Iraqi Kurds name president’s cousin as their new PM
AFP, Arbil
Iraqi Kurdistan’s parliament named Masrour Barzani as the region’s new premier on Tuesday, a day after his cousin was sworn in as its president.
Masrour Barzani, 50, is the son of longtime Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani and had been serving as national security adviser for the autonomous region since 2012.
Indian toddler dies after 110 hours down well
AFP, New Delhi
A two-year-old Indian boy stuck in a narrow well for more than four days was pulled out dead on Tuesday, triggering protests over delays in reaching the toddler.
The case of Fatehveer Singh captured national attention after he fell into the 33-metre (110 feet) deep well in the Punjab state district of Sangrur while playing on Thursday.
South Korean agencies can’t confirm Kim
brother as CIA source
AP, Seoul
South Korean agencies said Tuesday they could not confirm a report that the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a U.S. intelligence source and had traveled to Malaysia to meet his CIA contact before being assassinated there in 2017.
Officials at South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and Unification Ministry, which oversees ties with North Korea, said they couldn’t confirm Monday’s report by The Wall Street Journal, which attributed the details to an unidentified “person knowledgeable about the matter.”
Iran says detained US resident to be released
AP, Tehran
Iran has agreed to hand over a U.S. permanent resident imprisoned for years in Tehran to Lebanese officials, an Iranian judiciary official said Tuesday, providing the first official confirmation that Nizar Zakka would be sent back to his native Lebanon.
The comment by judiciary spokesman Gholam -hossein Esmaili comes as a top Lebanese security official is in Tehran to secure Zakka’s release, which has been anticipated for days.
Afghan forces rescue 34 people from Taliban-run prison
AP, Kabul
The Interior Ministry says Afghan special forces have rescued 34 people from a Taliban-run prison in northern Baghlan province.
Tuesday’s statement from the ministry says 17 civilians and 17 members of the security forces – seven soldiers, seven policemen and three intelligence agents – were freed during the operation, which took place on Monday.
One dead as copter crash-lands on Manhattan building
AFP, New York
A helicopter crash-landed on top of a high-rise in midtown Manhattan Monday, starting a fire and leaving one person dead as the entire building shook from the impact.
Emergency services fanned out around the 54-story building on Seventh Avenue after what was described as a “hard-landing” by a chopper that took off barely 10 minutes earlier from a heliport in the city.
