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WASHINGTON — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Donald Trump on Thursday and the pair discussed the "possibilities of peace," a spokesperson for the prime minister said as he pushes for a cease-fire in Ukraine. Trump and Orban met at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida "as the next stop of his peace mission," Orban's spokesperson said. "The discussion was about the possibilities of peace." Nationalist leader Orban, a longtime Trump supporter, made surprise visits to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing in the past two weeks on a self-styled "peace mission," angering NATO allies. His meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin in particular vexed some other NATO members, who said the trip handed legitimacy to Putin when the West wants to isolate him over his war in Ukraine. Orban traveled to Kyiv before visiting Moscow but did not tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his mission to Russia, Zelenskiy said, dismissing Orban's ambition of playing the peacemaker. "Not all the leaders can make negotiations. You need to have some power for this," Zelenskiy said earlier at a news conference at the NATO summit. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, when asked about Orban's initiative, said Ukraine would be rightly concerned about any attempt to negotiate a peace deal without involving Kyiv. "Whatever adventurism is being undertaken without Ukraine's consent or support is not something that's consistent with our policy, the foreign policy of the United States," Sullivan said. Orban's self-styled peace mission has also irked many members of the European Union, whose rotating presidency Hungary took over at the start of this month. The Hungarian embassy in Washington declined to comment on the planned meeting with Trump, which was first reported by Bloomberg. Orban has been attending a NATO summit hosted by Democratic President Joe Biden. Hungary's delegation voiced opposition to key NATO positions, while not blocking the alliance from taking action. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Reuters on Wednesday that Hungary believes a second Trump presidency would boost hopes for peace in Ukraine. Orban hoped to bring an end to the war through peace talks involving both Russia and Ukraine, according to Szijjarto. Trump has said he would quickly end the war. He has not offered a detailed plan to achieve that, but Reuters reported last month that advisers to the former president had presented him with a plan to end the war in part by making future aid to Kyiv conditional on Ukraine joining peace talks. In the past several months, foreign officials have regularly sought meetings with Trump and his key advisers to discuss his foreign policy should he beat Biden in the November 5 election. Polls show Trump widening his lead over Biden. One adviser, Keith Kellogg, has met with several high-ranking foreign officials on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Reuters reported this week. NATO frustration Orban appeared isolated at the opening of a NATO meeting on Ukraine on Thursday, sitting alone while other leaders talked in a huddle. Two European diplomats told Reuters that NATO allies were frustrated with Orban's actions around the summit but stressed that he had not blocked the alliance from taking action on Ukraine. Multiple EU leaders made clear Orban was not speaking for the bloc in his discussions on the war in Ukraine. "I don't think there's any point in having conversations with authoritarian regimes that are violating international law," said Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Hungary also diverged from its NATO allies on China, which the alliance said is an enabler of Russia's war effort and poses challenges to security. Hungary does not want NATO to become an "anti-China" bloc, and will not support it doing so, Szijjarto said Thursday.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. commitment to deterrence against North Korea is backed by the full range of U.S. capabilities, including nuclear, U.S. President Joe Biden told South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in a meeting Thursday on the sidelines of a NATO summit. The two leaders also authorized a guideline on establishing an integrated system of extended deterrence for the Korean peninsula to counter nuclear and military threats from North Korea, Yoon's office said. The guideline formalizes the deployment of U.S. nuclear assets on and around the Korean peninsula to deter and respond to potential nuclear attacks by the North, Yoon's deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo told a briefing in Washington. "It means U.S. nuclear weapons are specifically being assigned to missions on the Korean Peninsula," Kim said. Earlier Biden and Yoon issued a joint statement announcing the signing of the Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula. "The presidents reaffirmed their commitments in the U.S.