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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Liz Parker reporting.
French President Emmanual Macron says the armed man who took hostages in a supermarket killed three people and wounded 16 others. Macron saying "Our country has suffered an Islamist terrorist attack in Carcassonne and in Trebes." The president added "Two people are still in critical condition." The suspect, Redouane Lakdim, who was 26, first hijacked a car and claimed a victim. He later entered a supermarket and took multiple people hostage. Lakdim was shot and killed by police. A police officer who took the place of a female hostage is fighting for his life, according to Macron. U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill into law Friday. The president saying at a media briefing he'll never sign a bill like this again. "There's a lot of things I'm unhappy about in this bill, there's a lot of things that we shouldn't have had in this bill, but we were, in a sense, forced if we want to build our military, we were forced to have." Trump first threated to veto the measure, saying it lacked protections for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children and funding for his proposed border wall. The bill's passage prevented a midnight federal government shutdown. The Justice Department is proposing rule changes that will effectively ban bump stocks. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Friday a bum stock allows a semi-automatic weapon to fire like a machine gun. They have been the object of controversy since a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, last year, where 58 people died and hundreds more were injured. More on voanews.com. This is VOA news. The Trump administration announced criminal charges and sanctions Friday against nine Iranians accused in a government-sponsored hacking scheme. The goal was to pilfer sensitive information from hundreds of universities, private companies and American government agencies. China responded swiftly to President Trump's announced plans to levy tariffs on up to $60 billion on Chinese goods. Beijing announced it was mulling retaliatory measures that would target 128 different U.S. imports. A Spanish Supreme Court judge has charged 13 Catalan separatist politicians, including former President Carles Puigdemont with rebellion for their attempt to declare independence from Spain. Puigdemont spoke on Friday at an event at the University of Helsinki on the European Union's response to the situation. "I'm very disappointed for one thing, not for its position about independence, but for its silence facing the violation of the European charter of fundamental rights. That is not acceptable." The charge of rebellion is punishable by more than 20 years in prison. Peru has a new president, Martin Vizcarra. He promised to fight corruption head on as he took power Friday and vowed to heal the bitter wounds left by a vote-buying scandal that abruptly forced his predecessor from office. In his first address as president, Vizcarra appealed for national unity and urged young Peruvians not to succumb to cynicism. He added "Don't lose faith in our institutions." European Union leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel-backed Britain, Thursday blaming Moscow over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy. Reuters Scarlett Cvitanovich has more. Theresa May receiving a show of support in Brussels following a nerve agent attack on British soil. EU leaders backed Britain in blaming Russia and recalled their envoy to Moscow in a symbolic protest. "We had a very long discussion but we support consensus that all evidence points to Russia being linked to this attack that there is really no other explanation. All member states agreed with this point of view. We will monitor the situation to see what happens next." A stance welcomed by May, who had warned the threat Russia poses "respects no borders." That was Scarlett Cvitanovich. Nigeria's president welcomed to his official residence more than 100 girls who were released by Boko Haram Wednesday after being kidnapped last month. One girl is still being held by Boko Haram. More on voanews.com. I'm Liz Parker reporting from Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |