GLOBAL SNAPSHOT

Walmart shooting

DENVER: Three people are dead after a shooting at a Walmart in Colorado, police say. According to authorities, two men and a woman were killed in the incident about 6.30pm local time. Witnesses say at least 30 shots were fired. Dozens of police cars and emergency services vehicles raced to the scene, including a SWAT team. No one has been arrested over the deadly shooting.

Taxi hits crowd

LONDON: A taxi has ploughed into pedestrians near London tourist hotspot Covent Garden. Four victims were hit by the black cab in central London after it mounted the pavement about 5pm. Cops have confirmed the crash is not being treated as terror-related, reports The Sun. A man was treated for a serious leg injury and three other suffered minor injuries. Twitter users reported a heavy armed police presence and said the streets around the Lyceum Theatre were closed to the public.

Saudi robot a citizen

RIYADH: Women in Saudi Arabia have scorned the government’s decision to grant citizenship to a female robot who, unlike them, doesn’t need a male guardian or has to cover her head in public. Social media was abuzz with questions about whether the robot, Sophia, who was unveiled at a technology conference in the capital Riyadh last week, will be treated like other women in the conservative kingdom now that she is a citizen. “It hit a sore spot that a robot has citizenship and my daughter doesn’t,” Hadeel Shaikh, a Saudi woman whose four-year-old child with a Lebanese man does not have citizenship. Women married to foreigners in Saudi Arabia cannot pass on citizenship to their children.

Power plant blast

NEW DELHI: The death toll from an explosion at a thermal power plant in northern India has climbed to 22, officials said yesterday. At least 60 others were injured when the explosion spewed hot ash over workers at the plant, said Sanjay Khatri, the area’s top administrative officer. The death toll could rise as some dozen people have been hospitalised with severe burns

Suu Kyi visit

YANGON: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited the conflicttorn area of northern Rakhine state for the first time yesterday, as her government said a repatriation plan for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who’ve fled violence there is under way. Ms Suu Kyi headed to restive northern Rakhine where many Rohingya villages were located. More than 600,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine have fled to Bangladesh since August 25.