NIGERIA
At least 40 die in attack
Soldiers in northeast Nigeria shot dead more than 40 people, likely civilians, during an operation in a city long under attack by a radical Islamist sect, a hospital official said Friday. An official at Maiduguri General Hospital said soldiers brought the corpses, mostly young men, into the hospital Thursday night. The official said Friday that the dead came from the Kalari neighborhood and did not appear to be armed combatants of the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.
PHILIPPINES
Earthquake rattles island
A magnitude-6.4 earthquake rattled the Philippine island of Mindanao early today, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from the temblor, which hit at 2:17 a.m. local time.
CUBA
Diplomats denounced
Cuba denounced the American diplomatic mission on the island on Friday for what it called subversive activities designed to undermine the government of Raul Castro, a shot across the bow just four days before the U.S. election. The Foreign Ministry said the Americans illegally give classes inside the walls of the U.S. Interests Section, which Washington maintains instead of an embassy, and provide Internet service without permission. It vowed to defend Cuba’s sovereignty “by any legal means” at its disposal, but gave no details.
MEXICO
Police firings threatened
The mayor of Mexico’s resort city of Acapulco says he will fire 500 police officers because they failed tests used to identify corrupt officers. Mayor Luis Aburto Walton said he will ask the federal government to send in federal agents to help what is left of the 1,700-officer police force provide security in the city of 800,000 people. Walton made the announcement Friday but didn’t say when the officers would be let go. Police corruption has been a constant problem in Mexico, where poorly paid and poorly trained officers are easily corrupted by drug cartels.
Compiled from wire reports.
