VOA NEWS

February 5, 2018

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting.



China has criticized a U.S. government report that labels it as a potential nuclear adversary.

A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman released a statement that called on the United States to reduce its own nuclear arsenal. (He) said, "We hope the U.S. will abandon a Cold War mentality and shoulder its special and prior responsibility for its own nuclear disarmament."

The Pentagon released its review on Friday, detailing a new strategy for China designed to show that any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is not acceptable.



Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Athens Sunday to protest a potential compromise [before] between Greece and Macedonia over a long-standing name dispute.

Greece and Macedonia have been feuding over who gets to use the name since Macedonia's independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Many Greeks say allowing the neighboring country to use the name insults Greek history.



An extreme right Italian politician showed no remorse Sunday after a shooting rampage carried out a day earlier in which six people of African descent were wounded.

Twenty-eight-year-old Luca Traini is being held on multiple counts of attempted murder with the aggravating circumstance of racial hatred.

After the shooting which lasted for about two hours in a central Italian city on Saturday, witnesses say Traini calmly gave a fascist salute and then just surrendered to police.



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Two people are dead and dozens have been injured after an Amtrak passenger train, apparently traveling on the wrong track, collided with a freight train early Sunday in the southern U.S. state of South Carolina.

Governor Henry McMaster says emergency crews quickly arrived to find a horrible scene.

"At 2:35 this morning, a CSX train was, was only the track, awaiting later movement in the, excuse me, the CSX train and Amtrak was headed south coming from New England headed to presume Florida and the collision, collision occurred."

The two people killed were identified as Amtrak employees. One hundred sixteen people were taken to hospitals for treatment.



Israel is taking steps to deport thousands of African migrants.

The deportation order amounts to an ultimatum: The migrants can accept $3,500 and leave "voluntarily," or they will face imprisonment. Israeli officials say the Africans are threatening the Jewish character of the state and blame them for rising crime and a deteriorating quality of life in South Tel Aviv.

An Israeli who lives in South Tel Aviv, Mai Golan, says the migrants must go.

She says Jewish residents are afraid to walk the streets, where they are harassed and sometimes robbed, raped or attacked by the Africans.

Correspondent Robert Berger reporting for VOA from Jerusalem.



The ceremonial head of state of North Korea will lead the country's delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea later this week. That announcement came from Seoul on Sunday.

Kim Yong Nam is the leader of the North Korean parliament. He will be accompanied by three other officials and 18 support staff.

The United States will be represented at the opening of the Olympic Games by Vice President Mike Pence. He has what are called "grave concerns" that North Korea will "hijack the messaging around the Olympics. The North Koreans have been master manipulators in the past," said one official calling it "a murderous state."



And, the biggest sporting event in the United States every year, the Super Bowl, is underway now.

The Philadelphia Eagles are playing the New England Patriots for the championship of American football's professional National Football League.

The Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady could set several records during the game. He could become the oldest quarterback to win a sixth league championship.



You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting from the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.