The World

By: JournalNow Staff | JOURNAL WIRE REPORT
Published: July 13, 2009

Twenty-six women die when boats flip in India

MUMBAI, India -- Two boats capsized in western India when the passengers panicked after seeing a bolt of lightning, police said yesterday. Twenty-six women drowned.

Rescuers saved four passengers and two crew from the Wainganga River after the accident late Saturday night, said police Superintendent Suresh Sagar. Eight other women are still missing.

After seeing a massive bolt of lightning, the women -- poor farm laborers on their way home from work -- panicked and the boats capsized in the ensuing chaos.

Ceremony held to honor family killed in uprising

URUMQI, China -- Incense was lit and paper money burned at the funeral yesterday for a Han Chinese family -- a man, his wife and his parents, all killed in last week's ethnic riots. Three Uighur neighbors approached, standing tentatively apart.

Then one of the neighbors grasped hands with a mourning sister, walked to the altar with her and wailed in sympathy.

It was a small gesture of shared grief on a day when Han Chinese mourned their dead and Uighurs dealt with mounting security and surveillance in the regional capital of Urumqi.

Curfew lifted in Honduras by the interim government

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Honduran authorities lifted a curfew yesterday that had been imposed since the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya two weeks ago -- a sign the interim government is trying to restore normality to life in the crisis-gripped country.

In a nationally broadcast announcement, the interim government said the curfew had reached its objective to "restore calm" and curb crime.

Netanyahu urges talks, but Palestinians say no

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited the Palestinians to sit down immediately to talk peace yesterday, but the Palestinian leader rebuffed the call, saying that Israel must first halt all West Bank settlement construction.

The issue of Israeli settlements has emerged as a major sticking point in efforts to restart peace talks, which halted shortly before Netanyahu took office in March. The Palestinians have been bolstered by the United States' insistence that Israel freeze the settlement construction on lands claimed by the Palestinians.

Bridge section collapses in India; 5 crushed to death

NEW DELHI -- One section of a bridge being built for the Indian capital's metro rail system collapsed yesterday, crushing to death five workers and injuring 13 in a major setback to the project that officials hope to complete before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

New Delhi's landmark metro rail project is already operating three lines and is working around the clock to build several extensions. The metro is the pride of the city, where commuters were long forced to rely on smoke-belching buses, rickety three-wheel motorized rickshaws or their own motorcycles.

Pakistani fighters pound suspected militant areas

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Fighter jets pounded suspected militant hide-outs in the South Waziristan tribal region yesterday as part of operations against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. At least eight militants were killed, intelligence officials said.

Meanwhile, gunmen ambushed five police officers and a forestry official responding to reports of a dead body in northwestern Pakistan, killing all six, police said.

Guinea's leaders say plot to overthrow them found

CONAKRY, Guinea -- Guinea's military leaders have uncovered a plot to overthrow the government in the poor, unstable West African nation, state radio reported.

It said in a report Saturday night that military ruler Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara put the army on high alert after learning of a planned attack from fighters in neighboring Guinea-Bissau and Liberia. It said the coup plot appears to be backlash from drug traffickers deposed by Camara when he seized power in December.