NEW DELHI (AP) — A viral disease has killed nearly 100,000 cows and buffaloes in India and sickened over 2 million more.

The outbreak has triggered devastating income losses for cattle farmers since the disease not only results in deaths but can also lead to decreased milk production, emaciated animals, and birth issues. The disease, called lumpy skin disease, is spread by insects that drink blood like mosquitoes and ticks. Infected cows and buffaloes get fevers and develop lumps on their skin. Farmers have experienced severe losses from extreme weather events over the past year: a record-shattering heat wave in India reduced wheat yields in April, insufficient rainfall in eastern states like Jharkhand state shriveled parched winter crops such as pulses, and an unusually intense September rainfall has damaged rice in the north. And now, the virus has spread to at least 15 states with the number of cow and buffalo deaths nearly doubling in three weeks, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

 

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BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina (AFP) – Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik appeared on the path to an electoral win, preliminary results showed Monday, following a chaotic election night that saw his upstart rival also claim victory in a fiercely contested race. Hours earlier, the long-time leader of Bosnia’s Serbs looked poised to suffer a stunning defeat after his opponent Jelena Trivic claimed victory in the race for the presidency of the Republika Srpska (RS) -- the country’s Serb entity. According to Bosnia’s election commission, Dodik had secured 49 percent of the vote compared to Trivic’s 42 percent, with 82 percent of the entity’s polling sites tallied. The tight race was just one in a dizzying number of contests in Bosnia on Sunday, with several upsets, and the sprawling results are likely to add fresh uncertainty in the restive political scene. Nearly three decades after war ravaged the Balkan country, Bosnia continues to be burdened by its ethnic divisions.

   

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MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police said they were investigating over a dozen officers responsible for firing tear gas that set off a crush that killed 125 people at a soccer match, as families and friends grieved Monday for the victims that included 17 children. Distraught family members were struggling to comprehend the sudden loss of loved ones at the match in East Java’s Malang city that was watched only by hometown Arema FC fans. The organizer had banned visiting Persebaya Surabaya’s supporters due to Indonesia’s history of violent soccer rivalries. The crush was among the world’s deadliest disasters at a sporting event. Witnesses said fans flooded the pitch and demanded that Arema management explain why, after 23 years of undefeated home matches against Persebaya, Saturday night’s ended in a 3-2 defeat. Some of the 42,000 Arema fans threw bottles and other objects at players and soccer officials. At least five police vehicles were toppled and set ablaze outside the stadium.

 

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PARIS (AFP) -- France’s justice minister has been ordered to stand trial in a conflict of interest case that has embarrassed President Emmanuel Macron’s government, his lawyers said on Monday. Eric Dupond-Moretti, a former star defense lawyer, was last year charged with misusing his position to settle scores with opponents from his legal career, becoming the first sitting French justice minister to be charged in a legal probe. His lawyers said they had immediately lodged an appeal. The accusations relate to administrative inquiries into three judges. The three had ordered police in 2014 to pore through the phone records of dozens of lawyers and magistrates, including Dupond-Moretti, as part of an investigation into former president Nicolas Sarkozy. Despite opposition calls for him to be sacked, Macron re-appointed him to the justice minister post in a cabinet reshuffle that saw Elisabeth Borne take over from Jean Castex as prime minister in May of this year. 

 

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MOGADISHU (AFP) -- Nine people, including senior regional officials, were killed in twin car bombings claimed by the takfiri group Al-Shabaab in central Somalia on Monday, police said. At least 10 others were injured in “suicide attacks” when two cars loaded with explosives were detonated about five minutes apart outside district headquarters in the city of Beledweyne. The health minister of Hirshabelle state -- where Beledweyne is located -- and a deputy district commissioner were among the dead, police said. The attacks follow a push by Somalia’s government to ratchet up offensives against the Al-Qaeda-linked militants, with the authorities announcing the killing of a top Al-Shabaab operative on Monday. Abdullahi Yare, who had a $3.0-million bounty on his head, was killed in a joint air strike on October 1 by the Somali army and international security partners in southern Somalia, the ministry of information said in a statement. Somalia’s recently elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has vowed an all-out war on the takfiris, after a string of deadly attacks, including a 30-hour hotel siege in the capital Mogadishu, that killed 21 people.