Migrants rush border; 602 get into Spain
MADRID -- Around 800 migrants stormed border fences separating Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco to get into Europe, police said Thursday.
Spain's Civil Guard said 602 migrants made it onto Spanish soil in an assault on high, barbed-wire fences shortly after dawn.
Migrants cut holes in the fences and threw feces and quicklime, a skin irritant, at police officers trying to hold them back, the Civil Guard said in a statement.
They also threw stones at police vehicles, breaking windows, and hurled makeshift flamethrowers at police officers.
The police statement said 16 migrants were taken to the hospital, while five of 15 police hurt also were hospitalized.
The Spanish Red Cross said in a tweet that 132 migrants were hurt in the mass charge.
Sub-Saharan Africans living illegally in Morocco try to get to Europe each year by climbing rows of 20-foot high fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's other North African enclave. Those who make it across head for crowded, temporary migrant accommodation centers. They are eventually repatriated or let go.
Thursday's assault added to pressure on Spanish authorities from a recent wave of migration, with on average hundreds of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea on unsafe boats each day.
Spain's Maritime Rescue Service said it picked up 332 people in the Mediterranean on Thursday -- 232 on 19 boats in the Strait and 100 in two boats further east. On Wednesday, it rescued 424 people.
Taiwan pushing back on China's moves
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan on Thursday denounced China's latest moves to increase its global isolation, saying residents of the self-governing island would reject attempts to deny its existence.
China in recent days has forced international airlines to stop referring to Taiwan as a separate country on their websites. It also reportedly prompted the Asian Olympic Committee to withdraw the island's right to host a youth competition scheduled for next year in the central city of Taichung.
"These are attempts to destroy Taiwan's sovereignty, and erase it from the world map," Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrew Lee said at a news conference.
Beijing's action is aimed at increasing Taiwan's isolation and prodding it toward a political union with China. Taiwan is already excluded from the United Nations and other major international organizations, and China has been steadily poaching away the self-governing island's dwindling number of diplomatic partners.
Beijing also has stepped up its military threats by sending warplanes on patrols around the island and staging war games on its side of the Taiwan Strait.
It has also offered preferential terms for talented young people from the high-tech island to work in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.
China has taken an increasingly hard line since the election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who has refused to endorse Beijing's insistence that Taiwan is a part of China to be brought under its control eventually.
U.K. eases rules on cannabis medicines
LONDON -- The British government says doctors will now be able to legally prescribe cannabis-based medicines, after criticism over the denial of medical treatment to severely epileptic children.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid relaxed the rules Thursday after considering expert advice from a specially commissioned review. The government has no plans to decriminalize the drug for recreational use.
The government changed its stance during publicity surrounding the case of 12-year-old Billy Caldwell, who needed to receive cannabis oil treatment to prevent life-threatening seizures.
His mother, Charlotte Caldwell, has called for the laws governing medicinal marijuana use in Britain to be liberalized, saying cannabis oil is the only treatment that has warded off her son's seizures.
British health authorities will now develop a definition of what constitutes a cannabis-derived medicinal product.
Gunmen kill 6 people at Mexican funeral
MEXICO CITY -- Prosecutors said assailants shot to death six people at a funeral in western Mexico, the second such attack in 10 days.
Four more people were wounded in the attack outside a funeral home in the state of Michoacan.
The state prosecutors' office said the attack occurred late Wednesday in the city of Uruapan.
On July 15, gunmen burst into a funeral home in the north-central state of Zacatecas and killed five people and wounded 17.
The victims were gathered for the funeral of a man killed in a shooting at a bar the day before.
Drug cartels in Mexico have been known to target friends and families of rival gang members at funerals, but there was no immediate information on any gang links in the most recent killings.
A Section on 07/27/2018