Rioters ‘try to topple’ Biya

DOULA – Renewed violence broke out on Wednesday in Cameroon, where eight were reported killed in the western town of Njombe and President Paul Biya accused rioters of trying to topple him.

The latest reports of violence brought the death toll to 17 since an opposition protest in the economic capital, Douala, on Saturday, Ferry capsizes with 100 on board * DHAKA – A ferry carrying more than 100 people capsized in a river near the Bangladeshi capital yesterday, killing at least 17 people, authorities said. Rescuers recovered 17 bodies after the ferry sank in Buriganga River near Dhaka, Sufia Begum, an official at Fire Brigade in Dhaka said.29 militants killed in S Afghanistan * KANDAHAR – A militant ambush of an opium poppy eradication force sparked clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a policeman dead, a provincial police chief said yesterday.Four other militants died when a bomb went off.Israeli airstrikes kill 17 * GAZA CITY – A series of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kills six Hamas militants, raising the Palestinian death toll in the past day to 17, including a baby, and increasing the likelihood of a serious escalation of Israel-Hamas fighting, a day after a rocket fired from Gaza killed an Israeli in a battered town.12 die in missile attack * PESHAWAR – A missile strike killed at least 12 people, most of them Arabs, in a Pakistani tribal area known as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda militants, officials and residents said.Child abuse ‘worsens’ in Zim * HARARE – Child rape has increased by 42 per cent in Zimbabwe, the United Nations children’s agency said, linking worsening child abuse and domestic violence to family tensions caused by the nation’s economic meltdown.Manhunt for escaped militant * SINGAPORE – An intense manhunt was under way yesterday for the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network in Singapore following his escape from custody.Mas Selamat bin Kastari, who was accused of planning to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi Airport in Singapore, escaped on Wednesday from the Whitley Road Detention Centre, the home affairs ministry said.Rescuers recovered 17 bodies after the ferry sank in Buriganga River near Dhaka, Sufia Begum, an official at Fire Brigade in Dhaka said.29 militants killed in S Afghanistan * KANDAHAR – A militant ambush of an opium poppy eradication force sparked clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a policeman dead, a provincial police chief said yesterday.Four other militants died when a bomb went off.Israeli airstrikes kill 17 * GAZA CITY – A series of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kills six Hamas militants, raising the Palestinian death toll in the past day to 17, including a baby, and increasing the likelihood of a serious escalation of Israel-Hamas fighting, a day after a rocket fired from Gaza killed an Israeli in a battered town. 12 die in missile attack * PESHAWAR – A missile strike killed at least 12 people, most of them Arabs, in a Pakistani tribal area known as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda militants, officials and residents said.Child abuse ‘worsens’ in Zim * HARARE – Child rape has increased by 42 per cent in Zimbabwe, the United Nations children’s agency said, linking worsening child abuse and domestic violence to family tensions caused by the nation’s economic meltdown.Manhunt for escaped militant * SINGAPORE – An intense manhunt was under way yesterday for the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network in Singapore following his escape from custody.Mas Selamat bin Kastari, who was accused of planning to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi Airport in Singapore, escaped on Wednesday from the Whitley Road Detention Centre, the home affairs ministry said.