Students protest army attack: Some 500 students marched at a university To protest a recent clash between soldiers and farmers that left four villagers dead, a report said Friday. AP says from Jakarta.
The protesters at Gajah Mada university In the ancient city of Yokjakarta. central Java, urged the government to form a national commission to investigate the incident the Independent dally Merdeka reported
The students carried banners deploring the clash with slogans like "how could you fire on Innocent people?" Flood death toll 65 in Vietnam: The death toll in floods in central Vietnam rose to 65 on Saturday and losses were estimated at tens of millions of dollars. Reuter reports from Hanoi.
A disaster relief official said the floods in Phu Yen province, where 52 people died, were the worst since 1902. Thirteen people were killed in Binh Dinh. Khanh Hoa and Lam Long provinces.
Mafia boss gets life term: The Sicilian Malla's "boss of bosses" was sentenced to life in prison Friday in what some observers said was a departure from a pattern of light sentences in past organised crime cases. AP reports from Rome.
Salvatore Riina remained In his bunker-like cell In Palermo's Ucciardone Prison as the Judge read the conviction and sentence. the harshest punishment possible in Italy.
Some Sicilian courts have been accused of giving light sentences in earlier Mafia cases for fear of a violent backlash. Riina's capture in January in Palermo was orte of the highlights of Italy's anti-Mafia crackdown.
500m are mentally ill: At least 500 ■ million people worldwide are mentally ill, and more should be done to help them, the World Health Organisation said Friday.
■' AP'reports from Geneva. -
Some 155 million people worldwide suffer from neurosis, the UN agency said. The symptoms includes anxiety and compulsions About 120 million people are mentally retarded.
At least 52 million people worldwide have severe mental diseases including schizophrenia and another 100 million have major emotional problems such as severe depression.
WFP begins airlift to Georgia: The World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations said on Friday it had begun an airlift to help feed refugees in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Reuter reports froth Rome.
Tens of thousands of Georgians were forced to leave their homes in Sukhumi, on the Black Sea. after Abkhazian rebels took the city on September 27.
WFP said a first plane carrying 50 tonnes of food aid left from Luxembourg for Tbilisi on Friday night, and that the rest of the 220 tonnes would be sent over the next five days.
Fighting on in Sierra Leone: FighUug between Sierra Leone government troops and rebels from that country is drawing close to the Liberian village of Vahun. where the United Nations Is caring for refugees. AP reports from Liberia. '
The sound of submachine guns and the boom of rocket-propelled grenades echoed Friday among forested hills surrounding the northwestern town, where 175.000 Sierra Leone refugees and displaced Liberians are sheltered at a base camp of the UN High' Commission for Refugees.
Sierra Leone guerillas launched a rebellion in concert with Charles Taylor's 1989 Liberian rebellion aimed at toppling Liberian dictator Samuel Doc.
Floods hit 17 Filipino villages: Unable to hold the floods brought by Storm Flo early this week, three rivers in central Luzon have overflowed, forcing a new* round of evacuations, a government official said Saturday. AP reports from Manila.
Jose Andres, director of the Office of Civil Defence, said disaster relief authorities had to request two amphibious Navy l>oats and other military equipment to evacuate nearly 50.000 people In 17 villages in the town of Calumpit in Bulacan province, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Manila.
Thirty-six other villages in the nearby towns of Hagonoy. Pulilan and Paombong were also flooded.
3 Chinese children burnt to death: Three sleeping children.in south China burnt to death because their mother forgot to wake them when their hut caught fire, a China-run news agency said Friday. AP reports from Hong Kong.
The family's home made shack tn Shenzhen next to British-ruled Hong Kong was full of bric-a-brac that burnt quickly in the fire early Thursday, the China News Service said.
The father worked nights and the mother, "in the confusion, forgot to save the three children who were sound asleep," it said. The two boys and a girl died of smoke Inhalation and