News in Brief
KHARTOUM (Reuters) -- Sudan’s ex-president Omar al-Bashir appeared in public on Sunday for the first time since he was overthrown, as he was taken out of prison to the office of the anti-corruption prosecutor.
Bashir, wearing traditional white robes and turban, was driven in a Toyota Land Cruiser to the prosecutor’s office in Khartoum, a Reuters witness said.
The military overthrew and detained Bashir on April 11 after 16 weeks of street protests against his 30-year rule. He was being held in prison in Khartoum North, across the Blue Nile from the capital’s center.
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BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - An armed gang killed at least 34 people in attacks on villages in northwest Nigeria, police said on Sunday, part of a wave of violence the government has blamed on bandits.
Hundreds of people have died in the northwest region this year, adding to security problems in a country already struggling with Takfiri insurgencies in the northeast and a brutal conflict between farmers and herders in central states.
The armed gang came to unprotected villages in the northwestern state of Zamfara on Friday night, killing 34 people, said Muhammed Shehu, police spokesman for the state.
People from the village told Reuters the attackers escaped.
"We heard gunshots and saw people running for shelter, chased by men on motorbikes,” said Shehu Shinkafi.
"We immediately took cover in a house nearby, and after the bandits were done with their killing spree they moved to a nearby village,” he said, adding he counted 12 bodies in his village alone.
The gang left without any resistance as there were no security agents in the area, and it was only after the massacre that police arrived hours later, Shinkafi and two other witnesses said.
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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -- Argentina and Uruguay were scrambling to restore power to millions of people after a massive power failure hit the Argentine grid early on Sunday, Argentina’s Energy Secretariat said.
Energy company Edesur Argentina said it had restored power for 75,000 clients in the greater Buenos Aires area by 10:52 a.m. local time (1352 GMT).
Total recovery was estimated to take a few hours, according to the Energy Secretariat and Edesur.
The massive outage left Buenos Aires dark early this morning, hobbling public transportation, cutting off water supply and crippling phone and internet communications across the city.
Several Argentine provinces were forced to temporarily delay local elections.
The cause of the outage was still unclear as of late morning, but Argentina´s energy agency said in a statement it had begun an investigation.
A spokesman for Brazil’s power system operator (ONS) said the outage had not impacted the regional neighbor to the north.
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ERLIN (AP) — Authorities say a tourist has drowned in Switzerland’s Lake Geneva after her boat capsized in a driving storm, and another was killed in nearby France after high winds brought down a tree on her campsite.
The Swiss news site 20 Minuten reported Sunday the previous day’s storm brought heavy rain, hail and wind gusts as high as 122 kph (75 mph).
Police say a tourist couple’s boat capsized in Lake Geneva around 5 p.m. Local media reported the man swam to another boat and fired off two flares, but by the time rescuers arrived they were unable to find the woman.
Her body was recovered later by divers.
About 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the south in France, a 51-year-old German woman was killed when a tree fell on her camper.
***
ALGIERS (Reuters) -- Two former powerful Algerian officials and a prominent businessmen were questioned in courts on Sunday, state TV said, over accusations of corruption in the ruling elite under ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Protesters and the army drove Bouteflika to resign on April 2 after two decades in power, but pressure has continued for the departure and prosecution of senior figures around him.
Among a plethora of ongoing cases, former finance minister Karim Djoudi appeared before the Supreme Court on Sunday, while former prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia was in another Algiers court, both over corruption accusations, state TV said.
Mourad Eulmi, head of the Algerian family-owned firm SOVAC which runs an assembly plant with Germany’s Volkswagen AG, was also questioned in the same court as Ouyahia.
The army is now the main player in Algerian politics and its chief of staff Ahmed Gaed Salah has urged the judiciary to speed up the prosecution of people suspected of corruption.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck an arc of islands off New Zealand on Sunday, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it may cause only minor sea level changes in some coastal areas.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake hit a spot about 873 kilometers (541 miles) northeast of Ngunguru, New Zealand, a town of about 1,400 people. It occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
The area the quake struck is called the Kermadec Islands, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) northeast of New Zealand’s North Island.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management cleared New Zealand of a tsunami threat moments after issuing a beach warning.
The Kermadec Islands, a volcanic archipelago, are prone to earthquakes. The islands are a dependency of New Zealand and lie at the western edge of the Kermadec Trench.
There are no permanent settlements on the islands.
Bashir, wearing traditional white robes and turban, was driven in a Toyota Land Cruiser to the prosecutor’s office in Khartoum, a Reuters witness said.
The military overthrew and detained Bashir on April 11 after 16 weeks of street protests against his 30-year rule. He was being held in prison in Khartoum North, across the Blue Nile from the capital’s center.
***
BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - An armed gang killed at least 34 people in attacks on villages in northwest Nigeria, police said on Sunday, part of a wave of violence the government has blamed on bandits.
Hundreds of people have died in the northwest region this year, adding to security problems in a country already struggling with Takfiri insurgencies in the northeast and a brutal conflict between farmers and herders in central states.
The armed gang came to unprotected villages in the northwestern state of Zamfara on Friday night, killing 34 people, said Muhammed Shehu, police spokesman for the state.
People from the village told Reuters the attackers escaped.
"We heard gunshots and saw people running for shelter, chased by men on motorbikes,” said Shehu Shinkafi.
"We immediately took cover in a house nearby, and after the bandits were done with their killing spree they moved to a nearby village,” he said, adding he counted 12 bodies in his village alone.
The gang left without any resistance as there were no security agents in the area, and it was only after the massacre that police arrived hours later, Shinkafi and two other witnesses said.
***
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -- Argentina and Uruguay were scrambling to restore power to millions of people after a massive power failure hit the Argentine grid early on Sunday, Argentina’s Energy Secretariat said.
Energy company Edesur Argentina said it had restored power for 75,000 clients in the greater Buenos Aires area by 10:52 a.m. local time (1352 GMT).
Total recovery was estimated to take a few hours, according to the Energy Secretariat and Edesur.
The massive outage left Buenos Aires dark early this morning, hobbling public transportation, cutting off water supply and crippling phone and internet communications across the city.
Several Argentine provinces were forced to temporarily delay local elections.
The cause of the outage was still unclear as of late morning, but Argentina´s energy agency said in a statement it had begun an investigation.
A spokesman for Brazil’s power system operator (ONS) said the outage had not impacted the regional neighbor to the north.
***
ERLIN (AP) — Authorities say a tourist has drowned in Switzerland’s Lake Geneva after her boat capsized in a driving storm, and another was killed in nearby France after high winds brought down a tree on her campsite.
The Swiss news site 20 Minuten reported Sunday the previous day’s storm brought heavy rain, hail and wind gusts as high as 122 kph (75 mph).
Police say a tourist couple’s boat capsized in Lake Geneva around 5 p.m. Local media reported the man swam to another boat and fired off two flares, but by the time rescuers arrived they were unable to find the woman.
Her body was recovered later by divers.
About 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the south in France, a 51-year-old German woman was killed when a tree fell on her camper.
***
ALGIERS (Reuters) -- Two former powerful Algerian officials and a prominent businessmen were questioned in courts on Sunday, state TV said, over accusations of corruption in the ruling elite under ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Protesters and the army drove Bouteflika to resign on April 2 after two decades in power, but pressure has continued for the departure and prosecution of senior figures around him.
Among a plethora of ongoing cases, former finance minister Karim Djoudi appeared before the Supreme Court on Sunday, while former prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia was in another Algiers court, both over corruption accusations, state TV said.
Mourad Eulmi, head of the Algerian family-owned firm SOVAC which runs an assembly plant with Germany’s Volkswagen AG, was also questioned in the same court as Ouyahia.
The army is now the main player in Algerian politics and its chief of staff Ahmed Gaed Salah has urged the judiciary to speed up the prosecution of people suspected of corruption.
***
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck an arc of islands off New Zealand on Sunday, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it may cause only minor sea level changes in some coastal areas.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake hit a spot about 873 kilometers (541 miles) northeast of Ngunguru, New Zealand, a town of about 1,400 people. It occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
The area the quake struck is called the Kermadec Islands, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) northeast of New Zealand’s North Island.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management cleared New Zealand of a tsunami threat moments after issuing a beach warning.
The Kermadec Islands, a volcanic archipelago, are prone to earthquakes. The islands are a dependency of New Zealand and lie at the western edge of the Kermadec Trench.
There are no permanent settlements on the islands.