INDIA
2 killed in Mumbai
Two people died and dozens were injured in clashes Saturday in India’s financial capital between police and thousands of Muslims who were protesting the deaths of other Muslims in rioting last month in the country’s northeast, police said. Mumbai police fired guns into the air and used bamboo batons to disperse the protesters, who threw rocks and damaged about a dozen buses and police vans. Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik said two protesters died from injuries suffered in the clashes, but had not been shot. Another 52 people, including 44 police officers, were injured, he said. He said the protesters also burned three TV broadcasting vans. Last month’s rioting between ethnic Bodos and Muslim settlers mainly involved land rights. At least 53 people died and about 400,000 were forced to flee their homes and take shelter in government-run relief camps.
BRAZIL
Subway strike continues
There was still no exit Saturday in the weeklong subway strike in Argentina’s capital, where a million commuters are caught in the middle of a power struggle between President Cristina Fernandez and Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri. The strike began Aug. 3 with workers demanding a 28 percent pay increase to match inflation. The problem is the politicians can’t agree on who is running the system, let alone where the money should come from.
PUERTO RICO
Cleanup aboard freighter
The U.S. Coast Guard has removed more than 600 tons of oil-covered cargo from a stranded freighter near Puerto Rico, but more work remains to be done, a spokesman said Saturday. Crews must remove more debris before pumping the 202-foot ship dry and patching and plugging holes as needed, Chief Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski said. The Honduran-flagged Jireh freighter hit a reef off Mona Island in late June and alerted authorities, who in addition to cargo found more than 60 illegal Haitian migrants aboard the ship.
Compiled from wire reports.
