Suspected Taliban insurgents kidnapped dozens of passengers riding in a convoy of buses in northern Afghanistan Monday.
The Kunduz province provincial government said three buses were stopped as they were traveling from neighboring Takhar province to Kabul.
The insurgents forced passengers off the bus and took them away.
The attack happened just a day after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced a three-month unilateral, conditional cease-fire with the Taliban.
Six shots were fired from a moving car at the U.S. embassy in Turkey before dawn on Monday.
There were no reports of injuries, no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Pope Francis, in a letter to the world's more than one billion Catholics, has condemned clerical sexual abuse and its coverup.
The pope said the church must recognize and condemn the abuse with "sorrow and shame."
Correspondent Sabina Castelfranco reports for VOA from Rome.
Never before has Pope Francis written to all Catholics, or as he put it, "the people of God," on the "crime" of clerical sexual abuse. His letter was issued in seven languages.
The pope mentioned the publication last week of a detailed Pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual abuse by the clergy, involving more than one thousand victims in the U.S. state over a period of 70 years.
The pope begged for forgiveness, adding "It is essential" for the church to "be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetuated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable."
Sabina Castelfranco, for VOA news, Rome.
This is VOA news.
The U.S. Trade Representative's office on Monday began six days of public hearings on President Trump's plans to impose tariffs on a wider array of Chinese imports.
The United States has already imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese products. Tariffs on another $16 billion in goods are set to take effect on Thursday.
About two million Muslim pilgrims have marked the high point of the hajj by ascending Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia.
Correspondent Edward Yeranian reports for VOA from Cairo.
The Saudi news channel reported about 10,000 members of the country's security forces were protecting the pilgrimage sites. General Salman al-Shehri indicated everyone from navy divers to ambulance drivers were working to keep the pilgrimage safe.
He says that the Defense Ministry's best trained personnel and the most modern equipment will be serving the pilgrims during their journey.
After descending Mount Arafat, pilgrims will spend the night in the Valley of Muzdalifa in preparation for the conclusion of the annual hajj Tuesday with the ritual sacrifice of an animal.
Edward Yeranian, for VOA news, Cairo.
After 65 years of separation, hundreds of relatives have been reunited at least for a few hours as North and South Korea held their first reunion in three years.
The brief reunions are set to total around 11 hours over the next three days in the North's tourist resort of Mount Kumgang.
About 330 South Koreans embraced 185 relatives from the North with tears, joy and disbelief. Some struggled to recognize family having not seen them in more than 60 years.
Jurors deciding the tax and bank fraud [of] trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort deliberated for a third day Monday without reaching a verdict.
During the two-week trial, prosecutors said Manafort [had] hid millions of dollars in offshore accounts in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Venezuelans struggled Monday to calculate prices of food and household goods as a new currency scheme aimed at taming runaway inflation went into effect.
The new currency is known as the "sovereign bolivar." The International Monetary Fund has calculated that inflation in the country will hit one million percent by year's end.
Many stores were closed Monday for a national holiday, which the government declared to help ease the introduction of the new currency.
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.
