Turkey

Earthquake kills dozens

An earthquake Sunday shook a poppy-growing region in central Turkey, toppling scores of buildings and killing at least 45 people, including an elderly couple crushed by falling rubble while having breakfast.

At least 150 people were injured in the quake.

Turkish seismologists said Sunday’s quake was magnitude-6, while the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. measured four quakes, ranging in magnitude from the initial 6.2 temblor to 5.

The government said no one else was believed trapped in the rubble and that it didn’t expect the death toll to climb much beyond 45.

The epicenter was Sultandagi, a small town 125 miles south of the capital, Ankara, and affected areas up to 200 miles away.

N. Ireland

Thousands participate in Bloody Sunday march

More than 10,000 Roman Catholics on Sunday retraced the path of a 1972 march that produced one of Northern Ireland’s worst atrocities, when British soldiers killed 13 demonstrators in bitterly disputed circumstances.

Despite icy winds and showers of rain, the crowd marched for more than an hour through the Catholic west side of Londonderry to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. On Jan. 30, 1972, British paratroopers opened fire on crowds protesting against the internment without trial of Irish Republican Army suspects.

Speakers told Sunday’s gathering that a British government-authorized investigation under way in Londonderry might finally prove the guilt of the soldiers and the innocence of those slain.

A 1972 investigation ruled that soldiers had opened fire lawfully because some of those killed had probably been throwing bombs or firing guns. That verdict infuriated Catholics and was subsequently repudiated by Britain, but the soldiers still insist that IRA gunmen fired at them first.

Nigeria

Deadly clashes send thousands from homes

Clashes between rival ethnic groups killed at least 17 people and sent thousands fleeing for their lives Sunday in Nigeria’s largest city, where residents were still mourning the victims of deadly explosions at an army base a week ago.

The fighting began Saturday evening and appeared to die down Sunday after hundreds of heavily armed police were deployed. But witnesses said violence broke out again after the officers left.

Streets were littered with glass and rocks Sunday, and black smoke hung above scores of burning houses. Reporters from The Associated Press saw 17 burned, mutilated bodies on the streets and in the back of a government dump truck. But witnesses spoke of dozens more dead.

The fighting, often with rocks and bottles, was between militants of the Yoruba and Hausa tribes among Nigeria’s largest ethnic groups.

Hong Kong

Government completes slaughter of chickens

Health workers completed the slaughter of more than 100,000 chickens Sunday at a Hong Kong farm where the deaths of thousands of birds had raised fears of a second outbreak of avian flu in less than a year.

About 100 workers in gloves and protective white suits began killing the birds Saturday after 10,000 chickens died mysteriously there last week.

The government said all the birds had been slaughtered before nightfall but that the removal of the carcasses would not be completed until today. The farm also will be thoroughly cleansed today.

Last May, an avian flu infected thousands of chickens, forcing the government to destroy 1.37 million birds. In 1997, a similar avian virus crossed over to the human population, killing six people.