Nigerian air force kills civilians in wrong hit
GENEVA • At least 76 civilians have been killed in a Nigerian Air Force strike on a refugee camp and more than a hundred were wounded, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement said yesterday.
The air force had said an unknown number of civilians were killed and wounded in the mistaken strike in Rann, north-east Nigeria, on Tuesday.
It said the attack was intended to target Islamist militant Boko Haram fighters.
REUTERS
Central Italy hit by series of quakes
ROME • A series of quakes measuring 5.3 to 5.7 in magnitude struck central Italy yesterday, bringing fresh terror to an area still reeling from last year's deadly temblors and struggling to cope with heavy snowfall.
Monitors said the first quake was around 5.3-magnitude and a second was put at 5.7-magnitude by the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre. It was quickly followed by a third, measured at 5.5.
The tremors were felt across the Abruzzo, Lazio and Marche regions and also in the capital Rome, more than 100km away.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Israeli police kill suspected attacker
JERUSALEM • Police in Israel said an Arab Israeli yesterday rammed his car into a group of policemen in the southern Negev region, killing one before being shot dead, though a rights activist who was present disputed it was an attack.
Police said the violence sparked a riot in the village of Umm al-Hiran, where an operation was under way to demolish Bedouin dwellings deemed by a court as having been built illegally on state-owned land.
Police spokesman Merav Lapidot said the suspect was a local teacher who "surged towards the forces intending to kill"and that riots erupted after he was shot.
REUTERS
Germans go to the polls on Sept 24
BERLIN • German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government yesterday set Sept 24 as the date for a general election, as she seeks a fourth term facing populist headwinds over a record migrant influx.
The decision, adopted by Dr Merkel's right-left coalition Cabinet, must still be formally approved by President Joachim Gauck.
But the announcement fires the starting gun for an election campaign that Dr Merkel has said will be her toughest yet due to opposition to her liberal asylum policy.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
George H.W. Bush in hospital
MILWAUKEE • Former US president George H.W. Bush has been in a Houston hospital since last Saturday after he experienced shortness of breath, a family spokesman said yesterday.
Mr Bush, who at 92 is the oldest living former president in the US, has "responded very well to treatments" at the Houston Methodist Hospital, spokesman Jim McGrath said in an e-mail.
"Doctors and everyone are very pleased, and we hope to have him out soon," Mr McGrath wrote.
Mr Bush is the father of former president George W. Bush and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who failed in his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
REUTERS
