06/19/2013 15:41 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - Violent crime in Haiti has claimed the lives of more than a thousand people over the past year, including foreigners and United Nations peacekeepers, a human rights group said.

Between May 2012 and May of this year, at least 1,041 people were shot, stabbed, stoned or hanged, the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) said in a report marking President Michel Martelly's second year in power.

06/19/2013 15:15 GMT

by Serge Daniel

BAMAKO, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - The clock is ticking for Mali as it scrambles to organise key elections in less than 40 days following a ceasefire deal between the government and separatist Tuareg rebels.

The agreement, reached on Tuesday after 10 days of tense negotiations, will enable Malian troops to enter the Tuareg-held city of Kidal in the northeast to secure polls scheduled to take place on July 28.

06/19/2013 20:09 GMT

BEIRUT, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - Syria's opposition vowed on Wednesday to fight on to topple President Bashar al-Assad, saying any political solution to the conflict must lead to the fall of the regime.

Meanwhile, troops and rebels were locked in fierce clashes on Wednesday night outside the Damascus district of Qabun as the army tried to storm the area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A statement from the opposition National Coalition's came after G8 leaders said they were "committed to achieving a political solution" to the war.

06/19/2013 10:22 GMT

by Aminu Abubakar

KANO, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - An armed gang has raided a northern Nigerian village and killed 48 people in an apparent reprisal attack targeting a local vigilante group, a state official said Wednesday.

The attack saw gunmen move house to house as well as take positions atop a hill and open fire, the official said. Houses were also burnt, but it was not clear how many.

06/19/2013 07:30 GMT

BEYROUTH, 19 juin 2013 (AFP) - Un homme a été tué et d'autres personnes blessées mardi près de la ville de Saïda, dans le sud du Liban, par des coups de feu tirés par des partisans d'un cheikh sunnite hostile au mouvement chiite Hezbollah, a-t-on appris auprès de l'armée et d'une source de sécurité.

Les tensions confessionnelles au Liban se sont exacerbées ces dernières semaines en raison du conflit en Syrie voisine, où le Hezbollah est engagé aux côtés des troupes du président Bachar al-Assad face aux rebelles, en majorité sunnites.

06/19/2013 02:29 GMT

by Romaric Ollo HIEN

OUAGADOUGOU, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - Mali's government signed a ceasefire accord with Tuareg rebels Tuesday, paving the way for presidential elections in the troubled west African state next month.

The agreement, reached after 10 days of tense negotiations, will enable Malian troops to enter the Tuareg-held city of Kidal in the northeast to secure polls scheduled to take place on July 28.

06/19/2013 13:39 GMT

by Mahesh Pandey

DEHRADUN, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - Military helicopters dropped emergency supplies Wednesday to thousands of people stranded by flash floods that tore through towns and temples in northern India and neighbouring Nepal, killing more than 160, officials said.

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists have already been evacuated after floods and landslides caused by early monsoon rains wrought devastation through India's Himalayan foothills, they said.

06/18/2013 14:37 GMT

by Ammar Karim

BAGHDAD, June 18, 2013 (AFP) - Twin suicide bombings killed 31 people after midday prayers at a Shiite Muslim religious centre in Baghdad on Tuesday, the latest in violence sparking fears of a revival of full-blown sectarian bloodshed.

Several students from an adjacent university were among the dead, with dozens of others wounded, while security forces shut down the neighbourhood to traffic and sought to defuse a suspected car bomb nearby.

06/18/2013 12:59 GMT

DAVAO, June 18, 2013 (AFP) - Communist insurgents killed five civilians and kidnapped five soldiers in the southern Philippines on Tuesday in the latest of a series of violent acts following the collapse of peace talks, authorities said.

About 40 New People's Army guerrillas attacked a tree plantation on the island of Mindanao on Tuesday, killing five workers and burning equipment, said military spokesman Colonel Ramon Zagala.