News in Brief
BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday attacked the theory that the coronavirus pandemic may have originated as a leak from a Chinese laboratory as a politically motivated lie, after the World Health Organization recommended in its strongest terms yet that a deeper probe is needed into whether a lab accident may be to blame. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also rejected accusations that China had not fully cooperated with investigators, saying it welcomed a science-based probe but rejected any political manipulation.
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NEW YORK (CBS News) - Three people were killed and two injured, including a state trooper, in a shooting at a machine plant in Smithsburg, Maryland, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said. The suspect, an employee, was also wounded and is in custody. Authorities responded to a reported shooting at Columbia Machine Inc. at around 2:30 p.m., the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Facebook. Upon arrival, they found three people dead and one in critical condition.
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WASHINGTON (NY Post) -Approval of President Biden’s job performance slipped to just 33% in a poll released by Quinnipiac University — as even key Democratic voting blocs such as young people and racial minorities give the president a big thumbs-down. The survey, conducted June 3-6, found that 22% of Americans ages 18-34 approve of Biden’s performance — the lowest rating of any age group. Just 24% of Hispanic voters and 49% of black voters said they approve of Biden’s work.
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BENAHAVIS, Spain (Reuters) - A wildfire in mountains in southern Spain has forced evacuation of 2,000 people from the centre of the town of Benahavis and injured three firefighters, authorities said. The blaze started on the slopes of Pujerra mountain in the Sierra Bermeja, above the Costa del Sol, a magnet for British tourists on the Andalusia coast, Andalusia’s Wildfire Department (INFOCA) said on Twitter. Hot summer weather and adverse winds are stoking the blaze, it said in a post late. Emergency services set up tents in the town of 7,000, but most of the evacuees found shelter with relatives or at hotels.
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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected Takfiri fighters killed 25 people on Thursday in a village in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, two residents and a military source said on Friday. An insurgency by Boko Haram and terrorists in Nigeria’s northeast and southern Chad has killed thousands of people and displaced millions more in over a decade, humanitarian groups say. The residents said gunmen arrived on motorbikes in Boboshe Mukdala village of Dikwa local government area of Borno, where they shot at people who were searching for scrap metal in a nearby forest.