AP, Srinaga
Eight civilians, including a husband and wife and four members of another family, were killed when Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at border posts and villages along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir, officials said Friday. An Indian soldier was also killed in the fighting.
The cross-border firing and shelling began overnight and spread to dozens of posts in the Jammu region of the Himalayan territory, said Indian police officer S.D. Singh.
Two dead in New Jersey school bus crash
Reuters, Morristown
A student and a teacher were killed and 43 others injured when a school bus with preteens on a field trip collided with a dump truck on a New Jersey highway on Thursday, ripping the bus apart and leaving students dangling by seat belts, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:20 a.m. in Mount Olive Township in northern New Jersey’s Morris County, Governor Phil Murphy told a news conference. The bus was carrying 38 students and seven adults, including the driver.
UK mulls sending more troops to Afghanistan
AFP, London
Britain could substantially boost its troop numbers in Afghanistan following demands from US President Donald Trump that NATO members “pay their fair share”, The Times reported Friday.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is believed to have asked Prime Minister Theresa May for 400 more soldiers to be sent to help the fight against the Taliban, adding to the 600 already training Afghan forces.
Congo’s Ebola risk ‘very high’
AP, Kinshasa
Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak now has 14 confirmed cases as health officials rush to contain the often deadly virus in a city of more than 1 million. The World Health Organization was holding an experts’ meeting Friday to determine whether the epidemic warrants being declared a global health emergency.
WHO now calls the risk to the public in Congo “very high” and the regional risk “high.”
