News in Brief
KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Communal violence in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna over the last few days has killed 55 people, the local police commissioner said Sunday.
Ahmad Abdur-Rahman, in a telephone interview, said the clashes between two communities in the Kasuwan Magani area of southern Kaduna had led to 22 arrests. He did not give details on the cause of the conflict but tension and clashes along ethnic lines have plagued that part of the state in the last few years.
Hundreds of people have been killed this year in outbreaks of communal violence across Nigeria. Security has become a key campaign issue ahead of the February 2019 election in which President Muhammadu Buhari will seek a second term.
The presidency condemned the violence in a statement issued late on Saturday. "The frequent resort to bloodshed by Nigerians over misunderstandings that can be resolved peacefully, is worrisome," said a statement issued by Buhari's spokesman, Garba Shehu.
Last year troops and additional police officers were deployed to Southern Kaduna in response to an outbreak of violence.
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TAIPEI (AP) -- At least 18 people died and 160 were injured when a train derailed in northeastern Taiwan Sunday, authorities said.
Several carriages were overturned in the crash, which occurred in Yilan County near the coast on a line popular among tourists.
The government said the train had been carrying 366 people, and the Central News Agency said more than 30 were still trapped on board.
Footage on local TV showed rescuers and dozens of military personnel working through the wreckage on Sunday night in search of survivors, with ambulances stationed nearby.
The toll at 7:45 pm was 18 dead and 160 injured, the fire department said in a statement.
An investigation was under way to find out the cause of the accident, Taiwan Railways Administration said. "The train was in pretty good condition," its Deputy Chief Lu Chieh-Shen told a news conference.
The authority was also checking to see if any foreigners were on board.
The derailment came weeks ahead of island-wide local elections that are being seen as a bellwether for Tsai's ruling party’s performance in presidential elections due in 2020.
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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Some 300 migrants attacked a fence separating Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco on Sunday, an effort that left one migrant dead and saw 200 others enter Spanish territory, authorities said.
A representative of Spain’s government in Melilla said the migrant appears to have died from a heart attack despite the efforts of medical crews to revive him.
The representative said 19 more migrants needed to be treated at hospital for cuts or fractures they received when some 300 sub-Saharan Africans - all men - tried to climb the high border fence. The official said 200 migrants reached Spanish territory and six Civil Guards received non-serious injuries in the assault.
On the water, Spain’s maritime rescue service said it pulled 140 migrants Sunday from four small boats that its rescue craft intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea.
Spain this year has seen a spike in migrants who try to reach the European Union nation either via its two North African enclaves or by attempting the perilous crossing the Mediterranean Sea in unseaworthy smugglers’ boats.
The International Organization for Migration says over 1,780 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year.
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MADRID (AP) -- A Spanish firefighter died while emergency services responded to flash floods caused by heavy rain in southern Spain, authorities said Sunday.
The firefighter went missing when his truck overturned on a flooded road overnight, according to emergency services in the southern region of Andalusia. Two other firefighters traveling with him were rescued, but he was swept away.
His body was found hours later on Sunday morning after a search. The firefighter was found seven kilometers (about four miles) from where he fell into the rushing waters, regional lawmaker Elias Bendodo said.
Video showed fast-flowing water flooding homes, streets and bridges in the southern province of Malaga.
One train bridge was knocked down. At least six highways were closed and authorities suspended train services in the area.
Spain's weather service has issued a red alert — its highest warning — for the area. Last week, 13 people died in flooding on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
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MEXICO CITY (Guardian) -- About 2,000 Central Americans trying to reach the U.S. in a "migrant caravan” have swarmed or rafted across a river separating Guatemala from Mexico, defying Mexican efforts to stop them at the border.
The refugees, who said they gave up trying to enter Mexico legally because the asylum application process was too slow, gathered on Saturday at a park in the border city of Ciudad Hidalgo. They voted by a show of hands to continue north en masse, then marched to the bridge crossing the Suchiate River and urged those still on it to join them.
"We are going to reach the United States,” said Erasmo Duarte, from Danlí, Honduras, despite warnings to turn back this week from the U.S. president, Donald Trump, who has sought to make the caravan and border security into a campaign issue before the U.S. midterm election in November.
The decision to re-form the caravan came on the day that Mexican authorities again refused mass entry to refugees on the bridge, instead accepting small groups for asylum processing and giving out 45-day visitor permits to some.
