From Washington,this is VOA News.

Thousands of protesters have arrived outside the residence of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in Bangkok, demanding political reforms and the resignation of the Thai leader.

There were minor scuffles between protesters and police Sunday as tens of thousands of marchers gathered in other parts of the capital city in preparation for a mass demonstration.

Street protesters have been demanding for weeks that caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck step down ahead of the February 2 elections. Protesters say they want a suspension of democracy and the installation of an unelected "people's council" until new elections are held sometime in 2015.

Ms. Yingluck dissolved parliament on December 9 and called the snap poll in an attempt to defuse tensions, but opposition against her remains strong.

Libyan officials say a suicide car bomber has attacked an eastern military checkpoint, killing six people and wounding at least eight other people.

Authorities say the attack happened Sunday about 50 kilometers outside Libya's restive city of Benghazi.

The security situation has sharply deteriorated in Libya's second-largest city in the past few months. Most countries has closed their consulates in Benghazi after a series of attacks. The U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi in September 2012 during an Islamist assault on the consulate.

The U.S. military says unidentified gunmen have opened fire on U.S. aircraft flying in to a rebel-held area of South Sudan to evacuate American citizens. Four U.S. military service personnel were reported wounded.

The incident took place on Saturday as U.S. forces were trying to rescue Americans from the heavily-contested town of Bor, north of the capital, Juba. The mission was aborted and all three planes were diverted to neighboring Uganda.

VOA's Hanna McNeish is in Juba.

"There is still a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew in place and there are military tanks and 'technicals' [armored vehicles] and a lot of men with guns sitting on every street corner. But it is nothing compared to the situation outside the capital. We've got fighting in Jonglei state, where rebels have taken over the state capital, Bor. We've also got heavy fighting, apparently, in Unity state, where the oil fields and rebels are battling government forces for control of these."

Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid says current tensions over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in the United States will not harm the relationship between the two countries.
 
Khurshid told reporters in New Delhi Saturday that India has a valuable relationship with the United States that should not be affected by one incident. He called for further talks to resolve the case of Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested in New York on charges of visa fraud and exploitation of a maid, whom she brought from India.

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was reunited with his family in Berlin on Saturday, a day after being released from a decade-long imprisonment in Russia.

Khodorkovsky's spokesman says he met with his oldest son, Pavel, and his parents, Marina and Boris, who flew to Berlin to see him.

Marieluise Beck, a member of Germany's parliament and a supporter of Khodorkovsky, also met with him. She said she has been "fighting for his freedom" for year but not met him before.

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