Family says suspect in Toronto shooting had mental problems
TORONTO — A man whose family said he suffered from psychosis and depression fired a handgun into restaurants and cafes in a lively Toronto neighborhood, killing a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman and wounding 13 others in an attack that has shaken the confidence of many in the normally safe city.
Authorities on Monday evening identified the suspect as Faisal Hussain, 29, of Toronto, who died in an exchange of gunfire with police. It was not immediately clear whether he killed himself or was killed by police.
The mass shooting in Toronto’s Greektown district Sunday night came just three months after a van struck and killed 10 people in an apparent attack directed at women.
A statement from the family of Hussain said their son had severe mental health challenges that the struggled with psychosis and depression. They said medications did not help him and the interventions of professionals were unsuccessful.
“While we did our best to seek help for him throughout his life of struggle and pain, we could never imagine that this would be his devastating and destructive end,” the Hussain family said.
Health care industry branches into fresh meals, rides to gym
That hot lunch delivered to your door? Your health insurer might pick up the tab.
The cleaning crew that fixed up your apartment while you recovered from a stroke? The hospital staff helped set that up.
Health care is shifting in a fundamental way for millions of Americans. Some insurers are paying for rides to fitness centers and checking in with customers to help ward off loneliness. Hospital networks are hiring more workers to visit people at home and learn about their lives, not just their illnesses.
The health care system is becoming more focused on keeping patients healthy instead of waiting to treat them once they become sick or wind up in the hospital. This isn’t a new concept, but it’s growing. Insurers are expanding what they pay for to confront rising costs, realizing that a person’s health depends mostly on what happens outside a doctor’s visit.
“For many people, taking care of their blood pressure or their diabetes is not particularly high on their list when they don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” said Dr. Lori Tishler, vice president of medical affairs with the nonprofit insurer Commonwealth Care Alliance.
Twin wildfires near Athens kill 20, gut vacation resorts
ATHENS, Greece — Gale-fanned wildfires raged through holiday resorts near Greece’s capital, killing at least 20 people by early Tuesday and injuring more than 104, including 11 in serious condition, in the deadliest blaze to hit the country in more than a decade.
Greece sought international help through the European Union as the fires on either side of Athens left lines of cars torched, charred farms and forests, and sent hundreds of people racing to beaches to be evacuated by navy vessels, yachts and fishing boats.
Winds reached 80 kph (50 mph) as authorities deployed the country’s entire fleet of water-dropping planes and helicopters to give vacationers time to escape. Military drones remained in the air in the high winds to help officials direct more than 600 firefighters below.
“We were unlucky. The wind changed and it came at us with such force that it razed the coastal area in minutes,” said Evangelos Bournous, mayor of the port town of Rafina, a sleepy mainland port that serves Greek holiday islands.
The dock area became a makeshift hospital as paramedics checked survivors when they came off coast guard vessels and private boats. The operation continued through the night.
IMF: Venezuela’s inflation on track to top 1 million percent
CARACAS, Venezuela — Inflation in Venezuela could top 1 million percent by year’s end as the country’s historic crisis deepens, the International Monetary Fund said Monday.
Venezuela’s economic turmoil compares to Germany’s after World War I and Zimbabwe’s at the beginning of the last decade, said Alejandro Werner, head of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere department.
“The collapse in economic activity, hyperinflation, and increasing deterioration … will lead to intensifying spillover effects on neighboring countries,” Werner wrote in a blog post.
The once wealthy oil-producing nation of Venezuela is in the grips of a five-year crisis that leaves many of its people struggling to find food and medicine, while driving masses across the border for relief into neighboring Colombia and Brazil.
Shortages in electricity, domestic water and public transportation plague millions of Venezuelans, who also confront high crime, the IMF noted.
For trapped Syrian rescuers, an elaborately planned escape
BEIRUT — The call came on Saturday night. In the raging war zone that is southwestern Syria, with enemy forces on the march, the 98 White Helmets volunteers brought their spouses, children and a personal bag each. A total of 421 people massed at two collection points where they were to make their crossing to safety.
By the time they crossed, they were 422. One woman went into labor, requiring an emergency C-section. Her son, Nairouz, came into the world in an open field under the darkness of night just short of the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
It was just one moment of drama in a complicated international rescue operation to extract the Syrian volunteer rescuers who work in opposition areas through their country’s bitter enemy Israel by bus to a temporary haven in Jordan.
It was a nail-biting trip to a crossing over one of the most tightly sealed frontiers in the world. Up until the last minute, those on the ground were uncertain the operation would go through.
Another nearly 400 people were meant to be pulled out as well. Most didn’t make it in time to the assembly points, unable to go through roads that were closing fast by the advancing Syrian forces on one side and the expanding Islamic State militants on the other.
Meghan McCain a feisty new presence on ‘The View’
NEW YORK — Meghan McCain’s first instinct when approached to join “The View” was to say no — until her father, Sen. John McCain, convinced her to look past her trepidation to see the opportunity.
In less than a year, she’s become a reason to watch ABC’s daytime talk show. McCain brings a feisty spirit to the conservative commentator role where predecessors frequently seemed overmatched and overlooked. She often reflects the views of President Donald Trump’s supporters at a table and city where they are deeply unpopular, despite ample personal reasons to despise him.
The past few weeks alone, McCain stared down the fury of Whoopi Goldberg to explain her opposition to abortion and labeled Robert De Niro “gross” for his Tony Awards denunciation of Trump. She feuded with a conservative guest who called Trump supporters cult-like, while likening the president to “a pathetic puppy who was completely neutered” for his appearance alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“She is smart, considered and utterly fearless,” said Brian Teta, executive producer of “The View.”
Some bravery is necessary, since McCain’s workplace defines the term “Manhattan liberal.” When a comic warming up the studio audience before a show this month asked how many people were Republicans, he heard one whoop, some stray claps and mostly silence. That was before the panelists came out.