A gas leak at a stainless steel factory in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong has killed 10 people and poisoned seven others, authorities said.

Five people were immediately killed by the leak on Sunday, while another five died later in hospital, said local authorities in a post on Weibo.

Officials are investigating the cause.

China has tightened industrial safety regulations following a chemical blast in Tianjin that killed 140 people.

Local authorities named the company responsible for Sunday's leak as Zouping County Shandong Fukai Stainless Steel Company.

They added that the seven survivors were in stable condition.

The Tianjin blast in August decimated a large part of the city's port. The high-profile incident reignited nationwide concerns about industrial safety and proximity of industrial areas to residential districts.

A federal judge has dismissed a complaint filed by a Muslim advocacy organization claiming that an Inverness gun shop violated the Civil Rights Act by declaring itself a "Muslim-free zone".

The suit had demanded an injunction against Florida Gun Supply to prohibit it from discriminating against Muslims and others on the basis of religion. The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed the suit against Florida Gun Supply in July after the store's owner Andy Hallinan enacted a Muslim-free zone.

Hallinan has since posted another video to his store's You Tube channel in response to the ruling. The UK Patriots News is out! "I think the judge understands that freedom of speech prevails and this is American and I have a right to sell guns to whomever I please", Hallinan said. "There are simply no facts grounding the assertion that Plaintiff (CAIR) and/or one of its constituents will be harmed." "We laid out the evidence, and the evidence very clearly showed that I did not discriminate".

CAIR's Florida Executive Director Hassan Shibly said, "The judge simply said that we didn't have standing because nobody from our organization actually went and got service denied...If somebody from the Muslim community were to go and get a denial of service, then Andy will be liable". That could well bring the case back to court.

The store is now offering a "MFZ" (Muslim Free Zone) bumper sticker and shooting targets showing a skeleton wearing a white robe, beard and turban.

Standing up to xenophobia and racism in a time of fear.

A resurgence in Islamophobia in North America and Europe in the wake of the Paris Attacks on November 13th is more fierce, naked, and mainstream than even the most cynical among us could have predicted. The leading GOP candidate said he wanted to require Muslims to carry ID's and pushed for more spying on mosques, hate crimes targeting Muslims have spiked, and a series of "anti-Islam" protests and episodes of harassment and stalking have taken place across the United States. While documenting the surge of bigotry is important, so too is noting the efforts made by activists, media, politicians from all faiths - and no faith - to combat this latest spasm of vitriol.

Here are those using their time and forum to stand up for tolerance in the face of the post-Paris panic and fear:

Kristin Bantle, a sixteen-year veteran police officer, received notice of her termination from the Steamboat Springs, Colorado Police Department on August 15 - the same day she had her first court appearance on a contrived charge of "attempting to influence a public official." The convergence of those events was appropriate, given that they constitute official retaliation against Bantle for publicly criticizing the SSPD's "culture of fear and intimidation" and its "militaristic" approach to law enforcement. Her trial on a fourth-degree felony charge is scheduled to begin on December 1.

Bantle has rejected several proposed plea deals, the terms of which she believes would have prevented her from warning the community about "a paramilitary police department" for which excessive force is standard operating procedure, and abuse of individual rights is commonplace. She outlined her concerns in a March 25 letter to the Steamboat Springs City Council. She was not the first or only former SSPD officer to go public with concerns about the department. Former Detective Dave Kleiber, who resigned in 2013, had provided an even more detailed critique of the SSPD in a March 9th open letter to city residents.

In what must be filed under "Absolute Nonsense" is the way officials in a suburban New York town has treated a US Navy veteran, razing his house while he was in the hospital.

Philip Williams left his house last December when he traveled to Florida for a knee replacement. However, the recuperation period took longer time than expected because of surgical complications and he went back to New York only in August.

And what did he see?

Nothing, the place where his house supposed to be was empty as the Hempstead town administration decided his modest two-story house was unfit for living and completely wiped it out.

Beijing has issued an orange alert and has urged residents to stay indoors because of heavy smog which has covered the capital. This is the highest-level smog alert so far this year, and the warning level is second only to 'red' in terms of its severity.


The orange alert was issued a day after the level of small particles (so called PM 2.5 particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less) reached 274 micrograms per cubic meter. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers only 25 micrograms to be a safe level.

