Reuters World News Summary

08/14/2016 19:52

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Woman and suspect die after Swiss train attack, two girls in serious condition

One woman died and two girls were in serious condition a day after an attack on a Swiss train by a man armed with a knife and flammable fluid which also claimed the suspect's life, local police said on Sunday. The 34-year-old woman and the 27-year-old suspect died from their injuries on Sunday, St Gallen cantonal police said.

Saudi king returns home, gives bonus to personnel fighting in Yemen

Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz returned home on Sunday after a month-long holiday in Morocco, and ordered a month's extra pay for Saudi military and security personnel actively involved in military operations in Yemen, state news agency SPA said. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef had been left to manage the kingdom's affairs in the king's absence.

Ghana's president promises return to prosperity as he kicks off re-election campaign

Ghana's President John Mahama told supporters the country was overcoming its economic problems and promised a return to prosperity as he launched his campaign on Sunday ahead of what is expected to be a close-run election. Ghana was one of Africa's fastest-growing economies at the beginning of the decade thanks to exports of gold, cocoa and oil. But growth has tumbled since 2014 due to a slump in commodities prices, leading to a fiscal crisis and unpopular austerity measures.

Eight shot dead in Honduras in apparent drug gangs' dispute: police

Eight people were shot dead by unknown assailants early on Sunday in the outskirts of Honduras's capital Tegucigalpa, police said, an apparent reprisal attack in a bloody gang dispute that has devastated the poor Central-American nation. The victims were attacked outside a bar in the southern Altos de Loarque district, an area dominated by Honduras's infamous Mara Salvatrucha (MS) gang. Several men got out of a truck and opened fire with rifles and pistols, a police official said.

Bus blast kills fighters at Syrian border crossing with Turkey

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest on a bus in Syria near the Atmeh border crossing into Turkey late on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and injuring 25 others, some critically, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The bus was carrying fighters for Syria's civil war, the observatory reported.

Heavy fighting in Aleppo as Syrian rebels renew their assault: monitor

Heavy fighting took place in different sectors of the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday as rebels assaulted two government strongholds in the city's northwest and south, a monitor of the war said. Fighting for control of Aleppo, split between its government-held west and rebel-held eastern neighborhoods, has intensified in recent weeks causing hundreds of deaths and depriving many civilians of power, water and vital supplies.

Boko Haram video claims to show missing Nigerian school girls

Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has published a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of school girls kidnapped two years ago, and saying some of them have been killed in air strikes. Boko Haram seized more than 270 girls from their school in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, in April 2014, part of a seven-year-old insurgency to set up an Islamic state in the north that has killed some 15,000 people and displaced more than two million.

Libyans fighting Islamic State in Sirte report advances along coast

Libyan forces fighting to oust Islamic State from their former North African stronghold of Sirte said they had made advances on Sunday in a coastal neighborhood after staging attacks by land, sea and air. The forces, led by brigades from the city of Misrata and aligned with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, secured several key sites in Sirte this week, their progress helped by U.S. air strikes against Islamic State that began on Aug. 1.

Islamic State faces uphill 'branding war' in Afghanistan, Pakistan

The U.S. drone strike that killed Islamic State's commander for Afghanistan and Pakistan was the latest blow to the Middle East-led movement's ambitions to expand into a region where the long-established Taliban remain the dominant Islamist force. Islamic State has enticed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jihadist fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan to switch loyalty and has held a small swathe of territory in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where leader Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed on July 26 by a U.S. drone, Washington confirmed late Friday.

Kurdish forces launch fresh thrust to retake Mosul from Islamic State

Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a fresh attack on Islamic State (IS) forces early on Sunday as part of a campaign to capture Mosul, the militants' de facto capital in Iraq, Kurdish officials said. The advance began after heavy shelling and air strikes by a United States-led coalition against IS forces, a Reuters correspondent reported from Wardak, 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Mosul. The militants fought back, firing mortars at the advancing troops and detonating at least two car bombs.

08/14/2016 19:52