Russia

99 dead in southern floods

Emergency officials in southern Russia's Krasnodar region say 99 people are dead in flooding after torrential rains.

Officials said 67 of the deaths in rain that began Friday night were in the area of the city of Krimsk, about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of Moscow.

Five people died of electrical shock in the Black Sea coastal city of Gelendzhik after a transformer fell into the water.

Libya

Elections begin amid violence

Libya's landmark national congress election, which was kicked off Saturday morning and hailed as a milestone on the path toward democracy after the toppling of former leader Muammar Gadhafi, encountered a series of violent disruptions.

A polling station in Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, was attacked by extreme Islamists, according to local Libya Al-Hurra TV. There are reports that voting in the two cities of Ajdabiya and Brega will be postponed until Sunday after arsonists destroyed election materials.

Japan

Afghan aid pledges of $16b expected

Donors at a major development conference for Afghanistan will pledge total aid of more than $16 billion for four years to 2015, Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said on Saturday.

Japan, which will co-chair the one-day conference on Sunday with Afghanistan, will provide up to $3 billion for the five years to 2016, in addition to $1 billion for the war-torn nation's neighboring states, he said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will be in Tokyo along with officials including United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.

Sudan / South Sudan

New agreement reached on talks

Sudan and South Sudan have agreed on a negotiation framework for their outstanding issues in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Khartoum's Al-Sahafa daily reported Saturday.

Meanwhile, the speaker of the legislature in Sudan's war-torn South Kordofan state has been killed in an ambush along with seven other people. Rebels in the region denied any involvement.

Ibrahim Balandiya died in the attack on Friday in Habila district of the state's north, official state media reported.

United States

California OKs high-speed rail

California lawmakers gave final approval to a high-speed rail plan on Friday in a make-or-break vote for $8 billion in funding to start construction on a 130-mile (210-km) section of track through the state's central agricultural heartland. The 21-16 vote in the state Senate was a substantial win for Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, who says a bullet train network will boost job creation and provide an alternative to car and plane travel in the country's most populous state.

Reuters - AP

(China Daily 07/08/2012 page2)