Homeless feed ban city hacked

United States: Two of Fort Lauder­dale’s official websites crashed on Monday after hacker group Anonymous took action over the city’s ban on feeding homeless people.

In a video posted by Anonymous, an unidentified person had threatened to crash the sites if the city didn’t lift bans on begging, sleeping in public and feeding the homeless.

Fort Lauderdale drew national attention last month after police cited a 90-year-old man and two pastors for feeding homeless people.

Senate blocks cuts to uni funding

Australia: The senate has rejected government legislation that would have cut public funding to universities and allowed them to raise student fees to make up the shortfall.

Yesterday’s tight 33-31 senate vote was a hefty blow to Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s right-wing cuts programme.

The government had hoped to save 1.1 billion Australian dollars (£0.59bn) under the plan, which included reducing restrictions on charging Australian students.

Huge death toll in Bering feared

South Korea: Officials warned of a huge death toll yesterday after rescuers failed to find any of more than 50 fishermen who went missing when their ship sank in the freezing waters of the Bering Sea.

Authorities rescued seven crew members and recovered one body, but weather and water conditions complicated the search for the others.

Rescue workers found an empty lifeboat yesterday.

Islamists kill 36 quarry workers

Kenya: Islamic extremists from Somalia killed 36 quarry workers in northern Kenya early yesterday.

The attackers escaped after the killings in Mandera county near the border with Somalia, according to Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo.

The al-Shabab group, which has been battling for years to establish Islamic rule in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the killings.

Baghdad agrees on Kurd oil plan

Iraq: Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari said yesterday that the central government has reached an agreement in a long-standing oil dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdish regional government.

The Kurdish government will send 550,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraq.

In exchange, the Kurds will receive their 17 per cent share of the national budget allocated to their region, plus instalments of as much as £640 million to boost Kurdish peshmerga fighters battling the Islamic State group.

Dozens of prisoners escape via window

Haiti: Nearly three dozen prisoners awaiting trial in a crowded jail in provincial Saint Marc city escaped by sawing through steel bars, authorities said on Monday.

Thirty-four prisoners crawled through the window at the jail and fled into the darkness, according to the Haitian National Police.

Saint Marc Police Commissioner Berson Soljour said four of the men had been recaptured but the rest remained at large.

Nationalist Party leader quits

Taiwan: The ruling Nationalist Party said yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou would step down as party chairman following defeats in local elections over the weekend.

A statement in Mr Ma’s name said he held himself responsible for the defeat and felt it was time to pass the torch.

He will formally tender his resignation at today’s meeting of the party’s central standing committee.

Prosecutors appeal Mubarak ruling

Egypt: Public prosecutors said yesterday that they would appeal against a Cairo court ruling that murder charges be dropped against ex-president Hosni Mubarak over the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising.

The prosecutor’s office said it decided to appeal as “the ruling was marred by a legal flaw.”