AP, London
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in London for talks Thursday on international efforts to pressure North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs, and on the chaos in Libya. Tillerson was meeting first with senior British and French officials. All three nations are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council which this week approved new sanctions to punish Pyongyang’s Sept. 3 atomic test, its largest to date.
Russia launches war games
AFP, Moscow
Russia On Thursday began major joint military exercises with Belarus along the European Union’s eastern flank-a show of strength that has rattled nervous NATO members. Named Zapad-2017 (West-2017), the manoeuvres, scheduled to last until September 20, are taking place on the territory of Moscow’s closest ally Belarus, in Russia’s European exclave of Kaliningrad and in its frontier Pskov and Leningrad regions.
19 killed, 10 missing in Indian boat
capsize
Reuters, New Delhi
At least 19 people drowned and 10 are missing after a boat capsized in the Yamuna river in northern Indian on Thursday, a police officer said. The boat capsized on Thursday morning while farmers were being ferried to their farmlands.
Dharavath Pradeep Kumar, a senior police officer who was leading rescue operations, said the boat was carrying 40 people, many more than its capacity of 25.
Irma death toll rises to 31 in US
Good Morning America
The death toll from Hurricane Irma in the United States continued to climb Thursday, with at least 31 dead across three states.
In Florida, 24 people have died in connection with the storm, including a weather-related car accident in the Florida Keys and the eight people who died after Irma knocked out air conditioning at a nursing home in Hollywood. The latest death blamed on Irma was announced on Wednesday night by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, which said a 7-year-old died from carbon monoxide poisoning after a generator was used inside her home.
Officials in Monroe County, Florida, which includes the Keys, said today that seven others died in the county during Irma but it was unclear how many of the deaths were storm-related.
Four people died in South Carolina and three in Georgia, officials said.
The county said search-and-rescue teams are going door to door today in the hardest hit areas of the Keys and that military personnel are helping with the search.
