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From Washington, this is VOA news. A British hostage is executed by the Islamic State terrorists. The White House insists no ban on travel to and from West Africa. I'm Vincent Bruce reporting from Washington.
The group calling itself the Islamic State group says it has executed British hostage Alan Henning. The terrorist group released a video late Friday purportedly showing Henning being beheaded. If confirmed, it will be the Islamic State's fourth beheading of captive foreigners in recent weeks. The Islamic State said the man will be beheaded in retaliation for strikes by a U.S.-led coalition on their positions in Iraq. The terror group continued their advance on the northern Syrian town of Kobane near the Turkish border Friday. There, Turkish fighters have been struggling to repel them for weeks. The assault has forced more than 160,000 Syrians to flee into Turkey. Turkey has vowed to do whatever it can to keep Kobane from falling to the Islamic State fighters. Also, Australia's cabinet Friday approved airstrikes and the deployment of special forces to fight against Islamic State fighters in Iraq. The White House says that a ban on travel to Ebola-affected countries in West Africa would be counter productive. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki at a Friday briefing: "WHO and CDC have not recommended that we cut off travel from these countries, because it remains essential that the world community engage in order to help the affected countries address and contain this ongoing health crisis." Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco also said airport screening procedures are keeping ill people off their planes. For more on all these stories, visit us at our website voanews.com. This is VOA news. In Hong Kong, pro-democracy protest leaders have called off talks with the government after threatening to do so if action was not taken to protect demonstrators. In a joint statement Friday, protest groups said "organized attacks" on demonstrators must stop. At the same time, Hong Kong police have urged protesters to remain peaceful. In a news briefing Friday, chief superintendent of police Public Relations Branch Hui Chun-tak said they do not want to use force. "I stress that the police will exercise the greatest tolerance, but I ask the protesters to cooperate with the police." Hong Kong police said they were forced to intervene Friday when street fights broke out between pro-democracy protesters and frustrated residents who oppose the week-long protests. In Mali, nine United Nations peacekeepers from Niger have been killed and others wounded in an ambush on Friday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called it the deadliest attack committed against members of the peacekeeping mission. He has called on armed groups in northern Mali to abide by their declaration of September 16th in Algiers to restrain from attack against peacekeepers. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged support for Afghanistan's new president and the country's new unity government, but says the country can defend itself now. Cameron issued his statement Friday during a surprise visit to Kabul, where he met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Mr. Cameron said an Afghanistan free from al-Qaeda is in Britain's best interest. "Britain has paid a heavy price for helping to bring stability to this country. But this is where al-Qaeda trained their terrorists. This is where 9/11 and countless terror plots were hatched. An Afghanistan free from al-Qaeda is in our national interest as well as Afghanistan's. And now, 13 long years later, Afghanistan can and must deliver its own security." Britain currently has 3,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force. At least 32 people are dead in eastern India after a stampede Friday at a Hindu festival. Bihar state officials say the stampede occurred in the state capital of Patna as groups were leaving the festival, known as Dussehra. It's unclear what triggered the panic. U.S. unemployment rate fell to a six-year low 5.9 percent in September. The report Friday from the Labor department also says the economy had a net gain of 248,000 jobs. Both figures stronger than most economists had predicted. And across the board in the U.S., the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ Indexes were all up. I'm Vincent Bruce in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |