The world in brief

Firefighters and police officers stand Wednesday near the gutted remains of a bus that the driver set aflame near Milan, Italy.
Firefighters and police officers stand Wednesday near the gutted remains of a bus that the driver set aflame near Milan, Italy.

Abducted kids rescued from bus in Italy

MILAN -- A bus driver in northern Italy abducted 51 children and their chaperones Wednesday, threatening them during the 40-minute ordeal before setting the vehicle on fire when he was stopped by a blockade, police said.

Officers broke glass windows in the back of the bus and got all the passengers to safety without serious injury before the flames destroyed the vehicle, authorities said.

As he was apprehended, the driver, identified as Ousseynou Sy, said he was protesting migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, Cmdr. Luca De Marchis told Sky TG24.

De Marchis said Sy, an Italian citizen of Senegalese origin who's in his 40s, threatened the passengers, telling them that "no one would survive today" as he commandeered the bus carrying two middle-school classes to a gym in Cremona province, about 25 miles from Milan.

The Italian news agency ANSA quoted one of the students as saying the driver took everyone's phones and ordered the chaperones to bind the students' hands with cable ties, threatening to spill gas and set the bus ablaze. The news agency said the chaperones only loosely bound several students' hands, not everyone's.

Authorities said an adult called an emergency operator while one of the students called a parent. Authorities were then alerted, and roadblocks were set up. The bus was intercepted on the outskirts of Milan by three vehicles from the Carabinieri law enforcement agency, which were able to force it into the guardrail, De Marchis said.

N. Macedonians plead guilty to ISIS ties

SKOPJE, North Macedonia -- Officials in North Macedonia said seven of the country's citizens have pleaded guilty to joining the Islamic State militant group and fighting with it in Syria and Iraq.

The North Macedonian prosecutor's office said late Tuesday that the men, on trial in a Skopje criminal court, were arrested last August in Syria by members of the international coalition fighting the Islamic State.

They were subsequently handed over to North Macedonian law enforcement agencies.

All were charged with membership of an extremist group, while one also was said to have recruited for the Islamic State.

They face up to five years in jail.

North Macedonian authorities say more than 130 of the country's citizens have joined the Islamic State militant group. The predominantly Orthodox Christian Balkan state has a large Muslim minority.

Kazakh's daughter chosen for key post

MOSCOW -- Dariga Nazarbayeva, the eldest daughter of Kazakhstan's departed leader, was appointed speaker of parliament on Wednesday, fueling speculation that she will try to succeed her father as president after next year's election.

The appointment came a day after 78-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned after nearly 30 years in office -- all of Kazakhstan's time as an independent nation. Nazarbayev said it was time for a new generation to rule.

Though Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, speaker of the upper chamber of parliament, was officially sworn in as interim president on Wednesday, Nazarbayev will likely continue to wield considerable influence in the oil-rich country as he remains chairman of the security council and leader of the ruling party. The question of who will succeed him is, however, still open.

As the new speaker, Nazarbayeva will be the second-most-senior official in the country.

The surprise vote to name the 55-year-old Nazarbayeva, who kept a low profile after she left the government in 2016, as speaker has led many to believe she is going to be a leading contender in the 2020 presidential election. Nazarbayeva has faced several corruption scandals and a divorce, which is something that may raise eyebrows in traditionally minded Kazakhstan during a presidential campaign.

S. Koreans arrest 4 in hotel-film scheme

Four people were booked by authorities in Seoul on Wednesday for live-streaming secretly obtained video from dozens of city hotel rooms, South Korean police said.

The Korea Herald reported that since November, the site had sold monthly subscriptions, raking in more than $6,000. It had more than 4,000 users, 97 of whom paid add-on fees for additional features like video replay.

Authorities discovered the hidden cameras inside TV boxes, wall outlets and hair-dryer stands in 42 hotel rooms, the National Police Agency said in a statement obtained by CNN. The recording devices, which filmed approximately 1,600 guests, had been installed in 30 hotels throughout 10 South Korean cities.

In the past five years, cases of illegal filming in South Korea have skyrocketed by the thousands. There were upward of 6,400 reported incidents in 2017, according to CNN.

Wednesday's arrest was the first case that involved live-streaming the footage on the Internet.

photo

AP file photo

This Sunday, April 26, 2015 photo shows Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of the outgoing leader of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in Astana, Kazakhstan.

A Section on 03/21/2019

Upcoming Events