News in Brief -(21-10-2019)

FE Team | Published: October 20, 2019 23:23:16

Turkish soldier dies amid shaky Syria ceasefire
AKCAKALE, Oct 20: Turkey's defense ministry says one soldier has been killed amid sporadic clashes with Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, despite a US-brokered cease-fire. Sunday's ministry statement said that Syrian Kurdish fighters have violated the three-day-old cease-fire some 20 times. — AP

Twenty die in DR Congo bus accident
MBANZA-NGUNGU, Oct 20: Twenty people were killed early Sunday when a packed bus came off the road on a highway west of the DR Congo capital Kinshasa and burst into flames, a local official said. "The provisional toll is 20 dead," Didier Nsimba, deputy administrator of Mbanza-Ngungu territory said. The bus, laden with people and goods, was travelling from from Lufu to Kinshasa when the brakes failed, he said. — AFP

Green parties may fare well in Switzerland polls
BERLIN, Oct 20: Voters in Switzerland are electing a new national parliament, with recent polls suggesting that green parties could fare well in a year when environmental concerns have swept across Europe. The election for the 200 members of the National Council, parliament's lower house, and 46 members of the Council of States, the upper house, could offer the latest sign of how fears about climate change impact European voting. Balloting ends at midday Sunday. Most Swiss voters cast ballots by mail. — AP

Siberia arrests three after dam break
MOSCOW, Oct 20: Three officials at a gold mine in Siberia where 15 people died after a dam collapsed were arrested on Sunday, the Russian authorities said. "The head of the gold mining company Sissim and the manager and foreman of the mining site have been arrested," the Investigative Committee, a powerful inquiry agency, said in a statement. —AFP

Algeria destroys five terrorist shelters
ALGIERS, Oct 20: Algeria's Defence Ministry Saturday said in a statement that Algerian army destroyed five terrorist shelters on Friday in the provinces of Batna and Skikda. The official APS news agency quoted the statement as saying that in the framework of the fight against terrorism, the army discovered and destroyed on Oct. 18 five shelters for terrorists in search operations carried out in the province of Batna and Skikda, 410 km southeast and 500 km east of capital Algiers, respectively. — Xinhua