India

Leopards kill 10 while straying from park

Leopards straying from a national park on the edge of Bombay, India’s largest city, have killed 10 people this month — prompting forest officials to let loose pigs and rabbits to feed the big cats.

The killings are up sharply from previous years, and six of this month’s deaths occurred outside the park as leopards extended their range in search of food.

Traps are being set up outside the park. A low-voltage electric fence will be built to prevent the estimated 30 leopards from leaving Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Above, a leopard is shown Tuesday in its cage after being trapped by forest officials in Bombay.

In the next few weeks, 500 wild boar and 40 deer will be released as leopard prey.

Sierra Leone

U.N. helicopter crashes, killing 24 aboard

A U.N. helicopter crashed in flames Tuesday on a remote hillside in Sierra Leone, killing all 24 peacekeepers, aid workers and others on board.

U.N. mission spokeswoman Sharon McPherson said victims aboard the Russian-made Mi-8 also included the Russian crew.

A passenger manifest made available to The Associated Press said the passengers included 14 Pakistani peacekeepers and a Pakistani police officer, a U.N. volunteer from Ghana, three Sierra Leone citizens, a Tanzanian working for the International Red Cross and one Ugandan.

Authorities offered no immediate explanation for the accident, which left the wreckage in flames on a hillside in the West African country.

Sudan

Powell wants militia groups subdued

Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a direct appeal Tuesday night to Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir to rein in militia groups that he said were responsible for a “horrific” humanitarian crisis in western Sudan, including the uprooting of more than 1 million people.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, appearing afterward with Powell at a news conference, said there might be some humanitarian problems in Darfur province but insisted “there is no famine, no malnutrition and no disease” in the area.

He promised to be responsive to repeated U.S. appeals for Sudan to lift restrictions on humanitarian access to Darfur and to disarm government-backed Arab militias that have been attacking the province’s black population.

Colombia

Kidnappers release politician’s relatives

Suspected right-wing paramilitary gunmen freed seven family members and friends of a former Colombian senator Tuesday but continued holding the politician — a kidnapping that has clouded peace talks with the government.

Kidnappers seized Jose Eduardo Gnecco, his wife, their three children, a niece and two of the children’s friends from their sport utility vehicle Sunday as they traveled along a highway near the Caribbean coast, military authorities said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions, but President Alvaro Uribe’s office blamed two right-wing warlords, Rodrigo Tovar and Hernan Giraldo, saying they will be excluded from the peace talks.