Clash kills 4 Indians at Kashmir border
SRINAGAR, India -- Indian and Pakistani forces traded fire along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir early Wednesday after Pakistani gunfire killed at least four Indian paramilitary soldiers and injured three others on border patrol, Indian officials said.
Pakistan denied initiating the exchange, saying its soldiers only responded to the Indian forces' "unprovoked" fire.
The two nations had recently agreed to end skirmishes along the volatile frontier and uphold a cease-fire accord dating back 15 years.
Indian border guards said Pakistanis first targeted a soldier with sniper fire around midnight as the Indian soldiers patrolled a border area in the Jammu region.
As other soldiers tried to rescue their fallen comrade, Pakistani soldiers opened a volley of gunfire at them, triggering a further exchange, two border officials said.
In Islamabad, two security officials said Pakistani troops only returned fire after an unprovoked attack from the Indian border guards.
Old tax case ousts Spain's culture chief
MADRID -- Spain's minister of culture resigned Wednesday after just under a week in office after news reports revealed he was fined a decade ago for evading thousands of dollars in taxes.
Maxim Huerta, a former television presenter and writer, said he did nothing illegal but that he chose to step down to shield the new government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez from criticism.
Huerta was sworn in as culture and sports minister June 7, days after Sanchez replaced the previous prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.
Sanchez, a socialist, based his bid to supplant Rajoy on the numerous graft scandals tainting the then-prime minister's conservative Popular Party.
After winning passage in Parliament of a no-confidence motion against Rajoy's government, Sanchez promised to root out corruption from Spain's institutions.
On Wednesday, the news website El Confidencial published a court ruling that fined Huerta for failing to declare over $257,000 in income between 2006 and 2008. Speaking to reporters after meeting with Sanchez, Huerta said the fine resulted from a lawsuit he filed against taxation authorities for changing rules.
Home raided, Germany tests for ricin
BERLIN -- German authorities are testing a substance found at the home of a 29-year-old Tunisian to determine whether it is ricin, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Authorities raided the man's apartment in the Chorweiler neighborhood of the western city of Cologne late Tuesday and detained him on suspicion of preparing an act of violence, prosecutors said. He was not identified because of the ongoing investigation.
His wife and children were also taken into custody initially but were later released.
Police confiscated substances in his apartment that were thought to be toxic. The substances were being evaluated by experts to determine exactly what they are.
Prosecutors said authorities are investigating whether the man had connections to Islamic extremism, but so far it's not clear whether the case has links to terrorism. The man has not been formally charged.
Rule of law under attack, Poles tell EU
WARSAW, Poland -- Ex-Polish President Lech Walesa and several other former leaders appealed Wednesday to the European Union to help defend the rule of law in their country under a populist government that is overhauling the judiciary.
In a statement published in the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, the former leaders said they fear that a new law regulating the Supreme Court, which takes effect July 3, will destroy the democratic system of checks and balances in Poland.
Their open letter to the European Commission says that "there will be no democratic Poland without a state of law."
The signatories include former Presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski and Bronislaw Komorowski as well as former prime ministers, foreign ministers and leading Solidarity activists.
Walesa was the leader of the anti-communist Solidarity movement in the 1980s and was the first president of the country's democratic era.
A Section on 06/14/2018