THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012
PAGE 3A
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
AFRICA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A motorcycle carrying explosives and being driven by a suicidal bomber was meant to hit police commissioner Mamman Sule. Sule was heading to his office in a convoy.
Suicide bomber on motorcycle kills 10
JALINGO, Nigeria — A motorcycle-riding suicide bomber drove into a cowboy carrying a top police officer in northeast Nigeria on Monday, detonating his explosives and killing at least 10 people, rescue officials said.
The attack targeted police commissioner Mamman Sule who was being driven in a convoy toward his offices, near the governor's office in lalingo, the capital of Taraba state, said police spokesman Ibaiang Mbaseki. The bomber missed injuring Sule, but the explosives caused massive damage at a roadside market and blew out the glass windows of the nearby state Ministry of Finance building, witnesses said.
The commissioner "was the prime target," Mbaseki said.
Rescue officials collected 11 corpses after the attack, which left 26 injured, according to a report by the Nigerian Red Cross. The dead included
the suicide bomber, the Red Cross report said.
Speaking to journalists after the attack, Sule said officers would immediately begin an investigation into the attack. He also said only three people died, though police and the military routinely offer lower casualty numbers to make attacks appear less serious than what they are.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. It comes after gunmen attacked Christian worship services Sunday at a university campus and a church in northern Nigeria, killing at least 21 people.
Sunday's attacks mirrored others carried out by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. Representatives of Boko Haram, who typically speak to journalists at times of their choosing in telephone conference calls, could not immediately be reached for comment.
AFRICA
Kony not receiving government backing
KAMPALA, Uganda — Ugandan officials are renewing a claim made with some frequency over the years. That rebel leader Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army are receiving backing from the government of Sudan.
Ugandan forces commander Gen. Aronda Nyakairima said Monday he found credible a recent report from a captured LRA fighter saying that Kony was recently in the southern region of Sudan.
Col. Felix Kulyayig, the military's spokesman, said some of the LRA rebels captured by the Ugandan military wore "new uniforms" supplied by Sudan, though Nyakairima said military officials have not found LRA fighters with weapons supplied by Sudan.
President Barack Obama sent 100 U.S. forces into Central Africa last year to help regional militaries track Kony, and an online campaign this year by the advocacy group Invisible Children made Kony a YouTube sensation.
Abdulla Ali Masar, Sudan's information minister, denied his government has ever supported the LRA.
"We have no relationship, whatsoever, with this Ugandan rebel and we have not supported and are not supporting him now," Masar said. He said Kony "is nearer to South Sudan than to us, and in any case, we have no reason to support him. We rely on our own forces and we do not need anybody to support us in defending our country and ourselves."
ASIA
Capsized ferry leaves 35 dead,165 missing
GAUHATI, India — A packed ferry boat capsized in heavy winds and rain in remote northeastern India late Monday, leaving at least 35 people dead and 165 others feared missing, police said.
Assam state police chief J.N. Choudhury said the boat was carrying about 350 passengers and broke into two pieces. About 150 people who were traveling on the top level were rescued or swam to safety, he said.
Details were sketchy because bad weather and the remoteness of the area hammered communication.
Choudhury said the accident occurred on the Brahmutra river near Fakriagram in west Dhubri district. The area is about 350 kilometers (215 miles) west of the state capital, Gauhati, and close to where the river enters Bangladesh. He said officials in that country had been contacted for help.
The area is dotted with riverside settlements and small islands, and boats are the most common mode of transport. Most ferries are overcrowded, with little regard for safety regulations.
Strong winds and rain likely caused the accident, Choudhury said. Police and paramilitary soldiers were sent to help local villagers with rescue efforts, he said.
NORTH AMERICA
Yacht demolished after collision, three sailors killed and a fourth missing
ENSENADA, Mexico — A 37-foot racing yacht was reduced to debris that looked "like it had gone through a blender," a searcher said Sunday after the boat apparently collided with a larger vessel, killing three sailors and leaving a fourth missing.
The U.S. Coast Guard, the Mexican navy and civilian vessels scoured the waters off the shore of both countries for the missing sailor before suspending their search Sunday evening.
The crew of tour sailors was aboard the Aegean, which was reported missing Saturday during a 124-mile race from Newport Beach, Calif., to Ensenada, Mexico.
It was California's second deadly accident this month involving an ocean race.
Race officials said they had few explanations for what may have happened to the Aegean other than it must have collided with a ship like a freighter or tanker that did not see the smaller vessel.
If the smaller boat was bobbing around in light wind, the crew might not have been able to get out of the way of a larger ship, said Rich Roberts, a spokesman for the Newport Ocean Sailing Association, the race organizer.
The Coast Guard said conditions were fine for sailing, with good visibility and moderate ocean swells of 6-to-8 feet.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
U. S. Coast Guard and the Mexican navy are searching for the fourth sailor after a racching yacht collided with a bigger vessel off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico.