From Washington,this is VOA News.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling for calm in South Sudan's capital Juba, where the government says it is fighting off a coup attempt.

Mr. Ban spoke by phone Tuesday with South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and expressed concern about the reports that, in his words, certain communities are being targeted.

Government officials say least 26 people have been killed at the latest violence and thousands have been displaced.

VOA's Gabe Joselow reports.

Witnesses in Juba heard sporadic gunshots and heavy artillery fire throughout the day, as soldiers patrolled the streets.
 
On Monday, President Salva Kiir declared a nighttime curfew in the city, after fighting broke out between soldiers at army headquarters.
 
Mr Kiir said the violence was part of an attempted coup by the supporters of former Vice President Riek Machar, although the details of how the fighting started are murky.

Security forces have also been going door-to-door, searching for those blamed for the fighting. A number of former government ministers have been arrested, while Machar’s whereabouts are unknown.
 
Marchar announced an outspoken critic of Mr Kiir has declared his own intentions to run for president and was fired from his post during a Cabinet reshuffle in July.

Gabe Joselow VOA News,NAIROBI.

Six American soldiers died in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan Tuesday.

NATO officials say there were no reports of insurgent gunfire at the time of the crash, which occured in Zabul province.

A Pentagon official told VOA that one U.S. soldier survived and is injured. The preliminary cause of the crash appears to be engine failure.

The U.S. government is expected to appeal a judge's ruling that the National Security Agency's secret collection of telephone records from millions of Americans is likely unconstitutional.

The decision has triggered new conjecture about the legality of U.S. surveillance. Former national security contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked a vast trove of details about the U.S. spying before fleeing to asylum in Russia, praised the ruling, but two national security legal experts told VOA Tuesday that courts could ultimately uphold the government surveillance.

Russia and European Union are planning a tug of war of the future of Ukraine.

VOA's James Brooke explains.

In a bold move to keep Ukraine in Moscow’s sphere of influence, Russia’s president has offered Ukraine $15 billion in loans and a sharp discount on natural gas prices.

Vladimir Putin made the offer to Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday in an effort to block Ukraine from moving toward the European Union. Last month, President Yanukovych unexpectedly backed out of signing a trade and political pact with the EU.

Meeting in the Kremlin, the Russian president cautioned that his offer to cut gas prices is conditional.

President Yanukovych accepted the aid offer without disclosing the conditions; but, he knew that he would return home to face hostile protesters.

James Brooke VOA News KYIV .

Diplomatic tension is growing between the United States and India Tuesday following last week's arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York City.

Indian authorities asked U.S. consular officers to return their identity cards, rescinded airport passes and removed concrete security barriers from in front of the U.S. embassy in New Delhi.

The moves appear to be in retaliation for the arrest and allegedly heavy-handed treatment of Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general.

There are reports Khobragade was handcuffed in public, later strip searched and briefly held in a jail with drug addicts. She was released on a bail of $250,000 after pleading not guilty.

Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid says the treat of the diplomat was humiliating. In a diplomatic rebuff, Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde cancelled his meeting with a five-member delegation of U.S. congress members visiting New Delhi.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has announced in his visit to Manila $40 million in new military aid to the Philippines

The aid will help improve the Philippines' maritime defense capabilities and boost counterterrorism operations against a Muslim insurgency in the south.