-ROK Washington Declaration and highlighted that any nuclear attack by the DPRK against the ROK will be met with a swift, overwhelming and decisive response," it said. DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. ROK refers to South Korea's formal name, the Republic of Korea. Cheong Seong-Chang, a security strategy expert at the Sejong Institute and a strong advocate of South Korea's own nuclear armament, said the new nuclear guideline is significant progress that fundamentally changes the way the allies will respond to a nuclear threat from North Korea. "The problem is, the only thing that will give South Korea full confidence is a promise from the U.S. of an immediate nuclear retaliation in the event of nuclear use by the North, but that is simply impossible," Cheong said. "That is the inherent limitation of nuclear deterrence," he said, adding whether the nuclear guideline will survive a change in U.S. administration is also questionable. Yoon's office said the guideline itself is classified. North Korea has openly advanced its nuclear weapons policy by codifying their use in the event of perceived threat against its territory and enshrining the advancement of nuclear weapons capability in the constitution last year. Earlier this year, it designated South Korea as its "primary foe" and vowed to annihilate its neighbor for colluding with the United States to wage war against it, in a dramatic reversal of peace overtures they made in 2018. Both Seoul and Washington deny any aggressive intent against Pyongyang but say they are fully prepared to counter any aggression by the North and have stepped up joint military drills in recent months. Yoon reaffirmed South Korea's support for Ukraine, pledging to double its contribution to a NATO trust fund from the $12 million it provided in 2024, his office said. The fund enables short-term non-lethal military assistance and long-term capability-building support, NATO says. It made no mention of any direct military support for Ukraine. Yoon's office has said it was considering weapons supply for Kyiv, reversing its earlier policy of limiting its assistance to humanitarian in nature. 

SYDNEY — Australia said Friday it had arrested a Russian-born married couple on espionage charges, alleging the woman who was an information systems technician in the Australian Army sought to access defense material and send it to Russian officials. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the couple, who hold Australian citizenship, worked to access material related to Australia's national security though no significant compromise had been identified yet. "We allege they sought that information with the intention of providing it to Russian authorities," AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said during a media briefing. "Whether that information was handed over remains a key focus of our investigation." The AFP said the woman, 40, traveled to Russia and instructed her husband in Australia to log into her official account to access defense materials. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned anyone considering acting against Australia's national security. "People will be held to account who interfere with our national interests and that's precisely what these arrests represent," Albanese told reporters. He declined to comment directly on the case saying it was before the court. Igor and Kira Korolev appeared in the magistrate's court in Brisbane, court filings showed, after being charged with one count each of preparing for an espionage offense, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail. The charges are the first under new laws introduced in 2018. They did not apply for bail and were remanded in custody until September 20 when they are next due to appear, media reported. The couple has been living in Australia for more than 10 years, with the woman getting Australian citizenship in 2016 and her husband in 2020. The arrests come as Australia on Thursday unveiled an $169 million military aid package for Ukraine at the NATO summit in Washington, the country's single largest aid package since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Australia is one of the largest non-NATO contributors to the West's support for Ukraine and has been supplying defense equipment to Kyiv, banned exports of aluminum ores to Russia and sanctioned more than 1,000 Russian individuals and entities. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

BELGRADE, Serbia — Weather alerts, forest fires, melting pavement in cities: A sizzling heat wave has sent temperatures in parts of central and southern Europe soaring toward 40 degrees Celsius in some places. From Italy to Romania, authorities warned people to be cautious, drive carefully if going on holiday, drink plenty of water and avoid going out during the hottest hours of the day. Italian authorities declared a red weather alert in seven cities on Thursday, mostly in the central parts of the country but also the capital Rome and Trieste in the northeast. Rome's municipal authorities issued a digital app to help people locate public drinking fountains as temperatures reached 38 C on Thursday. Dennis Mix, a visitor from the United States, said he skipped part of a planned tour of Rome and stayed in a van instead. "It is really affecting me," he said. The heat conditions are aggravated by humidity and could affect healthy people as well as those with health conditions, Italian authorities warned. Similar warnings were issued in neighboring Croatia and further east and south. Croatia's main tourism resort, the southern Adriatic Sea town of Dubrovnik, recorded 28 C at dawn, signaling there won't be relief when the sun goes down. Forest fires have been reported this week in Albania, near the border