UN nuclear watchdog to appoint new head in October
AP, Berlin
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog aims to name a new leader in October following the death last month of Yukiya Amano, its director general for the past decade.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said as its board of governors met in Vienna Thursday that nominations for the job should be submitted by Sept. 5 and the new director general is expected to be appointed in October. The new leader should take office by Jan. 1.
Israeli army kills Palestinian who crossed Gaza fence
AP, Jerusalem
Israeli troops shot and killed an armed Palestinian man who had crossed the Gaza perimeter fence and fired on soldiers, the military said Thursday.
Three soldiers were wounded in the overnight shootout with the gunman. In response, a tank “targeted a Hamas military post in Gaza,” the Israeli army said in a statement. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an army spokesman, told reporters that the military believes the gunman acted alone.
US navy fighter jet crashes in California
Reuters, Los Angeles
A US military fighter jet crashed on Wednesday in the California desert near a Navy air station, military officials said, leaving the fate of the pilot unknown.
The F/A-18E Super Hornet went down at about 10 am PDT (1 pm EDT), Lt. Cmdr. Lydia Bock, public affairs officer for the Joint Strike Fighter Wing, said in a written statement. Bock said search and rescue crews were on the scene of the crash, east of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California.
IS aims for resurgence in Iraq, Syria: UN
AP, United Nations
Leaders of the Islamic State extremist group are aiming to consolidate and create conditions for an “eventual resurgence in its Iraqi and Syrian heartlands,” U.N. experts said in a new report.
The panel of experts said in a report to the Security Council this week that the process is more advanced in Iraq, where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and most of the militant group’s leadership are now based following the fall of the so-called “caliphate” that he declared in the two neighboring countries.
