NOBEL AUTHOR V.S. NAIPAUL DIES AT AGE OF 85
LONDON» The family of Trinidad-born British author V.S. Naipaul says the Nobel Literature laureate has died at the age of 85.
The family said in a statement late Saturday that the novelist had died at his London home.
The writer’s wife, Nadira Naipaul, said he “died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavor.”
Born in Trinidad on Aug. 17, 1932, Naipaul studied at Oxford University and published his first novel, “The Mystic Masseur,” in 1957. He went on to write dozens of books, many dealing with colonialism and its legacy.
Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.”
Gunmen kill 3 police, suicide bomber wounds 6 in Pakistan. ISLAMABAD» Gunmen killed three police in an overnight attack in northern Pakistan, and a suicide bomber wounded three Chinese engineers and three paramilitary guards in a separate incident, officials said Saturday.
Faizullah Faraq, spokesman for the local government of northern Gilgit Baltistan territory, said one of the gunmen who attacked a police post was killed in the ensuing shootout late Friday. Another two police were wounded.
The suicide bomber struck near a bus carrying Chinese engineers from Baluchistan to Karachi on Saturday. Hashim Ghilzai, a senior official in the region, confirmed the six wounded. He said the attacker was in a parked car who blew himself up when the bus got closer to him in the Dalbandin area.
The Baluch Liberation Army, a separatist group, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack — the first time any Baluch separatist group has taken responsibility for a suicide attack.
Albania hit by magnitude 5.4 and 5.1 tremors; homes crack. ALBANIA» Northern
TIRANA, Albania was struck Saturday by two earthquakes with preliminary magnitudes of 5.4 and 5.1, damaging scores of buildings, authorities said.
Albania’s Defense Ministry reported that the stronger quake struck at 5:33 p.m. with a depth of 3.11 miles near the village of Vinjoll in Mat district, 75 miles north of the capital, Tirana.
The Institute of Geosciences, Energy, Water and Environment reported that the other quake occurred at 5:38 p.m. some 24 miles north of Tirana. It said the quake had a depth of 15 miles near the town of Bulqize. The ministry reported 67 damaged houses in the town of Klos, Mat and Bulqize, but no injuries.
7 killed in rebel attack amid Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak. CONGO» Suspected
BENI, rebels killed seven civilians in an overnight attack in northeastern Congo, a local official said Saturday, highlighting the threat to efforts to contain the latest Ebola virus outbreak nearby.
The administrator of Beni territory, Donat Kibwana, told The Associated Press the attack was likely carried out by Allied Democratic Forces fighters in Mayi-moya, about 24 miles from Beni city.
Kibwana said it sent the local population fleeing. Such mass displacement complicates health workers’ efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak that has killed 11 people so far in the densely populated region near the border with Uganda.
Global health officials have said they are combating this outbreak in what is essentially a war zone, with multiple armed groups in the mineralrich region and about 1 million displaced people.