with Greece, as well as in Bosnia and Italy. Several blazes raged Thursday in Greece's southern Corinth area and on the eastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos. Warnings were issued for the region surrounding the capital Athens and other parts of central Greece on Thursday, with a similar warning for the northeast of the country Friday. Greek authorities have said that the country faces its highest wildfire risk in two decades this summer, following a mild, largely rainless winter and spring that have left vegetation tinder-dry. Meteorologists said temperatures were even higher than officially reported in big cities where sizzling concrete radiates the heat above the ground and the asphalt softens under one's feet. "It was impossible to breathe yesterday," said Antonela Spičanović, from the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, where temperatures reached 39 C on Wednesday. The city seemed deserted with many of its residents staying indoors or heading for the Adriatic Sea coast or the mountains. "I spend my days in the apartment, under the air conditioning," said Đorđe Stanišić, an electrical engineer also from Podgorica. "It's hell outside." Mendim Rugova, a meteorologist from neighboring Kosovo, said temperatures in the country have risen on average by 2.5 degrees since the 1980s. He said the current heat wave could last until the end of July. "In the region we could see temperatures above 40 C, in parts of Albania, Northern Macedonia, in Greece and also in parts of Serbia," he predicted. In the Czech Republic's capital of Prague, where temperatures reached 34 C Wednesday before dropping slightly Thursday, the city zoo delivered ten tons of ice to provide much-needed relief for the animals. The ice was strategically placed around the zoo Wednesday, creating cool spots where animals could find refuge from unusually high temperatures. In the Romanian capital Bucharest, street thermometers showed 42 C on Tuesday and Wednesday though the official measurements were a few degrees lower. Neighboring Serbia reported record temperatures so far this summer, with thermostats at 35 C Thursday morning in the north of the country. In the capital Belgrade, doctors reported treating people who collapsed, felt dizzy or complained of headaches due to the heat. Serbian authorities have said that the use of air conditioning led to huge power consumption similar to levels normally seen in winter, when many in the Balkan country use electricity for heating. During a previous heat wave last month, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Albania faced a major power outage amid the overload and a collapse of a regional distribution line. Earlier this month, a powerful storm swept the region after days of heat and killed two people, damaged houses while pulling out trees and flooding streets. Experts say human-induced climate change has brought wild weather swings, increasingly unpredictable storms and heat waves.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

U.S. President Joe Biden fielded question after question about his fitness to be president at his NATO news conference challenging reporters with the rhetorical question “Am I getting the job done?” It was 20 minutes into the news conference before he got his first question about NATO. The first Israeli military report on the October 7th attack finds that the army failed to protect civilians And, want to own a dinosaur? There’s one going up for auction!

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Juba, South Sudan — In South Sudan, opponents of President Salva Kiir want him to send back to parliament a recently passed bill over concerns it will give state security agents too much power. Critics of the bill say it will allow the National Security Service to arrest and detain suspects without a warrant, thereby stifling dissent from the opposition and civil rights activists. South Sudan’s main opposition party, the SPLM-IO, and various civil rights activists, have united to oppose the security bill. The party’s deputy chairperson, Oyet Nathaniel, expressed dismay over the rushed passage of the bill, despite calls to revise certain sections beforehand. "We urge His Excellency, the president of the Republic of South Sudan, to honor the directives of the principals, the resolution of the Council of Ministers and the legal advice from the ministers of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to remove Sections 54 and 55 of the act,” he said. “We implore him not to approve this contentious National Security Service bill." Nathaniel, speaking at a news conference this week, also criticized the past misuse of power by the National Security Service, highlighting instances where individuals were detained without being presented in court, as required by law. He argued that granting security agents the power of arrest would exacerbate constitutional breaches and human rights violations. "Their mandate is explicitly to gather and analyze information and provide advice to relevant authorities,” he said. “Nowhere in the constitution does it grant them the authority to engage in armed conflict or war, make arrests or detentions without a warrant, or intimidate and harass." Ter Manyang Gatwech, executive director of the Center for Peace and Advocacy in South Sudan, argued that the bill’s provisions threaten all citizens, regardless of party. "Those who