Briefly

SWEDEN

3 scientists win medicine Nobel

The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded on Monday to three scientists for their work on the mechanisms the brain uses to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells. Karl Deisseroth, 54, Peter Hegemann, 71, and Georg Nagel, 73, have researched light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The Nobel Assembly lauded their work, writing on X that the method "is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain's mysteries". The assembly said Deisseroth is based at Stanford University in California, while Hegemann is at Humboldt University in Berlin and Nagel at the University of Wuerzburg, also in Germany.

SPAIN

PM calls early general election in November

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Monday that Spain will hold an early general election on Nov 29. In a video statement, Sanchez said he would convene an extraordinary cabinet meeting later to dissolve parliament and call the election. The decision followed parliament's rejection on Friday of two government decrees aimed at easing the housing crisis and strengthening tenant protections. The People's Party, Vox, and the conservative Catalan party Junts per Catalunya voted against both measures.

UNITED STATES

2 killed as gunfire erupts at block party

Two people were killed and 35 others were injured in a shooting at a neighborhood block party in the US state of Georgia early on Sunday, local authorities said. The shooting occurred around 1:25 am in the southern city of Vienna, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. Two men aged 21 and 23 were pronounced dead at the scene, said County Sheriff Craig Peavy, adding that the injured were taken to regional hospitals. Authorities have not yet identified any suspects or named a potential motive for the shooting.

XINHUA-AGENCIES