Reuters World News Summary

08/19/2016 19:51

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Biden holds calls with Cyprus president, Turkish Cypriot leader: White House

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden held separate phone calls on Friday with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, and congratulated them both on progress in talks on reunifying the country, the White House said. "The vice president expressed hope that the leaders would be able to make significant additional progress in the talks before their travel to the United Nations General Assembly, and that an agreement could be reached by the end of 2016," the White House said in a statement.

Justice elusive for slain aid workers on front lines of crises

It was a massacre that shocked the world's humanitarian community. Seventeen aid workers were killed outside their office in Sri Lanka's northeast - executed at point-blank range with automatic weapons in one of the worst attacks on humanitarians.

FBI asked Macau billionaire if partner was Chinese agent: court records

The FBI last year questioned a Macau billionaire charged with participating in a bribery scheme at the United Nations about whether one of his partners was involved with Chinese foreign intelligence, according to court records. A transcript of a Federal Bureau of Investigation interview of Macau real estate developer Ng Lap Seng following his 2015 arrest was filed in federal court in Manhattan last week by his lawyers.

Turkey arrests novelist for ties to Kurdish militants: media

A Turkish court arrested prize-winning novelist Asli Erdogan on Friday over alleged links to Kurdish militants, the Haberturk newspaper reported, three days after she and two dozen more staff from the pro-Kurdish Ozgur Gundem newspaper were detained. Ozgur Gundem was closed by court order on Tuesday on grounds of spreading propaganda of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

Exclusive: U.S. withdraws staff from Saudi Arabia dedicated to Yemen planning

The U.S. military has withdrawn from Saudi Arabia its personnel who were coordinating with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, and sharply reduced the number of staff elsewhere who were assisting in that planning, U.S. officials told Reuters. Fewer than five U.S. service people are now assigned full-time to the "Joint Combined Planning Cell," which was established last year to coordinate U.S. support, including air-to-air refueling of coalition jets and limited intelligence-sharing, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a U.S. Navy spokesman in Bahrain, told Reuters.

Russian cruise missiles target Syria

Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo on Friday, a further sign of Moscow's broadening military effort in Syria days after it began to fly bombing missions from an airbase in Iran. Russian air power had helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad make steady advances against rebels seeking to oust him since Moscow's intervention a year ago, but a recent insurgent advance in Aleppo has checked that momentum.

Incendiary bombs dropped on hospital, Syrian rebel group says

A Syrian army helicopter dropped incendiary "barrel bombs" on the only hospital in besieged, opposition-held Daraya early on Friday, putting it out of action, rebels and a war monitor said. Around 25 people who were in the hospital at the time were evacuated and no one was hurt, Issam al-Reis, spokesman for the Free Syrian Army Southern Front groups, said in an emailed statement, but all the hospital's medical equipment was destroyed.

FBI probing possible U.S. ties to corruption by former Ukraine president: CNN

The FBI and U.S. Justice Department are investigating possible U.S. ties to alleged corruption involving the former president of Ukraine, including the work of firms headed by political operatives Paul Manafort and Tony Podesta, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple U.S. law enforcement officials. The broad-based investigation was looking into whether U.S. companies and the financial system were used to enable corruption by the party of former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, CNN said.

Libya's jihadist challenge to last beyond Sirte defeat

The grand ambitions scrawled on a wall near the Libyan city of Sirte's Mediterranean sea front look fanciful now: "Islamic State's naval port, the departure point for Rome, with God's permission." Beaten back by local forces over three months and by U.S. air strikes since Aug. 1, Islamic State is on the verge of losing the city where it exerted absolute control since last year, its most important base outside Syria and Iraq.

Putin flies into Crimea amid war games and tension

Vladimir Putin flew into annexed Crimea on Friday a day after staging war games there, and said he hoped Ukraine would see "common sense" when it came to resolving a diplomatic crisis over the peninsula. Two years after Russian troops seized the peninsula, it is again the focus of international tension, after the Russian president accused Kiev last week of sending saboteurs who clashed with Russian troops.

08/19/2016 19:51