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10 activists freed in Turkey; scale of Syria suffering; hope for change in Uzbekistan; young girls raped fleeing Burma; weapon of war in #CARcrisis; bring Manus Island men to safety; fears French police have mistreated migrants in Calais; Qatar labour reforms; and where is bookseller China freed?

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Nepal's new constitution was adopted in September 2015, but violent protests over the lack of greater inclusion for minority communities have stalled efforts to enforce rights protections. Successive governments have made little progress on accountability for abuses during the 1996-2006 civil war, which claimed more than 13,000 lives.

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Ohio Civil Rights Commission Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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All photos by the author

This story appears in the November Issue of VICE.

On a steamy day in July, hundreds of disenfranchised people from Nepal's Madhesi region gathered outside a local government building in Janakpur, less than 100 miles southeast of Kathmandu, the country's capital. Locals had been told they could offer feedback on the draft of Nepal's new constitution, and they leaped at this unexpected opportunity to voice their concerns. When they arrived at the government building, however, they discovered that the gates were locked and guarded by rows of police officers. They had been lied to.

Anger began to swell as the crowd grew larger. Protesters shook the metal bars of the gate until its concrete reinforcement cracked and they uprooted it in a cloud of dust. The entire city soon became a theater of war between police and the demonstrators. Beaten with clubs and exposed to tear gas that protesters allege was fired from canisters that had expired in 2012, many civilians were hospitalized, including a 14-year-old who was critically injured while taking a beating to the skull.

What transpired in Janakpur in July was a tipping point for the turmoil that has now engulfed the region, an uproar among ethnic groups such as the Tharu and the Madhesi that, for decades, have been denied equal rights and proper representation in government. In September, a new constitution was promulgated to introduce a federalist system that would create a more inclusive Nepal. But it failed to address those inequalities and instead deepened ethnic fissures.

Madhes occupies the lower strip of Nepal that borders India, and the low-lying Terai region is geographically distinct from the mountains and hills that compose the rest of the country. It was given to Nepal through agreements signed by the British Empire in 1816 and 1860, and many claim that, since then, the country's government has not regarded the people of Madhes as "real Nepalis." Many are even denied official identification cards.

Madhesi culture more closely resembles that of peoples in neighboring India than that of the Nepali communities in the Himalayan foothills. Inhabitants of the Terai speak a variety of non- Nepali languages, and before the 1950s, fewer than 4 percent of Madhesis spoke Nepali as their native tongue.

But the area is vitally important to Nepal's existence, occupying 17 percent of its land mass and producing more than 45 percent of its GDP. Despite being the economic backbone of the country and the Terai accounting for nearly 51 percent of Nepal's population, the region is little-known internationally, and its people suffer misrepresentation and discrimination. Madhesis occupy only 5 to 10 percent of all government sectors, including the police and armed forces, and receive approximately 15 percent of the national budget to develop their infrastructure.

"When the police started hitting, they hit indiscriminately. Children, women, disabled, all people." -Roshan Janakpuri

A day after the Janakpur protests, I traveled to the city to interview Madhesi leaders who had come to voice their support for the civil rights movement. Among the supporters was Vijay Kant Karna, a former ambassador to Scandinavia and Finland and a professor of political science at Tribhuvan University.

We met late at night in a conference room of the modest Hotel Welcome, a crossroads for leaders traveling through the area. Motorbikes hummed by outside as we sat around a glass table drinking Coca-Cola.

The dark-complexioned Madhesi compose a minority of the police, so protests often become de facto race wars, as was the case at the Janakpur demonstrations in July. Video footage from that day shows blatant abuse of force as officers hurl rocks at protesters behind the cover of plastic shields.

"When the police started hitting, they hit indiscriminately. Children, women, disabled, all people," recalled 56-year-old activist Roshan Janakpuri, still wearing a bandage around his head from being clubbed by the police.

Karna recalled similar events: "While beating, they always tell that 'you Madhesis try to dare us? You want rights?'" he said, lifting up his clenched fist with wide-open eyes. "'These are your rights.'"

More than 40 people were killed in a 45-day period between August and September. Protesters shot by police make up the bulk of this tally, but police also found themselves as victims. In one of the most brutal clashes, a senior police officer was killed with a spear, the two-year-old baby of another cop was shot, and still another officer was burned alive. Many fear that this situation could return Nepal to civil war, a state the nation left behind only nine years ago.

