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I'm VOA's Joe Ramsey with your worldwide news update.
A driver deliberately rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year's revelers on the U.S. city of New Orleans' famous Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring at least 30 others. VOA's chief national correspondent Steve Herman reports from Washington. Federal authorities are calling the early-morning New Year's Day attack in New Orleans an act of terrorism. The FBI has identified the suspect as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas. He had attached an Islamic State flag to the trailer hitch of the rented pickup truck he drove around barriers onto the sidewalk and into the crowd. The man then began firing at police with a rifle, wounding two officers before he was shot dead. Authorities say two bombs were found in the city's French Quarter, and other apparent explosive devices were found in the truck. Jabbar is not believed to have acted alone, according to the FBI, which says authorities are searching for other suspects. Steve Herman, VOA News, Washington. One person died and seven more people were injured after a Tesla Cybertruck caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel. AP correspondent Lisa Dwyer reports. Officials say that the person who died was inside the vehicle New Year's Day in the hotel's valet area. In a post on the social media platform X, Trump Organization Executive Vice President Eric Trump praised the fire department and local law enforcement for their swift response. The 64-story hotel is just off the famed Las Vegas Strip. I'm Lisa Dwyer. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on X that "the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb" and "is unrelated to the vehicle itself." This is VOA News. Grieving relatives of the victims of the South Korean plane disaster visited the crash site to pay respects to their loved ones on New Year's Day. AP correspondent Nayan Kim reports. As officials in South Korea identified the last of the victims of a deadly plane crash, the relatives of those killed visited the site. The grieving families took turns laying white flowers for their loved ones. Many knelt and bowed deeply before a memorial table laid with food. All 179 victims have been identified and investigators are now working to extract data from the cockpit voice recorder. Only two of the 181 people aboard the Jeju Air flight survived when it crashed in Muan International Airport on Sunday. The country is observing seven days of national mourning. I'm Nayan Kim. Montenegro's interior minister says a gunman who killed at least 10 people in a rampage in a small town died from self-inflicted injuries after attempting suicide. The 45-year-old man was on the run after opening fire on Wednesday afternoon at a restaurant in Cetinje, a small town 38 kilometers west of Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, where he killed four people. Police said the shooter then moved on to three other locations, killing at least six more people including two children. Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries. After multiple deadly clashes, a peace deal has been reached between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Pakistan. VOA's Christina Menenti reports. Pakistani officials say tribal elders, backed by local authorities, have brokered a peace deal between minority Shiite and majority Sunni tribes in the rest of northwest. The breakthrough on Wednesday comes weeks after clashes erupted between the two sides in the district of Khurram, killing 130 people. The violence flared in November when gunmen ambushed a convoy of vehicles and killed 52 people, mostly Shiite Muslims. Nobody claimed responsibility for the assault, which triggered retaliatory attacks. Though the two sides recently agreed to a cease-fire, tensions have persisted and roads leading to Khurram have remained closed. Christina Menenti, VOA News. Electric power has been restored to nearly all affected customers across Puerto Rico after a sweeping blackout plunged the U.S. territory into darkness on New Year's Eve. Energy officials said that by Wednesday afternoon, power was back up for 98 percent of Puerto Rico's nearly 1.5 million utility customers. The archipelago has been plagued with electricity issues since Hurricane Maria in 2017 left hundreds of thousands of people without power for several months. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates, visit our website, voanews.com. I'm Joe Ramsey, VOA News. |