AFP, Kabul
The Taliban today urged charity organisations not to hold back in delivering aid to Afghan victims of a devastating earthquake, saying militants in the affected areas were ordered to provide “complete help”.
At least 76 people were killed in Afghanistan after the powerful earthquake struck Monday in the Hindu Kush region, officials said, raising fears that the toll could rise as the full extent of the devastation emerges.
Yemeni hospital hit by Saudi-led air strikes: MSF
Reuters, Dubai
A Yemeni hospital run by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was hit by a Saudi-led air strike, the group said today, the latest bombing of a civilian target in the seven-month air campaign in Yemen.
“MSF facility in Saada Yemen was hit by several airstrikes last night with patients and staff inside the facility,” the group said in a tweet today. Yemen’s state news agency Saba, run the Iran-allied Houthi group that is the coalition’s enemy, quoted the Heedan hospital director saying that several people were injured in the attack.
Congress, White House strike budget deal
AP, Washington
House GOP leaders struck a budget deal made with the White House just before midnight Monday aimed at averting a government shutdown and forestalling a debt crisis.
Speaker John Boehner is making one final appeal to restive Republicans: Pass the hard-won agreement with President Barack Obama before Rep. Paul Ryan assumes the speaker’s job later this week. But he encountered immediate resistance when he laid out the plan Monday night. His plan is for members to vote on the deal Wednesday.
Cross-border Afghan fire kills seven Pakistani soldiers
AFP, Islamabad
Heavy cross-border fire from Afghanistan killed seven Pakistani soldiers Tuesday at a checkpoint in a troubled tribal area, the army said.
“Seven Frontier Corps soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom),” a military statement said. It was not immediately known whether the fire came from militants or from Afghan security forces. It said the heavy fire from across the border targeted a checkpoint northeast of Angoor Adda in South Waziristan tribal region.
Turkish police detain 30 IS suspects in raid
AFP, Ankara
Turkish police detained around 30 Islamic State suspects in a dawn raid on Tuesday, a day after a deadly shootout with a group of the jihadists, local media reported.
Police launched simultaneous operations against IS cell houses in the conservative central Anatolian city of Konya, the Dogan news agency reported, adding that the operation was ongoing.
On Monday, two policemen and seven IS suspects were killed in a gun battle in the Kurdish majority city of Diyarbakir in the southeast of the country.
