iranian government was immediately available for comment.

Reporter Francis Maguire.

Wildfires in the U.S. state of California, famed wine country, are spreading after a week of the worst blazes in the state that has ever seen.

The death toll has risen to at least 35 on Saturday, with at least 16 fires burning. One side of the fire zone stretched for 160 square kilometers, destroying some 5,700 homes and businesses. One hundred thousand people have been evacuated.

Pakistan and the United States appear upbeat about better cooperation and relations after a joint effort freed a U.S.-Canadian family from Taliban.

Pakistani security forces, acting on a tip from U.S. intelligence, rescued American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, and their three young children on Wednesday.

From Washington, I'm Steve Miller.

That's the latest world news from VOA.