Tribal clashes in Darfur claim 24 lives
Khartoum: Tribal fighting in Sudan’s restive Darfur region has left at least 24 people dead and triggered a localised state of emergency.
Violence broke out late last week between two Arab tribes, the Misseriya and Awlad Rashed, in localities near Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur state.
It started as a dispute over the theft of a motorcycle before morphing into wider fighting, a Misseriya tribal leader said. Local authorities attempted to persuade the two sides to end hostilities but efforts have so far failed.
Tribal clashes often occur in Sudan’s western Darfur region which was ravaged by a bitter civil war that erupted in 2003. AFP
1 killed, 10 wounded in rocket strike
Baghdad: At least one person was killed, and 10 others were wounded on Monday after rockets hit the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish party in the city of Koye, near the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region Erbil.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news said the country’s Revolutionary Guards had targeted the bases of “terrorist groups” in the Kurdish region of Iraq with missiles and drones. The Revolutionary Guards have launched attacks on Iranian Kurdish militant opposition bases in the Kurdish region since the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 triggered nationwide unrest. Reuters
Activist on hunger strike ‘doing well’
Cairo: Jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has written he is “doing well” and is taking liquids after fears rose for his health amid a months-long hunger strike.
Abdel Fattah, who consumed “only 100 calories a day” for seven months, escalated his strike to all food and water last week.
His lawyer Khaled Ali, a former presidential candidate, was denied access when trying to visit Abdel Fattah in jail.
He and Abdel Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, were handed the letter on Monday at the prison. Abdel Fattah, a key figure in the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, is serving five years in jail for “spreading false news” by sharing a Facebook post about police brutality. AFP
Aussie flood victims saved from rooftops
Sydney: Rescuers plucked more than 100 people from their roofs on Monday after a flash flood swamped a small Australian town and sent residents scurrying for safety.
A weekend downpour over much of the already-sodden eastern state of New South Wales sent waters rising overnight, isolating some towns and communities. Australia’s east coast has been swept by heavy rainfall in the past two years, driven by back-to-back La Nina cycles.
Many people in the town of Eugowra, with a population of about 800 people lying 350km west of Sydney, scrambled to their roofs to flee the latest flood.
Stranded residents were taken to safety by boat and helicopter. AFP
Louis Vuitton heir’s Paris home burgled
Paris: The Paris home of an heir of the Louis Vuitton luxury empire was burgled at the weekend, sources said on Monday, with thieves taking high-end watches, jewellery and bags.
Benoit-Louis Vuitton, a sixth-generation descendant of the fashion house’s founder, lives in the swanky seventh district of the capital.
The pieces were worth at least several hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars), the sources said.
An investigation is underway.
Louis Vuitton founded his namesake luxury house in 1854. In 1987, the company merged with champagne maker Moet et Chandon and cognac brand Hennessy to create LVMH – the world’s biggest luxury company. AFP