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This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd.
Two people have been killed and three others injured in a knife attack on London Bridge. As AP's Ed Donahue reports, police shot and killed the attacker in what is being called a terrorist incident. Witnesses saw a man with a knife being wrestled to the ground by people where were nearby. Assistant commissioner Neil Basu says police responded. "A male suspect was shot by specialist armed officers from City of London Police and I can confirm that this suspect died at the scene." Basu says the man was wearing a fake bomb vest and this is being treated as a terrorist incident. Prime Minister Boris Johnson praises the people who tackled the suspect. "For me, they represent the very best of our country and I thank them ...." Police say they aren't looking for anyone else. Basu says officers are keeping an open mind as to a motive. I'm Ed Donahue. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, three young people were injured in a stabbing attack in The Hague's central shopping district. National broadcaster NOS citing unnamed sources said at this moment, there is no indication of a terrorist motive in that attack. Police launched a manhunt to search for the suspect after the attack Friday evening. Police spokeswoman Marije Kuiper says they're searching for a man in a grey track suit. "Around a quarter to eight, we received a notion that there was a stabbing incident here. Three people are hurt. And we are looking for a suspect right now." Police said that the victims are receiving treatment at a local hospital. They said the stabbing happened in an area near the city's historic center that was busy with holiday shoppers. A down day on Wall Street, with all three major indices finishing weak in a shortened session on the down side. For more, visit our website voanews.com. This is VOA news. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has given President Donald Trump one week to say whether his legal counsel intends to introduce evidence and to call witnesses in upcoming impeachment proceedings that could lead to formal charges of misconduct. The Democratic-led committee, which is due to begin weighing possible articles of impeachment against Trump next week, sent a two-page letter to the president with a deadline of 2200 UTC on December 6. That's when Trump's counsel has to specify intended actions under the committee's impeachment procedures. The probe is looking into whether the president abused his power to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations of political rival Joe Biden and a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi announced his resignation Friday after the country's top Shiite Muslim cleric urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government rocked by weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest. Reuters Lauren Anthony reports. Abdul Mahdi's resignation marked the latest twist in Iraq's unprecedented crisis and his departure could be a blow to Iranian influence after Iran's militia allies and its won commanders intervened last month to keep the premier in his job despite mass protests. Young, unarmed majority Shiite Muslim protesters have led demands for an overhaul of Iraq's political system, one they say is endemically corrupt and serves foreign powers, especially Baghdad's ally Tehran. Iraq's current political class is drawn mainly from powerful Shiite politicians, clerics and paramilitary leaders including many who lived in exile before a U.S.-led invasion overthrew Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. That's Lauren Anthony of Reuters. Thousands of people in cities across the world joined a fresh round of global demonstrations Friday urging more action on climate change. Reuters correspondent Francesca Lynagh has more. Protesters all over the globe rallied on Friday, pushing for more action on climate change, deliberately timed to force leaders to come up with urgent solutions at a United Nations conference in Madrid next week. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg had been due to join a student strike in Lisbon, but her environmentally friendly voyage across the Atlantic from New York by yacht was hit by high winds, delaying her by a few days. But Portugal's student movement pushed on with the protest without her. In Berlin, protesters in swimming costumes dived into the chilly river, holding up a white box in a symbolic attempt to rescue the government's climate change package. And in Australia, students in Sydney and other cities walked out of class, saying more should be done to combat the country's bushfire crisis, which many see as a result of climate change. I'm David Byrd, VOA news. |