Suicide bomber, grenades kill 30

Suicide bomber, grenades kill 30

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria

A suicide-bomb blast outside a mosque and rocket-propelled grenades that exploded into homes as people slept killed at least 30 people in the Nigerian city Maiduguri on Saturday, residents and officials said.

The explosion killed people who were prostrating themselves for afternoon prayers outside the mosque, survivors said. Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima toured the scene. Officials told him the bomber killed himself and 16 other people.

Earlier Saturday, rocket-propelled grenades killed at least 13 others in the city and injured more, according to resident Idrissa Mandara.

Activists: Syrian army strikes kill at least 70

Beirut

Syrian army airstrikes killed at least 70 people, most of them civilians, and wounded scores in attacks Saturday in the northern province of Aleppo that struck civilian areas, including a packed market in a town held by the Islamic State group, activists said.

The deaths occurred in two incidents when helicopters dropped explosive-filled barrels. One barrel hit the rebel-held Shaar neighborhood in Aleppo, killing at least 12 people, most from the same family.

The other attack hit a busy market in the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab in Aleppo’s countryside. The Observatory said at least 59 people were killed and dozens wounded. It said the number of dead likely would rise because many were in critical condition.

Child-sex-abuse claims shake UN

UNITED NATIONS

The boys said they approached the French soldiers because they were hungry. Some were so young they didn’t quite understand the acts the soldiers demanded in return.

U.N. investigators heard stories of sexual abuse from several boys in May and June 2014 in Central African Republic, where French soldiers were protecting a displaced-persons camp in the conflict-torn capital, Bangui. One year later, revelations about how the U.N. handled the boys’ accounts have horrified people inside and outside the world body.

On Saturday, the high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, said his office was sending a team to Central African Republic to look into what the statement called “possible further measures to address human rights violations,” including sexual violence.

Strong, deep quake strikes off Japan

tokyo

A powerful earthquake struck near remote Japanese islands and shook most of the country Saturday evening, but it occurred well beneath the earth’s surface and did not trigger a tsunami warning. Several people suffered nonlife-threatening injuries, and there were no reports of deaths or major damage.

The magnitude-8.5 offshore quake struck off the Ogasawara islands at a depth of 370 miles, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.8 and a depth of 421 miles.

Ex-governor O’Malley to seek US presidency

DAVENPORT, Iowa

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley entered the Democratic presidential race Saturday in a longshot challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the 2016 nomination, casting himself as a new-generation leader who would rebuild the economy and reform Wall Street.

“I’m running for you,” he told about 1,000 people in a populist message at Federal Hill Park in Baltimore, where he served as mayor before two terms as governor. O’Malley said was drawn into the campaign “to rebuild the truth of the American Dream for all Americans.”

Associated Press