10 METRO Friday, September 11, 2009 D METROWorld SOMALIA: Fighting in Mogadishu during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is the worst in 20 years, killing 32 civilians in four days, a human rights group has said. The Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said 18 women and seven children were among the dead, and that 82 civilians were wounded as Islamist insurgents battled the UN-backed government and African Union (AU) peacekeepers. POLAND: The government says several Afghans who had come for a democracy training programme have gone missing. Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said several members of the group arrived but disappeared before checking into their hotel rooms in Warsaw. He would not say when they arrived or when they were discovered missing. The national security agency refused to comment. KeNyA: A severe drought is affecting wildlife as rivers dry up and grasslands shrivel in parched game reserves. More than 40 elephants have died in two months, hundreds of cattle have died and many acres of crops have failed, threatening the lives of people who depended on them for food. The United Nations World Food programme warned that 3.8million Kenyans are at risk and need emergency food aid. BeLGIUM: The EU will send a high-level delegation to Zimbabwe to hold talks with top officials, including President Robert Mugabe (pictured). In the first visit by senior EU officials since sanctions were imposed against the government in 2002, Gunilla Carlsson, the development minister of Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, and development commissioner Karel De Gucht will lead a delegation to push for the power-sharing agreement. AMeRICA: A cat has been found alive, buried beneath debris 26 days after a fire in Ohio. Owner Sandy LaPierre assumed one-year-old Smoka had died during the fire, but a demolition firm which was to tear down what was left of the building saw Smokas head sticking out from under 16ft (5m) of debris and saved the moggy, who is now recovering. INDIA: A motorcycle rider rides through a flooded road in New Delhi. More than 13mm of rain overnight caused traffic chaos on waterlogged roads and choked sewers in many places in and around the city Picture: AFP RUSSIA: The founder of Cirque du Soleil says he will be taking reading matter to the International Space Station this month. Not that hes worried about being bored, but he wants to read it to people on Earth. Guy Laliberte (pictured) wants to use his $35million (24m) trip to promote concerns about the worlds water supply. His reading is expected to be broadcast in several cities. Mr Laliberte is to blast off for the space station on September 30. Grief: A mother mourns the loss of her child, killed during a school stampede in New Delhi Picture: Reuters Pupils die in stampede on school stairs By MUSTAFA QURESHIHUNDREDS of pupils who were jammed into a narrow school stair- case panicked yesterday, setting off a stampede that left five girls dead and 31 students injured in Indias capital. Five of the injured were in a critical condition, said OP Kalra, medical su- perintendent of the Guru Tegh Baha- dur Hospital, where the injured boys and girls were taken. The stampede occurred early in the day as students arrived for an exam. Amod Kant, a former police officer and well-known child rights activist, said the students taking the exam were told to move to a higher floor of the school because of heavy rains and flooding on the ground floor. The stampede occurred amid the chaos of moving students up the stairs when others suddenly came rushing down. It is thought there were be- tween 1,300 and 1,400 students at the school at the time. The exams were about to start when suddenly some boys came inside. They pushed us and then we came out. We were coming down the stair- case when the stampede took place, said student Sanjana Gautam. The students ranged from eight to 16 years old, police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said. By midday, police had sealed off the school to media and parents. At the hospital, grieving parents were waiting to take home the bodies of their children. We rushed to the hospital and we found her dead, said a crying woman who only gave the name of her dead 12-year-old daughter, Aishya Khatun. Just after the stampede, parents gathered outside the school wailing in anguish. A few threw rocks at the building. Angry residents also hurled stones at a bus and fire engine, injuring one person, before police reinforcements arrived on the scene, witnesses said. A government investigation was or- dered into the stampede, said Sheila Dikshit, New Delhis top official. Most government-run schools in In- dia have poor infrastructure and lack adequate staff. AMeRICA: A body found with its severed arms crossed and placed on his chest in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, has been identified as Texan Sergio Saucedo, 30, a known criminal with a long record who was kidnapped from his home last week. Its apparent that the spillover has occurred, a police spokesman said of the drug cartel violence which is plaguing the border towns of Juarez and El Paso and much of Mexico. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html