passed it may think it targets civil society, ordinary citizens and human rights defenders, but this is not the case,” he said. “I urge the president to return this bill to parliament for revision." However, some South Sudanese lawmakers who support the measure say it is necessary to protect the country from lawbreakers. John Agany, a lawmaker and former spokesperson for the National Assembly, defended the bill, asserting that the controversial sections are not unconstitutional. He emphasized the importance of responsible enforcement. "Our National Security Service is comprised of highly responsible and well-trained individuals,” he said. “Their effectiveness was demonstrated during the 2013 crisis when they maintained order and saved lives. We should not underestimate the efforts of these men and women who work tirelessly to secure our nation." Daniel Ali, a lawmaker from the ruling SPLM Party, supported the bill’s provisions for arrest without a warrant in cases involving threats to national security. "The bill does not allow for arbitrary arrests like those over domestic disputes,” he said. “It pertains to serious matters like coup attempts, where swift action is necessary. I urge the assembly to pass this law without delay." Several embassies have come out against the bill, warning that its enactment would further restrict civic and political freedoms at a critical time for South Sudan. "Enacting this bill into law would be regrettable under any circumstances, but especially now, when it undermines the transitional government’s commitment to fostering political and civic space,” said Michael Adler, U.S. ambassador to Juba. As the debate continues, stakeholders both within South Sudan and abroad emphasize the importance of preserving civic space and upholding human rights. They urge President Kiir to reconsider the bill and address its contentious provisions through constructive dialogue and legal revisions.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

washington — NATO set out Thursday to deepen relations with key Indo-Pacific partners, meeting with leaders from Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea a day after all 32 NATO allies called out China for its support of Russia's illegal war against Ukraine in a sternly worded communique. During a working session, NATO and its Indo-Pacific partners strengthened plans and developed strategies to face growing threats in the Pacific region, including North Korean missile launches and China's steady stream of technology and raw materials to Russia that have allowed President Vladimir Putin to replace his losses on the battlefield. U.S. officials said the Indo-Pacific partners' attendance sent a message to China that democratic alliances will stand up for the rule of law, no matter where an aggressor tries to break it. "NATO also recognizes that threats from the Indo-Pacific, whether it's the DPRK [North Korea] or the PRC [China] supporting Russia in their aggression against Ukraine, we cannot avoid," Jason Israel, National Security Council senior director for defense policy, Israel told VOA. In a final communique signed by all 32 allies, NATO called China a "decisive enabler" of Russia's war and urged Beijing to cease its support.  "The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation," the leaders wrote. They also expressed concerns about Beijing's space capabilities and nuclear arsenal. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday told reporters that "China is propping up Russia's war economy" and "increas[ing] the threat Russia holds to Europe and NATO security." "China provides dual-use equipment, microelectronics and a lot of other tools which are enabling Russia to build the missiles, to build bombs, to build the aircraft, to build the weapons they're using to attack Ukraine," he added. Asked by VOA whether the statement was a strong enough message to deter China from continuing to support Russia, Stoltenberg replied in the news conference that Wednesday's declaration was "the strongest message that NATO allies have ever sent on China's contributions to Russia's illegal war against Ukraine." Some allies on Thursday cautioned the alliance against using the narrowly worded communique as a springboard to make NATO appear "anti-China." "NATO is a defense alliance. ... We can't organize it into an anti-China bloc," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Hungarian state television on the sidelines of the summit. However, defense expert Bradley Bowman, the senior director for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Military and Political Power, said calling out China was long overdue for the bloc. "Europeans are dying in Europe in a war of aggression from the Kremlin with the support of Iran, North Korea and China, period," he said. U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said NATO must counter Russia's ramping up of defense production — made possible by help from China, North Korea and Iran — by continuing to invest more in Ukraine's and NATO's own defense production. "We cannot allow the alliance to fall behind," Biden said.  China insists that it does not provide military aid to Russia, despite maintaining strong trade ties with Moscow. On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian accused NATO of "breaching its boundary, expanding its mandate, reaching beyond its defense zone and stoking confrontation."

