From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting.

The United States asked the United Nations Tuesday to blacklist 10 ships that carried banned items from North Korea.

The U.S. proposal said the ships conducted illegal ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products to North Korean vessels, or illegally transported North Korean coal to other countries for exports.

If none of the U.N.'s 15 Security Council member states reject the proposal by Thursday, it will be approved. That means that all countries will be required to ban the blacklisted ships from entering their ports.

The U.S. government is accusing North Korea of launching a crippling cyberattack that affected [thousands] hundreds of thousands of computers across the globe earlier this year.

U.S. Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert spoke to reporters at the White House on Tuesday.

"After careful investigation, the United States is publicly attributing the massive WannaCry cyberattack to North Korea. We do not make this allegation lightly. We do so with evidence, and we do so with partners.

Other governments and private companies agree. The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan have seen our analysis, and they join United States in denouncing North Korea for WannaCry.

Commercial partners have also acted. Microsoft traced the attack to cyber affiliates of the North Korean government, and others in the security community have contributed their analysis."

North Korea has long been suspected of distributing that computer virus which, as you heard, is called "WannaCry" in May. The virus prevented users in 150 countries from getting access to files on their computers or running computer programs.

This is VOA news.

Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a missile Tuesday at Saudi Arabia's capital, saying it was aimed at Riyadh's Yamama Palace.

The Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Houthis for nearly three years says it intercepted the missile.

State media reported there were no casualties.

The United Nations human rights office reports Saudi-led coalition airstrikes have killed at least 136 Yemeni civilians and injured 86 over the past two weeks.

Correspondent Lisa Schlein has more for VOA from the agency's headquarters in Geneva.

This surge in civilian casualties follows the killing of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital of Sana'a early this month. Saleh was killed by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels angry at his peace overtures to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's counter attack has been relentless. U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville says in the period from December 6 to 16, the Saudi-led coalition has carried out numerous airstrikes against Houthi targets.

These include a TV channel, a hospital and a prison compound packed with detainees. In one incident, he says a woman with her nine children returning home from a wedding party were killed in a coalition airstrike.

"We urge all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including their obligation to respect the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution."

Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.

A man convicted of plotting to kill Americans on behalf of the Islamic State terrorist group has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Twenty-eight-year-old David Wright was found guilty in October of five criminal charges for planning with his uncle and a friend to travel to New York to attempt to behead conservative blogger Pamela Geller, who angered Muslims by organizing a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest.

The plot to behead Geller was never carried out. Instead, Wright's uncle, Usamaah Rahim, was shot to death by police officers in Massachusetts after he advanced on them with a machete. Wright was arrested later that day.

Engineers are using cranes to lift the locomotive and cars of an Amtrak passenger train that derailed over a busy highway near Seattle, Washington, killing three people and injuring 100.

Federal investigators have recovered one of two data recorders and are questioning the crew as they started to figure out what caused the accident Monday morning.

They already know the train was traveling at 129 kilometers per hour at a stretch that should have been at 48 kilometers per hour.

You can find 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 Jones reporting from the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.