27 students arrested at high school after brawl

27 students arrested at
high school after brawl

MIAMI — A lunchtime protest at a high school erupted into a violent brawl Friday, injuring seven police officers who responded and ending with the arrests of more than two dozen students.

The disturbance at Miami Edison Senior High School began with a protest over the arrest of another student a day earlier, said Detective Ed Torrens of the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department. There were claims the student had been handled roughly when he was arrested on charges of assaulting the assistant principal.

“We thought they were going to stage a walkout as a protest,” Torrens said. “It just mushroomed into students’ throwing chairs, throwing food, and that started a huge melee and fight.”

Twenty-seven students, both boys and girls, faced charges such as disorderly conduct, battery on police officers and resisting arrest with violence, Torrens said. All would likely be handled as juvenile cases, he said.

Date set for shuttle launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA on Friday cleared space shuttle Endeavour for liftoff in less than two weeks on the longest space station visit ever.

Endeavour is scheduled to blast off March 11 on a 16-day mission that could end up stretching by another day.

NASA’s new shuttle program manager, John Shannon, said it will be a long and complicated flight packed with five spacewalks and major space station pieces from two countries: Japan and Canada.

He said he’s amazed by the fact that just nine days ago, on Feb. 20, Atlantis returned from the international space station and, already, another shuttle is poised to fly again.

Britain, France delay vote
on sanctions against Iran

UNITED NATIONS — Britain and France on Friday delayed a U.N. Security Council vote on new sanctions against Iran while they try to get more support for the resolution.

The two countries co-sponsored the resolution that would impose a third round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. They are seeking the same unanimous vote they got in the first two rounds — or close to it.

The vote, which had been expected today, has been put off until Monday morning.

“We think the wider the base of support, the clearer the political signal” sent to Iran, Britain’s U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said Thursday.

Four nonpermanent council members — Libya, Indonesia, South Africa and Vietnam — have raised a variety of concerns about the resolution. Council diplomats involved in the negotiations said Friday that progress was being made, though it was still uncertain whether any of those countries would vote “yes.”

Suicide bombing kills 35

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide attacker blew himself up at a funeral Friday for a slain policeman in Pakistan’s volatile Swat Valley, killing at least 35 people including the officer’s 16-year-old son.

It was the deadliest attack in the country since the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections. And it was the bloodiest in the Swat Valley since militant followers of a pro-Taliban cleric grabbed control of large parts of the scenic corner of Pakistan’s restive northwest.

President Pervez Musharraf sent in thousands of troops in November to reassert government control over the valley. The army says it has retaken most of Swat, but attacks persist and the leader of the uprising, Mullah Fazlullah, remains at large.

Associated Press