Briefly

UNITED STATES

Suspect in Pelosi attack indicted on charge

A man accused of attacking US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer at the couple's San Francisco home was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday on attempted kidnapping and assault charges. David Wayne DePape, 42, had already faced the same charges under a criminal complaint filed in the US District Court for Northern California. State prosecutors have charged him with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, elder abuse, false imprisonment and threatening a public official. DePape was arrested on Oct 28 after he allegedly forced his way into the home, demanded to see Nancy Pelosi and then clubbed her husband Paul in the head with a hammer.

FRANCE

Macron announces end of military operation

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday the official end of the French military operation Barkhane in Africa's Sahel region. "We do not intend to engage without a time limit," Macron said in Toulon in the south of France. However, he added that military support from France to the African states in the Sahel will continue in another form. Since 2014, France has deployed around 5,100 troops to the G5 Sahel countries — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger — under Operation Barkhane. In February, Macron announced that France's withdrawal of troops from Mali would take four to six months.

Agencies - Xinhua