Reuters, Guatemala City:
Guatemala’s new President Alejandro Giammattei said on Thursday his country was cutting diplomatic ties with Venezuela and closing its embassy in Caracas, the Central American country’s state news agency reported.
“We have instructed the foreign minister that the only person left in the embassy in Venezuela should return, and that we definitively end relations with the government of Venezuela,” the agency known as AGN quoted Giammattei as saying. “We are going to close the embassy.”
Israel hits Hamas target in Gaza as balloon attacks resume
AP, Jerusalem
The Israeli military said an attack helicopter struck a Hamas target in the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday in response to the launch of incendiary balloons into Israeli territory earlier in the day.
Israeli police said the balloons touched down in southern Israel and a bomb squad was dispatched. Police said there was an explosion, but there were no injuries.
US military training for Saudi students could resume soon
AP, Washington
U.S. training for more than 800 Saudi Arabian military students could be restarted “in the coming days,” the Pentagon said Thursday, nearly six weeks after a shooting by one Saudi trainee killed three sailors at a Florida base.
The Pentagon had stopped all flight and field training for the approximately 850 Saudi students amid fears that others may have known about or been involved in the shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. Classroom training has continued.
Mali attack kills 15 in Fulani village
AFP, Bamako
Fifteen people have been killed in an attack on a Fulani village in central Mali, security and local officials said on Thursday, in a fresh bout of apparent ethnic violence in the war-torn country.
Armed men attacked Sinda village between Wednesday night and the early hours of Thursday morning, said a security official who requested anonymity, adding some victims had their throats slit in their sleep.
