50 KILLED IN NORTHERN NIGERIA ‘BANDIT’ ATTACKS
AFP, Kano

At least 50 people were killed in multiple attacks by armed ‘bandits’ on villages in an area of northern Nigeria rife with cattle theft and kidnappings, local officials said yesterday. Sources said around 100 armed assailants stormed into the villages of Kerawa, Zareyawa and Minda in Kaduna state at dawn on Sunday, gunning down worshippers as they left a mosque for morning prayers before killing residents, burning and looting homes. “So far 50 bodies have been recovered but the figure is not conclusive and is very likely
to rise as rescue efforts are still under way,” Zayyad Ibrahim, a lawmaker in the Nigerian parliament, told AFP
yesterday.

BIN LADEN DOCTOR LAUNCHES HUNGER STRIKE IN PAKISTAN
AFP, Islamabad

The Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track and kill Osama bin Laden has launched a hunger strike from his prison cell, his lawyer and family said yesterday. Shakeel Afridi has been languishing behind bars for years since his fake vaccination programme helped US agents track and kill the Al Qaeda leader in 2011. “It is to protest the injustices and inhumane attitudes being committed against him and his family,” his brother Jamil Afridi told AFP after meeting with Afridi in a prison in central Punjab province.

NETANYAHU RIVAL GANTZ URGES ‘CHANGE’ AS ISRAEL VOTES
AFP, Rosh Haayin, Israel

Former military chief Benny Gantz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main challenger in elections yesterday, voiced hope the country would “change the tune,” after a year of political stalemate. “It’s about time that we be much more united,” Gantz said after voting in the central town of Rosh Haayin. “I hope that today will be the day that we change the tune, stop the mudslinging (and) stop the lying,” he added, in a dig at Netanyahu, following an at-times bitter campaign.