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From Washington, this is VOA news. Hello, I'm Steve Miller.
Armed British police searched a home Saturday in a London suburb of Sunbury. Authorities said an 18-year-old man was arrested in a port area of Dover. A police statement called that arrest "significant." London Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told reporters Saturday that the threat level has been altered. "We have a very considerable threat. My colleagues in the intelligence agency would say that this is a shift in threat, it's not a spike." Earlier Saturday, London Transit authorities said they had reopened the Parsons Green station where the bomb on a train partially detonated. About three thousand leftist, activists and migrants marched through central Athens Saturday to honor the memory of activist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, [a] who was murdered by (a) neo-Nazi sympathizer four years ago, and American Heather Heyer killed last month in Charlottesville, Virginia. Bezhan Hamdard has the details. The protesters marched past the U.S. Embassy on their way to the main offices of extreme-right, anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party, demanding that the offices shut down and party members jailed. Police wouldn't let the march reach the Golden Dawn headquarters and had some firebombs thrown at them. Police responded with tear gas. The marchers have mostly dispersed, but a small group did throw fire bombs outside police headquarters and three have been detained. More than 700 mayors in Catalonia met in Barcelona and in a show of strength amid pressure from Spain's central government not to hold an independence referendum Political tensions in Spain are increasing as the proposed voting date of October 1 approaches. The Catalan government has been scrambling to push for the vote despite the central government's warnings. This is VOA news. Local activists say police and soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo opened fire on Burundian refugees protesting over a plan to return some of them to their homeland. At least 36 refugees are reported dead. Matthew Larotonda reports. Local activists say soldiers and police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed dozens of Burundian refugees during protests over a government plan to deport some back to their homeland. Reuters found 30 bodies on the scene after the incident on Friday, but couldn't verify how they died. The local army spokesman says the refugees were armed with knives and machetes, but claimed he didn't know if there were deaths on either side. A U.N. spokesperson said many took shelter in a nearby peacekeeper base. More than 400,000 have fled Burundi in the last two years in the violence that killed at least 700 people, according to the U.N. It believes crimes against humanity may have been orchestrated there. Reporter Matthew Larotonda. The Bangladesh government plans to construct a large camp to house some of the 400,000 Rohingya Muslims who have poured in from neighboring Myanmar over the past three weeks. ??? reports. Authorities said 14,000 shelters capable of accommodating six families will be built over the next 10 days near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. The area is experiencing an unprecedented exodus that was sparked by attacks on August 25 carried out by Rohingya militants on a Myanmar army base and police posts. Global rights groups and survivors say the Myanmar military responded to the attacks with extrajudicial murders, rapes, village torchings and other acts of violence. The United Nations recently described Myanmar's actions as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing." ???, VOA news. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says, in an AP interview, he is prepared to intervene militarily if the Kurdish region's planned independence referendum results in violence. "Our position is that it is unconstitutional, it's illegal." Al-Abadi called the vote "a dangerous escalation" that will invite violations of Iraq's sovereignty. Iraq's Kurdish region plans to hold the referendum on support for independence from Iraq on September 25. The United Nations reports world hunger is rising because conflicts and problems related to climate change are multiplying. The report finds about 815 million people globally did not have enough to eat in 2016 -- 38 million more than in the previous year. Authors of the report say governments must set goals and invest in measures to bring down malnutrition and to promote healthy eating for healthy living. From the Washington news center, I'm Steve Miller. That's the latest world news from VOA. |