News in Brief

Egypt to cut curfew by 2 hours
Afp, Cairo

Egypt is to shorten a night-time curfew imposed on Cairo and 13 provinces starting Saturday, the cabinet said yesterday.
The curfew will be from midnight to 5:00am (0300 GMT), except on Fridays when it will begin at 07:00pm (1700 GMT), according to a cabinet statement. The curfew was imposed last month as authorities launched a massive crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Two Saudis die of MERS virus
Afp, Riyadh

Two Saudis have died after contracting the MERS coronavirus, the health ministry said yesterday, bringing the total number of fatalities from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom
to 49.
Authorities have urged the elderly and chronically ill to avoid the hajj pilgrimage to Makkah this year and have cut back on the numbers of people they will allow to perform the pilgrimage.

15,000 flee volcano in Indonesia
Afp, Jakarta

More than 15,000 people have now fled their homes since Mount Sinabung in western Indonesia spectacularly erupted this week, an official said yesterday.
The volcano in North Sumatra province erupted for the first time in three years on Sunday, spewing rocks and red-hot ash onto nearby villages, and has been rumbling ever since. The volcano had been dormant for nearly 100 years until it erupted in August and September 2010, forcing about 12,000 people to flee their homes.

Philippine troops kill 8 Muslim rebels
Afp, Zamboanga

Philippine security forces yesterday killed eight Muslim rebels as they hunted the remnants of a guerrilla force hiding in homes of a major city and believed to be holding hostages.
A soldier also died, the military reported, bringing the death toll from 11 days of fierce street battles in the southern port city of Zamboanga to at least 114.
The fresh casualties came as an international human rights monitor issued a report alleging severe human rights abuses committed by both sides, including the rebels deliberately picking out Christians to use as human shields.