2025

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Some Kenyans on Wednesday protested after roaming elephants killed four people over the past week in what experts describe as human–wildlife conflict driven by scarcity of vegetation.

One elephant believed to have killed two people was shot dead in Kajiado County. The Kenya Wildlife Service urged calm and restraint.

“Preliminary observations indicate that the elephant involved had injuries consistent with spears and arrows, pointing to a possible prior confrontation,” the service said in a statement.

Residents have reported an increase in the number of elephants roaming the Ole Tepesi area of Kajiado County, which experts attribute to competition for resources. Kenya has had below-average rainfall during the ongoing short rains season.

Local authorities said the latest victim was a man attacked by an elephant while herding goats on Tuesday.

The Kenya Wildlife Service pledged to “strengthen prevention measures, improve early response and reduce the risk of future incidents.”

Kenya’s government runs a compensation program under which thousands of people injured or killed by wild animals have received millions of Kenyan shillings over the years.

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LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Countries including Britain, Canada, Germany and others on Wednesday condemned the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they violated international law and risked fuelling instability.

“We call on Israel to reverse this decision, as well as the expansion of settlements,” said a joint statement released by Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.

“We recall that such unilateral actions, as part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but also risk fuelling instability,” the statement said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected the statement by foreign countries in an X post on Wednesday, saying the decision aimed to help address security threats faced by Israel.

“Foreign governments will not restrict the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel, and any such call is morally wrong and discriminatory against Jews,” he said.

(Reporting by Muvija M; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Chris Reese)

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Dec 24 (Reuters) – Federal immigration agents were involved in a shooting on Wednesday that left one person shot and wounded and another with injuries, authorities said. 

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees federal immigration officers, said in a statement that ICE agents were carrying out an operation to target two men in the U.S. illegally in Glen Burnie, Maryland, just south of Baltimore.

When the agents approached a van carrying the two men, the driver drove the van into agents’ vehicles, and then drove the van directly at ICE officers in an attempt to run them over, DHS said.

The agents then “defensively fired their service weapons, striking the driver,” DHS wrote. The van then wrecked between two buildings and injured the passenger. Both men were taken to a hospital. 

ABC News, citing the Anne Arundel County Police Department, reported the man who was shot was in stable condition, and the other man did not suffer serious injury. 

The Anne Arundel County Police Department, which is investigating the shooting, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, wrote on social media he was “aware of the ICE-involved shooting that occurred earlier today” and his office was working with local officials to learn more and provide support.

Federal immigration officers have been involved in several confrontations with both the subjects of their raids and people witnessing and objecting to their tactics as they work to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan.

ICE agents in September shot and killed a man who they said had tried to run them over with a car, though security and body camera footage raised doubts about the situation.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks and Andrew Hay; Editing by Chris Reese)

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