Briefly

PAKISTAN

16 die in attack on police facility

At least 16 people, including five police personnel, were killed in northwest Pakistan on Friday after an attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into a mosque inside a police facility as people were praying, setting off the bomb, police said. The incident occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province's Kohat city, with the vehicle ramming into an outer wall of the police facility and gunmen who accompanied it opening fire, provincial police chief Zulfikar Hameed said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

THE PHILIPPINES

3 killed, 8 injured in school shooting

At least three people were killed, and eight people were injured in a school shooting in southern Philippines on Friday, with four of them in critical condition, according to local media reports. All classes were immediately suspended at all levels in the municipality of Banga, South Cotabato Province, where the shooting happened, according to the local disaster risk reduction and management office. The Department of Education expressed deep concern over the reported shooting at Banga National High School.

NIGERIA

48 dead due to tainted alcohol, official says

At least 48 people have died and over 100 others are receiving treatment in southern Nigeria after consuming a locally brewed alcoholic drink suspected of containing methanol, officials said on Thursday. Banji Ajaka, Ondo state's commissioner for health, said the cases had been reported in the Odigbo and Irele local government areas. A total of 182 people are believed to have been affected and some are being treated in the hospital, he said.

BOLIVIA

1st new species of cat found in a century

Scientists have discovered a new species of wildcat for the first time in more than a century, a Bolivian researcher told AFP on Thursday. The Tilcayo tiger cat, a small feline with a spotted, leopard-like coat, was identified in the mountainous Yungas region near the capital La Paz. Locals who saw the creature in the Bolivian Andes had mistaken it for an ordinary house cat, said biologist and National Geographic explorer Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, who was part of the research team that studied them. The nickname "tilcayo" given to the animal by locals inspired its new scientific designation: Leopardus tilcayo. Nogales-Ascarrunz lauded the discovery as a "remarkable event, because a new wildcat species hasn't been described in 100 years".

AGENCIES-XINHUA