NZ appoints new heads of electoral commission
WELLINGTON, Aug 07: New Zealand's Minister of Justice Andrew Little announced on Wednesday that former Cabinet Secretary and Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has been appointed as the next chair of the electoral commission. The electoral commission is the agency responsible for all areas of electoral administration in New Zealand including the running of parliamentary elections and referendums, promoting compliance with electoral laws, servicing the work of the Representation Commission and providing advice, reports and public education on all electoral matters. — Xinhua
Country must prepare for more attacks: Ranil
COLOMBO, Aug 07: Sri Lanka's prime minister on Tuesday told a parliamentary committee investigating the Islamic State-inspired Easter Sunday bomb attacks that the country should prepare itself for new types of terrorism. Existing policing, investigative agencies and laws had experience with ethnic Tamil separatists during Sri Lanka's civil war, but Sri Lanka must now deal with "a new phase of terrorism," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his explanation for what the government should do following criticism that the it failed to act on intelligence from foreign agencies before the attacks that killed more than 250 people. — AP
Mali attacks leave four persons dead
BAMAKO, Aug 07: Twin attacks in Mali have killed four people, including two Malian soldiers, security sources said Tuesday, as the International Committee of the Red Cross suspended activities in Timbuktu due to "growing insecurity". A gendarme was killed in an ambush the Segou region, east of the capital Bamako on Tuesday, while at the scene of a robbery, a security source said. A day earlier, two army trucks were targeted by an explosive device in the Koro area near the Burkina Faso border, in which a soldier and two civilians were killed, a senior army officer said. — AFP
Two missing in Guinea army chopper crash
CONAKRY, Aug 07: Two officers were missing after a military helicopter crashed into the sea on Tuesday off the capital of the West African state of Guinea, the army said. The search for the two pilots was under way with "all means human and materiel mobilised by the national defence ministry," the army said in a statement. "The families of the two pilots have been informed of the accident," it added. — AFP
