At least four killed in California school shooting
At least four people were killed and nearly a dozen people were wounded, including three young children, when a shooting broke out at a school in rural northern California.
Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told the KCRA news network that the assailant was killed by police following the shooting, which began around 8am (midnight on Wednesday, Singapore time) at a home in Tehama County and continued at the Rancho Tehama Elementary School.
Local news reports said the incident began as a domestic dispute that escalated.
Jim Schultz, a reporter for the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper, quoted Rancho Tehama resident Salvador Tello, who was taking his three children to school and described seeing the gunman open fire, killing a woman.
Largest diamond ever auctioned sells for record $46 million in Geneva
The largest diamond ever offered at auction went under the hammer in Geneva on Tuesday for nearly US$34 million (S$46.2 million), a world record for a gem of its kind, the Christie's auction house said.
The 163.41-carat flawless D colour diamond, suspended from an emerald and diamond necklace called The Art of Grisogono, sold for 33.5 million Swiss francs (S$46 million), after taxes and commissions, at the Christie's autumn jewel auction.
With a drawn-out round of rapid-fire bidding starting at 20 million francs, the necklace was finally sold to a telephone bidder, who wished to remain anonymous, for well above the asking price of 25 million.
Russia posts images from a videogame as 'irrefutable proof' of the US helping ISIS, then says it was a mistake
Russia's defence ministry on Tuesday posted images it said proved the US was aiding the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group in the Middle East, but social media users pointed out they included a still from a videogame.
The ministry's official account said the black-and-white images were taken on Nov 9 near the Syria-Iraq border and provided "irrefutable proof that the US is providing cover to ISIS combat units".
But the monitor Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), along with a number of social media users, was quick to compare one of the images with an identical still from the wargame "AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron".
With an eye on Donald Trump, Senate panel debates US president's nuclear authority
US senators on Tuesday probed the limits of a president's unilateral power to launch a nuclear attack, an increasingly weighty debate as tensions rise between Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.
The closely watched discussion, led by a prominent Republican Trump critic, addressed a hypothetical presidential decision to launch a nuclear first strike against a US adversary.
"Let's just recognise the exceptional nature of this moment," Senate Democrat Chris Murphy said during the hearing of the chamber's Foreign Relations Committee. "We are concerned that the president of the United States is so unstable, is so volatile, has a decision-making process that is so quixotic, that he might order a nuclear weapon strike that is widely out of step with US national security interests."
Football: Man City's Aguero hospitalised after fainting
Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero was rushed to a local hospital in Krasnodar after he fainted in Argentina's dressing room during half-time of Tuesday's friendly with Nigeria, the Argentine Football Association confirmed.
"Aguero suffered a lypothymia (fainting without loss of consciousness), which is why he was transferred to hospital for routine tests as a precaution," the AFA said in a statement.
Aguero, who scored the winner in Argentina's 1-0 victory over Russia on Saturday, netted his team's second goal against Nigeria in the 36th minute before he was replaced at the break after suddenly feeling ill.