"Madhes has been as a colony for a long time-250 years before, when the former kings of this part of Madhes were defeated by the hill rulers," Karna said. "At the time we were defeated, and we became the second-class citizens of the country." Those discriminatory policies, he said, have remained unchanged. Disenfranchised and unable to govern their own territory, Karna and other Madhesi leaders refer to the situation as an "internal colonization."

"We never became equal citizens of Nepal," he said. "We have long been denied national identity card[s]... and still, almost twenty percent of the Madhesi dwellers are stateless."

Nepal and India share an open border, and the cultures on either side blend-inhabitants of Madhes often marry people from India. Many children of such marriages are given what Madhesis call a "second-class" citizenship that prevents them from holding high-level positions in politics. A clause in the new constitution will make it difficult for Madhesi children with foreign fathers or single mothers to attain full citizenship. Many are outraged that women are not given the same citizenship rights as men and consider the new constitution to be misogynistic. Parents must be able to prove they live in Nepal (which is quite difficult because many do not possess land), and children must be registered with district offices. If these requirements are not met, children are rendered stateless. Some estimate their number to be in the millions. These individuals are unable to vote, buy or sell land, open bank accounts, access public facilities, take high school exams, or even purchase mobile SIM cards.

Many Nepalis from the hill region believe that Madhesis are just Indians trying to leech off of Nepali rights and overrun the country. "Giving all Madhesis rights to our political system is like handing our parliament over to India," said Hem, the owner of a small trekking company in Kathmandu. "Many other countries don't naturalize the spouses and children of foreigners. Why should we? Is it unreasonable that we don't want the reins of our country handed over to a foreign country?"

Before the promulgation of the new constitution, Nepal was composed of 75 districts controlled by a highly centralized government. The new constitution, more federalist in nature, divides the country into seven provinces and gives more power to regional authorities in an attempt to bring governance closer to the people. But it does nothing to remedy the problems surrounding citizenship, and many Madhesis are concerned about the boundaries of the new provinces.

Members of the Nepali parliament, notorious for staying silent on Madhesi issues, have begun speaking out. On a characteristically hot day in Janakpur, I met with Amresh Kumar Singh, one of the few Madhesi parliamentary seat holders, at Hotel Welcome. He was unafraid to speak on record about the move to federalism. "During the process of drafting the new constitution," Singh explained, "ruling elite hill Brahmin and Chhetri completely marginalized and ignored the aspirations of the Madhesi people."

As protests intensify, many Madhesis are finding leadership in the outspoken activist C. K. Raut. A controversial figure, Raut returned to Nepal after studying in Japan and the UK and working in the US as an engineer, and he is now the face of a growing movement calling for an independent Madhes. He has been arrested 11 times and is currently living under an unofficial house arrest in the southeastern district of Saptari. In 2011 Raut directed a documentary called Black Buddhas to help spread awareness of Madhesi issues. His name elicits strong contempt among Madhesis and non-Madhesis alike who feel he is trying to destabilize the country.

"We are basically a colony of Nepal. They are not interested in developing for the Madhesi people's sake, but for their own economic benefit. They want to generate revenues here and exploit." -C. K. Raut

Knowing that our emails were likely being monitored, I maintained a vague correspondence with Raut over the course of several weeks before he invited me to his home.

It was the rainy season, and with bus services shut down due to strikes, reaching his home in the village of Rajbiraj was not easy. My translator and I ventured through pouring rain on a tiny motorcycle with heavy bags of camera equipment.

Raut is calling for an independent state, but he explained that "separatist" is a pejorative term used by the minority Pahari class that rules Nepal. "It is a matter of perspective," he said. "In the case of British rule in India, from the British angle it is separatist, but from Indian people's perspective it is freedom."

"Whatever revenues were created in India, the majority of the resources went to the British. The same thing is happening here," he said, sitting in front of a collection of books, his hair blowing in the wind of a small plastic battery-operated fan on his desk. "We are basically a colony of Nepal. They are not interested in developing for the Madhesi people's sake, but for their own economic benefit. They want to generate revenues here and exploit. They don't treat [Madhes] as their own land, but as an income source." Raut claimed to draw inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and emphasized that the revolution must be peaceful if its gains are to last long into the future.

