News in Brief
BARCELONA (AFP) -- Catalonia's deposed leader Carles Puigdemont refused Friday to rule out fresh elections in the Spanish region if the jailed candidate chosen by Catalan separatist parties to form a new government is not allowed to be sworn in.
"It is no tragedy if there are new elections, although it is not the priority and no one desires it," he said in an interview published in Catalan nationalist newspaper El Punt Avui.
Puigdemont moved to Belgium after the Catalan parliament unilaterally declared independence on October 27 following a banned referendum on secession and faces arrest if he returns to Spain over his role in Catalonia's separatist push.
He formally abandoned his bid to be re-appointed Catalan president last week and proposed Jordi Sanchez as a candidate, with the Catalan parliament set to convene on Monday to appoint a new regional president.
But Sanchez is considered to have little chance of taking up the post since he is remanded in custody pending accusations of sedition over last year's Catalan independence crisis.
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KANO, Nigeria (AFP) -- Rural communities in Taraba state, eastern Nigeria, were Friday on indefinite lockdown as the authorities tried to contain mounting violence between cattle herders and farmers.
Police spokesman David Misal said a round-the-clock curfew has been imposed in affected areas "due to the escalation of violence between Fulani and Mambilla ethnic groups".
Nigeria has been gripped since the start of the year with an increase in clashes between the largely nomadic herders and farmers over land, water and grazing rights.
At least 10 people were killed in several days of violence in Taraba last week into the weekend, while some 24 lost their lives in the central state of Benue in the last few days.
Misal said there were reports that the violence was spreading but gave no further details.
Last year, the cattle herders union claimed more than 700 people were killed in violence, although the authorities gave a much lower death toll.
The herders are Muslim and the farmers are largely Christian, which adds an ethnic and religious dimension to the tensions. Many herders have fled to northern Cameroon.
***
KIEV (Dispatches) -- Ukraine Friday charged a prisoner swap negotiator with plotting to assassinate President Petro Poroshenko and other senior officials by attacking their homes and offices with mortar fire and grenades.
Volodymyr Ruban was detained Thursday with a haul of firearms and ammunition in his vehicle while crossing the "grey zone" splitting Russian-backed eastern insurgents from the rest of Ukraine.
The 50-year-old Ukrainian national is known to have organized several prisoner exchanges between the two sides during four years of fighting, in which more than 10,000 have died.
"Ruban is suspected of preparing armed attacks against senior government officials," the presiding judge in Kiev was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The charge sheet accused Ruban of planning to use "mortar guns, grenade launchers, light weapons and explosive devices" to attack the homes of Poroshenko and other officials.
***
GENEVA (Reuters) -- More than 2 million children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are estimated to be at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition if they do not get the aid they need, the United Nations warned Friday.
UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock will meet donors next week in the country where conditions in many areas are worsening, UN spokesman Jens Laerke told a Geneva briefing.
"We have a great responsibility in the DRC...now is the time to stay the course," Laerke said.
The 2 million children at risk of starvation include some 300,000 children in the Kasai region, Bettina Luescher of the UN's World Food Program said.
***
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Floods swamped parts of the Australian state of Queensland on Friday, covering pastureland and cutting off towns as swollen rivers inundated about 200 homes.
"There’s water as far as the eye can see,” said James Wyld by phone from the bar of the Julia Creek Hotel in western Queensland’s grazing country.
A disaster was declared further east in the coastal canefarming towns of Ingham and Halifax, where television pictures showed the swollen Herbert River rushing over the main highway.
No injuries were reported though 225 homes around Ingham were flooded, authorities said, and 72 children on a school camp north of Ingham were isolated by the rising water, Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters in Brisbane.
"They are safe, they are in good spirits,” she said.
***
SYDNEY (AFP) -- The death toll from an earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea last month has topped 100 with thousands injured, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said Friday, warning it will take years for the region to recover.
The Pacific nation's mountainous interior was struck by a 7.5-magnitude tremor on Feb 26, triggering landslides that blocked roads, caused power outages and cut off villages.
