World News in Brief: School shooting in Canada, cholera outbreak in DR Congo, evacuations in Gaza

António Guterres was “saddened to learn of the tragic shooting in Tumble Ridge, British Columbia,” his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at the daily news briefing.

“[Mr. Guterres] extends his deepest condolences to those affected and his sympathies to the Government and people of Canada,” Mr. Dujarric added.

Two crime scenes

According to media reports, the dead included at least three female students, two male students and a teacher. Two additional people were found dead at a nearby home, who local police have reportedly identified as the suspect’s mother and stepbrother.

The suspect – who was born male but was transitioning and identified as female, according to police – was found at the school having died from an apparent self-inflicted wound.

Two of the several dozen injured were airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Tumbler Ridge, located in the Canadian Rockies more than 1,000 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, is a small community near the Alberta border. The secondary school serves around 175 students from Grades seven to 12.

DR Congo: UN urges urgent scale-up as cholera outbreak worsens

The UN relief coordination office, OCHA, has warned that the spiralling cholera outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo demands an immediate scale-up of the response.

It is reportedly the country’s worst outbreak in 25 years. Since the start of 2026, more than 1,300 suspected cases and 35 deaths have been recorded.

Last year, over 71,800 suspected cases were reported, with more than 2,000 deaths.

Humanitarian support

Humanitarian partners, alongside the Government and the UN, continue to provide support, but major gaps remain. Water, sanitation and hygiene services are critically underfunded, health workers are overstretched, supplies are running low and access to treatment facilities remains difficult.

On Monday, $750,000 was allocated from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help health partners rapidly expand life-saving assistance and curb transmission.

OCHA stressed that more flexible funding is urgently needed to bolster health services and contain the outbreak.

Gaza: UN scales up evacuations and education support

In Gaza, UN teams supported the medical evacuation of 18 patients and 26 companions through the Rafah Crossing on Tuesday.

Teams also received 41 additional returnees at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where a reception area is being operated to assist those arriving.

Since Rafah reopened in early February, just over 220 people in each direction have been facilitated through the crossing, according to UN Spokesperson Dujarric.

“I reiterate that we would like to see more people having the opportunity to move voluntarily and safely, in both directions, especially to access services that they need,” he said on Wednesday.

Hoping to expand aid operation

“We also hope to see the movement of cargo enabled through Rafah, to increase the volume of humanitarian supplies entering, and further expand the scale up of the humanitarian response.”

Humanitarian partners working to provide educational support have delivered stationery and toys in recent days to improve learning conditions for thousands of children.

Four new temporary learning spaces were established last week, bringing the total across Gaza to about 450, serving more than 5,500 students.

Between 29 January and 4 February, child protection partners provided winter assistance, psychosocial support and safe spaces to more than 6,500 children and caregivers, including warm clothing for nearly 3,800 children.

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Toronto police officer shot dead, suspect in custody

A Canadian police officer was killed and a suspect is in custody following two daylight shootings in Toronto, local media reported.

Police said on Twitter that a suspect has been located and is in police custody, reports Xinhua news agency.

One person has been pronounced deceased at the scene and two others have been transported to hospital, the police said.

Multiple sources have confirmed that the victim of the fatal shooting is a Toronto police officer, according to the media reports.

Police officers are seen at the scene investigating on the double shootings in Mississauga, the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, on Sept. 12, 2022.

The police issued a public alert about an active shooter on Monday afternoon and said that they were searching for a suspect who was “armed and dangerous”.

The police are investigating the shootings and there is no word yet as to what led to the shootings, said the media reports.

Chiranjeevi’s Next 151 Film on Uyyalawada Kicks Off

Now that the Telugu version of KBC “Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu” is over, Telugu star Chiranjeevi is back to films as he is not going to relent despite the huge success of his 150th come-back film “Khaidi No. 151” that has minted more than Rs.150 crore.

