Reuters World News Summary

09/21/2016 19:50

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Congo opposition calls for new sanctions on leaders for protest deaths

A Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader called on Wednesday for the imposition of international sanctions against security officials responsible for the deaths of protesters in two days of demonstrations against President Joseph Kabila. "Without sanctions, they will continue killing people like mosquitoes," said Moise Katumbi, a business tycoon and former Kabila ally. He was convicted in absentia of corruption and sentenced to 36 months in jail after he fled the country in June.

In first U.N. address as leader, Suu Kyi defends efforts on Rohingyas

In her first address to the U.N. General Assembly as national leader, Myanmar's former political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi defended her government's efforts to resolve a crisis over treatment of the country's Muslim minority. Suu Kyi, who has been criticized for doing too little to address the plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine State, said the government did not fear international scrutiny, but asked "for the understanding and the constructive contribution of the international community."

As Obama's term wanes, so does focus on Israeli-Palestinian issue

In his first major United Nations speech eight years ago, President Barack Obama said he would not give up on Israeli-Palestinian peace. In likely his last U.N. speech, on Tuesday, he spoke little about the conflict beyond voicing the unsurprising sentiment that matters would improve if Israel let go of Palestinian land and if the Palestinians rejected incitement and embraced Israel's legitimacy.

Obama tells Netanyahu of U.S. concern on settlements, urges peace

President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday he had concerns about Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and hoped the United States could still help to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace. "Clearly there is great danger of not just terrorism but also flare-ups of violence," Obama said at the start of what was likely to be his last meeting as president with Netanyahu. Obama leaves office in January.

U.S. begins unblocking jetliner sales to Iran

The United States has begun unblocking deals by Western giants to sell jetliners to Iran in a move likely to ease complaints from Tehran over implementation of last year's sanctions deal, but test conservative opposition to the deals in both nations. Europe's Airbus said on Wednesday it had received U.S. Treasury approval to begin exporting jets to Iran, under a deal for more than 100 jets struck in January.

Chile's president says will send gay marriage bill to Congress in 2017

Chile's President Michelle Bachelet said during a United Nations General Assembly panel on LGBT rights on Wednesday that she would send a bill legalizing gay marriage to Congress in the first half of 2017. "My government has committed to submit to Congress a bill on marriage equality during the first half of 2017," Bachelet said, according to a transcript of her remarks.

Saudi-led coalition air strike kills at least six in Yemen: residents

At least 6 civilians were killed on Wednesday when a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a house in western Yemen, residents and medics said. Fighter jets of an Arab alliance launched missiles on Wednesday at a presidential palace in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah occupied by leaders of the Iran-allied Houthi militia, a resident told Reuters.

Brazilian lawmakers under fire for slush funds amnesty bid

President Michel Temer on Wednesday criticized a surprise move by Brazilian lawmakers, including some members of his party and even a cabinet minister, to wipe the slate clean on illegal donations they allegedly received. As prosecutors in the widening Petrobras corruption scandal start to indict some of the 50 politicians investigated for receiving kickbacks, lawmakers anxious to avoid prosecution attempted to pass a bill to specifically criminalize off-the-books donations.

Kerry demands Russia, Syria ground warplanes to save truce

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry demanded on Wednesday that Russia and the Syrian government immediately halt flights over Syrian battle zones, in what he called a last chance to salvage a collapsing ceasefire and find a way "out of the carnage." An impassioned Kerry faced off with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the U.N. Security Council in New York, during a tense televised showdown, saying the bombing of an aid convoy in Syria raised "profound doubt whether Russia and the Assad regime can or will live up to" ceasefire obligations.

U.S. tests for mustard agent after rocket attack near Iraq base

The U.S. military is testing to see if a chemical agent may have been used in a rocket attack in Iraq by Islamic State that came within hundreds of yards (meters) of U.S. forces but injured no one, a U.S. military official said on Wednesday. The rocket fell on Tuesday in an unpopulated area near the Qayyara West base, where hundreds of U.S. forces are working to prepare an airfield ahead of Iraq's offensive to retake the city of Mosul from the radical group Islamic State, said the official, who spoke with Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity.

09/21/2016 19:50