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UK Police: 2 Officers Stabbed in Central London

Police officers stand on duty at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, April 1, 2018. Picture taken April 1, 2018. (Reuters)
Police officers stand on duty at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, April 1, 2018. Picture taken April 1, 2018. (Reuters)
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UK Police: 2 Officers Stabbed in Central London

Police officers stand on duty at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, April 1, 2018. Picture taken April 1, 2018. (Reuters)
Police officers stand on duty at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, April 1, 2018. Picture taken April 1, 2018. (Reuters)

London’s police force says two officers have been hospitalized after being stabbed in central London early Friday.

The Metropolitan Police force says officers “encountered a man with a knife” in the Leicester Square area, a busy tourist hub, at around 6 a.m. (0500GMT), The Associated Press said.

The force says both officers are in the hospital and it is awaiting updates on their conditions.

A man was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assaulting an emergency worker. He is also in the hospital. Police say a Taser was used during the arrest.

Police say they are investigating the circumstances around the incident. It comes as London is flooded with mourners for Queen Elizabeth II’s lying-in-state, but the stabbing did not occur near any commemorative sites.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan called the attack “utterly appalling.”

“These brave officers were doing their duty and assisting the public at this momentous time for our country,” he said. “My thoughts and prayers are with them, their loved ones and police colleagues following this disgraceful attack.”

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Taiwan President Will Visit Allies in South Pacific as Rival China Seeks Inroads

FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
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Taiwan President Will Visit Allies in South Pacific as Rival China Seeks Inroads

FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will visit the self-governing island’s allies in the South Pacific, where rival China has been seeking diplomatic inroads.
The Foreign Ministry announced Friday that Lai would travel from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau.
The trip comes against the background of Chinese loans, grants and security cooperation treaties with Pacific island nations that have aroused major concern in the US, New Zealand, Australia and others over Beijing's moves to assert military, political and economic control over the region.
Taiwan’s government has yet to confirm whether Lai will make a stop in Hawaii, although such visits are routine and unconfirmed Taiwanese media reports say he will stay for more than one day.
Under pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and threatens to annex it by force if needed, Taiwan has just 12 formal diplomatic allies. However, it retains strong contacts with dozens of other nations, including the US, its main source of diplomatic and military support.
China has sought to whittle away traditional alliances in the South Pacific, signing a security agreement with the Solomon Islands shortly after it broke ties with Taiwan and winning over Nauru just weeks after Lai's election in January. Since then, China has been pouring money into infrastructure projects in its South Pacific allies, as it has around the world, in exchange for political support.
China objects strongly to such US stopovers by Taiwan's leaders, as well as visits to the island by leading American politicians, terming them as violations of US commitments not to afford diplomatic status to Taiwan after Washington switched formal recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
With the number of its diplomatic partners declining under Chinese pressure, Taiwan has redoubled efforts to take part in international forums, even from the sidelines. It has also fought to retain what diplomatic status it holds, including refusing a demand from South Africa last month that it move its representative office in its former diplomatic ally out of the capital.