The 151st film of Chiranjeevi is on famous rebellion against the British rulers in Rayalaseema by Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy and “Dhruva” film director Surender Reddy has been roped in to direct this historic film. Its producer is again his son Ram Charan Teja under Konidela banner and this time Ram Charan is appearing not in a cameo role but in a full-fledged supporting role.

The film hit the floors on Monday, March 27, 2017. Surender Reddy had already given Ram Charan his big hit Dhruva last year. Chiranjeevi is planning two projects in 2017, one is with Surender Reddy and the other project is with Boyapati Srinu.

Currently, Parachuri brothers are working on a script for Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy which revolves around the rebellion carried out in Ceded districts against the British rulers, ten years before the 1857 Revolt took place in the north.

Born to Peddamalla Reddy in Uyyalawada, in Kurnool District on the banks of Kundu River, into a Polygars family controlling Koilakuntla, near Giddalur, Narasimha Reddy refused to share revenues with the British. He was in command of 66 villages spread over Kadapa, Anantapur, Bellary and Kurnool districts and had an army of 2,000 men.

After Rayalaseema was ceded to the British by the Nizam, Narasimha Reddy refused to oblige the British nad led an armed uprising. On 10 June 1846 he attacked the treasury at Koilakuntla and marched towards Kambham, which was in Kurnool district till 1970 before it became part of Prakasam District. Later, he killed a forest ranger in Rudravaram, which ignited serious reaction from the district collector, Thomas Monroe. A huge amount of Rs 5,000 for any information about him and Rs 10,000/ for his head was announced.

Unsuccessful to capture him, the British imprisoned his family at Kadapa, which forced him to move to nearby Nallamala forest. When he was hiding in Jagannatha Konda near Ramabhadruni Palle, police surrounded his hideout at night and he was captured on 6th October 1846.

Narasimha Reddy was humiliated and tied with heavy chains and paraded in the streets of Koilkuntla with blood-stained clothes and in all 951 people were charged and 112 of them were given prison term while Narasimha Reddy was hanged to death on 22 February 1847. More than that, his head was kept hanging to the fort of Koilakuntla for about 30 years from 1847 to 1877, so as to terrorize other freedom-fighters.

Forts built by Narasimha Reddy still exist in Nossam, Uyyalawada, Rupanagudi, Kristipadu, Uppaluru and Giddaluru.

Fear Grips Indian Immigrants as America Returns to Cowboy Days

The widow of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, shot to death amid war cry to “Get Out of My Country” by a white extremist candidly asked herself whether they belonged to America and rued that despite her pleadings to return to India, her late husband refused saying “good things happen to good people.”

Not so when we recall the days of cowboy violence and shooting spree reigned the largely immigrant nation in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is not the first time an Indian was killed as many Sikhs mistaken to be Muslims were also killed after the 9/11 attacks and outraged the American common man with little knowledge of the world.

“We’ve read many times in newspapers of some kind of shooting happening,” said a teary Sunayana Dumala, wife of Kuchibotla addressing her husband’s colleagues at Garmin International gathering after the gory incident.

“I have a question in my mind: Do we belong here?” she said making it stop the beating of all Indian immigrants to the US for a second. Yes, Indians hardly raised their voice in the US and many wives of Indian Americans wished that they could return to their home country one day or the other.

The attacks on Indian are undoubtedly on the rise in US and no consolation can wipe out the tears of those who had lost their dear ones in their search for “An American Dream”. When US had business tangles with Japan, several Japanese nationals were targets of the American ire and lost their lives for their looks. And now that Indians are the target for similar miconception about Indians robbing the natives of their jobs.

While the reality is that minus Indians, other nationals will fill the gap and not necessarily Americans would get these jobs. Further, leaving the US may further strengthen the revival of cowboy mindset of white extremists a-la Ku Klux Klan in the 18th century of America. Unless this mindset is addressed, there is no end in sight to American wrath against foreign workers and engineers in the US.