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INDIA

18 die in stampede after spiritual leader's death

A pre-dawn stampede killed 18 people Saturday as tens of thousands of people gathered to mourn the death of a Muslim spiritual leader in India's financial capital, police said.

At least 40 other people were injured in the stampede when mourners thronged the home of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, the head of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, Mumbai Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh said. Burhanuddin died Friday at the age of 102.

Thousands of white-clad mourners had thronged the streets of Malabar Hill, an upmarket neighborhood in south Mumbai. Many were wailing and crying as they inched forward through the narrow road.

Singh said the stampede occurred when the gates leading to the spiritual leader's house were closed about 1 a.m. The crowds surged forward, with many people getting crushed near the gates and with no way to escape.

Tens of thousands of Dawoodi Bohra Muslims from all over India and other countries headed to Mumbai for his funeral later Saturday. - AP
TURKMENISTAN

No more free gas

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov said Saturday that his government will begin installing gas meters in households, ending the unlimited supply of free gas to citizens in the energy-rich Central Asian nation. During a televised address, he said the government hoped the meters would encourage people to consume energy more efficiently, but neither he nor the country's state-owned gas company gave a time frame or a reason behind the policy change. The move comes amid signs that Berdymukhamedov's authoritarian government sees the subsidized domestic energy market as too heavy an economic burden. - AP
YEMEN

Iranian envoy shot to death

Gunmen killed an Iranian diplomat in a drive-by in San'a, Yemen's capital, Saturday, security and medical officials said. Iranian state television said Ali Asghar Asadi, Iran's economic attaché in San'a, suffered four gunshot wounds to the chest and stomach. Relations between Iran and Yemen have soured over what San'a calls Iranian meddling. But Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi condemned Saturday's attack, calling it a "terrorist criminal act." - AP

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