Reuters World News Summary

08/08/2016 19:50

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

U.S. air strikes show limits on Libya intervention

While U.S. jets and drones are pounding Islamic State in the Libyan city of Sirte, Western powers are unlikely to expand their military involvement rapidly, anxious to avoid exacerbating factional divisions as the government they support struggles to establish itself. The United Nations-backed government asked for the U.S. air strikes which began on Aug. 1, but it has still not made a long-awaited request for broader security help - including a possible easing of an international arms embargo on the factions which emerged during and after the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

Turkey's Erdogan stages mass rally in show of strength after coup attempt

President Tayyip Erdogan told a rally of more than one million people on Sunday that July's failed coup would be a milestone in building a stronger Turkey, defying Western criticism of mass purges and vowing to destroy those behind the putsch. The "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally" at the Yenikapi parade ground, built into the sea on the southern edge of Istanbul, was a show of strength by Erdogan, who has been angered by European criticism of his combative response to the coup and by U.S. reluctance to hand over the man he accuses of masterminding it.

American, Australian kidnapped in Afghan capital: officials

Afghan authorities are searching for an Australian and an American who were kidnapped by gunmen in the capital, Kabul, officials said on Monday. The pair, believed to be affiliated with a Kabul university, was taken by four or five gunmen from a nearby road late on Sunday, said an official with the Ministry of Interior who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Holy cows and Hindu crusaders cloud Modi's Indian reform drive

Two miles down the road from the white marble walls of the fabled Taj Mahal, a heavyset man crouches in the dirt of a cow shed and explains how the future of India belongs to him. Digvijay Nath Tiwari is commander of a vigilante group that claims 5,000 members in the northern city of Agra, and which cultivates informants, swarms shop owners, ambushes trucks at night and metes out extra-judicial violence, all for one cause: protecting the holy cow, an animal held sacred by Hindu beliefs.

Syrian hospital bombing death toll rises to 13: medical charity

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Monday that 13 people including children had died in the bombing of a hospital in northwestern Syria, describing the weekend attack as an "outrage" which violated international law. MSF said the air strikes had destroyed most of the hospital which specialized in children's medicine and served some 70,000 people in the town of Meles in rebel-held Idlib province.

Indian cold pills pour over remote border to fuel Myanmar narcotics boom

Five years ago, when cold pills first trickled across Myanmar's untamed border with India, many local officials were baffled. Where was this medicine going, and why were smugglers so interested in it? Today, the cross-border trickle has become a torrent and everyone knows why the Indian-made pills are so valuable: they are bound for secret laboratories in lawless eastern Myanmar that churn out most of mainland Southeast Asia's methamphetamine, or "meth."

Japan's emperor speaks to public in remarks suggesting he wants to abdicate

Japanese Emperor Akihito, 82, in a rare video address to the public on Monday, said he worried that age may make it difficult for him to fully carry out his duties, remarks widely seen as suggesting he wants to abdicate. Public broadcaster NHK reported last month that Akihito, who has had heart surgery and been treated for prostate cancer, wanted to step down in a few years - which would be unprecedented in modern Japan.

U.S. urges Russia to halt Syria sieges; Russia slams aid politicization

The United Nations Security Council must not allow civilians on both sides of the Syrian city of Aleppo to be cut off from humanitarian aid, the United States said on Monday as Russia accused Washington of politicizing a humanitarian issue. Insurgents effectively broke a month-long government siege of eastern, opposition-held Aleppo on Saturday, severing the primary government supply corridor and raising the prospect that government-held western Aleppo might become besieged.

Suicide bomber kills at least 70 at Pakistan hospital, IS claim responsibility

A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100 on Monday in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta, and Islamic State claimed responsibility. The bomber struck as a crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists crammed into the emergency department to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been shot and killed in the city earlier in the day, Faridullah, a reporter who was among the wounded, told Reuters.

Japan urges China not to escalate East China Sea tension

Japan said on Monday it would respond firmly after Chinese government vessels intruded into what Japan considers its territorial waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea 14 times at the weekend. Ties between China and Japan, the world's second and third largest economies, have for years been plagued by a dispute over the islands that Japan controls, and the waters around them.

08/08/2016 19:50