Malta rescues 249 migrants in 24 hours
Reuters, Valletta
Malta’s armed forces saved 180 migrants in two rescue operations in the Mediterranean on Monday, less than 24 hours after picking up another group of 69.
The army said a patrol boat picked up 28 migrants from a dinghy 71 miles (114 km) south-west of Malta and another 152 packed onboard a wooden vessel close by-the largest such rescue mission for many months.
Taliban attacks kill 15 Afghan cops
AP, Kabul
An Afghan official says the Taliban launched two blistering attacks in northern Sar-e-Pul province, killing 15 members of the country’s security forces.
In one attack, on the outskirts of the provincial capital, heavy artillery fire by Afghan forces trying to repel the insurgents sent local residents fleeing for safety.
Provincial council chief Mohammad Noor Rahmani says that along with 15 policemen killed, 21 were wounded in the two attacks, which took place late on Monday. He says fierce gunbattles raged for several hours in Sayyad district and outside Sar-e-Pul, the provincial capital.
Landslide claims 9 lives in Indonesia
AP, Jakarta, Indonesia
Soldiers, police and residents fanned out across a damaged Indonesian village Tuesday, searching in the mud for possible victims of a landslide caused by torrential rain that killed at least nine people and left 34 others missing.
Tons of mud that rolled from the surrounding hills late Monday buried 30 houses in Sirnaresmi village of West Java’s Sukabumi district. Sixty people who were displaced have fled to a temporary shelter, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman.
