1. Assailant with bow and arrows kills 5 people in Norway

A man armed with a bow fired arrows at shoppers in a small Norwegian town Wednesday, killing five people before he was arrested, authorities said.

The police chief in the community of Kongsberg, near the capital of Oslo, said there was “a confrontation” between officers and the assailant, but he did not elaborate. Two other people were wounded and hospitalised in intensive care, including an officer who was off duty and inside the shop where the attack took place, police said.

2. WHO says it may be ‘last chance’ to find COVID origins

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday its newly formed advisory group on dangerous pathogens may be “our last chance” to determine the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and called for cooperation from China. The first human cases of COVID-19 were reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.

In this file photo, a member of a World Health Organisation team is seen during a field visit to the Hubei Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center in Wuhan. (AP)

China has repeatedly dismissed theories that the virus leaked from one of its laboratories and has said no more visits are needed. A WHO-led team spent four weeks in and around Wuhan earlier this year with Chinese scientists, and said in a joint report in March that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal but further research was needed.

3. Agencies distribute food, blankets, cash as hunger and cold threaten Afghanistan

Aid agencies delivered food, blankets and cash to hundreds of displaced families in Kabul on Wednesday as humanitarian assistance begins to trickle into Afghanistan following warnings the country faces potentially catastrophic famine this winter. The distribution of aid to 324 families represents a tiny fraction of the needs in Afghanistan, which faces a severe drought as well as a near collapse of its economy following the withdrawal of Western support.

Chilly weather on Monday underlined the urgency in getting assistance to thousands of displaced people in the capital, many having fled from the provinces and sleeping in tents or improvised accommodation around the city. As people lined up inside the UN compound for handouts of food and basic household items, larger crowds gathered outside, many desperate for help.

4. World Championship bronze medallist Tirop found stabbed to death

Kenyan Olympic runner and two-time world championship bronze medalist Agnes Tirop was found dead at her home Wednesday with stab wounds and her husband was missing and wanted for questioning, police said.

World Athletics is deeply shocked and saddened by the untimely death of Kenya’s Agnes Tirop 🇰🇪 at the age of 25.

The 2015 world cross-country champion and two-time world medallist had broken the women-only world record for 10km last month 👇

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) October 13, 2021

Elgeyo Marakwet County police chief Tom Makori said they were searching for Tirop’s husband after his family reported he had phoned them crying and asking for God’s forgiveness for something he had done.

5. US, EU, Israel adopt tough tone on Iran, mull options

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. (File Photo)

US, Israeli and EU officials took a tough line toward Iran on Wednesday, with US officials saying they would consider all options if Tehran failed to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and Israel saying it reserved the right to act. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has so far refused to resume indirect talks with the United States in Vienna on both sides returning to compliance with the deal, under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief.