News briefs
BY Wire reports
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
1/09/13 at 2:49 AM
San Antonio: Judge: Student can be moved in ID tracking case
A federal judge says a Texas school district can transfer a student to another campus for refusing to wear an identification card that's part of an electronic tracking system.
The parents of 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez are suing her San Antonio high school, arguing that the ID rule violates her religious beliefs.
Her father had asked a judge to prevent his daughter from being transferred as the lawsuit moves through the courts. But U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia denied the request Tuesday.
Garcia said the school district can transfer Hernandez to another campus if she doesn't accept the district's accommodation of wearing a badge without the tracking chip.
Hernandez's family says the badge is a "mark of the beast" that goes against their religion.
Tel Aviv, Israel : Heavy rains, flooding lash Israel, Gaza Strip
Heavy rain flooded the main highway into Israel's main commercial hub, and an army helicopter was sent to rescue Israelis stranded on a roof in one of the region's fiercest rainstorms in decades.
Flash floods closed the main road along the Dead Sea.
Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip said 11 people were injured in weather-related incidents, and Gaza's commercial center was shut.
Kabul, Afghanistan: Afghan 'insider attack' leaves Brit soldier dead
An Afghan soldier turned his weapon against foreign and Afghan troops in a southern province, killing one British soldier, another attack by a member of Afghanistan's military against its foreign allies, officials said Tuesday.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting, the first insider attack of 2013. Several British soldiers were also reported wounded.
Such "insider attacks" by Afghan soldiers and police, or men wearing their uniforms, rose dramatically last year. The attacks come as NATO and Afghan forces are in closer contact, as foreign troops hand over security to the Afghans and train them before an almost total withdrawal by the end of 2014.
Lagos, Nigeria: Nigerian slum blaze destroys homes, shops
A massive fire tore through a waterfront slum in Nigeria's megacity of Lagos on Tuesday, burning down dozens of shack workshops and homes.
The fire hit along the dirty shoreline of the Lagos Lagoon, an area full of sawmills that process lumber floated into the city from hundreds of miles away.
Hours after sunset, the fire still raged. There were no firefighters, trucks or emergency equipment seen in the neighborhood, which can be difficult to reach and dangerous for outsiders.
San Juan, Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico Legislature may go to part-time
Leaders of the party that recently won control of Puerto Rico's legislature want to put the House of Representatives on part-time status for the first time in nearly two decades.
The move would save millions of dollars and make the government of the U.S. territory more efficient, according to members of the Popular Democratic Party. Just how long the House of Representatives would meet, and how much members would be paid, is still under study by a commission.
Lima, Peru: Helicopter crash kills 5 Americans, 2 Peruvians
Investigators picked through the wreckage Tuesday of a U.S.-owned cargo helicopter that crashed in the Peruvian jungle, killing five American and two Peruvian crew members.
The heavy-lift Chinook BH-234 chopper, owned by Columbia Helicopters, Inc. of the Portland suburb of Aurora, Ore., crashed Monday shortly after taking off from the provincial capital of Pucallpa bound for Tarapoto.
Columbia Helicopters' executive vice president, Peter Lance identified the Americans as Dann Immel of Gig Harbor, Wash.; Edwin Cordova of Melbourne, Fla.; Jaime Pickett of Clarksville, Tenn.; Darrel Birkes, an Oregonian living in Peru, and Leon Bradford of Santaquin, Utah.
Associated Images:
A wildfire near Deans Gap, Australia, crosses the Princes Highway on Tuesday. Firefighters are battling scores of wildfires in southeastern Australia as authorities evacuate parks and warn that hot, dry and windy conditions are combining to raise the threat. Temperatures reached 113 degrees in some areas Tuesday. JAMES MORRIS/NSW Rural Fire Service/Associated Press
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