Turkish Army sacks 55 generals on coup, terrorism charges
A Turkish military council has announced the retirement of 55 generals and admirals, 40 of them currently in jail. The decision was approved Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan after the council’s meeting on Friday. The military officials are suspected of plotting a coup and related terrorist acts. They face charges connected to the Ergenekon militant network, the alleged 2003 Baloyz planned secularist coup and an internet campaign to discredit Turkey’s ruling party.
Sweden to commemorate Holocaust hero
This Saturday, Sweden will celebrate the centenary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat widely known for his efforts in rescuing tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Hungary. Canada, Israel and the United States have also saluted Wallenberg’s heroics, and awarded him honorary citizenship. Wallenberg is believed to have disappeared during the Soviet siege of Budapest, and was reported dead in July 1947.
Death toll from North Korea floods reaches 169
Recent flooding in North Korea has killed 169 people, with another 400 missing, the state Korean Central News Agency announced on Saturday. The figures are a sharp increase from earlier casualty figures. Flooding also displaced roughly 212,200 people, and destroyed more than 65,000 hectares of farmland between late June and the end of July, the agency reported. The World Food Program announced it is sending emergency food aid to the flood-ravaged country.
Philippines Roman Catholic Church rallies against family planning bill
Filipino Roman Catholic clerics led a rally against a proposed law that would provide government funding for birth control and introduce reproductive health and sexuality classes in schools. “Contraceptives corrupt moral values and promote the view that babies are a nuisance,” the Church said in a statement. The president of the Philippines, which is Asia’s fastest-growing country, has come out in support of contraception rights. The Philippines House of Representatives is set to vote on the bill next week.
China slams West for ‘obstruction’ in Syrian crisis
Beijing reiterated its support for a peaceful political solution to the ongoing Syrian crisis Saturday, and blamed the West for obstructing diplomatic and political efforts to restore order in the country. The comments came from a deputy head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s North African and West Asian department, in the wake of the UN General Assembly’s passage of a non-binding resolution on Syria. China was one of 12 countries that voted against the resolution. Russia and China have vetoed three separate Security Council resolutions on Syria. In each case, both countries claimed the bills were one-sided in favor of the Syrian opposition.
North Korea threatens harder line in nuclear disarmament talks
Pyongyang intends to harden its opposition to international pressure on its nuclear program, Washington-funded broadcaster Voice of America quotes a senior North Korean official as saying. The message follows three days of informal talks between North Korean diplomats and an unofficial US delegation in Singapore. The reason for the warning was “the US hostile policies” toward Pyongyang, North Korean diplomat Choi Sun-hee wrote. The US State Department responded by with a statement that Washington is “committed to the maintenance of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and has no hostile intent toward North Korea.” The State Department did not participate in the talks in Singapore.
Two killed in gun battle in Saudi Arabia’s Shiite region
One Saudi soldier was shot dead and another was wounded late Friday while patrolling an area in the city of Qatif populated by minority Shiite Muslims. One gunman was killed in the ensuing shootout. “A security patrol was exposed to heavy fire from four armed rioters on motorbikes when pausing at a street intersection in Qatif," the Saudi Interior Ministry said. Three gunmen were arrested in connection to the shootings. Another man suffering a bullet injury from the battle was arrested at a hospital.
UN announces food aid for flood-ravaged North Korea
The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) plans to send the first batch of emergency food aid to North Korea, to aid victims of last month’s 14-day flooding. Pyongyang requested international aid following storms and flooding that killed nearly 120 people and left more than 84,000 homeless. The disaster also destroyed more than 45,000 hectares of farmland in the impoverished country. A UN fact-finding mission has traveled to North Korea, and is set to report on the country’s food and agriculture in September.
Iran tests new fourth-generation missile, claims can strike sea targets
Iran has test-fired an upgraded version of its ‘Fateh-110’ short-range ballistic missile, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced. The solid-fuel missile possesses an operational range of 185 miles (300 km), and can pinpoint targets at sea, Vahidi said. The Fateh-110 was developed by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, and is said to be the most accurate weapon in the Islamic Republic’s arsenal.
First-ever car bomb attack in post-Gaddafi Tripoli
A Tunisian national was slightly injured by a car bomb blast near the Libyan military police offices in Tripoli on Saturday. The bombing is the first such attack in the capital since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi last year. Authorities have yet to announce a suspect in the attacks.
