Assassination bid on ex-communist

KOSOVO: Former communist leader Azem Vllasi was shot and wounded at his flat in the capital Pristina yesterday.
Police called the attack a political assassination bid on the Social Democratic Party member.
As a League of Communists of Yugoslavia central committee member Mr Vllasi opposed ethnic Albanian separatists but was later removed by president Slobodan Milosevic for asserting Kosovar autonomy.

Probe call as kids’ home fire toll rises

GUATEMALA: The death toll in a fire at a children’s care home reached 40 on Sunday as protests spread to Mexico and Ecuador.
Protesters demanded the government probe claims that last Wednesday’s fire in the locked dormitory was arson by staff or older inmates accused of sexually abusing boys and girls at the home.
On Friday the Human Rights Office said that nine girls who had been moved to another care home were pregnant.

Missile rows halt rights dialogue

NORTH KOREA: New UN special rapporteur for North Korea Tomas Ojea Quintana warned yesterday that confrontations over Pyongyang’s ballistic missile tests had halted progress on rights.
The Argentinian told the rights council: “Military tensions have brought human rights dialogue with the DPRK to a standstill.”
He also raised concerns about the “human cost of sanctions” imposed by the UN security council, including a ban on coal exports and aviation fuel imports.

6 killed in Shabab suicide car attack

SOMALIA: A suicide car bomb attack killed six people in the capital Mogadishu yesterday.
The bomb was detonated near the Weheliye hotel on the busy Maka Almukarramah road, police Captain Mohamed Hussein said.
The jihadist al-Shabab group has claimed responsibility for the blast.