Reuters World News Summary

08/29/2016 19:50

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Libyan forces say Islamic State beaten back in Sirte

Libyan forces said they captured a residential neighborhood in central Sirte from Islamic State on Monday, leaving just one district of the city still occupied by the militants. Spokesman Rida Issa said Sirte's neighborhood Number One was "completely liberated," but added that the brigades, backed by U.S. air strikes, were "in the process of clearing any remnants of Daesh (Islamic State)" from the area.

Support for Australian PM hits all-time low

Support for Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has fallen to an all-time low, according to a poll by The Australian newspaper on Tuesday. The poll of 1,696 Australian voters found satisfaction with Turnbull has fallen to 34 percent, the lowest level since he ousted former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in September 2014.

New Cuba tourism seen slow to take off despite U.S. flights

An expected explosion in U.S. tourism to Cuba will likely take years to materialize even after U.S. airlines resume commercial flights to the Caribbean island this week for the first time since 1961, industry officials said. JetBlue Airways Corp will pilot its historic flight from Florida to the Cuban city of Santa Clara on Wednesday, the latest step in normalizing relations that earlier this year included a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama and the first U.S. cruise to the island in decades.

U.S. tries to stop feuding allies from unraveling Syria strategy

The United States scrambled on Monday to get its feuding allies, Turkey and Kurdish YPG militia, to focus their firepower on Islamic State instead of each other after clashes that have threatened to unravel America's war strategy in Syria. Turkey, which has long viewed Kurdish militants as its top security threat, upended U.S. assumptions about the conflict by launching a major push last week into northern Syria that has included areas controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes experienced Kurdish YPG fighters.

Suicide bomber kills 54 in Yemen attack: health ministry

A suicide bomber killed at least 54 people when he drove a car bomb into a militia compound in Aden on Monday, the health ministry said, in one of the deadliest attacks claimed by Islamic State in the southern Yemeni port city. The director general of Yemen's health ministry in Aden, al-Khader Laswar, told Reuters that at least 67 other people were wounded in the attack in the city's Mansoura district.

European experts float post-Brexit 'partnership' with Britain

A senior German lawmaker, an adviser to the French prime minister and a former deputy head of the Bank of England have proposed that a post-Brexit Britain form a new "continental partnership" with the EU. In a paper published on Monday by the Brussels-based Bruegel think-tank, five experts argue that Britain be given a say in the affairs of a more closely integrated European Union in return for contributing to shared security and budgets as well as accepting a degree of easy immigration for European workers.

Turkish forces deepen push into Syria, draw U.S. rebuke over their target

Turkish-backed forces pushed deeper into northern Syria on Monday and drew a rebuke from NATO ally the United States, which said it was concerned the battle for territory had shifted away from targeting Islamic State. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter called on Turkey to stay focused on fighting Islamic State militants and not to target Kurdish elements of Syrian rebel forces, which Washington backs. The White House said a continued Turkish push would complicate the fight against Islamic State.

Rockets hit Saudi border town as Yemen war flares anew

Yemeni Houthi forces are again firing rockets at this corner of southern Saudi Arabia, ending a lull of several weeks and complicating efforts to revive talks on ending Yemen's 18-month-old civil war. This month's collapse of negotiations on the Yemen conflict - which like the Syrian civil war pits allies of Saudi Arabia against those of its regional rival Iran - is taking a toll in the Saudi city of Najran, albeit on a much smaller scale than in Yemen itself.

Exclusive: Yemen council head hails peace push, wants Saudis to 'feel pain'

The head of a Houthi-backed ruling council pledged readiness on Monday to resume negotiations on ending Yemen's war but reserved the right to resist attacks by a Saudi-backed exiled government seeking to unseat it. "We have not closed the door for peace or the door to negotiations," Saleh al-Sammad, an official of the dominant Iranian-allied Houthi movement, told Reuters in an interview.

Portugal's Guterres still leads race for U.N. chief after third ballot

Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres still leads the race to become the next United Nations Secretary-General after a third U.N. Security Council secret ballot on Monday, diplomats said. The 15-member council cast a ballot for each of the remaining 10 candidates, and the choices were: encourage, discourage or no opinion. Guterres received 11 encourage, three discourage and one no opinion, diplomats said.

08/29/2016 19:50