Their concert turned into a siege, and now their lives may become a battle. The staggering count of people injured in the shooting at a Las Vegas music festival means their recoveries are likely to be as varied as the victims themselves. Some injuries are as simple as broken bones, others gunshot wounds involving multiple surgeries and potential transplants, and all come with the added emotional scars of enduring the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history, with 59 killed.   At least 130 people remained hospitalized Tuesday, with 45 listed in critical condition. Hospitals said 185 others had already been released. At Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center alone, the count of those treated included 120 people who were struck by gunfire, a glimpse of the amount of ammunition unleashed in the attack. Rehabilitation for the most seriously hurt victims will take far longer than many may realize. “Years,” said Dr. …

North Korea’s U.N. ambassador accused the United States on Tuesday of imposing “an economic blockade” on his country and deploying nuclear assets on the Korean Peninsula aimed at toppling leader Kim Jong Un. Ja Song Nam said the U.S. push for countries to implement what he called “illegal and unjustifiable” U.N. sanctions on North Korea is part of America’s “frantic attempt to completely block our peaceful economy for people’s everyday lives and humanitarian cooperation.” “The U.S. is clinging to unprecedented nuclear threats and blackmail, economic sanctions and blockade to deny our rights to existence and development, but they only result in our sharper vigilance and greater courage,” he told the General Assembly committee that deals with economic and financial issues. The U.N. Security Council has imposed its toughest sanctions ever on North Korea in response to its continuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests, with the aim of pressuring Kim’s …

The outgoing head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency urged analysts there to “speak truth to power” despite any political pressures they may face. Marine Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart made the plea Tuesday at a change of command ceremony at DIA headquarters outside of Washington. “Speaking with honesty and integrity that which is a highly inconvenient truth is never easy but it has never been more important,” he told the agency’s intelligence analysts. “Always speak truth to power, no matter the cost,” Stewart said. “There’s no shortage of opinion, informed or otherwise, in government and elsewhere, about how intelligence analysis should be conducted.” “Unless we are forthright, honest and candid we cannot fulfill our oath,” he said. Lingering tensions Stewart’s comments come as there has been lingering tensions between the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and some in the U.S. intelligence community over Russia’s actions during the 2016 presidential …

A few months before he was killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Christopher Roybal tried to explain the toll of combat in Afghanistan on those serving in the American military. “What’s it like to be shot at? It’s a nightmare no amount of drugs, no amount of therapy and no amount of drunk talks with your war veteran buddies will ever be able to escape,” the Navy veteran wrote on Facebook in July. After surviving 11 months in Afghanistan, Roybal, 28, was killed on Sunday night along with 58 others during a shooting spree by a Nevada man who rained fire from a 32nd-floor window of the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd at a nearby country music festival. “I just had the worst feeling. His guard was down. This isn’t where he was expecting something bad to happen to him,” his wife, Dixie Roybal, told …

Las Vegas sheriff Joseph Lombardo says he “absolutely believes” investigators will find a motive for the worst mass slaying in U.S. history. Investigators are mystified about why Stephen Paddock, 64 — a man who was financially well off and with no criminal record or apparent political or religious ties — opened fire on a country music show Sunday night, killing 59 and wounding 527. Lombardo said Tuesday at a news conference that this was obviously an extensively premeditated massacre. He said he was pretty sure Paddock evaluated everything he did. “We cannot even rule out mental illness or some form of brain damage, although there’s no evidence of that either,” a Department of Homeland Security official said Tuesday. The sheriff gave few details of what investigators had found so far. But he did say Paddock fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino for nine minutes …

Reaction has been mixed to the United States informing the Cuban government that it is ordering the departure of 15 officials from the Cuban embassy in Washington.   A senior State Department official told reporters Tuesday the Cuban diplomats have seven days to leave the country. The announcement comes less than a week after the U.S. reduced its diplomatic presence in Havana following mysterious attacks on U.S. personnel in Cuba. The senior State Department official also said the number of American diplomats “medically confirmed” to have experienced health attacks in Havana has now been raised from 21 to 22. Cuba has denied involvement in the attacks and said it is cooperating with the U.S. investigation. On Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriquez issued a statement calling the expulsions unwarranted. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly protests and condemns this unfounded and unacceptable decision as well as the pretext used to justify …

The Harvey relief fund established by Houston’s top elected leaders has issued its first grants, giving out $7.5 million to 28 organizations with an emphasis on getting people still displaced by the storm into temporary housing. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and other leaders of the fund announced the grants Tuesday. They amount to less than 10 percent of the nearly $80 million raised so far by the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund. More grants are expected to go out next month. The groups receiving money are expected to spend it within 90 days and report back to the relief fund’s board on how they used the money. Nearly half of the organizations say their purpose for the money is to provide temporary housing or home repair. Several groups also have committed to using the money for case management, linking people in need of help with the …

The Russian Foreign Ministry, saying U.S. officials had broken into residences at Russia’s consulate in San Francisco, has threatened retaliation over what it called an illegal act. Russian staff left the consulate last month, after Washington ordered Moscow to vacate some of its diplomatic properties. The moves were part of a series of tit-for-tat actions during a thorny phase in bilateral relations. Since then, U.S. officials had occupied administrative parts of the compound, but on Monday they entered residential areas that the departing staff had locked, the ministry said in a statement late Monday. “Despite our warnings, the U.S. authorities did not listen to reason and did not give up their illegal intentions,” it said. “We reserve the right to respond. The principle of reciprocity has always been and remains the cornerstone of diplomacy.” Footage aired repeatedly on Russian state television showed what the broadcaster said were U.S. officials breaking …

President Donald Trump’s emerging Afghan policy has hit Pakistan hard in three sensitive areas: its tangled, acrimonious relationship with India, the denial that terrorist groups operate in its territory, and allegations that it is fomenting trouble in neighboring Afghanistan. Islamabad contends that it has been an effective partner in the U.S. war on terrorism, has suffered greatly as a result and wants nothing more than a peaceful Afghanistan on its border. That’s the message that Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif will most likely reiterate on a visit to Washington to meet with U.S. officials on mending tattered relations. Pakistan is stinging from Trump’s long-awaited policy, which focused on bolstering support for Kabul’s fight against militants like the Taliban, fostering the growing relationship between Afghanistan and India, and pressuring increasingly conservative Pakistan to do more to root out militant groups, some of which have been linked to its intelligence services. Russia, …

House Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday grilled Equifax’s former chief executive over the massive data hack of the personal information of 145 million Americans, calling the company’s response inadequate as consumers struggle to deal with the breach.  Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith apologized for the compromise of such information as names, addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers. Smith was the lone witness at the first of several Capitol Hill hearings this week. No current Equifax official testified. “The criminal hack happened on my watch, and as CEO, I am ultimately responsible, and I take full responsibility,” Smith said. “I am here today to say to each and every person affected by this breach, I am truly and deeply sorry for what happened.” Democrats favor legislation that they say would establish strong data security standards and prompt notification and relief for consumers when their information is hacked. But Republicans tamped …

Police in the western state of Nevada have recovered 23 firearms from the Las Vegas hotel room where a man carried out the worst mass shooting by a single gunman in recent U.S. history. Authorities found another 19 guns at one of his homes and searched another house.  Officials identified the shooter as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada.  They said late Monday that 59 people were dead and 527 injured in the attack. What is not clear yet is why the gunman, located on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, shot at the crowd of 22,000 people on the Las Vegas Strip as they listened to country star Jason Aldean play late Sunday. “We’re hunting down and tracing down every single clue that we can get in his background,” Clark County Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo told reporters.  Watch: Shooter’s motive a mystery Fasulo reiterated that …

The U.S. will either ask or order the Cuban government to reduce its staff at the Cuban embassy in Washington, according to several media reports citing Trump administration sources. Those reports come less than a week after the U.S. reduced its diplomatic presence in Havana following mysterious attacks on U.S. personnel in Cuba. A U.S. State Department official told VOA to “stay tuned” when asked if an announcement on the matter would be made Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. will ask Cuba to withdraw 60 percent of its staff from Washington, while the Miami Herald and Reuters said the Trump administration would order Cuba to draw down its embassy staff by two-thirds. On Friday the State Department announced it would pull all non-essential diplomatic personnel out of Cuba in response to “health attacks” on 21 American diplomats in Havana. Over the past several months those employees reported …

U.S. rock legend Tom Petty has died after a cardiac arrest at his Malibu California home. He was 66-years-old. Petty’s family said he was taken to the hospital early Monday, but could not be revived. They said he died Monday evening “surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.” The rock star wrapped his most recent tour last week at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In December, Petty told Rolling Stone that he thought this would be the group’s last tour together. He said, “It’s very likely we’ll keep playing, but will we take on 50 shows in one tour? I don’t think so. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was thinking this might be the last big one.” “It’s shocking, crushing news,” Petty’s friend and Traveling Wilburys bandmate Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone magazine in a statement. “I thought the world of Tom. He was great performer, …

U.S. police could not identify any clues on what motivated suspected shooter Stephen Paddock to go on a shooting spree in Las Vegas, which left at least 59 people dead and nearly 600 wounded. The suspect’s brother says the family is as shocked as everyone else. U.S. President Donald Trump has called Sunday night’s shooting an act of pure evil. He plans to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more. …

Studies show mass killings have tripled in the past few years. A massacre Sunday night in Las Vegas left 59 people dead as a gunman in a hotel fired upon thousands of people below who were attending a music festival. Until that tragedy, last year’s shooting at an Orlando nightclub was the deadliest in U.S. history. Forty-nine people died when a gunman opened fire on club-goers. In 2012, a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7 years old, as well as six others, including the shooter’s mother and staff and teachers at the school. Watch: Profile of mass killers Mass killers used trucks filled with fertilizer to create an explosion that left 168 people dead at the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The land is now filled with empty chairs, each etched with the name …

Police in Las Vegas, Nevada say a man opened fire on a country music concert late Sunday, killing 59 people and wounding 527 others, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. An edited list of mass shootings that have taken place in other parts of the world: Paris, France November, 2015 Terrorists claiming allegiance to Islamic State carried out several coordinated attacks in the city, including shootings of pedestrians on the street and a mass shootings at the Bataclan theatre. One hundred and thirty people were killed in the combined attacks. Paris, France January, 2015 Islamist gunmen stormed the office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly magazine, and killed 12 people, including the paper’s top editors and cartoonists, in anger over its satirical cartoons of Islamic terrorists and the Prophet Muhammad. Nairobi, Kenya September, 2013 Al-Shabab Islamist militants, who are based in Somalia, attacked the upscale Westgate mall …

On the day of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, the United Nations observed its annual International Day of Non-Violence with the words of Mahatma Gandhi. “Nothing enduring can be built on violence,” General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak said Monday, quoting the late Indian independence leader. “The United Nations must act as a constant reminder of this,” Lajcak, the Slovak ambassador, said. “It must not only work through non-violence, but it must inspire others to do so too.” Ten years ago, the U.N. declared Oct. 2 a day dedicated to non-violence in honor of Gandhi’s birthday in 1869. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday he was “shocked and alarmed” by the Las Vegas massacre and plans to write a condolence letter for the victims. …