News in Brief -2024-10-02

Indian-controlled Kashmir votes in final phase of polls to elect local govt
SRINAGAR, Oct 01: Voting in the final phase of the election to choose a local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir began Tuesday, the first such vote since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago. Over 3.9 million residents are eligible to cast ballots to choose 40 lawmakers out of 415 candidates in the region's seven districts during the third - and last - phase of the election. It's the first such vote in a decade and the first since Modi's Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region's semi-autonomy in 2019. –AP
Gaza war death toll at 41,638
GAZA STRIP, Oct 01: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 41,638 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 12th month. The toll includes 23 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,460 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7. --AFP
Anger in Nepal over flood relief delays
KAVRE, Oct 01: Survivors of the monsoon floods that ravaged Nepal at the weekend criticised the government on Tuesday for inadequate relief efforts during a disaster that killed at least 218 people. Deadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September but experts say climate change is making them worse. Entire neighbourhoods in the capital Kathmandu were inundated at the weekend, along with villages in remote pockets of the Himalayan country that were still awaiting relief efforts. — AFP
Attacks in southeast Iran kill six
TEHRAN, Oct 01: At least six people were killed on Tuesday in separate attacks in the restive southeastern region of Iran, state media reported. "Four people, including three military personnel, were killed in a terrorist attack in Bent," a small town in southern Sistan-Baluchistan, the official IRNA news agency said. It also reported that two police officers were shot dead in their car in the town of Khash in the same province. The Pakistan-based Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice in Arabic) on its social media channels claimed responsibility for both attacks. —AFP