Registration for Afghan polls starts

KABUL • Afghanistan launched the registration of candidates for district and parliamentary elections yesterday, taking another step towards a ballot that has been threatened by deadly attacks on voter registration centres. The elections are due to be held on Oct 20, more than three years after Parliament's term ended in 2015.

REUTERS

Hostages escape from Libyan camp

TRIPOLI • More than 100 east African migrants escaped from a camp in the Libyan town of Bani Walid where they were being held hostage and tortured, international agencies and local sources said yesterday. The migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, some of them injured, fled on Wednesday night to a mosque in the town.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

48 dead in Ugandan bus crash

KAMPALA • At least 48 people including 16 children died in northern Uganda when a bus hit a tractor driving with no lights at night and then a truck, the Red Cross said yesterday. Ugandan police said all three drivers died. The accident happened on Friday night in Kiryandongo, about 220km north of Kampala.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Ivan the Terrible painting damaged

MOSCOW • Russian police yesterday said they arrested a man for vandalising one of the best known works of 19th century painter Ilya Repin, depicting Ivan the Terrible killing his son, at a gallery in Moscow. Police said the man used a metal pole to break the glass covering the painting of the 16th century Russian Tsar. The gallery said the work was "seriously damaged" as a result.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE