Two police officers among four fatally shot in Canada TORONTO, August 10 (Reuters): Four people, including two police officers, were killed in a shooting in the eastern Canadian city of Fredericton and one person was taken into custody, police said on Friday. Police in Fredericton, a city of about 56,000 that is the capital of the province of New Brunswick, said in a post on Twitter that the incident was under investigation and there were multiple fatalities. Another police tweet said two of the four people killed were police officers but gave no details and did not release the names of the victims. Local media images showed emergency vehicles converged on a tree-lined residential street. Gun laws in Canada are more strict than in the United States but a proliferation of weapons has led to an increase in gun crimes in recent years. “Awful news coming out of Fredericton,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter. “My heart goes out to everyone affected by this morning’s shooting. We’re following the situation closely.” Three Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were killed and two more were wounded in 2014 in Moncton, New Brunswick, about 195 km (121 miles) from Fredericton, in one of the worst incidents of its kind in Canada. Last month, a gunman walked down a busy Toronto street, killing two people and wounding 13 others before turning his weapon on himself. Toronto, Canada’s largest city, has had 241 shooting incidents this year, resulting in 30 deaths, a 30 percent increase in fatalities. Wife of jailed Reuters journalist in Myanmar gives birth YANGON, August 10 (Reuters): The wife of imprisoned Reuters journalist Wa Lone, who is facing up to 14 years in jail in Myanmar for allegedly violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, gave birth to a girl on Friday. Wa Lone, 32, and his colleague Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have been detained since December accused of obtaining secret state documents in a case widely seen as a test of press freedom in the Southeast Asian nation. Wa Lone’s wife, Pan Ei Mon, gave birth in a Yangon hospital early on Friday to a girl, named Thet Htar Angel. She is the couple’s first child. “I’ve wished Wa Lone could be free since before I knew I was pregnant, and now I want him to be free even more,” Pan Ei Mon, 35, said as she cradled the baby. Wa Lone has been detained for most of the time his wife was pregnant. A Reuters Special Report published on Wednesday traced the lives of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were arrested while reporting on the massacre of 10 Muslim men in Myanmar last year. The killings took place during an army crackdown that United Nations agencies say prompted about 700,000 people to flee to Bangladesh. The Myanmar court hearing the case against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo is due to hear final arguments on Aug 20 and the judge, Ye Lwin, will issue a verdict in the following weeks. The journalists have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have told the court how they were entrapped by police officials who planted documents on them. Stephen J. Adler, president and editor-in-chief at Reuters, congratulated the couple on the birth of their daughter. “While this should be a moment of great joy for them, it is sad and troubling that Wa Lone has missed being present at the birth of his daughter as he continues to be incarcerated on baseless charges. “We will continue to do all we can to support them during this difficult separation and we remain hopeful that both Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo will be released soon and reunited with their families.” Brazil suffers record murder tally in 2017, ahead of election RIO DE JANEIRO, August 10 (Reuters): Brazil had a record number of murders last year, with homicides rising 3.7 percent from 2016 to 63,880 according to a study released on Thursday, just months before a presidential election in which violence has become a key issue. In 2017, Brazil had a murder rate of 30.8 per 100,000 people, up from 29.9 in 2016, according to data published by the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook 2018. Drug-scarred Mexico, which also suffered a record number of murders in 2017, had a homicide rate of around 20 per 100,000 people. The yearbook is published by the Brazilian Forum of Public Security, a think tank. Triggered by ever-more violent gangs capitalizing on tighter law enforcement budgets and a political void in the wake of massive graft scandals, growing violence is a key voter concern ahead of the October election. Far-right lawmaker Jair Bolsonaro, who leads polling in the presidential race excluding jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wants to loosen gun laws and toughen up policing to tackle the rise in violence. His popularity has forced opponents including centrist former governor Geraldo Alckmin to join forces with law-and-order conservatives to bolster their crime-fighting credentials. The yearbook data showed that many of the record number of murders, which includes police killed in the line of duty, were concentrated in Brazil’s poorer northeastern states. The state of Rio Grande do Norte had the highest murder rate in 2017, with 68 murders per 100,000 people, followed by Acre, in the far west of the country bordering Peru, with 63.9 per 100,000 people. The wealthier state of Sao Paulo had the lowest murder rate of any state, with 10.7 homicides per 100,000 people. In the absence of comprehensive federal crime data, the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook collects official state-level data and is used as a reference by the federal government. Death toll from Indonesia quake climbs over 320 PEMANANG, August 10 (Reuters): The death toll from a huge 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia’s Lombok island has climbed to more than 320, officials said on Friday, even as relief efforts picked up pace. The national disaster mitigation agency said it had verified 321 deaths and that over 270,000 people had been forced to flee their homes because of a series of tremors over the past two weeks. On Thursday, the death toll from Sunday’s quake jumped to 259. A fresh 5.9 magnitude aftershock prompted fresh panic in the north of the popular holiday destination on Thursday. Nearly 75 percent of residential structures have been destroyed in northern Lombok because of poor construction unable to withstand strong tremors, the agency said in a statement. “Aid is being distributed as quickly as possible upon arrival,” Sutopo Nugroho, spokesman for the agency said in a statement, adding that hundreds of volunteers were assisting the efforts. Mobile kitchens have started distributing much-needed food and water to thousands of evacuees in the worst-hit areas, he said, after several days’ delay due to poor access and communications. President Joko Widodo on Friday said he was delaying plans to visit Lombok until next week, citing concerns over continuing aftershocks.
