Villagers slaughtered in dispute over land, water

ATTACKERS armed with machetes, spears, and bows and arrows killed at least 48 villagers and set houses ablaze in Kenya's coastal region overnight in an attack motivated by disputes over land and water, police said yesterday.

"Some had guns. As a result we have lost 31 women, 11 children and six men. Sixty cattle were also killed," deputy police chief Robert Kitur said.

Cattle rustling is common among pastoralist communities in the arid areas of east Africa and often leads to revenge attacks. - Reuters

Iran

Expert say site has been cleaned of nuclear evidence

UN NUCLEAR inspectors will press again for access to a major military facility in talks with Iran this week but the chances of finding any evidence of suspected atomic weapons research might have dimmed because the site has been "cleaned up", Western diplomats and experts say.

Citing satellite images, Western diplomats say Iran has demolished some small buildings and moved earth at Parchin in an attempt to purge incriminating evidence from a site, where the nuclear watchdog believes tests in a steel chamber relevant to nuclear arms were carried out, possibly a decade ago. - Reuters

Democratic republic of CONGO

Death of 10 might be due to Ebola, says WHO

THE World Health Organisation says asuspected Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has infected at least 15 people, 10 of whom have died.

The organisation said that Ebola has been confirmed as the cause of two of the deaths and the virus is the "probable" cause of the other fatalities.

The outbreak in Congo's Orientale province follows one last month in neighbouring Uganda that killed 16 people. Ugandan health officials say the outbreak there is under control but have yet to declare the country free of Ebola. - Sapa-AP

RUSSIA

Singer Sarah Brightman might be next space tourist

BRITISH singer Sarah Brightman might be the next paying passenger to ride a Russian rocket to the International Space Station, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday, citing an unidentified official in the space industry in Russia.

If so, Brightman, 52, would make the trip in 2015 and be the first paying customer since Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who donned a red clown's nose for his 2009 trip. - Reuters

ITALY

Writer held over murder in 'Basic Instinct' case

AN ITALIAN man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Nigerian prostitute after police found a short story he wrote that has close similarities to the circumstances of the killing.

In the murder case, reminiscent of the 1992 film Basic Instinct, aspiring author Daniele Ughetto Piampaschet, 34, was arrested last week because of likenesses between his short story and the murder. He had been in a relationship with the girl, Egbuna, then 19, last year. - Reuters

France

Rabbi sent pictures of Holocaust children

FRENCH anti-terrorist authorities have been alerted after the Chief Rabbi of Lyon was sent a threatening letter accompanied by images of Jewish children being marched to Second World War concentration camps.

Rabbi Richard Wertenschlag said: "One could brush it off as the work of one rogue individual but we have to envisage the worst scenario ."

The letter's sender said the photos "prove that the Jews were well treated in Germany, fed and lodged with summer camp for the children ". - Sapa-AFP

TAIWAN

Country braces for Typhoon Tembin, deploys troops

TAIWAN yesterday placed 48000 soldiers on stand-by and evacuated about 300 villagers as Typhoon Tembin bore down on the island.

The Central Weather Bureau has repeatedly urged people to "take special precaution against landslides and flash floods because Typhoon Tembin is expected to bring heavy rains".

Tembin was expected to make landfall early tomorrow morning, later than the bureau's previous forecast. Its progress has slowed in the past few hours.

The typhoon is packing winds gusting at up to 144km/h. - Sapa-AFP

EGYPT

Man arrested for nail-bomb attack on German embassy

POLICE yesterday arrested a man who tossed four homemade nail bombs into the German embassy grounds and attacked the entrance with a hammer.

No one was injured and no serious damage was caused, embassy and security sources said.

The man, who was brandishing a toy pistol, was enraged by an Egyptian newspaper report on Friday that described a protest by German right-wing activists who had paraded caricatures of the prophet of Islam, Mohammad, in front of a German mosque. - Reuters

KENYA

Tourists die as plane crashes in game reserve

TWO German tourists and two Kenyan pilots were killed when a plane carrying tourists crashed in Kenya's Maasai Mara game reserve, police said yesterday.

Airstrip workers rushed to the crash site and pulled the survivors out of the mangled wreckage.

There were 11 tourists on board, all German. Peterson Maelo, the Narok district police chief, said a middle-aged man and an elderly woman were killed along with the two pilots. - Reuters

Togo

Police use tear gas to break up protest

TOGOLESE security forces yesterday fired teargas to break up a protest in the capital for the second day running, leading some demonstrators to throw rocks and set tyres alight in the streets.

About 2000 people had gathered in Lome for the second of a planned three days of protests organised by Let's Save Togo, a coalition of civil society and opposition groups, ahead of parliamentary elections expected in October. - Sapa-AFP