VANCOUVER, B.C. — A pickup truck plowed through a crowd leaving a pre-wedding celebration in western Canada, killing six people and injuring 19, police said Saturday. The 71-year-old driver of a truck lost control and ran into 25 to 30 people who were walking along a rural road toward him, Abbotsford police said. The victims had been at the bride’s parents’ house and were heading to another home, making their way along an unlit road lined with parked cars, police said. Jagdish Gill, whose daughter is a friend of the bride, said the group was taking part in a traditional Indian procession. Neither the bride nor the groom was injured, she said.
Pakistan: Cruise missile tested
Pakistan on Saturday successfully test-fired a new air-launched cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, the military said. The missile, named Hatf-8 or Ra’ad, has a range of 220 miles, an army statement said. The missile gives the air force a “strategic standoff capability” — the ability to strike over a long distance — and could be fitted with any type of warhead, the army said.
Afghanistan: Guerilla attacks
A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy near Kabul on Saturday, injuring two foreigners and four Afghans, officials said. The attacker rammed his vehicle into a convoy of two four-wheel drive Landcruisers on a main road leading out of Kabul, the chief of criminal investigations in the city said. Eight police officers died in a separate ambush by suspected Taliban insurgents in Kandahar province. Insurgents detonated a bomb as a police patrol passed before attacking with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, police said.
Mexico: Police find turtle eggs
Six people suspected of trying to illegally sell more than 52,000 sea turtle eggs were arrested while trying to transport their cargo in dozens of plastic bags, authorities said Saturday. The five men and one woman were caught Friday in the southern town of San Pedro Huamelula, Mexico’s Public Security Department said. Mexico is a major nesting area for several species of sea turtles, which are endangered and protected by law. Harvesting or selling their eggs is punishable by up to nine years in prison and fines.
Turkey: Deadly clash with Kurds
A clash between troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey’s southeast border with Iraq left 10 rebels and two soldiers dead, the military said Saturday. The fighting erupted Friday near Uludere, a town in Sirnak province, when the troops called for the rebels to surrender but were met with gunfire, the military said. It was the largest number of casualties in a single clash in recent months. Kurdish rebels have killed about 80 soldiers since January, most in roadside bomb attacks.
India: Two bombs kill 37
A pair of bombings minutes apart tore through a popular family restaurant and an outdoor arena on Saturday night, killing at least 37 people in the southern city of Hyderabad, which is plagued by Hindu-Muslim tensions. The restaurant was destroyed by the bomb placed at the entrance. The other blast struck a laser show at an auditorium in Lumbini park, leaving pools of blood and dead bodies between rows of seats punctured by shrapnel. Some seats were hurled 100 feet away.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no bold lede-in:Brothers die in school holiday bid
Three boarding school students are accused of strangling two small boys in the hope that classes would be suspended after the deaths, police said Saturday. The three students, ages 12 and 13, confessed to strangling an 8-year-old boy and his 5-year-old brother so that their school would close down, a police officer in the Jalna district said. “When questioned, the boys said they knew this school gave a holiday when a child had died last year and thought they could get another holiday this year,” he said. He said an autopsy confirmed the children were strangled.
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