VOA News for Saturday, October 31st, 2020

VOA News for Saturday, October 31st, 2020 Thanks to https://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for transcribing This is VOA news. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd. The number of coronavirus infections in the United States has passed 9 million cases, with more than 229,000 dead. President Donald Trump and his challenger, Joe Biden, continued sparring over the virus while visiting the nation's heartland. AP's Sagar Meghani reports. Numbers tallied by Johns Hopkins University show new cases in the U.S. are now at levels not seen since the summer. In hard-hit Iowa, "Here at the fairgrounds, the Iowa State Fair cancelled for the first time since World War II.” Biden pledged he has a plan to fight the virus. While in Michigan, the president said his rival's plan is to shut down the country. "There will be no school, no graduations, no weddings, no Thanksgivings--," again insisting the nation is rounding the turn on the pandemic. Sagar Meghani, Washington. A strong earthquake struck Friday in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 700 amid collapsed buildings and flooding. A small tsunami struck south of Izmir, the city in western Turkey that was the worst affected by the quake. At least 17 people died in Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city, including one person who drowned, 709 were injured, according to Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency. The earthquake, which the Kandilli Institute said had a magnitude of 6.9, struck at 11:51 UTC in Turkey. Search and rescue efforts continue in at least 17 buildings. Turkish media showed rescuers pulling people from the rubble, including one survivor who was found six hours after the quake. Emergency teams continued digging after nightfall and cranes lifted concrete slabs from the wreckage. This is VOA news. Tens of thousands of Poles joined in massive demonstrations in the capital, Warsaw, Friday, the largest since protests began against a controversial near-total ban on abortion in the largely Catholic country. Warsaw officials estimated at least 100,000 people crowded the city center, many carrying black umbrellas, a sign of abortion rights in Poland. The demonstration follows the October 22 ruling by Poland's Constitutional Court outlawing abortions due to fetal defects - one of the most common reasons for abortion in Poland. Daily protests have taken place across the country in the past week. The government has accused demonstrators of risking the lives of the elderly by defying pandemic rules on social distancing and avoiding large gatherings. France stepped up security nationwide on Friday to guard against new Islamist attacks following the fatal stabbings at a church in Nice, while Muslims in other countries protested in the streets over perceived French slights to the Prophet Mohammad. President Emmanuel Macron has deployed thousands of soldiers to protect sites such as places of worship and schools. France's security alert was at its highest level in response to the second deadly knife attack in its cities in two weeks. Police were holding a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant over the attack in Nice in which a man shouting "Allahu Akbar" decapitated one woman and killed two other people in the Notre Dame Basilica on Thursday. The attack took place at a time of swelling anger among many Muslims across the globe over the issue of French cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad which they deem to be insulting and blasphemous. The teenager who's accused of killing two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August will be extradited to that state from Illinois. AP's Jackie Quinn reports. Defense lawyers for 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse tried but did not persuade an Illinois judge to deny an extradition request to face homicide charges. Rittenhouse, who was videotaped walking down a Kenosha street with a rifle, is accused of fatally shooting two men who were protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who was paralyzed in August. Some political groups are rallying around Rittenhouse, calling him a patriot exercising his right to bear arms during unrest. The teen appeared calm in court. I'm Jackie Quinn. Losses in big technology companies drove more losses on Wall Street Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell six tenths of one percent while the S&P lost 1.2 percent, the NASDAQ gave up two and a half percent. Find more at our website. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd, VOA news.