Death toll from a South Africa gas leak has risen to 17

BOKSBURG, South Africa (AP) — The death toll from a toxic gas leak that authorities blamed on an illegal gold processing operation in South Africa rose to 17, including three children, as police removed canisters from a community of closely packed shacks and sifted through evidence Thursday. The leak of what authorities said was a toxic nitrate gas happened Wednesday night in the informal Angelo settlement in Boksburg, a city on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg.

Israeli forces shell Lebanon border village after rocket lands near disputed territory

BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli forces shelled a southern Lebanese border village on Thursday after several explosions were heard in a disputed area where the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Israel meet. Tensions continue to flare in the border area over two tents erected by the militant group Hezbollah and Israel’s building of a wall around the Lebanese part of a village that Israeli troops captured during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

SUV crash at a London school kills an 8-year-old girl

LONDON (AP) — An 8-year-old girl was killed and 15 people were injured Thursday when an SUV crashed into a private elementary school on a narrow road in southwest London as the children were celebrating the end of the school year. The crash wasn’t believed to be terrorism, and the driver was taken into custody. The girl died at the scene, Detective Chief Superintendent Clair Kelland said at a briefing near the crash site in London’s Wimbledon district. She confirmed that the crash wasn’t being treated as terror-related, but urged people not to speculate as to what happened.

EU agency sees no ‘critical areas of concern’ in the use of chemical herbicide

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s food safety agency said Thursday that it “did not identify critical areas of concern” in the use of the controversial chemical herbicide glyphosate. The ruling was welcomed by the companies seeking to extend the use of the chemical beyond December and harshly condemned by environmentalists who see it as a threat to nature and human health. Over the past decade, glyphosate, used in products like the weedkiller Roundup, has been at the heart of heated debate about whether it causes cancer and its possible disruptive effect on the environment.