The particle level fell below 200 on Sunday but was still considerably higher than that which is deemed safe safe.

San Francisco police are puzzled by the mysterious appearance of dozens of spiked baseball bats all across the city for the third day in a row. Treating it as a "strange occurrence," authorities have asked for public help in shedding light on the phenomenon.

Wooden or metal baseball bats first graced the streets early Thanksgiving morning, chained to parking meters or poles. The number of improvised and potentially deadly weapons found in the city continues to grow. On Thursday police discovered 15 bats across the city, some with metal spikes sticking out of them. By Saturday morning the number had increased to 27 as more of these objects of various designs were found around the city.

When the sightings of these strange bats were first reported to the police, SFPD was placed on alert and treated the sites as standing as a potential risk to human lives.

Local media reported that police in the Parkside neighborhood thought one of the bats was a pipe bomb, clearing the area and calling in a bomb squad."We thought it was possibly an explosive device. As you can see we evacuated the area," said San Francisco police Lt. Nick Rainsford on Thursday. "This is a little stranger than normal," San Francisco resident Gerrie Burke told ABC7 News. "So, we called the cops just in case and like two cars showed up immediately."

The bomb squad X-rayed and cleared the bat. As the objects spread throughout the city, police still have no clue who is behind the move, or even the kind of statement that the perpetrators have been trying to make. "There were bolts in this thing. They had drill holes in it. They knew what they were doing. Whoever did this put it together, this was not put together in an hour," Burke said. The bats are being taken in by police as evidence. SFPD is now asking the public to shed light on what they called a "strange occurrence."

According to San Francisco Police Sgt. Michael Andraychak, the spikes on the bats allow them to be considered a prohibited or deadly weapon, which is a felony.

A little over 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav "Molai" Payeng began burying seeds along a barren sandbar near his birthplace in northern India's Assam region to grow a refuge for wildlife. Not long after, he decided to dedicate his life to this endeavor, so he moved to the site where he could work full-time creating a lush new forest ecosystem. Incredibly, the spot today hosts a sprawling 1,360 acre of jungle that Payeng planted single-handedly.

Crowds gathered in the French capital on Sunday to attend a global march for the climate, despite the ban on gatherings enforced by French authorities. When one of the groups charged a police cordon, tear gas was deployed to push them back.

"Huge amounts" of tear gas were fired at protesters near Place de la Republique in central Paris, according to witnesses' reports on Twitter, with objects flying in the direction of security forces. The march, which was set to take place in dozens of cities around the world, was restricted in the French capital falling under the ban on gatherings introduced after the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. La Republique metro station, closest to the scene, has been closed by authorities, citing security measures.

The riot police repeatedly attempted to push back the activists, spraying the crowds with tear gas. Ahead of the summit, 24 green activists were put under house arrest, with police saying they were suspected of planning violent protests, according to Reuters.


Around 100 people were arrested in the scuffles, AP reported citing police. The detained protesters were found to be in possession of projectiles and other suspicious objects, Paris police chief Michel Cadot said, adding that about 200 to 300 people who violated the official protests ban during the state of emergency have been identified by police.

Report says the U.S. tried to cover up the killings of six children and other civilians as monitor group says airstrikes have killed 250 civilians so far. The United States military has been accused of the killing of six children and three more civilians in Syria as part of an airstrike the U.S. air force had carried out back in August in the north city of Atmeh, an exclusive report by the Middle East Eye website said Thursday.

The accusation was made by the father of the six children, Muawiyya al-Amouri, who told the Middle East Eye that the U.S. government was trying to cover up the deaths of his family members as well as refugees who were staying at his home at the time. "A plane belonging to the alliance shelled my house with six missiles. They destroyed my house and my children died. I had some refugees in my home from Ariha [near Idlib city] who died as well," Amouri said.

Amouri, who was not in the house at the time, said that five of his daughters had been killed: Fatimah, aged 10; Hayat, aged nine; Amina, aged seven; Asia, aged five and Marwa, aged four; as well as his 10-month-old son Abdullah.The accusations were previously made by other relatives of Amouri back in August against the U.S., according to a report by the New York Times then, and Washington had ordered an investigation into the incident. However, Thursday's report said the U.S. Central Command is now saying the killings did not take place and the airstrikes in Atmeh targeted the Islamic State group there.