Reuters, Sulaimania
A senior Iranian military commander repeatedly warned Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq to withdraw from the oil city of Kirkuk or face an onslaught by Iraqi forces and allied Iranian-backed fighters, Kurdish officials briefed on the meetings said.
Major-General Qassem Soleimani, commander of foreign operations for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, traveled to Iraq’s Kurdistan region to meet Kurdish leaders at least three times this month before the Baghdad government’s lightning campaign to recapture territory across the north.
Portugal forest fires death toll rises to 44
AFP, Lisbon
The death toll from forest fires that have devastated parts of central Portugal in recent days rose again on Friday to 44, following the death of one of the people injured in the blazes, authoriities said.
“It was a person who was seriously injured and hospitalised in Coimbra,” Patricia Gaspar, spokeswoman for the civil protection authority, told AFP.
“The number of injured is still around 70,” she added.
Death toll rises to 71 in two Afghan mosques attacks
Xinhua, Kabul
As many as 71 people were killed and 83 others wounded, when two separate suicide blasts ripped through two mosques in the Afghan capital Kabul and western Ghor province respectively on Friday evening, sources said Saturday.
A total of 41 worshippers were killed and 61 others wounded after a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed vest at about 5:40 p.m. local time in a Shiite mosque named Imam-e-Zaman in Dasht-e-Barchi locality, west of Kabul.
Czechs vote in parliamentary election
AP, Prague
Czech citizens are voting for a second day in a parliamentary election that could install another euroskeptic government in Central Europe. Two days of balloting that started Friday are being held to fill 200 seats in the Czech Republic’s lower house of Parliament. Voting wraps up on Saturday afternoon and results are expected late in the day.
