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Police secure the area near a road barrier Wednesday outside the Houses of Parliament in London the day after a suspected terror attack.
Police secure the area near a road barrier Wednesday outside the Houses of Parliament in London the day after a suspected terror attack.

Britons build profile on terror suspect

LONDON -- Detectives searched several properties as they built up a profile Wednesday of a Sudan-born man who crashed a car outside Britain's Parliament in what police are treating as an act of terrorism.

Police are trying to determine what was in the mind of 29-year-old Salih Khater when he plowed a car into cyclists and pedestrians, injuring three, before smashing into a security barrier.

Khater, a British citizen of Sudanese origin, was arrested at the scene of Tuesday's crash on suspicion of "the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism," police said. Police said later he was also suspected of attempted murder.

British authorities do not name suspects until they are charged, but the media and neighbors said the arrested man was Khater. Police said he was not previously known to counterterrorism officers or the intelligence services.

Police said they had finished searching an apartment where the suspect had lived in the central England city of Birmingham, as well as another property in the city and a third in Nottingham, about 50 miles away. They continued to search a third property in Birmingham, 100 miles northwest of London.

Canada sees rise in border crossings

TORONTO -- The number of border crossers entering Canada illegally from the U.S. rose from June to July, but remained sharply below the pace of last summer.

Canada's immigration department said this week that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police intercepted 1,634 migrants last month. That's up from 1,263 in June but far below the 3,134 caught in July 2017 or the record 5,712 in August last year -- part of a surge that strained Canada's immigration system.

Officials say the drop is likely because of their warnings that getting asylum isn't as easy as some believed.

Canadian officials say economic reasons are not grounds for asylum and that many crossing the border illegally won't be allowed to stay.

"While these numbers are promising, Canadians expect all levels of government to work together to live up to our international and humanitarian obligations," said Mathieu Genest, a spokesman for Canada's immigration minister.

Genest said the government is making investments to improve border security and speed up the processing of asylum claims.

Boat sinks on Nile River, kills 22 aboard

CAIRO -- A boat sank Wednesday while crossing the Nile River in Sudan, and at least 21 students and a woman drowned, the country's state news agency reported.

The boat was carrying more than 40 students on their way to school in the northern River Nile state, SUNA said. The report did not say how old the students were.

The woman who drowned was an employee at a local hospital, according to the news agency.

SUNA said the boat sank after one of its engines broke down at the middle of the river. The victims' bodies have not yet been recovered, the report said.

Sudan sees monsoon rains that regularly last from June to November and cause the Nile and its tributaries to overflow. The Nile is an important transportation route for people and goods in the African nation.

One of the world's longest rivers, the Nile is formed from two major tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, which meet just north of Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

Germans OK 'diverse' gender option

BERLIN -- Germany's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a third gender option for official records that will allow people to be registered as "diverse," complying with a ruling from the country's highest court.

In November, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that people must be allowed to be entered in records as neither male nor female, ordering authorities either to create a third identity or scrap gender entries altogether.

It ruled on a case in which a plaintiff sought unsuccessfully to have a birth register changed from "female" to "inter/diverse" or "diverse." Until now, the only other option was to leave the gender blank.

During a three-year legal battle, the plaintiff provided a genetic analysis showing one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. The top court found that authorities could decide to do without any gender identity in civil registers or allow people in similar situations to choose "another positive designation of their sex that is not male or female."

The center-left minister for families in Germany's conservative-led coalition government, Franziska Giffey, said it is "an important step toward the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female."

However, advocacy groups and some opposition politicians said it didn't go far enough.

"Why should you produce a doctor's certificate to change your civil status?" opposition Green party lawmakers Sven Lehmann and Monika Lazar asked in a joint statement. "That must be a self-determined decision that is open to all."

A Section on 08/16/2018

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