Hundreds killed in Central African Republic violence

At least 300 people have been killed in two days of violence in the capital city of the Central African Republic, the Red Cross has said.

The Red Cross said its staff stopped collecting bodies in capital city of Bangui as night fell but would resume over the weekend, and expected the toll to rise, a BBC report said late Friday.

Violence in the CAR has raised fears of mass killings along sectarian lines.

Meanwhile, hundreds of French troops are arriving here, as part of a UN effort to restore law and order.

France was hoping to have around 1,000 troops - doubling its current force - in the CAR by Friday evening.

It followed a UN Security Council vote to allow French troops to join an African peacekeeping force in the CAR.

Thursday's violence is thought to have begun when Christian militias, loyal to the CAR's ousted President Francois Bozize, launched multiple attacks from the north - sparking retaliatory attacks from mainly Muslim armed fighters loyal to the new leadership.

More: http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/hundreds-killed-in-central-african-republic-violence_894980.html

30 killed, 50 wounded in Iraq violence

As many as 30 people were killed and some 50 wounded in separate incidents of shootings and bomb attacks in Iraq on Thursday, including a deadly minibus bombing, police and an official said.

The deadliest attack occurred before noon in Diyala province when a minibus loaded with over 100 kg of high explosives went off at a busy marketplace in Sa’ diyah city, some 120 km from Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding 45, reported Xinhua citing a provincial police source.

Omer al-Hemiyari, governor of Diyala, confirmed the toll in a statement, adding that “what happened in the Sa’diyah is an atrocious crime and a security breach that led to the deaths of dozens of innocent people”.

The huge blast in the minibus set fire to eight civilian cars and ten shops and destroyed dozens of stalls, the police source said.

In a separate incident, a soldier was killed and his brother wounded when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their house in Sa’ diyah, a source said.

Meanwhile, two young men were killed and as many injured in a motorcycle bomb explosion in the northeastern part of Baquba, provincial capital city of Diyala, some 65 km from Baghdad, the source said, adding that two more people were wounded in a bomb explosion near a house in the nearby town of Buhruz.

In Baghdad, gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead two brothers at their shop in a commercial street in the Shiite-dominated neighbourhood of Baiyaa in southern capital, a police source said.

More: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/30-killed-50-wounded-in-iraq-violence/article5378885.ece

Muzaffarnagar violence: DG admits to lapses

As the fresh communal violence here tested the Akhilesh Yadav government again, the Uttar Pradesh police chief today admitted to lapses on the part of police even as paramilitary forces patrolled sensitive areas.

Eight persons have been arrested and cases registered against 15 people in connection with last night's violence in Budhana area of Muzaffarnagar in which three men were killed.

More: http://www.ptinews.com/news/4113247_Muzaffarnagar-violence--DG-admits-to-lapses.html