Snow shuts schools, delays flights in
Iran capital
AFP, Tehran
Heavy snow covered the streets of Tehran on Sunday, causing major flight delays and forcing the closure of schools, authorities in the Iranian capital said.
AFP correspondents said the snow started falling early in the morning and disrupted the flow of traffic on some of the city’s main highways. “We knew that it would snow as of last night and that it naturally affects traffic,” head of Tehran’s traffic police Mohammadreza Mehmandar told state television.
Fire kills 8 at asylum for mentally ill in Czech Republic
AP, Prague
A fire official says eight people have been killed in a fire at an asylum for the mentally ill in the Czech Republic. Prokop Volenik, spokesman for the regional rescue service, said the fire in the northwestern town of Vejprty broke out early Sunday before 5 a.m. (0400 GMT). The town is on the border with Germany.
German rescuers came to help their Czech colleagues who were not able to use helicopters due to bad weather.
US seeks to deport Honduran mom, sick children to Guatemala
AP, Houston
The U.S. government says it will deport a Honduran mother and her two sick children, both of whom are currently hospitalized, to Guatemala as soon as it can get them medically cleared to travel, according to court documents and the family’s advocates.
The family’s advocates accuse the U.S. of disregarding the health of the children, ages 1 and 6, to push forward a plan currently being challenged in court to send planeloads of families to different countries so that they can seek asylum elsewhere.
Russia strike kill five civilians in Syria
AFP, Bala
An air strike Saturday by Syrian regime ally Russia killed five civilians, including four members of the same family, in an opposition bastion in the country’s northwest, a monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three children were among those killed after midnight Friday in the village of Bala in the jihadist-run Idlib region. “A man, his wife, and their two little girls were among those killed,” said the head of the Britain-based monitoring group, Rami Abdel Rahman.
