In Brief

NIGERIAN POLITICAL VIOLENCE – Two people were killed and several injured in violence between rival factions of Nigeria’s ruling party at the weekend, police said.

Fighting erupted Saturday in Ekori in southern Cross Rivers State between the supporters of two factions of the People’s Democratic Party, a senior police officer said. * IRAQ OFFICIAL KIDNAPPED – Gunmen abducted Iraq’s deputy electricity minister and 19 bodyguards after ambushing their convoy in eastern Baghdad, police and Interior Ministry sources said.Deputy Minister Raad al-Harith was travelling in a convoy near Baghdad’s Shi’ite Sadr City district when gunmen in up to seven vehicles wearing military uniforms blocked their way and kidnapped them, police said.* KENYA WILDLIFE FRAUD – Authorities in Kenya said they had smashed a massive fraud ring that was bilking the country’s famed national parks and wildlife reserves of millions of dollars in entrance fees a year.At least 75 people, including employees of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), tour guides and operators and others have been arrested and prosecuted, indicted or internally disciplined for their role in the fraud, they said.* WARSHIP PROBE – South Africa is ready to cooperate with a German probe into alleged kickbacks paid in the sale of four warships to the country in 1999, Public Enterprise Minister Alec Erwin said.He said South Africa would assist in the investigation if asked, but added he had received no formal notification on the issue.* DRC EXPELS REPORTER – A French radio reporter has been expelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo for not having the right papers, said an AFP reporter who was at the airport.Ghislaine Dupont, special reporter for Radio France International (RFI) was put on a Belgian plane late on Monday bound for Brussels.* AFGHANISTAN BLAST – A blast caused by explosives on a pushcart rocked an area of central Kabul near the presidential palace and various ministries injuring at least two people, police said.* CAMBODIA GENOCIDE – Cambodian and UN-appointed foreign judges tasked with trying former leaders of the Khmer Rouge set down to work, raising hopes that members of the murderous regime may at last face justice.* SPAIN TRAIN ACCIDENT – Forty-one people were killed and 39 others injured when a metro train derailed in a tunnel in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia as pilgrims gathered ahead of a papal visit, officials said.- Nampa-AFP-Reuters* IRAQ OFFICIAL KIDNAPPED – Gunmen abducted Iraq’s deputy electricity minister and 19 bodyguards after ambushing their convoy in eastern Baghdad, police and Interior Ministry sources said.Deputy Minister Raad al-Harith was travelling in a convoy near Baghdad’s Shi’ite Sadr City district when gunmen in up to seven vehicles wearing military uniforms blocked their way and kidnapped them, police said.* KENYA WILDLIFE FRAUD – Authorities in Kenya said they had smashed a massive fraud ring that was bilking the country’s famed national parks and wildlife reserves of millions of dollars in entrance fees a year.At least 75 people, including employees of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), tour guides and operators and others have been arrested and prosecuted, indicted or internally disciplined for their role in the fraud, they said. * WARSHIP PROBE – South Africa is ready to cooperate with a German probe into alleged kickbacks paid in the sale of four warships to the country in 1999, Public Enterprise Minister Alec Erwin said.He said South Africa would assist in the investigation if asked, but added he had received no formal notification on the issue.* DRC EXPELS REPORTER – A French radio reporter has been expelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo for not having the right papers, said an AFP reporter who was at the airport.Ghislaine Dupont, special reporter for Radio France International (RFI) was put on a Belgian plane late on Monday bound for Brussels.* AFGHANISTAN BLAST – A blast caused by explosives on a pushcart rocked an area of central Kabul near the presidential palace and various ministries injuring at least two people, police said.* CAMBODIA GENOCIDE – Cambodian and UN-appointed foreign judges tasked with trying former leaders of the Khmer Rouge set down to work, raising hopes that members of the murderous regime may at last face justice.* SPAIN TRAIN ACCIDENT – Forty-one people were killed and 39 others injured when a metro train derailed in a tunnel in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia as pilgrims gathered ahead of a papal visit, officials said.- Nampa-AFP-Reuters