LONDON — Strong winds that pummeled Britain killed a taxi driver, whose car was crushed by falling chunks of masonry from a building, and an elderly man who died after a ‘‘freak wave’’ struck a cruise ship in the English Channel, officials said Saturday. Another 15 cruise ship passengers were injured. The taxi driver was killed late Friday near Holborn subway station in central London when part of a building collapsed during a windstorm, police said. She was identified as Julie Sillitoe, 49, a mother of three. (AP)
AFGHANISTAN
Coalition member dies in explosion
KABUL — An improvised explosive device killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the US-led international military coalition said. In its statement, the coalition did not give further details on where the incident occurred or the nationality of the service member killed. Saturday’s death brings to five the number of coalition troops who have died in Afghanistan so far this month. (AP)
TURKEY
2 lawmakers hurt in Parliament fight
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s Parliament met through the night, Friday into Saturday, and passed a controversial new bill that gives the government greater control over the judiciary — but not before a brawl on the floor of the assembly left one lawmaker with a broken finger and another with a bloodied nose. The raucous scene was emblematic of the messy turn Turkish politics has taken recently, as a corruption investigation targeting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his inner circle has thrust the government into crisis. (New York Times)
BAHRAIN
Security forces battle protesters
MANAMA — Bahraini antigovernment activists clashed with security forces as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Saturday, sending tear gas into a shopping mall and bringing the capital’s streets to a standstill on the same day that authorities said a police officer died of injuries sustained in an earlier bombing. The Interior Ministry said the officer was one of two wounded Friday in Dair village, near the main airport. (AP)
BRAZIL