VOA news for Thursday, October 5th, 2017
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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Smith reporting.
The lawyer for the girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock said the woman had no idea Paddock was planning any violence.
Marilou Danley spent much of the day Wednesday being questioned by FBI agents in Los Angeles, where she arrived from the Philippines.
Danley's lawyer told reporters she was in the Philippines to visit family. Paddock sent her $100,000 while she was there, telling her to buy a house.
Danley was worried Paddock was breaking up with her, her lawyer said, adding that Danley regarded Paddock as a "caring and quiet man.”
While investigators unraveled the mystery of what caused this man to kill 58 and wound nearly 500 others, President Trump was in Las Vegas, consoling victims and meeting with police and emergency workers.
The Senate Intelligence Committee revealed it is continuing to investigate whether elements of President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election. They are also warning that Russian meddling could expand and threaten future elections.
"The issue of collusion is still open," said the committee's chairman, a Republican, Richard Burr of North Carolina. He told reporters Wednesday "We have more work to do as it relates to collusion, but we're developing a clearer picture of what happened.”
Despite dropping no bombshells about President Trump's inner circle, Burr and the committee's ranking Democrat, Mark Warner of Virginia, said they felt compelled to go public with other conclusions reached so far.
Warner said, "The Russian active measures did not end on Election Day 2016.”
This is VOA news.
President Trump has reaffirmed his "total confidence" in Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hours after an explosive story about tensions between the two men captured the spotlight.
Trump's remarks came just hours after Tillerson himself refuted reports that he is on the verge of resigning.
"I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that. I mean this is what I don't understand about Washington. Again, I'm not from this place. But the places I come from, we don't deal with that kind of petty nonsense. And it is intended to do nothing but divide people, and I'm just not going to be part of this effort to divide this administration.”
NBC News reported that Tillerson had called President Trump a "moron" following a meeting with other top officials at the Pentagon in July. When asked about the comment Wednesday, Tillerson did not deny it.
A U.N. watchdog group accuses North Korea of violence against its children, including torture in detention, corporal punishment in school and hard labor. North Korea is one of eight countries that [was] were examined by a U.N. committee that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Correspondent Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.
Among its many concerns, the 18-member U.N. committee cites the lack of legal provisions in North Korea guaranteeing children will be free from torture and other cruel or degrading treatment or punishment.
Committee member Kirsten Sandberg tells VOA the law in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK, does not prohibit child labor.
"Children in DPRK spend a considerable amount of the time that should be allocated to education performing different types of labor.”
Another disturbing practice is that of enlisting children 16 or 17 years of age into a military style youth brigade for 10 years, where they are forced to work long hours at hard, physical labor.
Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.
American officials say President Trump is set to deliver a speech next week in which he will make known his decision on whether the United States will remain in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several world powers.
The Associated Press reports the speech has been tentatively scheduled for October 12, just ahead of the October 15 deadline Trump faces to tell Congress if he believes Iran is complying with the deal.
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 Jonathan Smith reporting from the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington.
That's the latest world news from VOA.

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