However much they may agree with Raut's descriptions of Madhesi marginalization, many are not so quick to believe in his claim that revolution would be peaceful. "C. K. Raut talks about peace, but this is bullshit," said Madhesi youth activist Rajeev Ranjan Jha. "Stories of peaceful revolution in history are fabrications. Gandhi would not have been successful in liberating India if his peaceful protests weren't accompanied by violent protests, and the same is true with [Martin Luther] King in America and the downplaying of the role of Malcolm X's following in the civil rights movement. I support my people's struggle for freedom, but if this movement continues to grow, right or wrong as it may be, there will be more fighting."

Despite his growing following, most Madhesis consider Raut's calls for a separate state to be far-fetched and view the economic logistics of how this approximately 16-mile-wide swath of land would exist on its own as ill formed. But Madhesis, particularly the youth, are beginning to feel that the uncompromising Nepali government has left them with few other options. Raut's call for separation as a last resort may slowly become their only option for survival.

The new constitution's failure to address discriminatory policies has removed a certain hope for change within Madhes and has brought tolerance in the region to its breaking point. Fissures in the country have opened wide, and Nepal must now either amend its constitution to accept the people of Madhes or face what could be a violent uprising of the millions who feel they've had enough.

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The Silent Majority: A Civil Rights Movement Grows in the Shadows of Nepal

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All photos by the author This story appears in the November Issue of VICE. On a steamy day in July, hundreds of disenfranchised people from Nepal's Madhesi region gathered outside a local government building in Janakpur, less than 100 miles southeast of Kathmandu, the country's capital.

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Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated 50 years ago today, on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.

Ludo De Witte, the Belgian author of the best book on this crime, qualifies it as "the most important assassination of the 20th century". The assassination's historical importance lies in a multitude of factors, the most pertinent being the global context in which it took place, its impact on Congolese politics since then and Lumumba's overall legacy as a nationalist leader.

For 126 years, the US and Belgium have played key roles in shaping Congo's destiny. In April 1884, seven months before the Berlin Congress, the US became the first country in the world to recognise the claims of King Leopold II of the Belgians to the territories of the Congo Basin.

When the atrocities related to brutal economic exploitation in Leopold's Congo Free State resulted in millions of fatalities, the US joined other world powers to force Belgium to take over the country as a regular colony. And it was during the colonial period that the US acquired a strategic stake in the enormous natural wealth of the Congo, following its use of the uranium from Congolese mines to manufacture the first atomic weapons, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

With the outbreak of the cold war, it was inevitable that the US and its western allies would not be prepared to let Africans have effective control over strategic raw materials, lest these fall in the hands of their enemies in the Soviet camp. It is in this regard that Patrice Lumumba's determination to achieve genuine independence and to have full control over Congo's resources in order to utilise them to improve the living conditions of our people was perceived as a threat to western interests. To fight him, the US and Belgium used all the tools and resources at their disposal, including the United Nations secretariat, under Dag Hammarskjöld and Ralph Bunche, to buy the support of Lumumba's Congolese rivals , and hired killers.

In Congo, Lumumba's assassination is rightly viewed as the country's original sin. Coming less than seven months after independence (on 30 June, 1960), it was a stumbling block to the ideals of national unity, economic independence and pan-African solidarity that Lumumba had championed, as well as a shattering blow to the hopes of millions of Congolese for freedom and material prosperity.

The assassination took place at a time when the country had fallen under four separate governments: the central government in Kinshasa (then Léopoldville); a rival central government by Lumumba's followers in Kisangani (then Stanleyville); and the secessionist regimes in the mineral-rich provinces of Katanga and South Kasai. Since Lumumba's physical elimination had removed what the west saw as the major threat to their interests in the Congo, internationally-led efforts were undertaken to restore the authority of the moderate and pro-western regime in Kinshasa over the entire country. These resulted in ending the Lumumbist regime in Kisangani in August 1961, the secession of South Kasai in September 1962, and the Katanga secession in January 1963.

