US Army plans to cut 40,000 troops: Media

WASHINGTON: The US Army plans to cut 40,000 soldiers from both domestic and foreign posts over the next two years, according to US daily USA Today. Under the plan, the US Army would cut its current size of active-duty soldiers from about 490,000 to about 450,000 by September 30, 2017, and an additional 17,000 civilian employees would also be laid off, said the report. Details about the plan are expected to be officially announced later this week

Three killed in US

BALTIMORE: Police say four people have been shot, three fatally, near a university campus in Baltimore.Detective Rashawn Strong said in a statement on Wednesday that officers responded on Tuesday night to a shooting reported in residential neighbourhood blocks from the University of Maryland campus in Baltimore, some70 km north of Washington. Strong says officers found three people with gunshot wounds. One man was pronounced dead and another man and a woman were taken to a hospital, where they died.

Boko Haram’s offer

LAGOS: Nigeria's Boko Haram extremists are offering to free more than 200 young women and girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in exchange for the release of militant leaders held by the government, a human rights activist has told The Associated Press. The activist said Boko Haram's offer is limited to the girls whose mass abduction in April 2014 ignited worldwide outrage and a campaign to "Bring Back Our Girls" that stretched to the White House.