NATION & WORLD BRIEFS

NYPD officer fatally shot conducting traffic stop in Queens

A New York Police Department officer was shot and killed in the line of duty Monday, officials said.

Jonathan Diller, 31, and his partner were conducting a traffic stop in Far Rockaway, Queens. They ordered the passenger to step out of the car. Instead, the passenger pointed a gun at the officers and fired. Diller’s partner returned fire, striking the shooter.

Diller was shot in the torso underneath his bullet-resistant vest. He died at a nearby hospital.

Police took two suspects into custody: the armed passenger, who has four prior arrests, and the driver, who has 14 prior arrests. The armed suspect was taken to the hospital and is said to be in stable condition.

Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, called it “a senseless act of violence” by a person who “had a total disregard for the safety of this city.”

Syrian state media says US bombing killed 7 soldiers, 1 civilian

CAIRO — U.S. forces bombed eastern Syria at dawn, killing at least seven soldiers, including a member of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and one civilian, Syrian and Iranian state media said on Tuesday.

At least 19 other soldiers and 13 civilians were wounded in the strikes that targeted residential areas and military sites in Deir al Zor province and caused significant damage to public and private properties, Syrian state media said.

Iranian state media said an Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser was killed in the U.S. air strikes in eastern Syria, without giving his rank.

Iran says its officers serve in an advisory role in Syria at the invitation of Damascus to aid President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war.

Sources told Reuters in February that the Guards had scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria after a number of deadly Israeli strikes and would rely more on allied Shi’ite militia to maintain their influence there.

Vietnam party leader Trong invites Russia’s Putin to visit

HANOI — Vietnam Communist Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit the Southeast Asian country during a telephone call on Tuesday, Vietnamese state media reported.

Vietnam remains one of Russia’s closest partners in Asia, ties developed during the Soviet era, and Hanoi is a major buyer of Russian weapons.

“President Putin happily accepted the invitation and agreed for the two sides to arrange (the visit) at a suitable time,” the official Vietnam News Agency reported.

Vietnamese state media reported in October that Putin had accepted an invitation from Vietnam’s president for a visit, but that has not taken place. The invitation was extended months after the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

In Tuesday’s call, Trong congratulated Putin on being reelected as Russian president, and sent his condolences to Russian people and families of the victims of the concert attack outside Moscow last week.

British Museum obtains court order against ex-curator

LONDON — A London court on Tuesday ordered a former curator at the British Museum accused of stealing hundreds of artifacts to provide the museum with a list of all items he is suspected of taking and to return those still in his possession.

The museum, one of the most visited in the world, reported in August that hundreds of items had been stolen from its collection or were missing, highlighting internal organizational failings and leading to the exit of its director.

Peter Higgs, the museum’s curator of Ancient Greek collections and the acting head of the Greece and Rome department, was fired after the alleged thefts came to light.

He is currently under police investigation but has not been charged. The British

Museum has brought a civil lawsuit against Higgs and it said he had filed a defense that showed he intended to dispute the claim.

The British Museum, which holds treasures such as the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon marbles, has said the stolen items included gold rings, earrings and other pieces of jewelry dating back to ancient Greek and Roman periods.

8-year-old girl’s body found in Houston hotel pool pipe

Police are investigating after a missing 8-year-old girl was found dead in a large pool pipe at a Houston-area hotel.

Aliyah Jaico died Saturday at a DoubleTree Hotel on the city’s northwest side, a Houston Police Department spokesperson confirmed.

According to a police news release, Jaico had been swimming with family members in “a lazy river style swimming pool.”

Local station KTRK-TV reported that a search crew reviewed security footage and saw Jaico go under the water and not resurface. The search crew drained the pool and sent a camera about 20 feet into one of the pool’s pipes, where it found the girl’s body.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Science identified the preliminary cause of death as “drowning and mechanical asphyxia” and said it appears to be the result of an accident. Officers are awaiting official autopsy results.