Rome Eight migrants drowned and 375 were rescued from four small boats in the Mediterranean yesterday, an aid group said. Proactiva Open Arms added that 77 women and 52 children were among those rescued.
More than 2,200 people have died this year trying to make the crossing from north Africa while about 95,000 have been rescued and brought to Italy.
Italy fears that charities are facilitating people-smuggling by waiting close to Libya to pick up migrants. The government has drawn up a code of conduct but Proactiva was one of only three humanitarian groups to sign it, with five refusing. (Reuters)
Kenyatta ‘shocked’ by election official’s death
Nairobi Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenyan president, said he was “deeply shocked” by the torture and killing of a senior election official, Christopher Msando, in the lead-up to next week’s presidential vote. The main opposition party has accused Mr Kenyatta of wanting to rig the election, a charge he denies. The president used Twitter to call for calm and warn against “careless speculation”. (AP)
Mosque blast kills 20
Kabul An explosion inside a Shia mosque in Herat, western Afghanistan, has killed at least 20 people, according to a hospital official. The official said that 20 bodies had been brought to the main hospital in the city near the Iranian border soon after the blast on Monday evening. The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan has threatened Shia Muslims. No group immediately claimed responsibility. (AP)
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Rescue mission shut
Phnom Penh Hun Sen, the Cambodian prime minister, has ordered the closure of a US-led Christian organisation that seeks to rescue and rehabilitate women working in the sex trade, saying that comments broadcast last week demeaned the country. A CNN report showed the head of the Agape International Missions, Don Brewster from California, describing child prostitution in Svay Pak, near Phnom Penh. (AP)
Body found in freezer
Youngstown A couple from Ohio have been charged with abusing a corpse after the body of a woman was found in a padlocked freezer. It is believed to be that of Shannon Graves, 28, who was dating Arturo Novoa, 31, at the time she disappeared in February. It is alleged Novoa then moved in with Katrina Layton, 34, who assumed Ms Graves’s life. He is said to have given the freezer to a friend, who found the body. (AFP)
Bride whips out pistol
Tennessee A bride was arrested hours after her wedding, still wearing her dress, for allegedly threatening her new husband with a gun. Witnesses at the Clarion Inn in Murfreesboro said that Kate Elizabeth Prichard, 25, pulled a 9mm pistol out of her dress, pointed it at her husband and pulled the trigger. She is then said to have loaded the gun and fired into the air. She faces a charge of aggravated domestic assault.