Ahmad Abdur-Rahman, in a telephone interview, said the clashes between two communities in the Kasuwan Magani area of southern Kaduna had led to 22 arrests. He did not give details on the cause of the conflict but tension and clashes along ethnic lines have plagued that part of the state in the last few years.
Hundreds of people have been killed this year in outbreaks of communal violence across Nigeria. Security has become a key campaign issue ahead of the February 2019 election in which President Muhammadu Buhari will seek a second term.
The presidency condemned the violence in a statement issued late on Saturday. "The frequent resort to bloodshed by Nigerians over misunderstandings that can be resolved peacefully, is worrisome," said a statement issued by Buhari's spokesman, Garba Shehu.
Last year troops and additional police officers were deployed to Southern Kaduna in response to an outbreak of violence.
***
TAIPEI (AP) -- At least 18 people died and 160 were injured when a train derailed in northeastern Taiwan Sunday, authorities said.
Several carriages were overturned in the crash, which occurred in Yilan County near the coast on a line popular among tourists.
The government said the train had been carrying 366 people, and the Central News Agency said more than 30 were still trapped on board.
Footage on local TV showed rescuers and dozens of military personnel working through the wreckage on Sunday night in search of survivors, with ambulances stationed nearby.
The toll at 7:45 pm was 18 dead and 160 injured, the fire department said in a statement.
An investigation was under way to find out the cause of the accident, Taiwan Railways Administration said. "The train was in pretty good condition," its Deputy Chief Lu Chieh-Shen told a news conference.
The authority was also checking to see if any foreigners were on board.
The derailment came weeks ahead of island-wide local elections that are being seen as a bellwether for Tsai's ruling party’s performance in presidential elections due in 2020.
***
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Some 300 migrants attacked a fence separating Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco on Sunday, an effort that left one migrant dead and saw 200 others enter Spanish territory, authorities said.
A representative of Spain’s government in Melilla said the migrant appears to have died from a heart attack despite the efforts of medical crews to revive him.
The representative said 19 more migrants needed to be treated at hospital for cuts or fractures they received when some 300 sub-Saharan Africans - all men - tried to climb the high border fence. The official said 200 migrants reached Spanish territory and six Civil Guards received non-serious injuries in the assault.
On the water, Spain’s maritime rescue service said it pulled 140 migrants Sunday from four small boats that its rescue craft intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea.
Spain this year has seen a spike in migrants who try to reach the European Union nation either via its two North African enclaves or by attempting the perilous crossing the Mediterranean Sea in unseaworthy smugglers’ boats.
The International Organization for Migration says over 1,780 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year.
***
MADRID (AP) -- A Spanish firefighter died while emergency services responded to flash floods caused by heavy rain in southern Spain, authorities said Sunday.
The firefighter went missing when his truck overturned on a flooded road overnight, according to emergency services in the southern region of Andalusia. Two other firefighters traveling with him were rescued, but he was swept away.
His body was found hours later on Sunday morning after a search. The firefighter was found seven kilometers (about four miles) from where he fell into the rushing waters, regional lawmaker Elias Bendodo said.
Video showed fast-flowing water flooding homes, streets and bridges in the southern province of Malaga.
One train bridge was knocked down. At least six highways were closed and authorities suspended train services in the area.
Spain's weather service has issued a red alert — its highest warning — for the area. Last week, 13 people died in flooding on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
***
MEXICO CITY (Guardian) -- About 2,000 Central Americans trying to reach the U.S. in a "migrant caravan” have swarmed or rafted across a river separating Guatemala from Mexico, defying Mexican efforts to stop them at the border.
The refugees, who said they gave up trying to enter Mexico legally because the asylum application process was too slow, gathered on Saturday at a park in the border city of Ciudad Hidalgo. They voted by a show of hands to continue north en masse, then marched to the bridge crossing the Suchiate River and urged those still on it to join them.
"We are going to reach the United States,” said Erasmo Duarte, from Danlí, Honduras, despite warnings to turn back this week from the U.S. president, Donald Trump, who has sought to make the caravan and border security into a campaign issue before the U.S. midterm election in November.
The decision to re-form the caravan came on the day that Mexican authorities again refused mass entry to refugees on the bridge, instead accepting small groups for asylum processing and giving out 45-day visitor permits to some.