No sooner did this unification process end than a radical social movement for a "second independence" arose to challenge the neocolonial state and its pro-western leadership. This mass movement of peasants, workers, the urban unemployed, students and lower civil servants found an eager leadership among Lumumba's lieutenants, most of whom had regrouped to establish a National Liberation Council (CNL) in October 1963 in Brazzaville, across the Congo river from Kinshasa. The strengths and weaknesses of this movement may serve as a way of gauging the overall legacy of Patrice Lumumba for Congo and Africa as a whole.

The most positive aspect of this legacy was manifest in the selfless devotion of Pierre Mulele to radical change for purposes of meeting the deepest aspirations of the Congolese people for democracy and social progress. On the other hand, the CNL leadership, which included Christophe Gbenye and Laurent-Désiré Kabila, was more interested in power and its attendant privileges than in the people's welfare. This is Lumumbism in words rather than in deeds. As president three decades later, Laurent Kabila did little to move from words to deeds.

More importantly, the greatest legacy that Lumumba left for Congo is the ideal of national unity. Recently, a Congolese radio station asked me whether the independence of South Sudan should be a matter of concern with respect to national unity in the Congo. I responded that since Patrice Lumumba has died for Congo's unity, our people will remain utterly steadfast in their defence of our national unity.

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is professor of African and Afro-American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People's History

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Patrice Lumumba: the most important assassination of the 20th century | Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

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Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated 50 years ago today, on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.

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While the Syrian government, with its allies' support, has regained significant territory using tactics that violate the laws of war, areas under its control also are rife with abuse. Security services arbitrarily arrest and torture hundreds, and millions are going hungry due to the government's diversion of aid, its failure to equitably address a crippling economic crisis, and international sanctions.

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10 activists freed in Turkey; scale of Syria suffering; hope for change in Uzbekistan; young girls raped fleeing Burma; weapon of war in #CARcrisis; bring Manus Island men to safety; fears French police have mistreated migrants in Calais; Qatar labour reforms; and where is bookseller China freed?

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The Democratic Republic of Congo endured much bloodshed and brutal political repression in the lead-up to the December 19, 2016 deadline that marked the end of President Joseph Kabila's constitutionally mandated two-term limit. A Catholic Church-mediated agreement signed at the end of 2016 includes a clear commitment that presidential elections will be held before the end of 2017 and that Kabila will not seek a third term.

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10 activists freed in Turkey; scale of Syria suffering; hope for change in Uzbekistan; young girls raped fleeing Burma; weapon of war in #CARcrisis; bring Manus Island men to safety; fears French police have mistreated migrants in Calais; Qatar labour reforms; and where is bookseller China freed?

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The human rights climate deteriorated in 2016 as implementation of the 2015 peace accord with armed groups in the north stalled. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb launched dozens of attacks on Malian security forces and international peacekeepers, extending their operations south.

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10 activists freed in Turkey; scale of Syria suffering; hope for change in Uzbekistan; young girls raped fleeing Burma; weapon of war in #CARcrisis; bring Manus Island men to safety; fears French police have mistreated migrants in Calais; Qatar labour reforms; and where is bookseller China freed?

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10 activists freed in Turkey; scale of Syria suffering; hope for change in Uzbekistan; young girls raped fleeing Burma; weapon of war in #CARcrisis; bring Manus Island men to safety; fears French police have mistreated migrants in Calais; Qatar labour reforms; and where is bookseller China freed?

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Lagos - As I waited at Nigeria's Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos, watching bags of various colors and shapes tumble onto the carousel, I cast a glance around the airport. It always feels good to be back in the city that was my home for over 20 years. Nearby were four men I believed were airport officials from the ID cards on lanyards around their necks. They were talking animatedly.

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The optimism that followed the relatively peaceful elections that brought in President Muhammadu Buhari's administration gradually gave way to concerns about government intolerance for dissent and heavy-handed violent responses to peaceful protests. Lack of accountability for human rights abuses by government forces and non-state armed groups, including Boko Haram and cattle herdsmen, created an atmosphere of insecurity.

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A bill before the Honduran Congress would severely harm free speech by compelling companies providing internet services to censor content, Human Rights Watch said today. Congress should reject the bill, which was approved during an initial vote on February 8, 2018 and faces two more rounds of discussion and voting before it would become law.

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Impunity for human rights abuses remain the norm in Honduras. Despite a downward trend in recent years, the country's murder rate is among the highest in the world. Efforts to reform the institutions responsible for providing public security have made little progress. Marred by corruption and abuse, the judiciary and police remain largely ineffective.

