U.K. jails activist for trial coverage
LONDON -- Tommy Robinson, a prominent far-right activist in Britain, has been jailed for 13 months after live-streaming outside a criminal trial, violating reporting restrictions, a court said Tuesday.
Robinson, a pseudonym of 35-year-old Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was arrested Friday at Leeds Crown Court in northern England, where he was broadcasting on Facebook the details of an ongoing trial.
The trial is covered by restrictions on what can be reported while it's underway -- a common practice in Britain, designed to protect the impartiality of the jury.
Judge Geoffrey Marson told Robinson that his actions could be "highly prejudicial to the defendants in the trial." He said Robinson had broadcast details of the defendants and the charges they face, including some wrong information.
Robinson, founder of the now-defunct English Defense League, is a self-styled journalist and commentator who issues anti-Muslim statements online.
News of his arrest had sparked calls on social media for his release and a demonstration Saturday outside the British prime minister's Downing Street office.
9 Afghans killed by mistake in raid
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan forces mistakenly killed nine people, most of them civilians, during a raid on a house in eastern Nangarhar province that has been a base for the Islamic State militant group and other militants, officials said Tuesday.
The raid, which took place late Monday in Chaparhar district, wounded eight other civilians, said provincial Gov. Hayatullah Hayat. A local police commander was among the dead, he added.
According to the governor, gunfire had been coming from the house that was raided, but the casualties were identified as mostly civilians. An investigation was underway to determine how the operation resulted in civilian casualties.
Inamullah Miakhail, a spokesman for the hospital in Nangarhar, confirmed that nine bodies were taken to the hospital from the raid.
Both the Taliban and the Islamic State are active in eastern Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, in the central province of Kabul, two people -- a policeman and a civilian -- were killed after a bomb attached to a bicycle detonated Monday in the Qarabagh district, said Mohammad Azem, the district governor.
And in northern Samangan province, a provincial hospital director was killed when a sticky bomb attached to his car detonated Tuesday in the provincial capital, Aybak, according to Sediq Azizi, the provincial spokesman.
No one has claimed responsibility for those attacks.
India wind storm cited in 10 deaths
LUCKNOW, India -- At least 10 people were killed overnight as strong winds swept through north India, blowing down mud-walled homes and uprooting trees that slammed through houses and crushed people inside, officials said Tuesday.
Six died in Unnao district, 25 miles south of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, said state spokesman Awanish Awasthi. Four more people died elsewhere in the state. At least six people were injured.
The winds were blowing at nearly 50 mph, strong enough to blow down the walls of mud homes, or to cause trees to collapse and destroy concrete houses.
The storm also blew down power lines, Awasthi said.
North India has been pummeled repeatedly by wind and rain in recent weeks, including one storm that killed 134 people and another that killed 43. The weather often turns extreme in north India at this time of year, as the summer heat prepares to give way to annual monsoon rains.
A Section on 05/30/2018