News in Brief

India stops telegram service
Afp, New Delhi

Thousands of Indians crammed into telegram offices yesterday to send souvenir messages to friends and family in a last-minute rush before the service shuts down after 162 years.
Yesterday was the last day that messages will be accepted by the service, the world's last major commercial telegram operation, and the Central Telegraph Office in New Delhi said it was geared up to tackle the expected rush.

55,000 Congolese flee to Uganda
Afp, Bundibugyo

More than 55,000 refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have arrived in Uganda after fleeing a rebel attack, Red Cross officials said yesterday, a dramatic rise from earlier estimates.
Refugees have streamed across the border into western Uganda's Bundibugyo district since the attack on Thursday.

Typhoon forces mass evacuation in China
Afp, Beijing

Eastern China was bracing for torrential downpours yesterday from Typhoon Soulik which forced the evacuation of half a million people after killing two in Taiwan.
More than half a million people were evacuated from Fujian and neighbouring Zhejiang as the typhoon approached, with 5,500 soldiers deployed to carry out relief work if needed.

Iraq attacks kill 7
Afp, Mosul

Violence in Iraq, including attacks on two members of a district council in the north, killed seven people yesterday, officers and doctors said.
The attacks are just the latest in a surge in violence that has killed more than 340 people this month and over 2,600 so far this year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

200 hurt in South Sudan clashes
Afp, Juba

At least 200 people have been wounded in a week of bitter fighting in South Sudan's Jonglei state, the top United Nations humanitarian official in the country said yesterday.
Tit-for-tat cattle raids and reprisal killings are common in this grossly under-developed state, awash with guns left over from almost two decades of civil war.