News In Brief
AFP, Asuncion
Authorities in Paraguay’s capital Asuncion on Wednesday declared a state of emergency for a month after the Paraguay River burst its banks, leaving at least 20,000 people homeless.
The unseasonal high waters have washed over many poor neighborhoods built along the banks.
About a half million people are in the capital, and 2.2 million in its metro area. The South American country has seven million people in total.
Italian train derails near Milan, 3 dead
Reuters, Italy
A train derailment near Italy’s financial capital Milan killed at least three people and left 13 people seriously injured, the government said in a statement on Thursday.
Several carriages of a regional train operated by Trenord derailed early in the morning at the Pioltello Limito station, less than 20 km (13 miles) outside the station Milan, Italian state-owned rail company Ferrovie dello Stato said. It did not give further details.
Drone strike in kills Pak Haqqani commander
AFP, Peshawar
A mid-level Afghan commander of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network was killed Wednesday in a drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal region, officials said, days after Afghan authorities blamed the group for attacking a luxury Kabul hotel.
The pre-dawn strike took place well inside Pakistan territory, more than 50 kilometres from the Afghan border in Mamuzai village of Kurram tribal district.
Italian police arrest 31 in Rome beachside
Reuters, Rome
Police in Rome said on Thursday they had arrested 31 people on suspicion of mafia activity in Ostia, a seaside suburb that has been one of the hotspots in a major anti-mafia investigation in the Italian capital.
Thirty-one members and affiliates of a suspected clan allegedly run by the Spada family were picked up in raids starting at dawn in the Ostia coastal neighborhood, a police official said, while one suspect remained at large.
