No evidence of shooting in London
Panic briefly struck one of London’s busiest shopping areas Friday after reports of a shooting led to the shutdown of the Oxford Circus underground station. Police later said no evidence of gunfire could be found.
Armed police rushed to London’s Oxford Street on Black Friday, which also is observed in England, after reports of “shots fired.” Fire engines rushed to the scene and shoppers were told to seek shelter, with people barricaded in shops.
London is used to living under the specter of potential terrorism after a series of atrocities this year.
Student abuse alleged
BEIJING — A kindergarten in Beijing run by a New York-listed company has been engulfed by a wave of public suspicion and wrath after parents charged that children in a class there were fed pills, jabbed with needles and forced to strip naked.
The Beijing police and education officials have not confirmed any of the claims that children were abused at the RYB Kindergarten in Xintiandi, a middle-class apartment development. But among the Chinese public and on the internet, few seemed inclined to question the accounts after a string of cases of kindergarten and preschool teachers beating or tormenting children.
The firm that operates the kindergarten denied the accusations Friday.
Release draws criticism
Pakistan’s decision to set free the alleged mastermind of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai drew quick criticism from the United States, where President Donald Trump has demanded that Pakistani leaders take tougher action against terrorists.
Hafiz Saeed, who allegedly planned attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that left 164 people dead, had been detained at his house in Lahore without charges since January. He has denied any involvement in the attacks.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that Mr. Saeed leads Lashkar-e-Taiba, “a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens.”
Merkel seeks coalition
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her European Union partners it’s business as usual again as she returned to the international stage and the Social Democratic opposition leader opened the door to a governing coalition for the bloc’s biggest economy.
Pressure has been mounting on Social Democratic head Martin Schulz to drop his opposition to an alliance with Ms. Merkel, after her efforts to form a government with three other parties collapsed Sunday. Mr. Schulz backed off his flat refusal to consider a renewed “grand coalition” with Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led bloc though he insisted party members will have the final say on any deal.
Also in the world …
Upholding an appeal by prosecutors, a South African court on Friday more than doubled the prison sentence for Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee runner who competed in the 2012 Olympics, to 13 years and five months for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp. … No one was injured when a tiger escaped from a circus in Paris and roamed the streets Friday for “some time,” police said, before being killed by a circus staff member.