■ India
Car runs over homeless
A woman and her daughter died when a taxi driver ran over six homeless people sleeping on a sidewalk in Mumbai, police said. The 25-year-old woman and her six-month-old child were instantly killed when the speeding vehicle crushed the six victims on the pavement of Mello Road District, police told the Press Trust of India. Police arrested the cab driver and rushed the critically injured people to a hospital.
■ India
Policeman kills colleagues
A police officer shot dead five of his colleagues yesterday after an argument outside the bank they were guarding in New Delhi, officials said. Another officer was wounded in the early morning incident, a police spokesman said. Area police chief Alok Kumar said the victims appeared to have been shot at close range. The officer who opened fire has not been found. "The service weapons of the five men had not been used which indicates they were taken by surprise," a forensic expert said.
■ Sri Lanka
Thousands flee fighting
Continued artillery duels between troops and Tamil Tigers in the east have forced more than 40,000 civilians to flee rebel-held territory to government-held areas, both sides said yesterday. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said two civilians were killed over the weekend after military shelling in the Batticaloa district that led to thousands of Tamil civilians fleeing their homes. The defense ministry acknowledged that around 40,000 Tamil refugees were being accommodated at welfare centers or with friends and relatives in a government-held part of the district. It said the civilians were on the run because of fears that their children could be conscripted by the Tigers.
■ Thailand
Karen flee Myanmar
Some 300 ethnic Karen have fled to western Thailand to escape fighting in military-ruled Myanmar between government forces and ethnic rebels, the Thai army said yesterday. Most of those fleeing the conflict were women and children who crossed the border during the past week to the western province of Tak, Colonel Kasem Tanaporn told reporters. He could not confirm any casualties from the fighting, which has pitted Myanmar's government forces and the pro-junta Democratic Karen Buddhist Army against the rebel Karen National Union (KNU). The KNU is the largest rebel group fighting Myanmar's junta and one of the few remaining ethnic insurgent groups yet to sign a peace deal with the junta.
■ Serbia
ICTY accused of murder
The brother of the late Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic yesterday accused the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of being responsible for the "murder" of his brother, the Interfax news agency reported. Borislav Milosevic, who lives in Moscow, said lack of medical care ensured the early death of his brother, who died in his cell of natural causes in The Hague on March 11 last year, aged 64. Milosevic was being tried for war crimes at the ICTY. "They would not let him leave for treatment. The man died. I think that is murder," Milosevic said.
■ Switzerland
Elderly wins pageant
Leontine Vallade, of uncertain age, became a Miss on Saturday, winning the country's first ever title of "Miss Home for the Elderly." Vallade, who counts floral arrangements among her favorite pastimes, beat off a strong challenge from the nine other contestants aged over 70 at the Chataigners home for the elderly in Veyrier, on the outskirts of Geneva. The jury of representatives from five retirement or nursing homes said they were won over by her charisma and smile, earning the local pensioner a free meal at a luxury restaurant and a bunch of flowers. The runners-up also won prizes.
■ Zimbabwe
Opposition leader arrested
Riot police arrested the country's top opposition leader yesterday as they suppressed a planned prayer rally in a crackdown on protests against President Robert Mugabe. Witnesses said armed police skirmished with rock-throwing opposition supporters in the Harare township of Highfield, where the opposition-aligned Save Zimbabwe Coalition had called for a prayer rally. Police arrested Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition officials after stopping their motor convoy from driving to the stadium where the rally was to have been held.
■ Mauritania
Citizens hit the polls
People began voting yesterday to choose a president and restore civilian rule to the Saharan Islamic state after 19 months under a military junta. Voters and international observers hope the poll can establish a multi-party democracy in the largely desert former French colony, which has expe-rienced several coups and years of authoritarian rule since its independence in 1960. As polling stations opened, men in flowing robes and turbans and women in colorful veils formed lines and squatted patiently on the sandy streets waiting to vote. "We've never had an election like this before ... we hope it will change a lot in the country, God willing," said Ahmed Ould Brahim, 46.
■ Egypt
Child infected with H5N1
A four-year-old boy has become the 24th case of bird flu in the country, the health ministry announced late on Saturday. Mohammed Mahmud Ibrahim from the Nile Delta region north of Cairo was admitted to hospital on Thursday and a blood test revealed he had the H5N1 virus, the ministry said in a statement. His family was also under observation. Since the H5N1 strain appeared in Egypt a year ago, 24 people have been affected, with 13 people dying. Nearly all the victims have been women, as well as some children, due to their close involvement in raising poultry.
■ United States
Truck with marijuana found
A truck with 2.7 tonnes of marijuana was found abandoned on a freeway ramp in Ontario, California with its engine still warm, authorities said. A California Highway Patrol officer saw the rented truck partially blocking the ramp on Wednesday night and stopped to offer help before smelling marijuana, Sergeant Telfinues Preszler said. The officer found plastic-wrapped bundles of marijuana in the back, with an estimated street value of US$20 million. The truck was unlocked. Preszler said the engine may have overheated. He said there were no suspects and no real leads in the case.
■ United States
French artists shut down
A show in Rapid City, South Dakota, where French performance artists vomited, simulated sex and threw fake feces was stopped by the promoter, who quickly apologized. Lisou Prout and Jean-Louis Costes also stripped and spit potato chips on the crowd at a local arts center. Audience members said the act depicted US life from birth to death. The show was stopped shortly after a simulated sex act involving a carrot. "I was told they were performance artists from France and were highly recommended. I think I was told wrong," said promoter Kevin Dorsman, who stopped the show.
■ United States
Neo-Nazis conduct march
A neo-Nazi march attracted hundreds of spectators and counter-protesters in Columbia, Missouri, and police used pepper spray to control the crowd. Seven spectators were arrested. About two dozen neo-Nazis marched on Saturday near the University of Missouri-Columbia campus, protesting what they said were the school's links to Marxism. Police escorted the marchers, who included several people wearing brown-shirted uniforms and carrying Nazi banners. Between 300 and 400 people gathered along the parade route, Columbia police Captain Zim Schwartze said. Police used pepper spray as marchers and spectators pressed toward each other, catching several bystanders and news photographers in the spray.
■ Dubai
Militants threaten hostages
A little-known Iraqi Islamist militant group said on Saturday it would kill two hostages, a German woman and her son, in 10 days if Berlin did not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The Arrows of Righteousness group posted a video on a Web site used by militant groups, including al-Qaeda, showing a weeping Hannelore Marianne Krause, 61, urging Germany to heed the militants' demands. "We give the German government 10 days from the date of this statement to announce and start the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan, otherwise ... they will not even see the bodies of these two agents," said a masked man, reading a statement on the video.
■ Canada
Greenhorn party sees surge
An unexpected surge in support for a greenhorn Quebec conservative party has turned the province's election into a three-way race with federalists and separatists, according to a new poll published on Saturday. Midway in the campaign, the rightist Action Democratique du Quebec climbed eight percentage points in public opinion over the past month, to 26 percent, said a CROP survey in the francophone daily La Presse. Meanwhile, support for Premier Jean Charest's federalist Liberal Party fell two notches to 33 percent last month.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
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