Bombing ‘attempted murder’
A bomb exploded at a supermarket in St Petersburg yesterday, injuring 10 people and raising new fears of terrorism just weeks after Russian authorities claimed a tip from the United States helped to prevent a major attack in the same city. The bomb, which authorities called a ‘‘homemade explosive device’’ packed with ‘‘killing agents’’, which local reports said were ball bearings, exploded in a locker at the supermarket in the northeast of the city. Authorities did not immediately call the explosion a terrorist attack, classifying it instead as attempted murder of two or more people, without naming the targets. Nine people were hospitalised, including one in a critical condition with shrapnel wounds to the stomach.
Concert ticket controversy
The leader of the Salvation Army in Australia is under fire after his daughter was given donated Paul Mccartney concert tickets that were supposed to be for homeless people. The seven tickets were initially given to homeless people, but four hours before the December 5 show in Melbourne, two of the ticket holders returned them, Major Brendan Nottle said. ‘‘[A manager] made the decision to give [the tickets] to my daughter. It had absolutely had nothing to do with me,’’ he said yesterday. Nottle said his daughter accepted the tickets under the premise that she would ‘‘look out for’’ the five homeless people at the concert. The church will reimburse the donor.
Perfect new tooth helps teen
A baby tooth has saved an American teenager from having a felony conviction on his record. An appeals court in Florida yesterday threw out a felony battery charge against the teen, who punched a classmate on a Miami-dade school bus in 2015, knocking out a baby tooth. The reason: the 12-year-old victim’s adult tooth grew in just fine. Miami’s Third District Court of Appeal rejected prosecutors’ contention that the lost baby tooth qualified as ‘‘great bodily harm’’. It wasn’t all good news for the teen, however – the court ordered that the charge be replaced with a misdemeanour charge of simple battery.