VOA NEWS

January 2, 2016

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Molly Johnson reporting. Pro-government fighters in Yemen attacked and killed a senior al-Qaeda leader and three other people traveling in a convoy in the southern Abyan province of Yemen today.



Ali Abed al-Rab bin Talab, better known as Abu Anwar, was a chief judge for the extremist group in Yemen. He survived a suspected drone attack in 2014.



In spite of terror attacks, people around the world welcomed the New Year with hopes for less terrorism, less violence and improved economic conditions.

In spite of warnings about possible terrorist plots that caused heightened security [preconcerns] precautions in many population centers, New Year celebrations went off almost happy and untroubled.

In Munich, trains ran on time this first day of the New Year. Police in southern Germany lifted a terror alert in the city hours after evacuating two train stations to prevent a feared New Year's Eve suicide attack by extremists from the Islamic State group.

German counter-terror officials continued to insist it was not a false alarm.



Authorities are trying to determine what caused an inferno at a high-rise luxury hotel in downtown Dubai that burned during the city's New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza.

The flames at The Address Hotel provided a dramatic backdrop for hundreds of thousands of people watching a nearby fireworks display.

Among them, VOA's Margaret Besheer, who is spending the holiday in Dubai, says she saw smoke coming out of the building at 5 p.m.

"Authorities here are saying that the internal parts of the hotel were not gutted by the fire. I think it had a very advanced sprinkler system that kept the fire from spreading internally. But the facade is really badly damaged on the north side of the building."

Besheer noted it was a "bit surreal" watching a fireworks show on one side of the street, with the fire on the other.



This is VOA news.



An explosion struck Afghan's capital Friday evening, killing one and wounding 11 people, according to officials. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack in Kabul, saying one of its suicide bombers carried it out and claiming that the target was a restaurant that caters to foreigners.

The blast hit a central residential area of the city, which is home to many Afghan officials and where guesthouses are located.



The Somali militant group al-Shabaab has released a new recruiting video that highlights U.S. police shootings and the call by presidential candidate Donald Trump to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

The video released today may have been the first [incident] instance of a U.S.-designated terror group using Trump's call or other current issues in the U.S. to attract followers online.

After the clip, an unidentified spokesman asserts that Muslims in the U.S. must choose between leaving the country or taking up the cause of holy war.



India's capital begins this New Year with an experiment designed to reduce the city's record-breaking air pollution.

[Today] Starting today and for two weeks, cars with odd-numbered license plates will be allowed on New Delhi streets and will be allowed on odd-numbered days. Cars with even-numbered plates will be allowed on even numbered days.

It's a two-week-long trial which ends January 15 and is designed to limit the number of private cars on the capital's streets.

Drivers are set to be following the rules today. But skeptics say with schools and some offices closed for the New Year's holiday, they still don't have a real idea of how motorists will adhere to the restrictions.



The U.S. Justice Department says they have arrested a New York state resident accused of planning a New Year's Eve attack in the name of the Islamic State group.

During Thursday's initial court appearance, 25-year-old Emanuel Lutchman was charged with attempting to provide material support to the IS.



And there is a manhunt in Tel Aviv after an unidentified gunman killed two people and wounded three others on a busy street in Israel's second largest city.

The security camera footage aired on Israeli television showing the assailant who appeared to be in his mid to late 20s were in protective eyeglasses and a windbreaker browsing at a deli and then pulling a gun from his backpack, stepping back and beginning to shoot.

Meantime, Israel has transferred the bodies of 23 Palestinians killed in a recent wave of attacks on Israelis back to Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank.



North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used his New Year's Day address to focus primarily on the importance of economic development, avoiding explicit threats or references to his country's nuclear weapons program.

The dictator sported plastic-framed glasses and his signature [shaved-head] shaved-sides haircut and spoke of the need to turn around economic development.



I'm Molly Johnson in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.