Police

BBC reports Clare Nowland, 95, is in critical condition after an officer discharged the weapon at a care home in Cooma, New South Wales (NSW), on Wednesday.

Police say Ms Nowland had moved towards them "at a slow pace" with a knife.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said she was "not sure" why there were calls for the footage to be released.

"I am not sure why they want to see it," she told reporters at a press conference.

The team of two vaccinators was unharmed, police said.

Local polio vaccination teams are often targeted by anti-vaccine militants, some of whom claim vaccination is a Western plot to sterilise Muslims.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio, which in severe cases can be fatal or leave patients paralysed, remains endemic.

The two gunmen had been hiding near a small water channel before opening fire on the guards from a "very close range", local police said.

Emergency alerts issued shortly after 06:00 local time (13:00 GMT) warned of "multiple shooting scenes" in downtown Langley, a city about 25 miles east of Vancouver.

Police confirmed a lone suspect had been shot dead on the scene.

He is believed to have been targeting homeless people in the area.

The suspect and his victims will not be publicly identified until police have notified next-of-kin.

Sergeant David Lee, a spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said the series of incidents began at midnight and continued until early morning.

A baby boy in Australia has been reunited with his distraught mother after he was taken when her car was stolen from outside an Adelaide deli.

The 4-month-old was missing for almost two and a half hours as South Australia Police desperately searched for him and the stolen car.

His mother's 2009 white Honda Jazz was stolen from outside a deli on Fourth Avenue, Klemzig in Adelaide about 7.45am (local time) while she was shopping inside.

At least two children placed several emergency calls from a pair of adjoining fourth-grade classrooms after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered on Tuesday with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, according to Colonel Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Ramos, who had driven to Robb Elementary School from his home after shooting and wounding his grandmother there, went on to kill 19 children and two teachers in the deadliest US school shooting in nearly a decade.

This follows concerns the police would strike over a delay in the payment of their Covid-19 allowances.

Deputy Commissioner Ian Vaevaso said these media reports are wrong.

He said he thinks very few unruly officers are tarnishing the good image of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force by speaking to the media.

Mr Vaevaso said making unnecessary comments to the media is a serious breach for an officer.

The man attacked two police officers on patrol at the station, with a 30cm (12in) knife, police said.

An anti-police inscription was found on the man's knife, reports say. No police officers were injured in the incident, which occurred at about 07:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Monday.

The authorities believe the incident was not terrorism-related.

"The police used their firearms, thus eliminating all danger, both for themselves and for travellers," Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote in a tweet (in French).

The bottles were crushed into the ground by bulldozers in the northern city of Kano in front of crowds cheering "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great).

The predominantly Muslim city is in one of several northern Nigerian states that prohibit alcohol under Sharia law.

The beers had been seized from trucks coming from the mainly Christian south, officials told AFP news agency.

Shariah police, known as Hisbah, frequently destroy confiscated alcohol and drugs but Wednesday's haul was one of the largest yet in an intensifying crackdown.

RNZ Pacific correspondent in Honiara, Elizabeth Osifelo, said exhausted police were overwhelmed as more people swarmed into town in defiance of a 36-hour lockdown.

Shops in Chinatown which had survived the earlier unrest were ransacked and burned. On the eastern side of town the Ranadi branch of Bank South Pacific was torched as was locally owned and operated hardware store, Island Enterprise.

Osifelo said police were doing everything they could to try and get control of the situation but they were outnumbered.

Shem, whom Police have described as a high risk prisoner is wanted in connection with recent thefts.

Police said the suspect is a high risk prisoner that was out on parole and is involving again in some criminal in the areas of Port Vila.

The public is being urged to come forward with any information that may lead to Shem’s arrest.

Photo Vanuatu Police  Caption: Jean Yves Shem