HOUSTON — About half a million Houston-area homes and businesses will still be without electricity next week, the city's largest utility said Thursday, stoking the frustration of hot and weary residents and leading a top state official to call the pace of recovery from Hurricane Beryl "not acceptable." Jason Ryan, executive vice president of CenterPoint Energy, said power has been restored to more than 1 million homes and businesses since Beryl made landfall in Texas on Monday. And the company expects to get hundreds of thousands of more customers back online by Sunday. But many more will wait much longer. "We know that we still have a lot of work to do," Ryan said during a meeting of the Texas Public Utility Commission, the state's utility regulation agency. "We will not stop the work until it is done." Ryan said that the prolonged outages into next week would be concentrated along the Gulf Coast, close to where Beryl came ashore. During a news conference Thursday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed CenterPoint to work faster to relieve residents who have been without power for days and have been forced to seek air conditioning in community cooling centers and meals from food and water distribution points. Compounding their discomfort was a new band of rainstorms that swept through the Houston area Thursday. The rain provided brief relief from the heat before temperatures were expected to creep back above 32 Celsius over the weekend. "Folks, that is not acceptable," that half a million customers could still be without power a week after the storm, said Patrick, who is acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is in Asia on an economic development trip. Patrick and Abbott have both promised that the state will investigate the storm response. Texas has dealt with several major storms over the past two decades. "We are always going to have big storms in this area. ... We have to be sure they were prepared as they should have been," Patrick said. "It's a terrible situation for people who are in this heat." Patrick and Abbott also sparred with the White House over the timing of requests for federal declarations for the area, whether they would delay help for storm cleanup and other emergency expenses. The Category 1 hurricane — the weakest type — knocked out power to around 2.7 million customers after it made landfall, according to PowerOutage.us. Residents have been frustrated that such a relatively weak storm could cause such disruption at the height of summer. Some have criticized the utility and state and city officials as not ready for the storm, the slow restoration process, and that CenterPoint's online map has been woefully inaccurate, sometimes showing entire neighborhoods as restored when they were still without power. The company acknowledged that most of the 12,000 workers it brought in to help the recovery were not in the Houston area when the storm arrived. Initial forecasts had the storm blowing ashore much farther south along the Gulf Coast, near the Texas-Mexico border, before it headed toward Houston. Ryan said the vast majority of outages were caused by falling trees and tree limbs, and workers had to conduct damage surveys on some 13,700 kilometers of power lines. Beryl has been blamed for at least eight U.S. deaths — one each in Louisiana and Vermont, and six in Texas. Earlier, 11 died in the Caribbean. The storm's lingering impact for many in Texas, however, was the wallop to the power supply that left much of the nation's fourth-largest city sweltering. Mallary Cohee said her duplex in New Caney, about 48 kilometers north of Houston, has been without power since Monday. She said her "little country neighborhood" is a "hot mess" of downed trees, so she's staying at a Houston hotel. Cohee said she initially felt she could withstand the lack of air conditioning because she managed to get by without it in summer while serving a two-year prison sentence. "I thought, 'I can do this. I can ride it. If I can do time with no heat, no AC in there, I could possibly make it,'" Cohee said. "But it's a whole different ballgame when you don't even have a fan to plug in." Clean water was also becoming an issue. More than 160 boil water notices were in effect across the area, and more than 100 wastewater treatment plants were offline Thursday, said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The Texas Hospital Association said a "vast majority" of hospitals in the area are dealing with some kind of issue caused by Beryl, including water and wind damage, power and internet connection problems, staffing shortages or transportation problems. Carrie Kroll, the association's vice president of advocacy, public policy and political strategy, said hospitals are getting an "extremely high" number of people coming to emergency departments with symptoms of heat stroke and injuries from cleaning up debris. By Wednesday night, hospitals had already sent more than 100 patients who couldn't be released to homes with no power to a Houston sports and event complex with an area set up to hold up to 250, Office of Emergency Management spokesman Brent Taylor said. 

