Briefly

CANADA

Flags lowered after discovery of 200 bodies

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday ordered flags at all federal buildings be flown at half-staff to honor more than 200 children whose remains have been found buried at what was once Canada's largest indigenous residential school－one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation. From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.

UNITED STATES

Shootings usher in bloody weekend

Two people died and an estimated 20 to 25 people were injured in a shooting outside a banquet hall in South Florida, police said. The gunfire erupted early on Sunday at the El Mula Banquet Hall in northwest Miami-Dade County. The banquet hall had been rented out for a concert. Three people got out of an SUV and opened fire into a crowd outside with assault rifles and handguns, police director Alfredo Ramirez III said. Authorities believe the shooting was targeted. Two people died at the scene, police said. As many as 25 people went to various hospitals for treatment. No arrests were immediately announced.

NIGERIA

Scores of children abducted from school

Gunmen kidnapped scores of children from an Islamic seminary in central Nigeria, officials said, the latest in a string of such incidents plaguing the populous African nation. Nearly 200 children were at the school in Niger state on Sunday during the attack, the local government said, adding "an unconfirmed number" were taken. The abduction came a day after 14 students from a university in northwestern Nigeria were freed after 40 days in captivity. One of the schools' officials, who asked not to be named, said the attackers initially took more than 100 children "but later sent back those they considered too small for them, those between four and 12 years old".

Agencies Via Xinhua