Terrorism probed in Paris police attack
PARIS -- French prosecutors opened an investigation Friday that treats the fatal knife attack that a civilian employee carried out at Paris police headquarters as a potential act of terrorism.
The Paris prosecutor's office said information from researching the background of the longtime employee who killed three police officers and an administrator led to the probe for multiple murders "in relation with a terrorist enterprise."
The prosecutor's office did not release further details.
Investigators scoured the 45-year-old attacker's computer and cellphone Friday for clues to his motive, and also interviewed his wife and witnesses. A rookie police officer shot and killed him in a courtyard during Thursday's attack.
Authorities said the assailant, a technology administrator in the police intelligence unit, had worked for the Paris police force since 2003.
Officials had said earlier Friday that the man didn't have a history of psychiatric problems, and investigators didn't have evidence at that point indicating he had been radicalized by extremists.
India's air force shoots down own plane
NEW DELHI -- India's air force said Friday it accidentally shot down one of its own helicopters as it engaged Pakistani fighter planes in an aerial confrontation in Indian-controlled Kashmir in February.
Air Chief Rakesh Singh Bhaduria said "it was a big mistake."
Six air force personnel were killed in the crash, which occurred close to the airport on the outskirts of the region's main city of Srinagar.
Bhaduria said the air force has completed an investigation of the incident and is taking punitive action against two officers.
The Press Trust of India news agency said a surface-to-air missile shot down the Mi-17 aircraft in Kashmir on Feb. 27.
India said its fighter planes hit a militant camp on a heavily forested hilltop in Balakot inside Pakistan on Feb. 26. It said the camp held members of a militant group responsible for a suicide car bombing in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers.
Pakistan said its air force shot down an Indian fighter jet a day later in an aerial confrontation and took an Indian pilot prisoner. He was later released.
38 Mali anti-terror forces die in attacks
BAMAKO, Mali -- Mali's Defense Ministry says the death toll from two attacks against Malian members of a regional counterterror force has risen to 38.
Gen. Dahirou Dembele said late Thursday that this is the biggest loss the G5 Sahel force has recorded since its creation in 2017. He said another 33 soldiers are missing.
The government earlier reported 25 dead and 60 missing.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in central Mali near the Burkina Faso border, though the G5 Sahel force commander has blamed the al-Qaida-linked Ansarul Islam.
Assailants rode into the community of Boulikessi with heavy weaponry overnight Sunday to Monday to attack a Malian battalion of the regional force. Around the same time, armed men attacked another army camp in Mondoro.
Fuel protests stall Ecuador highways
Key highways were paralyzed on Friday across Ecuador after a night of clashes triggered by rising fuel prices, as a state of emergency entered its second day.
Hundreds have been arrested amid outbreaks of looting, while Ecuador's Red Cross said that demonstrators in Quito pelted ambulances with rocks.
Security forces have lifted more than 100 blockades and restored access to Quito's airport, Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin said Friday. The authorities aim to completely restore order by the end of the day, he added.
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The fuel price increases took effect at midnight Wednesday and were welcomed by the International Monetary Fund and Moody's Investors Service. Drivers of buses, taxis and trucks responded by blocking highways with vehicles and burning tires.
President Lenin Moreno reiterated on Friday morning that the subsidy won't be restored.
Prices for low-octane gasoline jumped to $2.40 per gallon from $1.85, while diesel prices more than doubled to $2.30 per gallon from $1.03.
Ecuador will submit a package of fast-track economic reforms to meet terms of a $4.2 billion financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund, Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said, speaking alongside Jarrin from the presidential palace in Quito.
This year, Ecuador had to budget close to $1.4 billion to keep gasoline and diesel prices below market prices.
The government says the fuel subsidies have cost the nation close to $60 billion since they were introduced in the 1970s.
On Tuesday, Ecuador said it would quit the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, to avoid having to cut output to meet quotas.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 10/05/2019