VOA NEWS

November 6, 2017

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Larry London in Washington.



A man opened fire inside a church in a small south Texas community on Sunday, killing more than 20 people and wounding at least 10 others.

The exact number of victims at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs isn't confirmed, but officials do say the gunman fled in a vehicle and was killed either by a self-inflicted wound or during a confrontation with police.



President Donald Trump is warning Sunday that "no dictator should underestimate" the United States.

He began his Asia tour that's expected to be dominated by the North Korean nuclear crisis, first stop Japan, and he spoke to a cheering crowd of military personnel on Sunday at Yokota Air Base that's just west of Tokyo after he put on a bomber jacket presented to him.

President Trump also set to make his case to Asian allies and also rivals about the need to counter North Korea's nuclear threat.

It's a 12-day, five-country trip.



All the Trump administration's environmental regulator is set to speak privately to chemical industry executives next week. Environmental Protection Agency [Scott] chief Scott Pruitt is listed as the featured speaker at a meeting of the American Chemistry Council, which has lobbied against stricter regulations for chemical manufacturers.



The masked militants set off a large car bomb outside a security headquarters in Yemen's southern port city of Aden early Sunday, killing at least 17 before storming the compound, according to officials. That sparking combat that continued well into the night.



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Saudi Arabia arrested 11 princes, including a prominent billionaire and dozens of current and former ministers, in a sweeping crackdown as the kingdom's young crown prince consolidates power.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman also replaced the head of the Saudi National Guard. He was once considered a contender for the thrown along with the navy chief and the economy minister.

Here is analyst Richard Weitz with the Hudson Institute. "You have a new dynamic leadership in Saudi Arabia. Clearly the new crown prince has a vision for how he wants his country to develop over the next half century. And there may be some tactical issues involved that is possible that some of the people that are being replaced or arrested were considered rivals of the king."

The purge comes less than two weeks after Prince Mohammad welcomed thousands of global business titans to Riyadh for an investment summit.



The second phase of a campaign to vaccinate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugee children against cholera has gotten underway this weekend in Bangladesh. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

The oral cholera vaccination campaign, which is being led by the World Health Organization, is targeting nearly 180,000 children between the ages of one and five years. They will receive an additional dose of the vaccine for added protection.

The children had received a first dose of the vaccine when the campaign was launched on October 10.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says health workers also will give all children up to the age of five oral polio vaccines during the campaign to protect them against this crippling disease.

More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees escaping violence in Myanmar have arrived in Cox's Bazar since late August. They are living in congested, squalid, unsanitary makeshift settlements - a perfect breeding ground for cholera and other diseases.

Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.



The fight between Spain and Catalonia's separatists reached a Belgian judge on Sunday after the region's deposed leader and four ex-ministers surrendered in Brussels to face possible extradition to Madrid for allegedly plotting a rebellion.

Hours after the former Catalan regional president and the others turned themselves in to Belgian authorities, his party put him forward as its leader for an upcoming regional election called by the Spanish government, meaning he could end up heading a campaign from Brussels while he fights a forced return to Spain.



I'm Larry London in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.