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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting.
Five people have been killed and eight others wounded in a shooting at Fort Lauderdale-International Airport. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the incident happened in a baggage claim area in one of the airport terminals. Israel said police apprehended the gunman identified as 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, an Iraq war veteran and former Alaska National Guardsman. "We the shooter in custody. He is unharmed. No law enforcement fired any shots." A Broward County commissioner said the gunman had a pistol in a piece of checked luggage. After claiming the bag, Santiago went into a bathroom, loaded the gun and came out, started shooting. Governor Rick Scott said that his priority is keeping the public safe. "My number one priority right here, right now in Florida is to keep everybody safe - everybody (that) lives in our state, everybody that travels to our state - do everything we can to keep them safe." Scott urged Florida residents to pray for those injured in the attack and for the families and friends of those killed. The airport has been closed until further notice. The U.S. Congress on Friday certified the Electoral College result that gave Republican Donald Trump the victory in the 2016 presidential election. Vice President Joe Biden announced the certification. "This announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the United States each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January, 2017, and shall be entered, together with the list of the votes, on the Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives." Trump takes the oath of office January 20. This is VOA news. President-elect Donald Trump, who has dismissed the idea that Russia hacked into the recent presidential election, received a full classified briefing Friday from top U.S. intelligence officials. The president-elect later released a statement calling the meeting "constructive" and said he has "tremendous respect" for those who work in the intelligence community. However, he did not explicitly endorse the view of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had hacked the Democratic National Committee's computers and released damaging information to aid Trump's bid to become president. Vice President-elect Mike Pence said outside the Trump Tower that the new administration would take action to combat cyberattacks. "The president-elect has made it very clear that we are going to take aggressive action in the early days of our new administration to combat cyberattacks and protect the security of the American people from this type of intrusion in the future." Trump's response came as a new declassified intelligence report said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin aspired to influence the U.S. election in revenge for Hillary Clinton's statements about Russia's election while she was secretary of state. The report released Friday says Putin wanted to undermine the public faith in the democratic process, denigrate Clinton and had a clear preference for Donald Trump. Trump said in his statement that there was "absolutely no effect" on the outcome of the election. Winter storm warnings have been issued for parts of Alabama and Georgia, including Atlanta, as a winter storm bears down on the southeastern United States. In Atlanta, memories of a catastrophic snow and ice storm in 2014 are still fresh, and city leaders pleaded with motorists not to venture out onto slick highways. Natalie Dale of the Georgia Department of Transportation says Atlanta officials are doing all they can to make trouble safe. Forecasters say five to ten centimeters of snow could cover much of Georgia by Saturday morning. The U.S. unemployment rate rose one-tenth of one percent to hit 4.7 percent in December. Friday's report from the Labor Department says the economy had a net gain of 156,000 jobs. Meanwhile, Wall Street flirted with the 20,000 mark. The Dow Jones Industrial Average came within a half point of that milestone but closed below that mark as an afternoon rally lost momentum. For more on these stories, visit our website voanews.com. I'm David Byrd in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |