Nation, World Briefly: Student, 14, opens fire in Cleveland high school

CLEVELAND — A 14-year-old suspended student opened fire in a downtown high school Wednesday before killing himself, and five people were taken to hospitals, authorities said. After the shooting, shaken teens called their parents on cell phones, most to reassure but in at least one case with terrifying news: “Mom, I got shot.”

The shooter was enrolled at the SuccessTech Academy alternative school but had been suspended Monday for fighting, a SuccessTech student-parent organization official said.

Hawaii: Court stalls island ferry

A judge has dealt another blow to the first passenger-vehicle ferry between major Hawaiian Islands, ruling that the service can’t sail until it shows it won’t harm the environment. The decision threatens the survival of the $300 million service, which sailed to Maui and Kauai from Honolulu only once before legal challenges and protesters forced it to halt service. Company officials have said the 350-foot catamaran would leave the state if it wasn’t allowed to operate until the environmental study was completed, a process that would take months, and possibly years.

California: Nurses go on strike

Nearly 5,000 nurses in 15 Northern California hospitals began a two-day walkout Wednesday to protest what they said were inadequate contract offerings. Officials with the Sutter Health hospital chain said replacement workers are in place and that no disruptions in service were expected. The nurses have been in negotiations since the spring with many of the nonprofit hospitals in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento area. The California Nurses Association union is protesting what it says are unacceptable proposals on health care, retirement benefits and staffing levels.

New York: Noose sparks protests

Hundreds of Columbia University teachers and students voiced outrage Wednesday over a noose found hanging from a black professor’s office door, while police investigated if it was the work of disgruntled students or a colleague. The twine noose was found Tuesday on Madonna Constantine’s door at Teachers College, a graduate school of education affiliated with Columbia. Constantine said Wednesday it was a “blatant act of racism.” Police were testing the noose for DNA evidence.

Virginia: Emergency alert test

Hundreds of people reported they did not receive a message sent out during a trial run of Virginia Tech’s expanded emergency alert system Wednesday, though it was not clear whether all were signed up for the service, a university spokesman said. The “VT Alerts” system sent text messages, voice mails, e-mails and online instant messages to the more than 18,000 people who signed up.

Puerto Rico: Motorcyclist crackdown

Puerto Rico will require motorcycle drivers to wear protective jackets, gloves, long pants and boots as part of a strict safety law signed by the governor of the U.S. commonwealth on Wednesday. Augmenting an existing helmet law, the new law also sharply lowers the maximum allowable blood-alcohol level for motorcycle and scooter enthusiasts below levels tolerated for automobile drivers. The legal blood-alcohol limit is now .02 for bikers, down from .08, which will remain the tolerated limit for car drivers.

Myanmar: Deadly interrogation

An opposition party member died during interrogation and two activists were arrested as the ruling junta pressed its crackdown on the pro-­democracy movement, an exile group said Wednesday. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners also said security officers had been threatening dissidents’ relatives and neighbors in an attempt to get information on the whereabouts of those involved in last month’s anti-government protests. The group said authorities had recently informed the family of Win Shwe, 42, that he had died during questioning.

Pakistan: Truce allows funerals

The army halted attacks on villages near the Afghan border Wednesday to give residents time for funerals after days of fighting that killed as many as 250 people, a local teacher said. Ten residents went to the army base in Miran Shah, the North Waziristan region’s main town, and military officials “assured us that just for today there would be no action so that the funerals of the locals could be held and the injured treated,” the teacher said. The army has reported the deaths of up to 200 militants and 47 troops, and that scores more had been hurt.

Russia: New debate on Lenin

The fate of one of Moscow’s most famous symbols — the tomb of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin — should be put to Russia’s voters, a top Kremlin official said Wednesday. The comments reflect the on-again, off-again debate among officials in President Vladimir Putin’s government about what to do with the mausoleum in Red Square. Putin, for his part, said in 2001 that he opposed removing Lenin’s body because it might disturb civil peace. Lenin’s body has been on display in the mausoleum since 1924.

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