World Briefs …

Firefighters try to save relics from Rio museum

RIO DE JANEIRO – A huge fire engulfed Brazil’s 200-year-old national museum in Rio de Janeiro, lighting up the night sky with towering flames as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics from the blaze. The esteemed museum, which houses artefacts from Egypt, Greco-Roman art and some of the first fossils found in Brazil, was closed to the public at the time of the fire, which broke out at 19h30 on Sunday local time, it said in a statement. There were no reports of injuries, the museum said, and it was not immediately clear how the fire began.

MUMBAI – Government authorities will take over all shelters in India’s northern state of Bihar after an audit found that children were being verbally, physically and sexually abused in homes run by charities, an official said. The probe, which Bihar state commissioned earlier this year to examine how government funds were being used, found 15 charity-run homes where children were abused and deprived of food, clothing and medicine. Victims also included women rescued from bonded labour or sexual slavery, and toddlers awaiting adoption, according to the audit, which was posted to a state government website.

SAN BERNADINO – Ten people, including children, were shot at an apartment complex in San Bernardino, California on Sunday night, police said, with three people in dire condition. “We got a call about 22h45 for shots fired,” said San Bernardino spokesman Richard Lawhead. “We found 10 victims down at the scene. Three are extremely critical.” The shooting happened on a hot holiday weekend in the city that is about 96 km east of Los Angeles. People were gathered outside playing games in a common area of an apartment complex of about 100 units, police said.

WASHINGTON – Nearly a year after Russian government hackers meddled in the 2016 US election, researchers at cybersecurity firm Trend Micro zeroed in on a new sign of trouble: A group of suspect websites. The sites mimicked a portal used by US senators and their staff, with easy-to-miss discrepancies. Emails to senate users urged them to reset their passwords – an apparent attempt to steal them. Once again, hackers outside the American political system were probing for a way in.

Now the US has entered a new election cycle. And the attempt to infiltrate the senate network is a reminder of the risks, and the difficulty of assessing them.

– Nampa-AFP-Reuters-Reuters Foundation

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