ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — India fired missiles across the border into Pakistani-controlled territory in at least three locations early Wednesday, killing a child and wounding two other people, Pakistani security officials said. India said it was striking infrastructure used by militants.

Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbors over last month’s militant attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. India has blamed Pakistan for backing the militant attack, which Islamabad has denied.

The missiles early Wednesday struck locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, according to officials. One of them struck a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, where a child was killed and a woman and man were injured, one official said.

The officials said Pakistan had launched retaliatory strikes, without providing any details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

State-run Pakistan Television, quoting security officials, said Pakistan’s air force shot down two Indian jets but provided no additional details.

Pakistani army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif told ARY News that the missiles were launched from within Indian territory and that no Indian aircraft had entered Pakistani airspace.

India’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that at least nine sites were targeted “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.”

The statement said “India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement, said the “deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks at five locations in Pakistan” and that his country would retaliate.

Vaccine chief: Dr. Vinay Prasad, a prominent critic of the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration, has been named to oversee the agency’s program for vaccines and biotech drugs.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary announced the appointment Tuesday in a message to agency staff, praising Prasad’s “long and distinguished history in medicine.”

Prasad is the latest in a series of medical contrarians and critics of COVID-19 measures to join the federal government under President Donald Trump. His appointment raises new questions about whether vaccines and other new therapies will face unnecessary scrutiny from regulators.

Social Security: Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday to lead the Social Security Administration, taking over at a turbulent time for the agency that provides benefits to more than 70 million Americans.

The Senate confirmed Bisignano in a 53-47 vote.

Bisignano’s confirmation comes after a monthslong series of announcements at the Social Security Administration of mass federal worker layoffs, cuts to programs, office closures and a planned cut to nationwide Social Security phone services, which were eventually walked back.

Many of the changes are driven by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire adviser Elon Musk.

Bisignano, a self-professed “DOGE person,” has served as chair of Fiserv, a payments and financial services tech firm, since 2020. His term ends in January 2031.

Layoffs at Columbia: Columbia University said Tuesday that it will be laying off nearly 180 staffers in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel $400 million in funding over the Manhattan college’s handling of student protests against the war in Gaza.

Those receiving nonrenewal or termination notices Tuesday represent about 20% of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said in a statement Tuesday.

Officials are working with the Trump administration in the hopes of getting the funding restored, they said, but the university will still pull back spending because of uncertainty and strain on its budget.

In March, the Trump administration pulled the funding over what it described as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Singer Robinson accused: Four former housekeepers of Smokey Robinson allege in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the Motown music luminary repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped them while they worked for him.

The suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court seeks at least $50 million in damages over the alleged assaults, which the women say took place between 2007 and 2024, and labor violations including a hostile work environment, illegally long hours and lack of pay.

A message seeking comment from a representative for the 85-year-old Robinson was not immediately answered.

The four women each say that Robinson would wait until he was alone with them in his Los Angeles house then sexually assault and rape them over their objections. All said they eventually quit over the assaults, though in some cases it took several years. And all said they feared coming forward over fears of retaliation, public shame and possible effects on their immigration status.

All four women withheld their legal names citing privacy concerns.

The lawsuit also names Robinson’s wife, Frances Robinson, as a defendant, alleging that she enabled his behavior despite knowing about past sexual misconduct.

Philadelphia plane crash: An eighth person has died months after the crash of a medical transport plane in Philadelphia, city officials said Tuesday.

Dominique Goods-Burke, who was in a vehicle hit by debris when the plane crashed in northeast Philadelphia, died April 27, the city Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed. She had been out shopping with her fiance, Steven Dreuitt, who died after their vehicle was engulfed in flames Jan. 31, and his son, who suffered severe burns, according to news reports.

Goods-Burke died at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital, a spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s Office said. She was 34.

The crash, which took place on a Friday evening near a busy intersection, killed all six people on the Learjet 55 air ambulance, including a girl who was traveling home after receiving medical treatment in Philadelphia. All six people aboard were from Mexico.

Officials said that about two dozen people were injured on the ground and more than a dozen homes were damaged or destroyed.