BBC news with Jerry Smit.
An van has ploughed in high speed into a crowded christmas market in the French city of Nantes, injuring at least 6 people, some of them seriously. It's the third such assualt in France in recent days. Lucy Williamson reports.
Local reports suggest the driver of the van may have shouted Allahu Akbar, or god is great before reversing into crowds of shoppers and then stab himslef 9 times according to French media. He's currently in the serious condition. On Saturday, a man was shot dead after stabbing police officers near the central city of Tours. A day later, another driver ploughed into pedestrians in Dijon, injuring 13 people. The series of the attacks have left France baffled, none of the three men has so far been found to have any radical regious links, but there's real anxiety here about the number of French citizens drown to violent Islamic groups and the risk they can pose at home.
Pope Francis has used his Christmas speech to Catholic bishops and priets to make a scathing attack on the Vantican bureaucratic machine. The Pope told the symbol clergy that the Curia was middle to what he called existential schizophrenia, social exhibitionism and spiritual Alzheimer's. Our religous affair's correspondent Caroline White says there is a sense of shock in his words.
This is very very strong stuff, they were absolute silence until the end of the speech perhaps a little typical ploys as well. People were quite shock by the strange of the words that he has used, that is a sense of frustration boiling over and it's said that previous Pope did also struggle to try to reform it. This is the place where people have been in their positions for dacades or even retired. Cardianl staff bishops still retain influence and power and try to change that is proving perhaps a much harder thing to do than he has thought.
Police in Italy say they have arrested 14 people for carrying a new fascist plot to kill politicians in an attack of public buildings over the christmas period. Doznes of others are under investigation. Wired tapes has said to have shown the militants were planning to kill several politicians in a single attack.
Construstion of a new canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans has began in Nicaragua. The water way will be deeper and wider than the Panama canal and should be ready within 5 years. Arturo Wallace reports from Managua.
It has been built as the largest engineering project in the history of the region and will cost estimated 40 billion US dollars. The ground-breaking opening ceremony for Nicaragua canal is taking place 1 year and half after it was first awarded to a Hong Kong based international construction. However, the constuction of this waterway's proving to be a controversial issue in Nicaragua. The government claims the project will lift the country out of poverty. But many feared the nagetive enviromental impacts and undoubt, economic benefits.
News from the BBC.
Experts say North Korea is experiencing an enormous unprecedented Internet outages, with some saying its online access is totally down. The reports come after Washington said it would launch a propotional response to a cyberattack on Sony pictures, the US company that made the comedy film about the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Washington blamed Pyongyang for the attack which let Sony to hold the release of the film. The White House has declined comment on any US involvement in the current Internet outages.
At least 27 people have been killed in separate bomb attacks in Nigeria. The Red Cross said explosive devices haved been planted near a bus as passengers were boarding it to the Northern city of Gombe, killing at least 20 people. Hours later, an explosion shook busy market in Bauchi, the capital of the neighoring state. A witness told the BBC he counted 7 bodies and the others had already been taken away to mortuaries.
The mayor of New York Bill de Blasio has called for public protests so the police tactics towards black suspects to be suspended and until after the funerals of two policemen shot dead last Saturday. Speaking at a police charity, he said it was time to put debate aside and to support the grieving famlilies of the two officers. Some alignments in New York police force have strongly criticized Mr. de Balsio.
The English rock blues singer Joe Cocker has died at the age of 70 at San Miguel, Colorado in the US. Joe Cocker roused the fame in the 1960s and was best known for his cover version of a Beatles song--With A Little Help From My Friends. The late Joe Cocker.