World in brief: Irish, Ugandan aid workers freed
KHARTOUM, Sudan – Two foreign aid workers seized at gunpoint more than three months ago in Sudan’s Darfur were released Sunday.
The Irish and Ugandan women were in good health and were having medical checkups at a hospital in northern Darfur, said Sudan’s state minister for humanitarian affairs, Abdel-Baqi al-Jailani.
The two women were taken hostage on July 3 in the western region of Sudan. The Irish woman, Sharon Commins, 33, and her Ugandan colleague, Hilda Kuwuki, 42, were working for an Irish humanitarian aid agency.
Shortly after they were seized, al-Jailani had said the kidnappers were seeking a ransom and did not appear to have political motives, though on Saturday he told the Associated Press no ransom was paid. He gave no details on how the release came about, except to say it involved the cooperation of local and federal governments as well as tribal leaders in the region.
Scores of officers patrolling Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – At least 2,000 police officers patrolled this coastal city Sunday and Brazilian officials pledged to host a violence-free 2016 Olympics despite bloody drug gang shootouts that left 14 people dead.
An hours-long firefight between rival gangs Saturday in one of the city’s slums killed at least 12 people, injured six and saw a police helicopter downed and eight buses set on fire. Police said Sunday that they killed two other suspected drug traffickers in overnight clashes near the Morro dos Macacos (“Monkey Hill”) slum where the gangs fought for territory a day earlier. But the area was largely peaceful.
Two officers died and four were injured Saturday when bullets from the gang battle ripped into their helicopter hovering overhead, forcing it into a fiery crash landing on a soccer field.
Gunfire on the ground killed 10 suspected gunmen and wounded two bystanders.
Authorities said the violence only toughened their resolve to improve security ahead of the Olympics and before 2014, when Brazil will host the World Cup soccer tournament with key games in Rio, the country’s second-biggest city.
Bomb kills five near Baghdad café
BAGHDAD – A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded on Sunday near a popular café in a largely Sunni district of Baghdad, killing five people, Iraqi police said.
The blast in Baghdad’s Azamiyah district also injured 16 civilians, an officer at the al-Risafa police station said. Officials at two hospitals that received the wounded said most of the injured were young men.
Cargo craft docks with space station
MOSCOW – A cargo ship has delivered food, fuel, oxygen and other supplies to the International Space Station.
Russia’s space agency said the unmanned Progress M-03M docked with the orbital station Sunday after a three-day trip up from Earth.
Care packages for members of the multinational six-person crew were one part of the delivery vehicle’s 2.65-ton cargo.
The space station is orbiting about 225 miles above Earth. Its current crew includes two Russians, two Americans, a Canadian and a Belgian.