From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting.

The United States is considering designating North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, that word from the White House national security adviser on Thursday. It's a move meant to put additional financial and diplomatic pressure on the totalitarian government.

The State Department faces a congressionally mandated deadline on Thursday to respond the several U.S. senators' requests that North Korea be returned to the state sponsors of terrorism list. Currently the only countries on the list are Iran, Syria and Sudan.

By Thursday afternoon, the State Department had not announced its decision but White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said the U.S. was still considering the move.

On the eve of President Trump's visit to Asia, the White House says the threat from North Korea will be at the top of his agenda (in his meetings) with leaders and (that) denuclearization of North Korea is the only acceptable outcome.

If this is not achieved through pressure by economic sanctions and diplomacy, General McMaster on Thursday warned that the United States "will respond with all capabilities available to North Korean aggression."

The U.S. Air Force says it launched to Guam-based B1 bombers accompanied by fighter jets from South Korea and Japan Thursday in an exercise in the area of the Korean peninsula. [It's] The exercise came a day before President Trump is scheduled to leave on his 12-day trip to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. But the Air Force said the bombers were not launched "in response to any current event."

This is VOA news.

President Trump is calling for swift justice in the case of the accused New York City truck terrorist Sayfullo Saipov. Trump wants Saipov to be sentenced to death.

In a speech Thursday to a national security conference in New York City, Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not rule out the option of declaring Saipov an enemy combatant.

A Spanish prosecutor has asked a judge to issue an international arrest warrant for the former president of Catalonia and four of his ministers after they failed to appear in a Madrid court for questioning about their efforts to break the region away from Spain.

The same judge sent eight former Catalan cabinet members to jail without bail and ordered another to be held pending a bail payment.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited the conflict-torn area of northern Rakhine state for the first time Thursday.

On August 25, Myanmar's security forces began what they called a clearance operation in response to deadly attacks on police outposts by insurgents.

The U.N. has said the response has been disproportionate and amounts to ethnic cleansing.

A court in Macedonia has convicted 33 people of planning terrorist attacks as members of an ethnic Albanian militant group.

Heavy security, including helicopters flying overhead, protected the court proceedings Thursday. Armored vehicles and at least 100 police officers deployed around the courthouse to safeguard the participants in the highly anticipated trial.

Seven of the accused were given life sentences, 13 of them got 40-year sentences, and the rest got sentences of 12 to 20 years, all on charges including terrorism and participating in a terrorist organization.

A U.S. judge [requested a request] rejected, that is, a request Thursday by two former campaign officials for President Trump to end their house arrest pending trial on charges they laundered millions of dollars that they were paid to represent one-time Ukrainian ruler Viktor Yanukovych so they could hide the income from American authorities.

Paul Manafort was Trump's campaign manager for three months last year, and his business protege, Rick Gates, who was the deputy campaign chairman, had asked a Washington judge to end their home confinement.

There is 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 Jonathan Jones reporting from the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.