Climate activists flow through Paris
PARIS -- More than 18,000 people marched Saturday in Paris as part of an international mobilization to show popular support for urgent measures to fight climate change in advance of a San Francisco conference.
Crowds overflowed a plaza in front of City Hall before marching east to the Place de la Republique, carrying an urgent message that it's up to the public to put global warming at the top of the political agenda.
Activists around the world encouraged "Rise for Climate" protests before the event taking place Sept. 12-14. California's governor proposed it after President Donald Trump vowed to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 climate accord.
The international agreement was negotiated in France, and the French capital's march was more successful than ones held Saturday in other French cities or elsewhere in Europe.
Police estimated that 18,500 people took part in the Paris march, while organizers put the number at 50,000.
Several hundred people gathered in France's southern port city of Marseille. Several dozen called for an end to the use of fossil fuels outside London's Tate Modern art gallery. Only about two dozen showed up in Barcelona, Spain.
Extremists return to retake Nigeria town
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria -- Boko Haram extremists have overrun a key crossroads and military outpost in northeastern Nigeria, residents and authorities said Saturday. Gudumbali is a town to which just months ago the government encouraged thousands of displaced people to return.
The extremists attacked on Friday afternoon, said the Borno state secretary of the self-defense hunters association, Bunu Bukar.
"Suddenly, I saw people running all over the place shouting, 'They have come! They have come!'" resident Umara Modu said. "I saw the attackers right inside our town but, surprisingly, they told us to calmly take our property and move out because we are not the target."
"I will never go back to Gudumbali again, no matter the assurance, because we went back after the military authority and the Borno state government promised us adequate security," Modu said.
Security forces had no immediate comment.
The fighters are thought to be with the Boko Haram faction under Abu Mus'ab al-Barnawi that has the backing of the Islamic State organization. That faction, also called the Islamic State's West Africa Province, claimed responsibility but announced no deaths, saying the military fled and that tanks and other vehicles and weapons were destroyed or seized, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist groups' statements.
Dutch relent, let Armenian siblings stay
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The Dutch government performed an abrupt U-turn and said Saturday that two Armenian children whose bid for asylum had been rejected could remain in the Netherlands.
The decision came after the children, 12-year-old Lili and her brother, 13-year-old Howick, went into hiding ahead of their expected deportations. The government faced mounting disapproval of its original refusal to let the siblings remain in the country where they have lived for a decade.
The Ministry of Justice and Security said in a written statement that while Dutch and Armenian authorities had worked hard to arrange a secure situation for the pair in Armenia, "recent developments" meant "the welfare and security of the children can no longer be sufficiently guaranteed."
It was not immediately clear whether their mother, who was deported to Armenia last year, would be allowed to return to join her children.
Earlier Saturday, Justice Ministry spokesman Maarten Molenbeek said the children ran away from a foster home overnight and police appealed for the public's help in finding them. Police reported in the afternoon that they had been found and were being questioned, but would be returned to foster care.
Police added that the appeal for help finding Howick and Lili "was not widely embraced" by the public while the threat of deportation hung over the children.
Indonesia bus's plunge fatal to 21 riders
BANDUNG, Indonesia -- A tourist bus plunged Saturday into a ravine on Indonesia's main Java island, killing 21 people, officials said.
The bus was carrying employees of a private company from the West Java province town of Bogor to a tourist destination in West Java's Sukabumi district when the accident happened around midday.
In addition to the 21 dead, nine others aboard the bus were seriously injured, said a spokesman at Pelabuhanratu hospital, Taufik, who uses one name.
Police spokesman Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko said the bus plunged into the 98-foot-deep ravine after the driver lost control of the vehicle in an area with a number of sharp inclines.
He said it was the last of four buses carrying employees of the PT Catur Putra Group who were headed to a rafting outing near Pelabuhanratu.
Road accidents are common in Indonesia because of lax safety standards and poor infrastructure.
A Section on 09/09/2018