AFP, Washington
The global threat posed by the Islamic State group has not been diminished by its battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria, US counterterrorism chief Nick Rasmussen warned Wednesday.
Rasmussen told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that he expects the Islamic State group, after losing its physical territory, to become a covert operation that will still conduct and inspire attacks around the world.”There is not, in fact, a direct link between ISIS’ battlefield position in Iraq and Syria and the group’s capacity to inspire external attacks,” he said.
Syria talks in coming weeks : UN envoy
AFP, United Nations
UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura said Wednesday that he hopes to convene a new round of Syria talks in Geneva in the coming weeks.
“I am calling on both sides to assess the situation with realism and responsibility to the people of Syria and to prepare seriously to participate in the Geneva talks,” de Mistura said at the UN Security Council.
He said he intends to convene an eighth round of talks on the bloody more than six-year conflict no later than the end of October or early November.
Suicide car bomb kills at least 12 Afghan police
Reuters, Kabul
At least 12 Afghan police were killed and four wounded when a Humvee packed with explosives drove into their checkpoint in the southern province of Kandahar late on Wednesday, a government official said.
Abdul Bari Baryalai, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the attack took place in Maruf district, bordering Pakistan.
Heavy rain kills 5 in northwest China
Xinhua, Xi’An
Five people died and four remain missing in the city of Ankang in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province after heavy rain hit the city starting Tuesday, local authorities said Thursday.
Around 150,000 people suffered losses, and the local government has evacuated more than 27,000 residents, according to the city’s flood control headquarters.
US to deploy hospital ship to hurricane
hit Puerto Rico
Reuters, Washington
The U.S. Navy, under mounting public pressure instigated by Hillary Clinton, plans to send the hospital ship USNS Comfort on Friday to the hurricane-battered island of Puerto Rico, the vessel’s first civilian disaster mission in seven years.
The Comfort, equipped to carry as many as 1,000 hospital beds, 12 operating rooms and one of America’s largest trauma units, is due to arrive in Puerto Rico by the middle of next week, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