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President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, elected in 2018, has failed to address skyrocketing rates of homicide, cartel crime, and disappearances. He has greatly expanded the role of the military in public life, including by deploying nearly 150,000 troops to undertake civilian law enforcement activities.

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10 activists freed in Turkey; scale of Syria suffering; hope for change in Uzbekistan; young girls raped fleeing Burma; weapon of war in #CARcrisis; bring Manus Island men to safety; fears French police have mistreated migrants in Calais; Qatar labour reforms; and where is bookseller China freed?

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In recent years, Guatemalan prosecutors have made progress in cases of extrajudicial killings and corruption, due in significant part to support the Attorney General's Office has received from the United Nations-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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How did immigration change you?Immigration changed me by becoming a citizen.How did I change the country I migrated to?I change the country to which I migrated to have a future megor.

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Immigration changed me by making me protect and  keep safe from harm.

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Immigration changed me by making me feel safe and feel good about meeting my family.

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Immigration changed me by making me success and great life.

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I changed the country I immigrated to by study will change the way, get good job .

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Immigration changed me by making me make good decisions.

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I changed the country I immigrated to by peace and justice.

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Immigration changed me by making me a relic.

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I changed the country where I emigrated to be able to achieve a better future and to be able to finish my career as a medical doctor.

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I changed the country to which I migrated because I came to realize my dreams

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Las fuerzas de seguridad mexicanas han sido implicadas en numerosas violaciones graves de derechos humanos -incluidas ejecuciones extrajudiciales, desapariciones forzadas y tortura- en el curso de los esfuerzos para combatir el crimen organizado. El gobierno ha avanzado muy poco en procesar a los responsables de abusos recientes, incluidos casos paradigmáticos como la desaparición de 43 estudiantes en el estado de Guerrero en 2014, y mucho menos en la gran cantidad de casos de abusos cometidos por soldados y policías desde el ex presidente Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) inició la "guerra contra las drogas" en México. Otros problemas continuos incluyen la violencia contra los periodistas y los límites al acceso a los derechos reproductivos y la atención médica.

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How did immigration change you?  Immigration changed me by making me change to learn English and meet new people.

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How can we solve these problems?

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give sanctions to people who create the problem

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Plus: Time for justice in Burma; Trump's call for death penalty irresponsible; Mali commits to investigating abuses; looting elites in South Sudan; sexual harrassment in Afghanistan; equality for women a distant dream; most journalists' killings unresolved.

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Today, Russia is more repressive than it has ever been in the post-Soviet era. Using a wide range of tools, the state has tightened control over free expression, assembly, and speech, aiming to silence independent critics, including online.

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Plus: Time for justice in Burma; Trump's call for death penalty irresponsible; Mali commits to investigating abuses; looting elites in South Sudan; sexual harrassment in Afghanistan; equality for women a distant dream; most journalists' killings unresolved.

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The US Program's immigration work focuses on reforming harsh, outdated, and ineffective detention and deportation policies to ensure they take into account family unity, flight from persecution, and labor considerations that draw immigrants to the United States.

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SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. - A gunman clad in all black, with a ballistic vest strapped to his chest and a military-style rifle in his hands, opened fire on parishioners at a Sunday service at a small Baptist church in rural Texas, killing at least 26 people and turning this tiny town east of San Antonio into the scene of the country's newest mass horror.

The gunman was identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26. Mr. Kelley, who lived in New Braunfels, Tex., died shortly after the attack.

He had served in the Air Force at a base in New Mexico but was court-martialed in 2012 on charges of assaulting his wife and child. He was sentenced to 12 months' confinement and received a "bad conduct" discharge in 2014, according to Ann Stefanek, the chief of Air Force media operations.

The motive for the attack was unclear on Sunday, but the grisly nature of it could not have been clearer: Families gathered in pews, clutching Bibles and praying to the Lord, were murdered in cold blood on the spot.

Mr. Kelley started firing at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs not long after the Sunday morning service began at 11 a.m., officials said. He was armed with a Ruger military-style rifle, and within minutes, many of those inside the small church were either dead or wounded. The victims ranged in age from 5 to 72, and among the dead were several children, a pregnant woman and the pastor's 14-year-old daughter. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history. At least 20 more were wounded.

