Reuters, Taos
A New Mexico judge received death threats and Islamophobic abuse on Tuesday a day after she granted bail to five Muslims charged with child abuse and accused of training children at their compound to carry out attacks, court officials said.
Police raided the compound in Taos County on Aug. 3 following a tip-off that children held there were starving. They found 11 children in need of food and water, and three days later unearthed the body of a toddler.
Bolton to meet Russian officials
Reuters, Moscow
The Kremlin said on Wednesday preparations were underway for a meeting in Geneva next week between Russian officials and White House national security adviser John Bolton, the first top-level meeting since the Russian and U.S. presidents met in Helsinki.
“Such contacts are indeed planned and being prepared,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday. Peskov did not elaborate further.
Italy’s bridge collapse death rises to 39
AFP, Rome
Rescue workers combed through the rubble of Italy’s bridge collapse on Wednesday as the death toll climbed to 39 and the government blamed the bridge’s private owner, demanding resignations and moving to strip its toll concession.
The 50-year-old bridge, part of a toll motorway linking the port city of Genoa with southern France, collapsed during torrential rain on Tuesday, sending dozens of vehicles crashing onto a riverbed, a railway and two warehouses.
Kabul blast death toll jumps to 25
AFP, Kabul
The death toll in a blast which rocked western Kabul Wednesday climbed to at least 25, officials said, with fears it could rise further in the latest violence in Afghanistan’s war-weary capital.
The spokesmen for the interior ministry and health ministries both confirmed the new toll and said at least 35 people were injured in the blast at an education centre in a Shiite area of the city.
Bus accident in Ecuador kills 24
AFP, Quito
A bus carrying travelers from Colombia and Venezuela crashed in Ecuador early Tuesday, killing 24 people and injuring 22 others, officials said.
The dead included an unspecified number of Venezuelans and Colombians, whose embassies were notified of the accident outside Quito, they said.
Cholera claims 28 lives in Nigeria
Xinhua, Lagos
At least 28 lives have been confirmed dead following the outbreak of Cholera across Nigeria’s northwest state Kano in the past seven months, an official said Tuesday.
The state recorded 400 suspected cases of acute watery diarrhoea with 50 confirmed cases of cholera across the 33 local government areas, Kabiru Getso, state commissioner for health, told reporters in Kano city.
