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Man charged after a car plowed into a crowd outside a British pub

LONDON (AP) — A man charged after a car plowed into a crowd outside a pub in the English city of Derby over the weekend, injuring seven people, appeared in court Wednesday and was jailed pending trial.

Sandhu Ponnachan, 36, appeared in Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court on six counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of attempted grievous bodily harm and one count of possession of a bladed article.

He didn’t enter a plea.

Counterterrorism officers assisted local police in the investigation, but Derbyshire police said that is common practice for this type of incident and they were “keeping an open mind” about the incident.

The crash occurred at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday on Friar Gate, a popular night spot in central Derby, a city of about 275,000 people northeast of Birmingham.

The victims, four men and three women, were aged between 36 and 52. Four have been discharged from hospital, Derbyshire police said.

Ponnachan was ordered to appear in Derby Crown Court on April 29.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

By WTOP Staff
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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