MIGRANTS SAVED FROM DINGHY

At least eight migrants died and 86 others were rescued Saturday from a smuggler’s rubber dinghy after it starting sinking in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, the Italian coast guard said. A search was ongoing to find any more possible survivors.

An aid group not involved in the rescue said dozens of migrants could still be missing. The coast guard said there was no confirmation of Libyan authorities’ statement that at least 25 migrants had died.

The Italian coast guard, which coordinates rescues in international waters off Libya’s coast, said an aircraft on patrol for a European anti-smuggling operation had spotted the dinghy, which was in difficulty Saturday morning. Italian navy and coast guard vessels were involved in the rescue.

Brazilian region declares “state of calamity.”

SAO PAULO»

A state government in northeastern Brazil has declared a “state of calamity” for public security due to a police strike that has lasted nearly 20 days.

Civilian and military police officers walked off the job Dec. 19 in Rio Grande do Norte. They are demanding back pay and better working conditions.

The state public safety department reports that there has been a spike in burglaries and violence during the period, including at least 100 murders.

On Dec. 29 the state called in federal troops to stem the violence. Nearly 3,000 soldiers are patrolling the streets of the state capital, Natal, and other cities.

Gunmen kill 13 in Senegal.

SENEGAL» Gunmen killed at least 13 people Saturday in Senegal who were gathering firewood in the forest, the military said. It was the worst attack in years in the West African nation’s restive southern region, where a separatist insurgency has dragged on for more than three decades.

The bloodshed sparked fears of renewed unrest in the area, which had been relatively calm for the last several years.

Col. Abdoul Ndiaye said late Saturday that seven others were wounded in the massacre 4 miles outside of the town of Ziguinchor, and the military stepped up its presence near the town. Casamance is separated from the rest of Senegal by the nation of Gambia.

While no immediate claim of responsibility for the slayings was made, suspicion fell on the separatist group founded in 1982 known as the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance.

11 Saudi princes arrested after protest. ISTANBUL» Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that it had arrested a group of 11 princes who held a rare demonstration at a royal palace after the government halted payment of their electricity and water bills, according to a statement by the Saudi attorney general.

The princes, who were arrested on Thursday after staging a sit-in, were also seeking compensation “for a death sentence that was issued against one of their cousins,” the statement said, adding that the cousin was convicted of murder and executed in 2016.

The arrests were the latest sign of tensions within the Saudi royal family as the kingdom’s young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, assumes an increasingly dominant role in the country’s affairs.

Fujimori looks ahead in Twitter posts. Recently pardoned former President Alberto Fujimori has taken to Twitter to make his first public remarks following his release from a hospital in Peru’s capital.

In two posts Saturday, Fujimori said he has spent the first hours of a new life chapter dreaming of a Peru “without bitterness.”

He added that Peru will become a country that “regains its security and eliminates violence” if special interests are put aside.

Peru’s former president was convicted in 2009 for his role in the killings of 25 people during his decade-long rule.