PARIS (AP) — French fighter jets launched their biggest raids in Syria to date, targeting an ISIS stronghold in Raqqa just two days after the group claimed coordinated attacks in Paris that killed about 130 people.  The raid involved 12 aircraft, including 10 fighter jets, and was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan

A hunt for a suspect in the Paris attacks focused today on a Brussels neighborhood where two small explosions were heard as dozens of masked and heavily armed security officials sealed off the area. The first explosion happened about two hours into the siege followed by a similar blast one hour later on a higher floor of a building with special security forces close by on roofs. Police gave no details. France has identified a Belgian as the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks and also linked him to thwarted train and church attacks.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says scores of overnight raids across France are “just a start” to France’s response to the Paris attacks. He says there were 168 raids and 104 people were placed under house arrest in the past 48 hours. Cazeneuve says “the response of the Republic will be huge, will be total.”

Simultaneous moments of silence were observed today in Paris and at the G-20 summit in Turkey for the 129 victims of the Paris attacks. Standing between the French and the European Union flags at the G-20, leaders stood in silence at the same time as French President Francois Hollande (frahn-SWAH’ oh-LAWND’) observed a minute of silence along with schoolchildren and bystanders in Paris. Black ribbons were tied around the French and EU flags in a sign of mourning.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Student protests and outrage over the University of Missouri’s handling of racial issues has brought national attention.  But Payton Head, the gay, black president of the Missouri Students Association, is challenging a narrative that has come to define the school as a hotbed of racism.

Recent racist incidents led to protests including one student’s hunger strike and a threatened boycott by the football team. The university system president and the campus chancellor resigned.

Head says he’s been called racial slurs since he started at the Columbia school.  But he also says the problems lie with a small number of people, and that students want an inclusive campus.

Head says former administrators gave the impression discrimination is tolerated at the university and that allowed racist acts to keep occurring.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Republican Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder is criticizing some University of Missouri student protesters as “pampered” and the faculty who are backing them as “tenured radicals.”

The Kansas City Star reports that Kinder discussed the racial discord at the Columbia campus Saturday during a forum for Republican gubernatorial candidates.

At the gathering in Parkville, Kinder said, “Enough is enough is enough of the slander by the tenured radicals in Columbia and those who support them.”

His comments follow the resignations last week of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe and Columbia Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin after the school’s football team threatened to boycott all football activities until the administrators stepped down.

Also participating in the forum was House Speaker Catherine Hanaway and St. Louis businessman John Brunner.

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Racial tensions are growing at the University of Kansas with a call for three top Student Senate leaders to resign and a recent graduate initiating a hunger strike.

The Senate’s Student Executive Committee is demanding that Student Body President Jessie Pringle, Student Body Vice President Zach George and Chief of Staff Adam Moon step down by Wednesday.

The committee took up the issue Friday, voting 6-3 that it had no confidence in the three leaders. One member abstained from the vote.

The three embattled leaders released a statement Saturday, saying they plan to continue serving and professing support for minority groups.

Meanwhile, a white 2014 University of Kansas graduate began a hunger strike on campus Friday morning in solidarity with student group movements.

 

The musical chairs continue at the state capitol in Topeka.   Two Kansas lawmakers who voted against school funding changes have been removed from a Kansas House committee that oversees education.

This is the second committee to be purged of critics of administration policy.  Last week three GOP lawmakers were removed from the top health-care committee because they support the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Also last week, GOP Representatives Diana Dierks of Salina and John Ewy of Jetmore, were notified they had lost their committee assignments. Their replacements voted in favor of the bill that replaced the state’s per-pupil formula for distributing aid to districts with stable “block grants” based on what districts received previously. The plan is to use the block grants for two years while the system for funding public schools is revamped.

Dierks says that when she asked why she was removed from the education committee, she was told it was for the betterment of the caucus. She was moved to the elections committee.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 17-month-old girl has died from injuries that Wichita police suspect are the result of child abuse.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the girl was pronounced dead around 8:10 a.m. Saturday. Her mother’s boyfriend has been charged with child abuse and aggravated battery.

Wichita police Captain Jeff Weible says that when emergency crews arrived Monday, they were told the girl had fallen about 30 minutes earlier. The boyfriend had been caring for the girl and her 4- year-old sister while their mother was working.

Weible says the baby had multiple bruises and other internal injuries that are “indicative of child abuse.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s capital city of Lincoln finds itself in the rare position of experiencing no homicides so far this year.  If that holds through the end of December, it will be Lincoln’s first homicide-free year since 1991.

Only 50 miles northeast, Nebraska’s largest city of Omaha has seen a jump in homicides, with 40 so far this year, compared to 33 in all of 2014.

Other cities across the country, from Baltimore and Chicago to Kansas City and Milwaukee, have seen significant jumps in homicides since last year.

Lincoln Police Chief Jim Peschong says luck has a lot to do with Lincoln’s distinction. But he also pointed to efforts in the 1990s to deter Kansas City and Omaha gangs from establishing roots in Lincoln.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — A woman inadvertently caused the Scottsbluff airport to shut down for several hours by trying to return a bag that wasn’t hers.  The problem was that the woman left the bag sitting in the luggage screening area at the Western Nebraska Regional Airport Saturday afternoon after she couldn’t find anyone to help her.

The unattended bag triggered an evacuation and a call to the bomb squad when it was discovered around 3 p.m. The tags on the bag didn’t match Great Lakes Airlines or any of the airlines passengers.

While the bomb squad’s robot x-rayed the bag and took it to a remote location to examine it, authorities examined surveillance video.

The woman who dropped off the bag heard reports of the bomb scare and called authorities to explain.

(UPDATE) A French police official says at least 100 people have been killed inside a Paris concert hall where attackers seized hostages. The hostage-taking was one in a series of at least six attacks across the French capital.

Two Paris police officials say security forces have ended their assault on a concert hall filled with hostages, killing at least two attackers. Neither official could be named, citing ongoing operations throughout the city.

One official described “carnage” inside the building, saying the attackers had tossed explosives at the hostages. Both officials said they expected the toll of victims to rise.

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The deadliest violence in France in decades has left about three dozen people dead at multiple locations in Paris.

Two police officials say that at least 35 people have been killed in shootings and explosions. A police official says about 100 people were taken hostage at a Paris theater.

A Paris police official said there were at least 100 hostages in a Paris theater following shooting and explosions at two sites in the city. Multiple officials, including one medical official, put the number of dead at between 35 to 40 people.

U.S. Homeland Security Department officials monitoring the attacks in Paris say there is no known, credible threat against the United States. DHS officials are in contact with their foreign counterparts amid reports of multiple shootings and explosions in Paris.

A White House official says President Barack Obama has been briefed on the attacks in Paris. President Obama called the Paris attacks an ‘outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians. Obama is slated to travel to Paris at the end of the month to attend a United Nations conference on climate change.

Hundreds of people spilled onto the field of the Stade de France stadium after explosions were heard nearby during a friendly match between the French and German national soccer teams. A stadium announcer made an announcement over the loudspeaker after the match, telling fans to avoid certain exits “due to events outside,” without elaborating. At first that prompted some panic, but then the crowds just walked dazed, hugging each other and looking at their phones for the latest news of the violence. Many appeared hesitant to leave amid the uncertainty after France’s deadliest attacks in decades.