Brazil bank-heist gunfire kills 12 people
RIO DE JANEIRO -- At least 12 people, including two children, were killed Friday when police engaged in a shootout with bank robbers, according to authorities in northeastern Brazil.
The two attempted heists in the state of Ceara began around 2:30 a.m. in the downtown area of the city of Milagres, police said in a statement.
News portal G1 reported that the robbers blocked off a road into the downtown and took hostages as they began entering two banks on the same street. When police responded, a firefight ensued, leading to several deaths.
Lielson Macedo Landim, the mayor of Milagres, told G1 the hostages were slain by the criminal group and not killed by police fire.
His account could not be immediately verified, as police did not respond to numerous email and phone requests for more information.
Two suspects were apprehended, and several fled, according to the police statement. Authorities also seized three vehicles, several firearms and explosives.
Andre Costa, secretary of public security in Ceara, said six of the dead were the attackers. Authorities have yet to release identities of the dead.
14 Afghan soldiers killed; 21 captured
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban staged a coordinated attack overnight on two Afghan army outposts in western Herat province, killing 14 Afghan soldiers and taking 21 captive, a provincial official said Friday, the latest in a series of daily attacks by insurgents on the country's beleaguered national security forces.
Herat provincial council member Najibullah Mohebi said the assault began late on Thursday in Shindand district. Fighting lasted for six hours before reinforcements arrived and repulsed the insurgents -- but not before they captured 21 troops.
However, Defense Ministry spokesman Ghafor Ahmad Jaweed put the number of army dead and wounded at 10. The different accounts could not immediately be reconciled.
According to Shindand district chief Hekmatullah Hekmat, as many as 200 Taliban fighters took part in the attack, using rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic machine guns.
Hekmat said 30 Taliban were killed in the fighting, which continued sporadically in the area on Friday, mostly about 7 miles from the district capital, Shindand.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying on Twitter that the insurgents seized a "sizeable amount of ammunition" and equipment. He gave a higher toll for Afghan casualties, but insurgents often exaggerate their claims.
6 people killed in Italian concert panic
ROME -- Six people, all but one of them minors, were killed and about 35 others were injured in a stampede of panicked concertgoers early today at a disco in a small town on Italy's central Adriatic coast, authorities said.
The dead included three girls and two boys and an adult woman, a mother who had accompanied her daughter to the disco in Corinaldo, where an Italian rapper was entertaining the crowd, police chief Oreste Capocasa said in nearby Ancona.
Twelve of the 35 injured were in serious condition, Capocasa said.
The ages of the victims weren't immediately given. It wasn't immediately clear how many people were inside when the stampede broke out or the club's maximum capacity.
Italian fire officials and the ANSA news agency said the audience at Italian rapper Sfera Ebbasta's concert at the Lanterna Azzurra nightclub panicked and ran for the exits after someone sprayed a substance similar to pepper spray.
A fire crew tweeted images from the scene and described "the dispersal of a stinging substance."
A teenager told ANSA that he discovered that at least one of the emergency exits was locked when he tried to flee. The report said authorities were investigating if the emergency exits were working.
U.N. envoy urges Syria charter meeting
GENEVA -- The outgoing U.N. envoy for Syria appealed Friday to the country's warring sides to agree on a committee to draft a new constitution, seen as a way of bringing the Mideast nation out of its protracted civil war.
Staffan de Mistura said disagreements remain over a "few names" of those who would be on that committee. He said "agreement, particularly on the side of the government" of President Bashar Assad was needed.
De Mistura has previously said that Assad's government has objected to 50 members of the committee representing civil society, experts, independents, tribal leaders and women that he was authorized to put together at a Russian-hosted Syrian peace conference in Sochi earlier this year. Russia is a crucial backer of Assad.
Under the Sochi agreement, the committee is to comprise 150 members. There is already agreement on the 50-member delegation from the government and the 50-member delegation from the opposition.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 12/08/2018