U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton warned Venezuela's attorney general there may be "serious consequences" after the prosecutor asked the country's Supreme Court to keep opposition leader Juan Guaidó from leaving the country.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab also asked the court to block Guaidó's financial accounts as he launched a criminal investigation into his activities against President Nicholás Maduro's socialist government.
Saab said the probe is linked to unrest that came after Guaidó declared himself the country's legitimate president last week.
On Monday, Washington imposed sanctions on PDVSA, Venezuela's government-owned oil company.
The U.S. has condemned the 2018 election in which Maduro won another term.
A notepad carried by Bolton has the Pentagon facing questions about whether American troops will go to South America.
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani explains.
At a White House news conference yesterday, Bolton was holding a yellow bad with the words "5,000 troops to Colombia."
Here at the Pentagon, "I didn't bring a notepad today."
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan tried to laugh off a question about whether U.S. troops will indeed go to Colombia or elsewhere in the region amid political upheaval in neighboring Venezuela. "I haven't discussed that with Secretary Bolton."
Reporters here asked if he had other talks or could rule it out. "I'm not commenting on it."
Asked about Bolton's note, the White House said simply "All options are on the table."
Sagar Meghani, at the Pentagon.
Beijing demanded Tuesday that Washington back off what it called an "unreasonable crackdown" on the maker of smartphones and telecom gear. This follows U.S. criminal charges on Monday against Chinese electronics giant Huawei and several of its officials for allegedly stealing technology, secrets and violating Iran sanctions. That followed the detention in Canada of a top company official who's now awaiting possible extradition to the U.S.
Huawei has denied any wrongdoing.
This is VOA news.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has won a few weeks to salvage a Brexit deal but headed toward a clash with the European Union on Tuesday by promising to overhaul the divorce agreement she spent a year and a half negotiating with the bloc.
Trying to break the U.K.'s deadlock, she got Parliament's backing for a bid to rework an Irish border guarantee which May and the EU both approved, and which the bloc insists cannot be changed.
U.S. President Donald Trump's longtime ally Roger Stone pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Washington D.C. federal court. He faces seven charges linked to the release of hacked emails about Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 presidential campaign.
AP correspondent Eric Tucker reports Tuesday's arraignment was very brief.
Stone who we know obviously is very loud and boisterous and gregarious was very quiet and reserved and polite in the courtroom. The only time he spoke was to answer, "Yes, Your Honor," about whether he understood the proceedings and the consequences of reneging on his bond conditions.
The U.N. migration agency says more than 130 migrants were thought to be missing after two boats capsized Tuesday off the tiny East African nation of Djibouti. Local police found five bodies.
Witnesses said the boats were overloaded and large waves caused them to tip over.
The United Nations is launching a three-year Humanitarian Response Strategy with the Nigeria Regional Refugee Response Plan. It will assist millions of victims of Boko Haram attacks and hundreds of thousands of refugees.
VOA's Lisa Schlein reports.
The bulk of the appeal, $848 million, will assist 6.2 million vulnerable people in Nigeria's northeastern Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. They have been the hardest hit by the decade-long crisis between Boko Haram and Nigeria's government forces.
Boko Haram, which wants to set up its own Islamic State based on Shariah law, reportedly has killed more than 20,000 people and forced more than two million to flee their homes since the insurgency began in 2009.
Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.
Apple's group-chat function in its FaceTime app has been disabled after users said there was a security glitch.
AP's Matt Small reports.
Apple says that Group FaceTime is temporarily unavailable after reports surfaced about a bug that could allow an iPhone user calling another iPhone device through Group FaceTime to hear audio from that device even if the second person didn't accept the call.
The bug comes as an embarrassment for the company that's trying to distinguish itself by stressing its commitment to users' privacy.
