AFP, Catania
Mount Etna, the famous Sicilian volcano, has erupted for the first time in more than year.
The highest volcano in Europe burst into life on Monday evening and continued to produce fountains of bright orange lava into Tuesday.
Serbia’s presidential vote set for Apr 2
AP, Belgrade
Serbia’s parliament speaker has set April 2 as the date for the country’s presidential election when a populist leader is to face a challenge from fractured opposition.
The date announced Thursday by parliament speaker Maja Gojkovic means that the second round would be held on the Easter Sunday, April 16, if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round.
Sudan’s first PM since 1989 coup takes oath
AFP, Khartoum
A former army general and top aide to President Omar al-Bashir was sworn in Thursday as Sudan’s first prime minister since the post was scrapped in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup.
Bakri Hassan Saleh, a military officer involved in the bloodless coup that brought Bashir to power three decades ago, was named prime minister a day earlier by the executive bureau of the president’s National Congress Party (NCP).
Israeli settler kills a Palestinian
Reuters, Jerusalem
An Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday shot and killed a knife-wielding Palestinian assailant who broke into his home and stabbed him, the Israeli military said.
An army spokeswoman said the attack took place in the Teneh Omarim settlement in the southern West Bank, close to the Palestinian city of Hebron.
4 of a family killed in South Thailand
AFP, Bangkok
An eight-year-old boy and three relatives were shot dead on their way to school in Thailand’s insurgency-torn south today, authorities said, casting a pall over recent peace talk gains. Thailand’s southern tip has festered with violence for over a decade as Malay-Muslim rebels wage a rebellion against the Buddhist-majority state.
At least 6,800 people – mostly civilians – have been killed in attacks that have seen both sides accused of rights abuses.
Thousands flee Boko Haram attacks
AFP, Kano
Some 7,000 people have fled from villages around the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok because of Boko Haram attacks, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
The IOM said an estimated 4,449 people or 740 households have fled to Chibok itself since February 25, “seeking safety following attacks or threats of attacks in some neighbouring villages”.
