NATION & WORLD WATCH

Tennessee pastor tackles gunman during church service

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The “heroic actions” of a Tennessee pastor who tackled a man waving and pointing a gun during a service “saved a church from further violence,” police said. No shots were fired during the incident Sunday at Nashville Light Mission Pentecostal Church, Metro Nashville Police said in a statement. The 26-year-old man pulled a gun as the pastor was praying with several people at the altar and told everyone to get up as he waved and pointed the gun at the congregation, police said.

US envoy: Bosnia’s presidency pledges no more wars

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Members of Bosnia’s collective presidency have offered assurances that there will be no repeat of ethnic clashes in the war-scarred nation, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Monday, despite tensions triggered by Bosnian Serb separatist moves. “The most important thing that we agreed with all of the interlocutors is that we all agree that there will be no war and that’s the most important message,” said U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar after his meetings with presidency members.

China’s 1st woman to spacewalk works 6 hours outside station

BEIJING – Wang Yaping has become the first Chinese woman to conduct a spacewalk as part of a six-month mission to the country’s space station. Wang and fellow astronaut Zhai Zhigang left the station’s main module on Sunday evening, spending more than six hours outside installing equipment and carrying out tests alongside the station’s robotic service arm, according to the China Manned Space agency. The third member of the crew, Ye Guangfu, assisted from inside the station, CMS said on its website.

Court in Italy convicts 90 suspects in investigation of crime clans

ROME – A court in southern Italy has convicted 70 defendants and acquitted 20 others in a trial that probed alleged links between the ’Ndrangheta crime syndicate and local business figures, politicians and public officials. The verdicts on Saturday came at the end of a fast-track trial that was an offshoot of another, ongoing trial in the Calabria region against more than 320 defendants. The ’Ndrangheta is a Calabria-based mob that has exploited billions of dollars in cocaine revenues to expand its influence into other continents.