Briefly

FRANCE

Knife attack near Paris 'terror-related'

French prosecutors said a knife attack on Friday that left one man dead and two women injured in a park in the Paris area is being treated as terror-related. In a statement, they said investigations over the past few hours revealed that the assailant, who was shot dead by police, had been radicalized and prepared for the attack in Villejuif, in the southern suburbs of Paris. They said their investigations now justify a probe into "murder and attempted murder in relation to a terrorist undertaking." Creteil prosecutor Laure Beccuau described the assailant as a 22-year-old man with a long and serious psychiatric history.

BURKINA FASO

14 killed as bus runs over explosive device

At least 14 people, including seven students, were killed on Saturday in Toeni, Sourou Province, in northwestern Burkina Faso when the bus transporting them ran over on an explosive device, said the Burkina Faso government on Saturday. "In the morning of Saturday, three buses left from Toeni for Tougan carrying 160 passengers, one of the buses ran over on an explosive device," according to a press release. The injured were immediately taken to hospital to receive treatment. The government "strongly condemns this cowardly and barbaric act which aims to damage the morale of the people".

KENYA

Al-Shabab attacks US military base

The Somali extremist group al-Shabab said it has attacked the US military base in Kenya's coastal Lamu County on Sunday. The police said the airstrip used by the US marines was destroyed and aircraft were burned. Paul Njuguna, spokesman for the Kenya Defense Forces, said that the Manda airstrip, which is near a military camp that is estimated to host more than 160 US soldiers, is safe after the attempted raid by the Somali extremist group. "The attempted breach was successfully repulsed. Four terrorists' bodies have so far been found," Njuguna said in a statement. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack in Lamu County, saying their fighters' "suicide infantry" was involved in the attack.

CROATIA

Voting starts in presidential runoff

Croatian voters began to cast their ballots in the runoff for the presidential election on Sunday. Over 3.8 million eligible voters will choose their president for the next five years in the runoff between incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and former prime minister Zoran Milanovic. Milanovic won the first round of the election on Dec 22, 2019, with nearly 30 percent of the votes. Latest polls show the race is very tight, as Milanovic is expected to get 45 percent of the votes, while Grabar-Kitarovic is set to get 42 percent of the vote, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

JAPAN

'Tuna King' buys New Year's catch for $1.8 m

A celebrated Japanese sushi businessman, nicknamed "Tuna King," paid $1.8 million for a giant tuna at the New Year's auction at Tokyo's main fish market on Sunday. Kiyoshi Kimura, who runs a successful sushi restaurant chain, paid 193 million yen ($1.8 million) to purchase a 276kg bluefin tuna, caught off the Aomori region in northern Japan. Kimura regularly pays top price at the first auction of the year at the Japanese capital's main fish market, making him and his business a fixture in national news during this season. At last year's New Year's auction, Kimura paid a record $3.1 million to win a 278-kg tuna.