Communities have also been rattled by strong aftershocks, sparking fears among disenchanted and suspicious residents that the shaking was somehow caused by oil and gas operations in the area.
"It is no tragedy if there are new elections, although it is not the priority and no one desires it," he said in an interview published in Catalan nationalist newspaper El Punt Avui.
Puigdemont moved to Belgium after the Catalan parliament unilaterally declared independence on October 27 following a banned referendum on secession and faces arrest if he returns to Spain over his role in Catalonia's separatist push.
He formally abandoned his bid to be re-appointed Catalan president last week and proposed Jordi Sanchez as a candidate, with the Catalan parliament set to convene on Monday to appoint a new regional president.
But Sanchez is considered to have little chance of taking up the post since he is remanded in custody pending accusations of sedition over last year's Catalan independence crisis.
***
KANO, Nigeria (AFP) -- Rural communities in Taraba state, eastern Nigeria, were Friday on indefinite lockdown as the authorities tried to contain mounting violence between cattle herders and farmers.
Police spokesman David Misal said a round-the-clock curfew has been imposed in affected areas "due to the escalation of violence between Fulani and Mambilla ethnic groups".
Nigeria has been gripped since the start of the year with an increase in clashes between the largely nomadic herders and farmers over land, water and grazing rights.
At least 10 people were killed in several days of violence in Taraba last week into the weekend, while some 24 lost their lives in the central state of Benue in the last few days.
Misal said there were reports that the violence was spreading but gave no further details.
Last year, the cattle herders union claimed more than 700 people were killed in violence, although the authorities gave a much lower death toll.
The herders are Muslim and the farmers are largely Christian, which adds an ethnic and religious dimension to the tensions. Many herders have fled to northern Cameroon.
***
KIEV (Dispatches) -- Ukraine Friday charged a prisoner swap negotiator with plotting to assassinate President Petro Poroshenko and other senior officials by attacking their homes and offices with mortar fire and grenades.
Volodymyr Ruban was detained Thursday with a haul of firearms and ammunition in his vehicle while crossing the "grey zone" splitting Russian-backed eastern insurgents from the rest of Ukraine.
The 50-year-old Ukrainian national is known to have organized several prisoner exchanges between the two sides during four years of fighting, in which more than 10,000 have died.
"Ruban is suspected of preparing armed attacks against senior government officials," the presiding judge in Kiev was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The charge sheet accused Ruban of planning to use "mortar guns, grenade launchers, light weapons and explosive devices" to attack the homes of Poroshenko and other officials.
***
GENEVA (Reuters) -- More than 2 million children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are estimated to be at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition if they do not get the aid they need, the United Nations warned Friday.
UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock will meet donors next week in the country where conditions in many areas are worsening, UN spokesman Jens Laerke told a Geneva briefing.
"We have a great responsibility in the DRC...now is the time to stay the course," Laerke said.
The 2 million children at risk of starvation include some 300,000 children in the Kasai region, Bettina Luescher of the UN's World Food Program said.
***
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Floods swamped parts of the Australian state of Queensland on Friday, covering pastureland and cutting off towns as swollen rivers inundated about 200 homes.
"There’s water as far as the eye can see,” said James Wyld by phone from the bar of the Julia Creek Hotel in western Queensland’s grazing country.
A disaster was declared further east in the coastal canefarming towns of Ingham and Halifax, where television pictures showed the swollen Herbert River rushing over the main highway.
No injuries were reported though 225 homes around Ingham were flooded, authorities said, and 72 children on a school camp north of Ingham were isolated by the rising water, Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters in Brisbane.
"They are safe, they are in good spirits,” she said.
***
SYDNEY (AFP) -- The death toll from an earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea last month has topped 100 with thousands injured, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said Friday, warning it will take years for the region to recover.
The Pacific nation's mountainous interior was struck by a 7.5-magnitude tremor on Feb 26, triggering landslides that blocked roads, caused power outages and cut off villages.
Communities have also been rattled by strong aftershocks, sparking fears among disenchanted and suspicious residents that the shaking was somehow caused by oil and gas operations in the area.