News in Brief
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A sixth-grade girl brought a gun to her Idaho middle school, shot and wounded two students and a custodian and then was disarmed by a teacher Thursday, authorities said. The three victims were shot in their limbs and expected to survive, officials said at a news conference. Jefferson County Sheriff Steve Anderson says the girl pulled a handgun from her backpack and fired multiple rounds inside and outside Rigby Middle School in the small city of Rigby, about 95 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Yellowstone National Park. A female teacher disarmed the girl and held her until law enforcement arrived and took her into custody, authorities said, without giving other details. Authorities say they’re investigating the motive for the attack and where the girl got the gun. The girl is from the nearby city of Idaho Falls, Anderson said. He didn’t release her name.
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MALE, Maldives (AP) — The Maldives police said Friday an explosion that wounded former President Mohamed Nasheed was an act of terrorism but no suspects were identified. Australian police said they are ready to assist the investigation. Nasheed, 53, was wounded in the blast Thursday night outside his home and was being treated in a hospital in the capital, Male, police said. Home Minister Imran Abdulla told a local television that his injuries were not life-threatening. He is the current Parliament speaker and was the first democratically elected president of the Indian Ocean archipelago, from 2008 to 2012. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast. Photos circulated on social media showed a ripped-up motorcycle at the scene. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said in a televised speech that Australian Federal Police investigators will arrive on Saturday.
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BEIJING (Dispatches) -- China on Thursday strongly condemned a joint statement by the foreign ministers of the so-called Group of Seven (G7) that voiced support for the secessionist government in Chinese Taipei and accused Beijing of alleged rights abuses in the western Xinjiang region. In a communique issued after two days of face-to-face meetings in the British capital of London, foreign ministers from the G7 group of countries on Thursday supported Chinese Taipei’s participation in World Health Organization forums and the World Health Assembly, and expressed concern about "any unilateral actions that could escalate tensions” in the Taiwan Strait. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called the G7 statement a gross interference in the country’s domestic affairs. The G7 made "unfounded accusations against China and openly intervened in China’s internal affairs,” Wang said, adding that China "strongly condemns” the "wanton destruction of the norms of international relations.”
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Some households in Taiwan are going without running water two days a week after a months-long drought dried up the island’s reservoirs and a popular tourist lake. Authorities are drilling extra wells and using military planes to dump cloud-seeding chemicals in hopes of triggering rain. The government has allocated money to extract drinkable water from the sea. Rainfall in the seven months through February was less than half the historic average after no typhoons hit Taiwan in 2020 for the first time in 56 years, according to the government. Households in areas under top-level restrictions go without running water two days per week. They include Taiwan’s second-biggest city, Taichung, with 2.8 million people, and Miaoli and Changhua counties.
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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s governing Conservative Party made further inroads in the north of England on Friday, winning a special election in the post-industrial town of Hartlepool for a parliamentary seat that the main opposition Labour Party had held since its creation in 1974. Managing to present itself as the party of change despite having led the UK for 11 years, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives extended their grip on parts of the country that were Labour strongholds for decades, if not a century. The Conservatives appeared to be headed for a series of victories a day after millions of voters cast ballots in an array of local and regional elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The party has already picked up a host of local council seats in towns across England in addition to the victory in Hartlepool.
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NAIROBI (Reuters) -- The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Thursday that police from the Oromiya region are holding a large number of detainees, including babies and children, without charge, in "unhygienic and overcrowded” police stations across the region. The state-appointed commission said children aged between 5 months and 10 years were being held along with their mothers, and that children as young as 9 were suspected of offenses and held with adult prisoners. Detainees in the region, which is in central Ethiopia and like other regions has some autonomy from the central government in running matters such as law enforcement and education, are held in "dire conditions” with no access to water, medical care or sanitation and with limited food, the report said.
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MALE, Maldives (AP) — The Maldives police said Friday an explosion that wounded former President Mohamed Nasheed was an act of terrorism but no suspects were identified. Australian police said they are ready to assist the investigation. Nasheed, 53, was wounded in the blast Thursday night outside his home and was being treated in a hospital in the capital, Male, police said. Home Minister Imran Abdulla told a local television that his injuries were not life-threatening. He is the current Parliament speaker and was the first democratically elected president of the Indian Ocean archipelago, from 2008 to 2012. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast. Photos circulated on social media showed a ripped-up motorcycle at the scene. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said in a televised speech that Australian Federal Police investigators will arrive on Saturday.
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BEIJING (Dispatches) -- China on Thursday strongly condemned a joint statement by the foreign ministers of the so-called Group of Seven (G7) that voiced support for the secessionist government in Chinese Taipei and accused Beijing of alleged rights abuses in the western Xinjiang region. In a communique issued after two days of face-to-face meetings in the British capital of London, foreign ministers from the G7 group of countries on Thursday supported Chinese Taipei’s participation in World Health Organization forums and the World Health Assembly, and expressed concern about "any unilateral actions that could escalate tensions” in the Taiwan Strait. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called the G7 statement a gross interference in the country’s domestic affairs. The G7 made "unfounded accusations against China and openly intervened in China’s internal affairs,” Wang said, adding that China "strongly condemns” the "wanton destruction of the norms of international relations.”
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Some households in Taiwan are going without running water two days a week after a months-long drought dried up the island’s reservoirs and a popular tourist lake. Authorities are drilling extra wells and using military planes to dump cloud-seeding chemicals in hopes of triggering rain. The government has allocated money to extract drinkable water from the sea. Rainfall in the seven months through February was less than half the historic average after no typhoons hit Taiwan in 2020 for the first time in 56 years, according to the government. Households in areas under top-level restrictions go without running water two days per week. They include Taiwan’s second-biggest city, Taichung, with 2.8 million people, and Miaoli and Changhua counties.
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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s governing Conservative Party made further inroads in the north of England on Friday, winning a special election in the post-industrial town of Hartlepool for a parliamentary seat that the main opposition Labour Party had held since its creation in 1974. Managing to present itself as the party of change despite having led the UK for 11 years, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives extended their grip on parts of the country that were Labour strongholds for decades, if not a century. The Conservatives appeared to be headed for a series of victories a day after millions of voters cast ballots in an array of local and regional elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The party has already picked up a host of local council seats in towns across England in addition to the victory in Hartlepool.
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NAIROBI (Reuters) -- The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Thursday that police from the Oromiya region are holding a large number of detainees, including babies and children, without charge, in "unhygienic and overcrowded” police stations across the region. The state-appointed commission said children aged between 5 months and 10 years were being held along with their mothers, and that children as young as 9 were suspected of offenses and held with adult prisoners. Detainees in the region, which is in central Ethiopia and like other regions has some autonomy from the central government in running matters such as law enforcement and education, are held in "dire conditions” with no access to water, medical care or sanitation and with limited food, the report said.