12 killed, 32 wounded in Somalia fighting

NAIROBI-- Twelve people were killed and 32 wounded in renewed fighting between two Somali militia groups responsible for Mogadishu's worst gun battles in over a decade, militia sources said yesterday. The renewed hostilities between the Islamic courts militia and a warlord alliance in the Siisii area ended a nearly weeklong ceasefire brokered by local elders. The two militias have been locked in fierce battles that have killed more than 250 people since February. Analysts view the fighting -- laced with commercial and political motives -- as a proxy war between Washington and Islamic militants. (Reuters)

Nepal

KATMANDU -- Thousands of Hindus rallied in a southern town yesterday to protest Parliament's move to declare Nepal a secular state when it scaled back the king's powers, officials said. The protesters rallied in the town of Birgunj, about 100 miles south of the capital of Katmandu, burning newspapers and forcing markets and shops to close, said Bhim Tiwari, a government administrator in the area. ``We want a Hindu kingdom! Declare Nepal a Hindu kingdom!" chanted the protesters as they marched through the main streets of the town near the border with India. A resolution passed by Parliament today included a clause that said Nepal would no longer be formally known as a Hindu country. (AP)

Cuba

HAVANA -- Torrential rains caused flash floods that destroyed dwellings and killed at least three people in Havana, officials said yesterday. Nearly 8 inches of rain fell in just two hours Tuesday night, flooding tunnels and paralyzing traffic in the city of 2.5 million residents. A debris-clogged creek overflowed in the district of Marianao, in western Havana, sweeping away several homes and the occupant of one. ``Three adults died," an official of the ruling Communist Party said. (Reuters)

Russia

MOSCOW -- Prosecutors are investigating a journalist for publishing an article mocking President Vladimir Putin over his call to pay Russian women to have more children, an official said yesterday. The article was published by Vladimir Rakhmankov, editor of the online newspaper Kursiv in the central city of Ivanovo, said Andrei Galchenko of the regional prosecutor's office. The piece poked fun at Putin's recent state of the nation address, in which the president called for economic incentives to boost the country's plummeting birth rate. Russian media reported that the publication suggested that animals at a local zoo had already heeded Putin's call and increased their mating. Rakhmankov could not be reached for comment yesterday, and his website had been shut down. Galchenko said the investigation was launched because the article ``contained phrases of an insulting nature aimed at the president." If convicted of insulting a representative of the authorities, Rakhmankov faces up to 12 months of corrective labor or a fine, Galchenko said. (AP)

China

BEIJING -- Police shot and killed people protesting against the building of a wind farm in southern Guangdong province in December, media reports said yesterday. At least three people died, and eight were wounded in Dongzhou village, part of Guangdong's Shanwei city, when police shot villagers protesting against a lack of compensation for land lost to a wind power plant, government officials said. Villagers put the number of dead as high as 20. ``The relevant people who did not do their jobs well and were responsible for the serious incident of lawlessness that happened last December have already been gravely disciplined," China's official Xinhua news agency said. (Reuters)