"It's something we all say does not happen in small communities, although we found out today it does," said Joe Tackitt, the sheriff of Wilson County, which includes Sutherland Springs.

Sheriff Tackitt and other officials said the gunman first stopped at a gas station across Highway 87 from the church. He drove across the street, got out of his car and began firing from the outside, moving to the right side of the church, the authorities said. Then he entered the building and kept firing.

The authorities received their first call about a gunman at about 11:20 a.m. Officials and witnesses said Mr. Kelley appeared to be prepared for an assault, with black tactical gear, multiple rounds of ammunition and a ballistic vest.

"He went there, he walked in, started shooting people and then took off," said Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas congressman who represents the region and who was briefed by law enforcement officials.

When Mr. Kelley emerged from the church, an armed neighbor exchanged gunfire with him, hitting Mr. Kelley, who fled in his vehicle. Neighbors apparently followed him, chasing him into the next county, Guadalupe County, where Mr. Kelley crashed his car. Mr. Kelley was found dead in his vehicle. Officials said it was unclear how Mr. Kelley had died.

At the church, he left behind a scene of carnage. Of the 26 fatalities, 23 people were found dead inside the church, two were found outside, and one died later at a hospital.

Speaking at a news conference in Japan, the first stop on his tour of Asia, President Trump called the shooting a "mental health problem at the highest level" and not "a guns situation," adding the gunman was a "very deranged individual." He also ordered flags flown at half-staff at the White House and all federal buildings through Thursday.

In Floresville, Tex., hours after the attack, Scott Holcombe, 30, sat with his sister on the curb outside the emergency room at Connally Memorial Medical Center. They were both in tears. Their father, Bryan Holcombe, had been guest preaching at the church, they said, and he and their mother, Karla Holcombe, were killed.

"I'm dumbfounded," Mr. Holcombe said, also noting that his pregnant sister-in-law, Crystal Holcombe, had been killed. "This is unimaginable. My father was a good man, and he loved to preach. He had a good heart."

His sister, Sarah Slavin, 33, added: "They weren't afraid of death. They had a strong faith, so there's comfort in that. I feel like my parents, especially my mom, wasn't scared."

A parishioner, Sandy Ward, said that a daughter-in-law and three of her grandchildren were shot. Her grandson, who is 5, was shot four times and remained in surgery Sunday night. She said she was awaiting word on her other family members.

Ms. Ward said she did not attend services on Sunday because of her troubled knees and a bad hip. "I just started praying for everybody who was there" when she learned of the shooting, she said.

At a news conference on Sunday, Gov. Greg Abbott said that he and other Texans were asking "for God's comfort, for God's guidance and for God's healing for all those who are suffering."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were helping in the investigation, which was being led by the Texas Rangers.

The shooting unfolded on the eighth anniversary of the attack in 2009 on Fort Hood in Texas, when an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, killed 13 people in one of the deadliest mass shootings at an American military base. Major Hasan carried out his attack in an attempt to wage jihad on American military personnel.

The death toll on Sunday also exceeded the number killed in 1966 by a student at the University of Texas at Austin, Charles Whitman, who opened fire from the school's clock tower in a day of violence that ultimately killed 17. It also exceeded the number killed during a rampage at a restaurant in Killeen in 1991 in which a gunman fatally shot 23 people and then took his own life.

And the shooting on Sunday occurred more than two years after Dylann S. Roof opened fire at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in June 2015, killing nine people, including the pastor. The motive in that attack was racial hatred - Mr. Roof, a white supremacist, plotted an assault on a black congregation - but no motive has been established by the authorities in the shooting in Sutherland Springs. The First Baptist Church is predominantly white, and Mr. Kelley is white.

The authorities said Mr. Kelley used an Ruger AR-15 variant - a knockoff of the standard service rifle carried by the American military for roughly half a century.

Almost all AR-15 variants legally sold in the United States fire only semiautomatically, and they were covered by the federal assault weapons ban that went into effect in 1994. Since the ban expired in 2004, the weapons have been legal to sell or possess in much of the United States, and sales of AR-15s have surged.

Ruger's AR-15s made for civilian markets sell for about $500 to $900, depending on the model.

