In brief: Three burned to death in village attack

PATNA, India – At least three Muslim villagers were burned to death Sunday when their thatched huts were set on fire during a clash between Hindu and Muslim groups in eastern India, a government official said.

Atul Prasad, a Bihar state administrator, said the violence erupted after the body of a young Hindu boy was found in Sarayian village more than a week after he went missing.

Prasad said Hindu fishermen blamed Muslims for killing the boy who was friendly with a Muslim girl from the village.

The charred bodies of three Muslims were found in the burned huts in the poor community, he said.

Police arrested eight Hindu men, and Prasad said the situation remains tense but under control in the village.

Hindus make up more than 80 percent and Muslims nearly 13 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people.

Mali official declares country Ebola-free

BAMAKO, Mali – Mali’s health minister says the West African country is Ebola-free after recording no new cases for 42 days, the period required for the World Health Organization to declare an outbreak officially over.

Health Minister Ousmane Kone made the announcement in a statement Sunday night.

Mali recorded its first Ebola case in October, then nearly eradicated the disease before a new wave of cases occurred in November. In total, the disease infected eight people, killing six of them, according to the WHO.

Ebola has killed more than 8,400 people in West Africa, with the overwhelming majority of those deaths occurring in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Widely feared militia leader arrested

BANGUI, Central African Republic – A leader of Central African Republic’s anti-Balaka Christian militia, a widely feared commander who has been implicated in attacks on civilians throughout the battle-scarred country, has been arrested, a justice official said Sunday.

Rodrigue Ngaibona, alias Andilo, was arrested in the town of Bouca on Saturday by Cameroonian peacekeepers, prosecutor Maurice Dibert-Dollet said in a statement. An arrest warrant was issued last May linking Ngaibona to murders, rapes and looting during the country’s unprecedented sectarian violence in which thousands have died.

A U.N. expert panel has described Ngaibona as “a feared and powerful commander” of the militia, and Amnesty International said in a December report that he had been linked to attacks on civilians “in many parts of the country.”