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new york — Donald Trump's lawyers on Thursday said Manhattan prosecutors improperly relied on evidence of the former U.S. president's official acts in securing his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star. In a court filing dated July 10 but made public on Thursday, defense lawyers said the guilty verdict should be set aside following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity. They said evidence of official acts that were improperly shown to the jury included Trump's conversations with former White House aide Hope Hicks and some of his Twitter posts while he was in office. "The use of official-acts evidence was a structural error under the federal Constitution," defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. "The jury's verdicts must be vacated." Justice Juan Merchan this month delayed Trump's sentencing by two months after defense lawyers said the justices' July 1 ruling that presidents cannot face criminal charges over official acts meant prosecutors should not have shown evidence from Trump's time in the White House at trial. They said that meant the Manhattan jury's May 30 guilty verdict in the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president could not stand. Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office have until July 24 to respond. They have previously called Trump's arguments meritless but agreed to push back the sentencing. Legal experts said Trump faces steep odds of getting the hush money conviction overturned because much of the case involves conduct before his presidency and the evidence from his time in the White House has more to do with private conduct. The Supreme Court's ruling stemmed from a separate case Trump faces on federal charges involving his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. It all but ensured Trump would not face trial in that case before the November 5 election. Trump's lawyers are also seeking a pause in a third criminal case on charges of mishandling classified documents because of the ruling. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. In the hush money case, Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer's $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump. Prosecutors say the payment was designed to boost his presidential campaign in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Supreme Court's decision said evidence of a president's official acts cannot be used in a prosecution on private matters. Merchan has said he will decide on Trump's arguments by September 6. If the conviction is upheld, Trump will be sentenced on September 18, less than seven weeks before the election.

Kampala, Uganda — A group including rights activists and a politician filed an appeal to Uganda's Supreme Court on Thursday, the latest step in a legal challenge to a ruling upholding the controversial anti-gay legislation adopted last year, their lawyer said.  In April, the Constitutional Court threw out a challenge to the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which is considered one of the harshest such laws in the world.   It imposes penalties of up to life in prison for consensual same-sex relations and contains provisions that make "aggravated homosexuality" an offense punishable by death.  The legislation and the April court ruling have been widely condemned by rights groups as well as by Western powers, including the United States.  The group had filed a formal notice of appeal against the court's decision in mid-April, contesting its determination that the law did not violate Uganda's constitution.  "The Constitutional Appeal challenging the Ugandan Constitutional Court's decision to uphold vast sections of the Anti-Homosexuality Act has been filed at the Supreme Court today," lawyer Nicholas Opiyo said on X on Thursday.  "We will wait for the Supreme Court's directions and are optimistic for an expedited hearing of the case," he said.  Opiyo told AFP that Thursday's filing was the latest step in the appeal process, following the lodging of a formal notice of appeal three months earlier.  "It is a process to complete the appeal and set it for the court to start the next step," he said.  The 22 petitioners include MP Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, a member of President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement, and prominent human rights defender Frank Mugisha.  The United States, which restricted visas for Ugandan officials and removed Kampala from a key trade pact after the law was adopted last year, warned after the April 3 ruling that it would take "appropriate measures."  Museveni's government has rejected concerns about the law, accusing the West of trying to pressure Africa into accepting homosexuality.  And the measures have enjoyed broad support in the conservative, predominantly Christian country.  Last August, a 20-year-old man became the first Ugandan to be charged with "aggravated homosexuality" under the contested law.  The World Bank announced the same month that it was suspending new loans to Uganda over the law.  There has been an anti-gay crackdown across Africa, often encouraged by conservative Muslims and Christians.  On Thursday, the government of junta-led Burkina Faso adopted a plan to ban homosexuality, becoming the latest African nation to do so despite international condemnation.  Homosexuality is illegal in around 30 African countries, and some of them like Ghana and Uganda have recently toughened anti-gay laws. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

The United Nations humanitarian agency says it is struggling to raise enough funds to tackle an alarming rate of food insecurity in Nigeria’s conflict-ridden northeast. Officials say a rising number of global crises are forcing countries that need help to compete for scarce resources. VOA Correspondent Timothy Obiezu reports from Dikwa in Borno state. Warning: The following video includes graphic images that some may find disturbing. View discretion is advised.