Mr. Kelley grew up in New Braunfels, in his parents' nearly $1 million home, and was married in 2014. He had been married at least once before and was sued for divorce in 2012 in New Mexico, the same year he was court-martialed on charges of assaulting his wife and child.

Why he chose to attack a church 30 miles away from his home is one of the questions that remained unanswered.

Sutherland Springs in Wilson County is about 34 miles east of downtown San Antonio, in a slow-paced region where church-going is a common part of the Sunday routine. The church marquee on Sunday needed updating from last week, reading, "Join Us, Fall Fest, Oct 31, 6 to 8 PM."

The unincorporated community has a population that numbers in the low hundreds - the 2000 census was 362, according to the Texas State Historical Association. The preliminary death toll would amount to about 7 percent of that population.

Joseph Silva, 49, who lives about five miles northeast of Sutherland Springs, described Sutherland Springs as "a one-blinking-light town."

"Everybody is pretty grief-stricken," Mr. Silva said. "Everyone's worried."

On Sunday night, a few minutes down a pitch-black road, victims' families gathered at another house of worship, the River Oaks Church. Its parking lot was full of about 50 large trucks, and parents walked into the building holding their children's hands.

The police kept tight control over the scene, refusing to allow any reporters to enter. One man in a cowboy hat was also turned away. "They said they're gathering to inform the families, but they'll only let immediate family in, only if you have a wristband," he said. A short while later, a young man rushed out to his truck, visibly upset, and raced away.

The First Baptist Church, the scene of the shooting, was also sealed off, with yellow police-line tape posted around the church grounds.

First Baptist is a little church, albeit a tech-savvy one. The service at the church last Sunday was posted on YouTube, one of several posted there. Videos posted online show lyrics to the hymns appearing on television screens with parishioners playing electric guitars and a sign language interpreter translating the songs.

The video of last Sunday's service begins with a rendition of a song called "Happiness Is the Lord." Then the pastor, Frank Pomeroy, told his parishioners - 20 to 30 were visible in the video - to walk around the room and "shake somebody's hand."

"Tell them it's good to see them in God's house this morning," Pastor Pomeroy said.

Correction: November 5, 2017

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sutherland springs  tex  shooting (2017)

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first baptist church (sutherland springs  tex)

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David Montgomery, Christopher Mele and Manny Fernandez

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Gunman Kills at Least 26 in Attack on Rural Texas Church

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SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. - A gunman clad in all black, with a ballistic vest strapped to his chest and a military-style rifle in his hands, opened fire on parishioners at a Sunday service at a small Baptist church in rural Texas, killing at least 26 people and turning this tiny town east of San Antonio into the scene of the country's newest mass horror.

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application  for IHL team member rev. 10.12.17_2

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kadia sy

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Write your own "I am Poem" by filling in the text boxes.

When you are finished, click the button at the bottom of the form to generate your poem. Copy and paste the results into a word processing program, format it with the size and font style of your choice. Print.

Example:

I am funny and kind
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I am funny and kind

I understand why play is fun
I say we should play all the time
I dream about fish that fly in the air
I try to be artistic
I hope my parents live long lives
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I am Poem - Generator - K-5 Computer Lab Technology Lessons

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When you are finished, click the button at the bottom of the form to generate your poem. Copy and paste the results into a word processing program, format it with the size and font style of your choice. Print.

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I am Jesus, Luis, Sumi, Mr. Parker, Dr. King, Mahatma Gandhi, non-violent, equality people, from the USA, a helper of people
I wonder why did ____ want to improve the world, how I can change my country,
I hear Gandhi speaking, Dr. King speaking, the world changing, love of the people
I see
I want love,
I am

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I dream
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I am

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I am
I wonder
I hear
I see Ghandi with People, hands together
I want Jobs, safety, and peace
I am

I pretend I’m walking with my mom
I feel Happy, strong
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I pretend
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I worry
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I cry
(something that makes you sad) |
I am
( first line of the poem repeated)

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I understand celestin is a great student, Dr. King and Gandhi believed in no violence, people are equal, Gandhi helped people
I say be strong, I will be a policeman, be the bigger man, family is most important
I dream of being a soldier in war, of a better world, I missed the bus, gender equality,
I try to drive a car, to help people in need, to be a mechanic, to do my best, make the effort at school, so hard in Math,
I hope a better world, a better life, to believe in love, for no discrimination,
I am