Mexico: 20 emergency stations to be spread across desert
Migration officials said Monday they would place 20 emergency-aid stations along stretches of a western desert region where numerous migrants have died trying to cross into the United States. Officials said they will install 20 emergency stations in La Rumorosa and Andrade. The stations will be equipped with blinking light towers visible from long distances, radios to make calls for help, and information for locating water, food, shade and assistance.
Russia: Blast in Cabinet meeting kills woman in Chechnya
A powerful explosion tore through the headquarters of the Russian-backed government in Chechnya during a Cabinet meeting Monday in Grozny, killing a cleaning woman and injuring five people. The blast came three days before the 10th anniversary of Chechnya’s 1991 declaration of independence, a date rebels had promised to mark with attacks.
Italy: Fearing violence, officials ask U.N. to move summit
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization agreed Monday to consider a request from the Italian government to move its international summit out of Rome. The government is afraid the summit will attract the kind of violent demonstrations that battered Genoa during the Group of Eight summit in July.
Angola: 38 die in rural ambush on buses and minivan
Gunmen ambushed two passenger buses and a minivan on a rural road, killing 38 people and injuring 52 others, Angolan radio reported Monday. It was the third such deadly attack in a month; the two previous ambushes on a train and on a passenger bus killed about 300 people. UNITA rebels are thought to have carried out the latest attack, which took place Saturday 185 miles south of Luanda.
China: Carter urges authorities to extend democracy
Former President Jimmy Carter urged China’s leaders on Monday to expand the democratic process, saying village elections have been successful. Elections “have worked at the village level, without question,” said Mr. Carter, whose Atlanta-based foundation has monitored village votes. He expressed hope that Beijing would consider holding elections for town governments – the next level up from villages. China has held elections in villages for more than a decade.
Iran: Country to open former U.S. Embassy as museum
Iran is turning the former U.S. Embassy – the so-called “den of spies” where 52 Americans were held hostage for nearly 15 months – into a museum. Militant Iranian students seized the embassy in 1979, keeping the Americans captive for 444 days. Documents and equipment taken when the militants stormed the building will be on display at the museum, which is to be inaugurated Nov. 4, the anniversary of the takeover, an official said on condition of anonymity. The United States abandoned the embassy after severing ties with Iran over the hostage crisis. In recent years, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have used the compound for training.
Mexico: Top aide to governor gunned down in Tijuana
The personal secretary of the governor of northern Baja California state was gunned down Sunday after being chased by a car carrying two men firing pistols. Alejandro Manjarrez, his wife and two other family members were leaving Tijuana for a vacation when a car carrying the two men raced up behind them. Mr. Manjarrez, described as the right-hand-man of Gov. Alejandro González Alcocer, was shot five times and died instantly. No one else was injured. The alleged gunmen were later arrested and confessed, police said. No motive was disclosed.
Saudi Arabia: Two to be tried in Islamic court in plane hijacking
Saudi Arabia will try two Chechens accused of hijacking according to Muslim law, the Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef, was quoted as saying Sunday. Three men hijacked a Vnukovo Airlines Tu-154 plane bound for Moscow from Istanbul, Turkey, on March 16, diverting it to Medina in western Saudi Arabia. After failed attempts to negotiate the release of the passengers and crew, Saudi troops stormed the plane and freed more than 100 captives. A Russian flight attendant, a Turkish man and a hijacker were killed.
