UN Chief says cross-border aid into Syria is essential
AP, United Nations
The U.N. chief is urging the Security Council to authorize the delivery of critically needed humanitarian aid across borders and conflict lines in Syria for another year, saying this aid mainly to rebel-held areas “has staved off an even larger humanitarian crisis inside Syria.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the council circulated Monday that over 1 million people receive cross-border assistance every month.
US man, tried 6 times for murder, released on bail
AFP, Washington
An African-American man who has been tried six times for a quadruple murder refused the acquisitions. He was granted bail on Monday, ahead of a potential seventh trial.
Curtis Flowers, 49, was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to death for the July 1996 murders of four people in a furniture store in Winona, Mississippi, where he had briefly worked until being fired.
The US Supreme Court in June threw out his most recent conviction, saying the exclusion of black jurors was unconstitutional.
Turkey detains nearly 200 over Gulen links
AFP, Ankara
Turkish police on Tuesday detained 181 people suspected of ties to a group blamed for a 2016 coup attempt, the Ankara public prosecutor’s office said.
The detentions came after the capital’s public prosecutor issued arrest warrants for 260 suspects accused of using the encrypted ByLock messaging application which authorities believe was used to coordinate the coup bid.
10 killed from Afghan family heading to funeral
AFP, Khost, Afghanistan
Ten members of the same family were killed Tuesday when their car detonated a roadside bomb as they were travelling to a funeral in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The victims had been driving in Khost province in a large station wagon-type vehicle when the blast occurred, according to local and national officials.
“The casualties include five men, two women and three children all from one family,” Talib Mangal, a spokesman for Khost’s governor, told AFP.
