on new PM
AFP, Yerevan
Thousands of people rallied in Armenia’s capital on Wednesday to protest the election of former president Serzh Sarkisian as prime minister, viewed by the opposition as a power grab.
Police detained dozens of protesters who sought to block one of Yerevan’s major thoroughfares, an AFP reporter said.
US plans to send ‘IS fighter’ to third country
AFP, Washington
The US government intends to hand over to a third country an American citizen captured in Syria allegedly fighting for the Islamic State group, rather than present him to the US justice system, a court filing showed Tuesday.
In the Trump administration’s first decision on how to deal with citizens caught fighting for a designated terror group, the US military plans to turn over the man, a dual US-Saudi citizen born in the United States and now held in Iraq, to an unnamed country as early as late Thursday.
Libya rescues over 200 immigrants
Xinhua, Tripoli
Libyan coast guard on Tuesday rescued more than 200 illegal immigrants on two rubber boats off western coast, according to a local official.
“The department has received 204 illegal immigrants of nine African nationalities, including 71 women and 10 children, after they were rescued by a coast guard patrol and taken to Tripoli naval base,” Husni Abu-Ayana, media officer of Tripoli’s anti-illegal immigration department, told Xinhua.
IS leader in Sinai killed in shootout
AP, Cairo
Egypt’s military says its forces have killed a man they identified as the leader of the Islamic State group in the restive Sinai Peninsula.
Col. Tamer el-Rifai, a military spokesman, says in a Wednesday statement that Naser Abou Zaqoul has been killed in a shootout with troops in central Sinai. He did not elaborate.
The news came just days after the military said eight soldiers were killed and 15 wounded when militants wearing explosive belts blew themselves up as they tried to infiltrate a military base in central Sinai.
Trump taps former Treasury official for Fed post
AFP, Washington
President Donald Trump on Monday nominated a former Treasury official and a Kansas banking regulator to fill two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve Board.
If confirmed by the Senate, the picks allow Trump to further mold the central bank leadership to his liking.
Storm claims 8 lives in West Bengal
Xinhua, New Delhi
Eight people were killed and many injured as a deadly storm with winds up to 104 km per hour hit India’s eastern state West Bengal in the past 24 hours, official sources confirmed on Wednesday.
The storm hit the state capital Kolkata and its adjoining areas.
