Four killed at

birthday party

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say three of the four dead in a mass shooting in Stockton, California, were children killed during a child’s birthday party. Heather Brent with the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office said Sunday that the children were ages 8, 9 and 14 years old.

A 21-year-old also was killed and 11 others were wounded in the shooting Saturday night, which took place at a banquet hall. Brent said the shooting appeared to be a targeted incident but she didn’t say who might have been targeted or why.

No arrests have been made.

Meanwhile, faith leaders organized a Sunday afternoon vigil in the Stockton area for those killed and wounded.

Netanyahu files

pardon request

TEL AVIV (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Israel’s president for a pardon during his ongoing corruption trial. His office on Sunday confirmed the request was submitted to the president’s legal department.

The president’s office called it an “extraordinary request” with “significant implications.” Netanyahu faces charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. But he hasn’t been convicted.

He denies the allegations and calls the trial a witch hunt. The request follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s urging for a pardon. Legal experts say the request can’t stop the trial. Opposition leaders oppose the pardon without an admission of guilt and withdrawal from political life.

US halts asylum

decisions

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports.

The moves comes after one National Guard member was killed and a second was critically wounded in a shooting Wednesday near the White House. A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War is facing a first-degree murder charge.

The government says it will intensify steps to rein in legal immigration to the United States by pausing entry from some poor countries and reviewing the status of Afghans and other legal migrants already in the country.

Tom Stoppard

dies at 88

LONDON (AP) — British playwright Tom Stoppard, who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for 1998’s “Shakespeare In Love” has died. He was 88.

In a statement Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his family.

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” they said. “It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”

The Czech-born Stoppard was often hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation and was garlanded with honors.