A round-up of other world news in brief
150 reported dead in clashes in Nigerian city
JOS, Nigeria – More than 150 Nigerians have been killed and dozens injured in three days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in the central city of Jos, where police imposed a 24-hour curfew, according to residents.
The governor of Plateau state yesterday sent extra security forces to the state capital to prevent a repetition of clashes in November 2008, when hundreds were killed.
“On Sunday evening we buried 19 corpses and 52 yesterday. As of right now, there are 80 at the mosque yet to be buried,” said a worker organising burials at the city’s main mosque, adding that 90 people had been injured. Official police figures were significantly lower, with 20 dead and 40 injured. – (Reuters)
Bribery 'crippling' Afghan people
LONDON – Corruption costs Afghans $2.5 billion (€1.75 billion) a year, a UN agency said yesterday, with the scale of bribery matching Afghanistan’s opium trade.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said a national survey it conducted showed Afghans were more concerned by public dishonesty than insecurity or unemployment.
“Bribery is a crippling tax on people who are already among the world’s poorest,” the office’s executive director Antonio Maria Costa said, adding that the scale of corruption was equivalent to nearly a quarter of the country’s economic output. – (Reuters)
24 detained after Moscow rally
MOSCOW – Police have detained 24 people after an anti-fascist rally in Moscow to commemorate the first anniversary of the murder of a human rights lawyer and a journalist, a police spokesman has said.
The protesters, who blamed the murders on nationalists and called for a crackdown on far-right groups, said Russia risked becoming a police state. They drew a counter- protest by a small group shouting racist slogans.
About 1,000 people had gathered yesterday to lay wreaths on the street where Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova were killed on January 19th last year. – (Reuters)
Red-light district faces stricter rules
AMSTERDAM – The deputy mayor of Amsterdam has proposed new measures to tackle forced prostitution, including restricting opening hours for brothels and raising the minimum age for prostitutes to 23 from 18.
Lodewijk Asscher, who faces re-election in March, said prostitution should be banned between 4am and 8am to complement efforts to fight crime, exploitation and human trafficking in the red-light district. “Only the biggest creeps and boozers are walking around at those hours,” he said. However the local union for prostitutes said it was against the proposal because the early morning hours were among the most lucrative. – (Reuters)