The United States is pulling out of a treaty signed with Iran in 1955 in response to the order from the International Court of Justice on Wednesday, telling the United States to lift sanctions on Iran involving medicine, food and airplane parts.
VOA's White House bureau chief Steve Herman reports.
The unilateral withdrawal by the United States is the latest indication of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.
National Security Adviser John Bolton says U.S. policy is not regime change in Iran, but it does expect substantial change in Tehran's behavior.
"Our dispute is with the ayatollahs who have taken Iran from a respected position in the international community to being a rogue state. Our dispute has never been with the people of Iran."
President Donald Trump, according to Bolton, after reimposing sanctions on Tehran, also will "do whatever else is necessary to ensure we bring maximum pressure to stop its malign behavior across the board."
Iran had complained to the U.N. court the move by Washington to reimpose sanctions, that had been lifted under the 2015 international nuclear agreement, violated the Treaty of Amity.
An armed intruder reportedly tried to break into the home of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen Wednesday morning but was chased off by a security guard.
A spokesman for Gülen said the guard fired a warning shot into the air and the suspect fled.
Pennsylvania state police searched the area but could not find the alleged intruder.
Five police officers in Florence Country, South Carolina, have been shot. Police say the shooter has been arrested.
Three Florence County sheriff deputies and two city officers were shot. Information on their conditions is not yet available.
This is VOA news.
Police have arrested a man in the western state of Utah in connection with suspicious letters mailed to the president and the Pentagon.
William Clyde Allen of Logan, Utah, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly mailing the letters that contained castor seeds, from which highly toxic ricin can be derived.
If inhaled and digested or injected in a refined form, ricin can kill a person within 48 hours of exposure. There is no known antidote for it.
The envelopes, by the way, did not get into the White House or the Pentagon.
Time is running out on Indonesia's Sulawesi island as rescuers dig through debris for survivors of Friday's 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami.
More than 1,400 people were killed. Hundreds are missing.
The U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF, is warning that tens of thousands of child survivors of the earthquake and tsunami are unprotected and vulnerable to exploitation.
Correspondent Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.
The full extent of the disaster is still emerging. But the U.N. Children's Fund says it is very worried about its impact upon the children.
UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac says his agency is very concerned about the many children who are likely to have become orphaned or separated from their parents by the disaster and have no one to protect them.
"This is also a region with a low birth registration. Only 33 percent of children are registered. And birth registration is of paramount importance in terms of child protection."
Children who have no birth certificate are officially invisible. They cannot access basic services, such as health, social welfare and education.
A government study finds that one in three Americans eat fast food on any given day. That's about 85 million people.
The survey of about 10,000 adults was done over four years by the CDC.
The study did not find a difference between men and women but higher-income families ate fast food more often than lower-income families and blacks ate it more often than any other racial or ethnic groups.
Health officials say too much high-calorie fast food can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other health problems.
This is the first federal study to look at how often adults eat fast food.
South Korea's military says it's removing landmines along the heavily fortified border with the North.
The effort is aimed at reducing tensions and building trust on the divided peninsula.
The project began Monday, the result of an agreement reached during last month's summit between the two nations' leaders.
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 Christopher Cruise, VOA news.
