Armed men kill mother, 2 children in Afghanistan
Kabul, May 10: Unidentified armed men gunned down three people, including a mother and her two children, in Mahmud-e-Raqi city, the provincial capital of east Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, provincial police spokesman Abdul Fateh Fayez said on Friday. The incident took place on Thursday evening in Police District 1 of the city when unknown armed men opened fire on a mother and her two children, killing the three on the spot, and escaped the area, the official added, reports Xinhua news agency. (IANS)
Man shoots two officers in Paris police station
Paris, May 10: Two police officers were shot by a man in custody, who grabbed one of their service weapons, at a police station in Paris, local media reported. The man was arrested on Thursday evening for domestic violence, as the BFMTV channel and the newspaper Le Parisien reported citing police sources. The man grabbed the weapon and shot the two officers while police were trying to search him at the station, according to the reports. One of the police officers was hit in the upper body and the other in the thigh. The attacker was also reportedly injured when police officers fired back. All the injured were taken to hospital. (IANS)
Three dead as bus falls into river in Russia
Moscow, May 10: At least three people were killed, and several others injured, when an out-of-control passenger bus fell into a river in Russia’s St Petersburg city on Friday, reports said. The incident occurred at the Potseluev Bridge (Bridge of Kisses), as per city officials when the bus, with around 20 people on board, fell into the Moyka River, RT reported.CCTV camera footage shows the bus driver losing control of his vehicle as it turned the corner and rammed several stationary cars before breaking through railings and falling into the water, where it got almost fully submerged. (IANS)
Pope urges Italians to have babies as a measure of hope
Rome, May 10: Pope Francis pressed his campaign Friday to urge Italians to have children, calling for long-term policies to help families and warning that the country’s demographic crisis was threatening the future. “The number of births is the first indicator of the hope of a people,” Francis told an annual gathering of pro-family groups. “Without children and young people, a country loses its desire for the future.” It was Francis’ latest appeal for Italy – and beyond that Europe – to invert what he has called the demographic winter facing many industrialised countries. Italy’s birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, has been falling steadily for about 15 years and reached a record low last year with 379,000 babies born. With the Vatican’s strong backing, the right-wing government of Premier Giorgia Meloni has mounted a campaign to encourage at least 500,000 births annually by 2033, a rate that demographers say is necessary to prevent the economy from collapsing under the weight of Italy’s aging population. (AP)