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Schools shut as Spain

braces for more rain

MADRID (AFP) -- Schools in flood-hit towns in eastern Spain will be closed on Wednesday as the region braces for more torrential rains, officials said.

National weather office AEMET on Tuesday placed parts of Valencia as well as Catalonia in the northeast and Andalusia in the south and the Balearic Islands on orange alert -- the second highest level -- for strong or torrential rains until Thursday.

The alert comes two weeks after an exceptional Mediterranean storm caused Spain's deadliest floods in decades.

The October 29 storm killed 223 people, the bulk of them in the Valencia region, according to the latest official tally.

Dozens of town halls in Valencia, including Chiva, one of the worst-hit sites, suspended classes and closed public gyms because of the threats of more heavy rain.

"In response to the information provided by the emergency services, school and sports activities will be SUSPENDED from tomorrow until further notice," Chiva town hall wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

While the amount of rain that is forecast to fall in Valencia is less than what fell two weeks ago, local officials warned sewage systems are clogged with mud and could struggle to cope with significant precipitation making more flooding possible.

US calls on Haiti leaders

to focus on 'credibility'

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The United States on Tuesday called on Haiti's leaders to ensure credibility over competing personal interests after the crisis-wracked country's prime minister was ousted.

The United States, which had led efforts to stabilize the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation including through a Transitional Presidential Council that took shape this year, said it would work with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime.

"The acute and immediate needs of the Haitian people mandate that the transitional government prioritize governance over the competing personal interests of political actors," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

After a previous tussle brought down Prime Minister Garry Conille, the United States called on the council and the new prime minister to "clearly delineate" each other's responsibilities.

The effort should "include measures to hold one another accountable as appropriate while preventing further gridlock," Miller said.

"It is also imperative to promote accountability within the TPC to maintain credibility with the Haitian people and the international community," he said.

35 killed, dozens hurt

in China car rampage

ZHUHAI, China (AFP) -- A man killed 35 people and injured 43 more when he plowed his car into those exercising around a sports center in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, local police said Tuesday.

The toll from the Monday incident was a dramatic increase from the initial report, when police only said that people had been injured, with videos apparently scrubbed from social media. A 62-year-old man surnamed Fan drove a small SUV through a gate and "forced his way into the city's sports center, ramming people who were exercising on the internal roads," police said Tuesday. Preliminary investigations suggested Fan's attack had been "triggered by (his) dissatisfaction with the division of property following his divorce," their statement said.

Footage from Monday night geolocated by Agence France-Presse showed people lying motionless on the ground, while others were seen frantically attempting to resuscitate the unconscious.

Fan was "controlled on the spot" as he attempted to drive away, police said Tuesday. He was found in his car cutting himself with a knife, and is currently in a coma after self-inflicted injuries to his neck and other parts of his body, unable to undergo interrogation, they added.

US airman who leaked

jailed on spying charges

BOSTON (AFP) -- The US airman who admitted to leaking a trove of classified Pentagon documents that revealed Washington apparently spied on allies and doubted Ukraine's military strength was jailed for 15 years on Tuesday.

Jack Teixeira, 22, orchestrated the most damaging leak of classified information in a decade while serving as an IT specialist with the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

He posted highly sensitive documents on the social media platform Discord, from which they spread across the internet.

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry for all of the harm that I've brought and that I've caused, and that I don't think I can really sum up how contrite I am," Teixeira told the court ahead of sentencing, The Boston Globe reported.

Teixeira, whose family members were in court for the sentencing, was arrested in April 2023 and pleaded guilty in March this year to six federal counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

The United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Joshua Levy told a media briefing Tuesday that the platform used by Teixeira reached 150 million people worldwide.

"Jack Teixeira made the deliberate choice day after day, week after week for over a year to share the nation's secrets that were entrusted to him," he said, confirming the sentence of 15 years imprisonment.