Canadian charged in 4 people's deaths
TORONTO -- Canadian police charged a man Saturday in the deaths of two police officers and two civilians in a shooting that struck a nerve in a country that has been roiled in recent months by instances of mass violence.
Police in the eastern city of Fredericton, New Brunswick, said that Matthew Vincent Raymond, 48, was arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Horizon Health, which delivers care for New Brunswick's Department of Health, said Raymond was the only person being treated for injuries related to the shooting. He is due to appear in court Aug. 27.
The victims have been identified as police Constable Robb Costello, 45, police Constable Sara Burns, 43, Donnie Robichaud, 42, and Bobbie-Lee Wright, 32.
Robichaud and Wright were in a relationship, according to Facebook and Robichaud's cousin, Sean Callahan, who said they had just gotten together at the beginning of August.
Police said they were working to determine a link between the gunman and the couple.
Police said Costello and Burns were responding to calls of shots fired at an apartment complex and saw two deceased civilians before being shot and killed themselves.
The last homicide in the city of about 60,000 people was in 2014.
Japanese protest U.S. base relocation
TOKYO -- Tens of thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in Okinawa vowing to stop the planned relocation of a U.S. military base on the southern Japanese island.
Opponents of the relocation say the plan to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from a crowded neighborhood to a less populated coastal site would not only be an environmental debacle but also ignore local wishes to have the base moved from the island entirely.
About 70,000 people gathered at a park in the state capital of Naha under pouring rain ahead of an approaching typhoon and observed a moment of silence for Okinawa's governor, Takeshi Onaga, who had spearheaded opposition to the relocation. He died Wednesday of cancer.
Deputy Gov. Kiichiro Jahana, representing Onaga at Saturday's rally, said he will follow through with the revocation process as instructed by the governor and succeed his "strong determination and passion."
Okinawans are trying to block the central government plan to start dumping soil into Henoko Bay within days to make a landfill for the new site of the Futenma base. Environmental groups say construction at the bay risks corals and endangered dugongs.
About half of the 50,000 American troops in Japan are stationed on Okinawa.
Equality report spurs protest in Tunisia
BARDO, Tunisia -- Thousands of Muslim fundamentalists protested Saturday in front of the nation's parliament to decry proposals in a government report on gender equality that they claim are contrary to Islam.
Men and veiled women marched under a blazing sun from Tunis to Bardo, outside the capital where the parliament is located, to protest the report by the Commission of Individual Liberties and Equality. The report, among other things, calls for legalizing homosexuality -- now punishable with three years in prison -- and giving the sexes equal inheritance rights. Men now receive double the inheritance of women.
The commission was put in place a year ago by President Beji Caid Essebsi, who is expected to speak about it on Monday, Women's Day in Tunisia. It was not immediately clear whether the proposals would eventually be put before parliament.
The protest was organized by the National Coordination for the Defense of the Koran, the Constitution and Equitable Development, and protesters defended a literal reading of the Koran, the Muslim holy book.
Tarek Azouz worried that the proposals amounted to a "wish to destroy moral values" by legalizing homosexuality. If acted upon, he said, "we'll end up with gay marriage."
Congo attacks imperil bid to curb Ebola
BENI, Congo -- Suspected rebels killed seven civilians in an overnight attack in northeastern Congo, a local official said Saturday, highlighting the threat to efforts to contain the latest Ebola virus outbreak nearby.
The administrator of Beni territory, Donat Kibwana, told The Associated Press the attack was likely carried out by Allied Democratic Forces fighters in Mayi-Moya, about 24 miles from Beni city.
Kibwana said it sent the local population fleeing. Such mass displacement complicates health workers' efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak -- the nation's tenth -- that has killed 11 people so far in the densely populated region near the border with Uganda.
Global health officials have said they are combating this outbreak in what is essentially a war zone, with multiple armed groups in the mineral-rich region and about 1 million displaced people.
The attack occurred as the World Health Organization's director-general is visiting the area to see the Ebola response. Vaccinations began Wednesday for health workers and contacts of Ebola victims, and nearly 1,000 people are being monitored.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/12/2018