Sudan and South Sudan settle oil conflict
Sudan and South Sudan have come to an agreement on how to split the two nations’ oil reserves in the wake of the South’s secession, African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki announced. He provided no further details on the deal, but said production and shipment of crude oil will resume. South Sudan it took control of most of the region’s oil fields after winning independence in July 2011, but the pipelines and shipping ports needed to transport the oil remained under Sudan’s control. The two countries have been at odds over an oil revenue-sharing deal, sparking the renewal of a decades-old military conflict in January.
Coal mine accident in Mexico kills six
At least six miners were killed after an accident at the Altos Hornos de Mexico underground coal mine in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. "Seven were trapped, one of them was rescued alive but unfortunately six were buried under the coal," company spokesperson Francisco Orduna said. The accident is believed to have been caused by a gas blast, which caused a cave-in. Some 200 miners were reportedly working in the mine at the time of the incident; most were successfully evacuated.
ECB emergency loans could save Greece from default - report
The European Central Bank has increased the upper limit for the amount of short-term loans the Bank of Greece can accept in exchange for emergency loans, German newspaper Die Welt reported on Saturday. Up until now, the amount of treasury bills the Bank of Greece could accept was limited to 3 billion euro. Greece has applied to have this limit increased to 7 billion euro, ECB sources told the newspaper. The move could save Greece from default until the European Union, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund decide on releasing the country's next bailout tranche.
Former Mexican Governor pleads guilty in US court
Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, the former Governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to money laundering at his arraignment in a US federal court, Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara said. Authorities accuse Villanueva Madrid of laundering millions of dollars of cocaine bribe payments from the Juarez Cartel through bank accounts in the US and other countries. Villanueva Madrid, who was extradited from Mexico in 2010 and initially pleaded not guilty, now faces up to 20 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for October.
Egypt’s president pledges to ensure security for tourists
New Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has pledged to guarantee security for tourists to the country, and to make “every effort to prevent anything that could damage tourism again.” The Islamist leader made his remarks during a visit to the city of Luxor in southern Egypt, which is rich in historic sites but has been hard-hit by tourists staying away. "After the revolution, Egyptians are intent on assuring security for all visitors," he said, promising that Luxor would remain the capital of tourism and antiquities. Egypt’s tourism sector was badly hit the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The number of tourists who visited Egypt in the first quarter of 2012 is 27.8 per cent lower than in the same period of 2010.
Fire kills one, injures 16 at Iranian petrochemical complex
A fire has killed one person and injured 16 others at Iran’s biggest petrochemical complex, the Imam Khomeini in the southwestern city of Mahshahr. Four of those injured remain in critical condition, said governor Manoochehr Hayati. According to Hayati, the fire was caused by a gas leak. It caused no disruption of the facility’s operations, as it was soon extinguished, Fars news agency reported.
Two wounded in upstate NY house explosion
A house has blown up in the city of Corning, New York, leaving two of its residents seriously injured, local media report. The blast reduced the house to a pile of rubble, from which the two people were rescued. A house adjacent to the one that exploded was severely damaged, while other buildings in the neighborhood had their windows blown out. The explosion was apparently caused by a gas leak.
German prosecutors charge suspected Taliban militant
German prosecutors have charged a German man with membership in an Islamist militant group, and with preparing a “serious act of violent subversion.” The 26-year-old, known only as Thomas U, is suspected of being a member of an organization calling itself the German Taliban Mujahideen between December 2009 and July 2010, federal prosecutors said, as cited by Reuters. The man had also been trained to use firearms and explosives at a facility on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Prosecutors say he participated in an attack on an American military base in late 2009. He was arrested in Turkey in 2010 and extradited to Germany in May of this year.
NASA to invest $1.1 billion in privately-made space taxis
The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has announced that it will pay $1.1 billion over the next three year to three private firms to develop commercial spaceships capable of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Boeing is set to receive $460 million to develop the CST-100 capsule, while Space Exploration Technologies (SET) will be paid $440 million to upgrade its Dragon capsule. The Sierra Nevada Corp. will receive $212.5 million to construct the Dream Chaser, a winged spacecraft resembling a miniature shuttle. In May, the Dragon capsule became the first privately-owned spacecraft to dock to the ISS. NASA hopes the new spacecraft will replace the space shuttles it had been using until last year. Since then, it has been dependent on Russian rockets to transport astronauts to and from the ISS.
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