Dubai - VOA news for Sunday, September 25th, 2016

VOA news for Sunday, September 25th, 2016 Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting. Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, have released video footage of the fatal shooting of a black man by police officers that set off violent demonstrations there earlier this week. Charlotte police chief Kerr Putney said Saturday that the footage is being released because it would not negatively affect the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation's inquiry into the shooting. "We're releasing evidence that we believe, based on our fact-finding mission, that it will give you indisputable evidence that the facts we started with are the facts that remain today based on two independent investigations open to this point.” Community activists have been calling for days for Putney to release the body cam and dash cam video of the shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott. Scott's family has viewed the videos and called on Putney to release them to the public. On Friday, the Scott family released amateur video of the incident shot by Scott's wife where police are heard telling Scott to drop the gun several times before firing. President Barack Obama and members of a family that spent four generations rang a bell from an African-American church to herald the official opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture Saturday. Mr. Obama told the thousands gathered at the museum that it shows how protest and patriotism inform of one another. "... that African-American history is not somehow separate from our larger American story. It's not the underside of the American story, it is central to the American story.” Others at the ceremony included former President George W. Bush, who signed the bill authorizing construction of the museum, and Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who called it "a dream come true.” This is VOA news. Syrian government forces and their allies recaptured a strategically located Palestinian refugee camp on the northern outskirts of the city of Aleppo. That came amid heavy Russian airstrikes on rebel-held eastern sectors of the city. As Edward Yeranian reports, the strikes flattened buildings, killed and wounded scores of people and left thousands without water. Amateur video showed multistory buildings that had collapsed under intense Russian and Syrian government airstrikes Saturday on the rebel-held eastern sector of the city. Bomb craters were visible amid the rubble of some buildings. Syrian government media claimed that Syrian and Russian warplanes were targeting ammunition depots inside rebel-held areas, causing buildings to collapse. VOA could not independently verify the claim. The surge in airstrikes began late Wednesday after the Syrian government announced a renewed offensive to recapture all of Aleppo. That move came after the U.S. and Russia were unable to salvage a cease-fire that had lasted for nearly a week. Edward Yeranian, for VOA news, Cairo. European leaders gathered in Vienna Saturday to discuss how to better fortify the EU's outer borders against illegal migration and trafficking. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that stopping illegal immigration and human trafficking are what she called "essential elements" of the way forward. She said "on the one hand, it is necessary to discuss with Turkey the last conditions that are not yet fulfilled. Yet on the other hand, it is also necessary that especially Greece enforces the one-to-one mechanism, namely the sending back of refugees that are arriving illegally.” Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said three major points were discussed - the expansion of Frontex to strengthen the protection of the borders of the EU. Also on the agenda was the speeding up of Greece's asylum process [as the] and the EU-Turkey deal and the speeding up of similar agreements with other non-member states. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump say they will suspend weekend preparations for Monday's first presidential debate when they meet separately Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu's office declined to say where the meetings would be held. Trump's campaign staff telephoned the Israeli prime minister's office to arrange their meeting after finding out the Israeli leader was scheduled to meet with Clinton, his Democratic opponent. The first presidential debate is Monday in Hempstead, New York. And, authorities in Iraq say an attack on a checkpoint killed at least 12 people in Salahuddin province. Twenty-three others were wounded. I'm David Byrd in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA.