A roadside bomb in Iraq has killed an American service member and wounded one other, Pentagon officials said Monday. The bomb struck the Americans’ vehicle late Sunday as they were traveling in a convoy north of Tikrit, a U.S. military official told VOA on the condition of anonymity. Eric Pahon, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman, said the name of the deceased American was being held pending notification of next of kin. More than 5,000 American troops are in Iraq to advise and assist the Iraqi military and Kurdish peshmerga forces battling to retake parts of their country from Islamic State militants. This marks the thirteenth American death from hostile action in Iraq or Syria since the fight against Islamic State fighters began in 2014, according to the Pentagon. …

The White House says it is only interested in talking to North Korea if it is about the release of three Americans held by Pyongyang. The statement comes a day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed that the U.S. still has direct channels of communication with North Korean authorities and American officials are seeking a dialogue. But hours later, Tillerson’s remarks were undercut by President Donald Trump who said Tillerson is “wasting his time” speaking with Pyongyang. Despite Trump’s remarks, the White House said Monday that the president still has confidence in Tillerson. Asked at the daily briefing about Tillerson’s remarks, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “now is not the time to talk.” “The only conversations that have taken place, or that would, would be on bringing back Americans who have been detained like that with Otto (Warmbier, the late U.S. student), those were the type of conversations …

Police in Las Vegas, Nevada say a man opened fire on a country music concert late Sunday, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 200 others, in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. An edited list of mass shootings in the United States: June 2016: Gunman kills 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. December 2015: Couple kill 14 after storming California social services agency, are killed in gun battle with police. November 2015: Gunman kills three after storming Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic; is arrested after hours-long standoff with police. October 2015: Gunman kills nine at Oregon community college before being killed in gun battle with police. July 2015: Gunman kills five at U.S. Navy Reserve center in Tennessee before being shot and killed by police. June 2015: Gunman kills nine people in South Carolina church before fleeing, is captured the following day, awaiting …

Here’s what we know so far about the shooting in Las Vegas: A gunman opened fire on a country music festival near the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel on the Las Vegas strip. At least 50 people have been confirmed dead.  The gunman, identified as 64-year old Stephen Paddock, was found dead in his hotel room. Police found numerous firearms in the shooter’s hotel room The motive for the shooting is not known. …

The 2017 Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to three American scientists. Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young were awarded for their discoveries of the molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm. “Using fruit flies as a model organism, this year’s Nobel laureates isolated a gene that controls the normal daily biological rhythm,” the award committee said. “They showed that this gene encodes a protein that accumulates in the cell during the night, and is then degraded during the day.” Circadian rhythms adapt one’s physiology to different phases of the day, influencing sleep, behavior, hormone levels, body temperature and metabolism. The prize for physiology or medicine is first Nobel Prize awarded each year. The prizes for physics, chemistry, literature and peace will also be announced from Tuesday to Friday respectively; and the prize for economics on Monday, October 9. The prize comes with $1.1 million. Who are they? Jeffrey …

Police in Las Vegas, Nevada say a man opened fire on a country music concert late Sunday, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 200 others, in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters the attacker was on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino, located across the street from the outdoor venue where videos showed concertgoers ducking for cover, screaming and running as the repeated shots rang out. WATCH: Video footage from scene Lombardo said SWAT officers “engaged” the shooter, that he was dead, and that authorities found “numerous firearms” in the hotel room.  He identified the shooter as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, and said that an investigation into Paddock’s background was not finished, but that police believe he was the sole attacker and they would be searching his home. “We don’t know what his belief system was …

Social media giant Facebook is expected to provide Congress on Monday with more than 3,000 ads that ran around the time of the 2016 presidential election and are linked to a Russian ad agency. Company officials will meet with the House and Senate intelligence committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee to hand over the ads, a Facebook official said. The official requested anonymity because the meetings are private. Facebook said last month that it had found thousands of ads linked to Facebook accounts that likely operated out of Russia and pushed divisive social and political issues during the U.S. presidential election. The company said it found 450 accounts and about $100,000 was spent on the ads. Twitter has said it found postings linked to those same accounts, and the House and Senate intelligence panels have asked both companies, along with Google, to testify publicly in the coming weeks. None of …

Worldwide, fewer women are online than men. In the U.S., women still struggle to break into the tech industry and once there, many find it tough to thrive. On Oct. 5th, Voice of America will hold a town hall at the world’s largest gathering of women in technology in Orlando, Florida. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports. …

Facebook Inc founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg asked for forgiveness for ways his work was used to divide people in a Facebook posting marking the end of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday of atonement on Saturday. “For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask forgiveness and I will work to do better,” Zuckerberg said in the post. He did not refer to specific issues in the message, which comes as Facebook and other technology companies are under increased scrutiny amid a U.S. investigation into potential Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. Facebook said on September 6 it had found that an operation, likely based in Russia, spent $100,000 on thousands of U.S. ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May. Facebook, the dominant social media network, said 3,000 ads and 470 “inauthentic” accounts …

Several dozen NFL players, fewer than last week, chose to kneel during the U.S. national anthem before league games on Sunday, a day after President Donald Trump again demanded an end to a protest he sees as a sign of disrespect for the flag. At least 40 players, most of them on the San Francisco 49ers, bent a knee during pre-game renditions of the “Star-spangled Banner” in the 14 National Football League games played so far on Sunday, compared with 180 players in all 16 games a week earlier, according to published reports. The protests – initiated last year by Colin Kaepernick, then a 49ers quarterback – snowballed last week following calls by Trump for team owners to fire athletes who sat or knelt as the anthem played. Some African-American players have adopted the symbolic gesture of kneeling during the anthem to protest against police treatment of racial minorities. Critics …

U.S. and Bangladeshi officials will meet in Washington for talks this week focusing on regional security challenges, with the South Asian country dealing with an influx of Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar Deputy U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Michael Miller and Bangladesh Director General for the Americas at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abida Islam will chair the talks that begin October 3.  U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat will also take part. “Discussions will focus on regional security challenges as well as on efforts to expand partnerships in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping, defense trade, military cooperation, and counterterrorism, as well as maritime security and territorial defense,” the U.S Embassy in Dhaka said in a statement. US aid The State Department recently announced the U.S. was set to contribute $32 million worth of humanitarian aid to help the Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar’s Rakhine state.  U.S. …

U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to undercut his top diplomat Sunday, saying Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with North Korea’s leader. In a series of tweets the president said: “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” Hours later Trump elaborated, saying “being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t fail.” North Korea has made it clear it considers the “rocket man” moniker for Kim Jong Un, who succeeded his father at the time of Kim Jong Il’s death in 2011, to be highly insulting. ​State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, amid the president’s tweets, said on Twitter that North Korea “will not obtain a nuclear capability and whether that occurs through diplomacy and force “is up to the regime.” She added that diplomatic channels …

U.S. President Donald Trump said he told Secretary of State Rex Tillerson he is “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with North Korea’s leader. “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” Trump wrote Sunday on Twitter, referring to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man”. Saturday, the State Department said North Korea has shown no interest in pursuing talks on its nuclear and missile programs, after Tillerson acknowledged the United States has been communicating directly with Pyongyang. “North Korean officials have shown no indication that they are interested in or are ready for talks regarding denuclearization,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement, “despite assurances that the United States is not interested in promoting the collapse of the current regime, pursuing regime change, accelerating reunification of the peninsula or mobilizing forces north of the DMZ.” Tillerson was in Beijing on Saturday seeking China’s cooperation …

Iranian diplomats say they expect President Donald Trump to abandon the international deal restricting Tehran’s nuclear activities. They are intensifying their lobbying of European governments, especially the signatories to the agreement, France, Britain and Germany, hoping they can dissuade the U.S. administration from repudiating the agreement. And in the event the U.S. repudiates the deal, then Tehran is urging Europeans not to join Washington in re-imposing sanctions. The Iranians say if Europe and the other signatories, Russia and China, stick with the deal and don’t join a renewed sanctions regime, then Tehran will continue to adhere to the agreement. Iran’s foreign secretary, Mohammad Javad Zarif, highlighted that appeal in an interview with British newspapers published Saturday, warning that if Europe followed Washington’s lead if the Trump administration abandons the deal, Iran would resume uranium enrichment and other aspects of its nuclear program at a more advanced level than before the …

A Nevada prison official says O.J. Simpson, the former football legend and Hollywood star, has been released from a Nevada prison in Lovelock after serving nine years for armed robbery. Unlike when he walked free after his murder trial in 1995, Simpson faces parole supervision for another five years.  Nevada state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Keast told The Associated Press Simpson was released early Sunday. The 70-year-old Simpson told the parole board that he wanted to live in Florida. The Florida Department of Corrections said officials had not received a transfer request or required documents. Simpson was sent to prison in Nevada for a botched hotel-room heist of sports memorabilia 12 years after he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. …

Almost a week and a half after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, about half of the island’s 3.4 million residents still lack access to clean drinking water, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, while 95 percent remain without power. Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello noted, however, Saturday that some progress has been made. He said 51 of the island’s 60 hospitals are now open and airports and seaports are receiving shipments. “We have 100 percent of landline telephones working now,” Rossello said, “although we still don’t have the robust telecom network … we’re only at 33 percent.” Rossello said the island’s roads are being cleared, but there are still some communities where the hurricane’s devastation has made travel difficult. Trucks, diesel on the way The U.S. Defense Department said 100 trucks carrying diesel and gasoline fuel will arrive by barge in San Juan, the island’s capital and largest city, …

The White House said on Saturday it had ordered that Iran, Venezuela and four African nations be added to a U.S. list of countries accused of failing to crack down on human trafficking, a step that further isolates them from the United States. The White House said it also was increasing restrictions on North Korea, Eritrea, Russia and Syria, which already were on the list, by constraining them from engaging in educational or cultural exchange programs with the United States. In addition, President Donald Trump’s administration instructed the U.S. executive director of the International Monetary Fund and U.S. executive directors at other multilateral development banks to vote against extending loans or other funds to North Korea, Russia and Iran for fiscal year 2018, which begins Sunday. Under a 2000 U.S. law called the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the United States does not provide nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance to any country …

The ouster of Tom Price as President Donald Trump’s health secretary is yet another self-inflicted blow for Republicans wishing to put their own stamp on health care — and the latest distraction for a White House struggling to advance its agenda after months of turmoil. Price resigned Friday amid investigations into his use of costly charter flights for official travel at taxpayer expense. His exit makes it even more unlikely that Republicans will be able to deliver on their promise to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s law, even though they control the White House and both chambers of Congress. “I think health care is a dead letter through the next election,” Joe Antos, a policy expert with the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute, said Saturday. ​Momentum lost The health secretary’s exit capped a week in which a last-ditch GOP health care bill failed to advance in the Senate. Regaining …

Houston officials said Saturday that they’re already thinking about how to build and fund projects that will lessen the blow of the next storm, even as the nation’s fourth-largest city continues to recover from Harvey’s devastating floodwaters.  Leaders with the U.S. Conference of Mayors gathered in Houston to meet with Mayor Sylvester Turner. They discussed how Houston is working to rebuild and what other communities can learn from its experience.   Top priorities Turner has said his top two priorities in Houston’s recovery are removing the 8 million cubic yards of debris that Harvey left behind and finding permanent housing for the hundreds of Houston-area residents who remain in shelters. Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane Aug. 25 and dumped more than 50 inches of rain in some areas around the city after weakening to a tropical storm.   But Turner said Saturday that trying to move forward …