Liberia

Senegal soldiers boost peacekeeping force

A contingent of about 250 Senegalese soldiers arrived Saturday in Liberia, increasing the size of the West African peacekeeping force to more than 2,000.

West African leaders hope the force will eventually grow to 3,500 troops before they hand over control in coming months to a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The peace force — with about 1,500 troops from Nigeria and 250 each from Mali and Senegal — has yet to deploy far from Liberia’s peaceful capital, Monrovia. Rural Liberians are pleading for peacekeeper help, as widespread hunger and scattered clashes persist in the countryside despite an Aug. 18 peace accord between rebels and government forces that was signed in Accra, Ghana.

Mexico

Crash involving acid leaves five dead

A truck carrying sulfuric acid collided head-on with a sport utility vehicle Friday on a mountain road in central Mexico, killing five people and forcing dozens of people to hospitals after they inhaled the fumes, authorities said.

The collision occurred when the truck lost control on a two-lane highway near San Juan de Las Huertas, 15 miles southwest of the Mexico state capital of Toluca, said Arturo Vilchis, director of the state’s civil protection department.

The truck had been carrying 525 gallons of sulfuric acid, and more than 40 people were taken from the surrounding area to nearby hospitals to be treated for inhaling fumes.

Five of nine people traveling in the sport utility vehicle were killed in the collision, including two teenagers.

India

Top rebel commander killed in Kashmir

Security forces in India’s portion of Kashmir killed an Islamic guerrilla leader suspected of masterminding a deadly attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, an official said Saturday.

Ghazi Baba, chief of the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed in India, was killed in a gun battle in Srinagar, said Vijay Raman, of the Border Security Force.

Another rebel and a soldier with the security force also were killed in the clash, which lasted nearly 10 hours, Raman said.

Jaish-e-Mohammed is one of more than a dozen militant groups fighting since 1989 for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. More than 63,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

Haiti

Floods drown at least 8, destroy dozens of homes

Torrential rains burst river banks, sweeping away at least eight people and destroying dozens of riverside shacks in Haiti’s west-coast city of St. Marc, officials said Saturday.

About 200 people of the city’s 60,000 residents fled their homes and took refuge in government offices and a high school, said Gerald Joseph with Haiti’s civil defense.

Most damage occurred along a 1.25-mile stretch of the Grande Riviere, which flows through the city, when the river burst its banks during a five-hour storm Friday afternoon. In some places, the water level rose 2-3 feet.

Several government bulldozers began clearing debris Saturday, but some residents complained of a delay in government assistance.