NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 _ Pakistan attack: Militants attacked a convoy of Pakistan’s biggest oil and gas exploration company in restive Baluchistan province, killing at least 14 people, officials said. The attack Thursday reflected an escalation of violence in the resourcerich province, where separatists have waged an insurgency for decades and where the local population has long complained of getting an unfair share of Baluchistan’s wealth of minerals, oil and natural gas. Baloch Raji Ajoi Sangar, an alliance of several separatist groups including the the Baluchistan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the assault. Seven soldiers and seven private security guards, all assigned to protect the convoy, were killed.
2 _ Political upheaval: Kyrgyzstan’s prime minister became the acting head of state Friday in the wake of the president’s resignation amid turmoil sparked by a disputed parliamentary election. Supporters of newly appointed Prime Minister Sadyr Zhaparov rallied in the capital, Bishkek, and threatened to storm government buildings, forcing President Sooronbai Jeenbekov to step down Thursday. The speaker of parliament would be next in line, but he refused to serve as caretaker leader under protesters’ pressure, allowing Zhaparov to claim the top office. The fastmoving developments mark the third time in 15 years that a leader of the Central Asian country has been forced out by a popular uprising.
3 _ Deadly landslide: Rescuers in Vietnam recovered the bodies of 11 army personnel and two other people who were buried in a landslide while trying to reach victims of a separate landslide, state media reported Friday. The army officers were resting at an outpost when part of a hill collapsed and engulfed the building, Vietnam News reported. They were on their way to a landslide at a hydroelectric plant construction site in Thua ThienHue province that left dozens missing. That site is still inaccessible. Flooding in central Vietnam has killed at least 36 people since last week. Floods are receding but the country is bracing for more rain this weekend as a tropical depression heads toward the region.
4 Foreign funding: Nicaragua’s National Assembly has approved a law that would give the government of President Daniel Ortega more power to monitor people, businesses and organizations that receive funding from abroad. The law requires any citizen working for “governments, companies, foundations or foreign organizations” to register with the Interior Ministry, report monthly their income and spending and provide prior notice of what the foreign funds will be spent on. The law establishes sanctions for those who do not register. Opposition lawmaker Brooklyn Rivera of the indigenous party Yatama said the law “criminalizes ( nongovernmental organizations), human rights defenders and even ( local) media outlets” receiving foreign funding. “Our concern is that the law ends up being another tool of repression.”
5 _ Militant violence: At least 20 people were killed, injured or remain missing after attacks by extremist rebels on three villages in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region. The attacks occurred in Seno province and the army is searching the area, government spokesman Remis Fulgance Dandjinou said. The victims were internally displaced people attacked while trying to return to their villages, the Emir of Liptako Dicko Ousmane Amirou, whose home is near the attacks, said Friday. Burkina Faso’s army is struggling to stem jihadist violence that has spread across the country, killing almost 2,000 people so far this year and causing more than 1 million to flee their homes. This week’s attacks come after one last week in the CenterNorth region, where rebels killed 25 people also trying to return home.