Russia says U.S. refusal to rebuild Syria a ploy to slow refugee return
Russia will help Lebanon return refugees to neighboring Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday, accusing the United States of impeding the general repatriation process by declining to assist in Syria’s reconstruction.
Russia says will not deploy arms in space first: Ifax
Russia does not plan to put weapons in space first and considers this to be an important signal that Washington should not ignore, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency on Monday.
Death toll nears 400 in India’s flood-hit Kerala, dozens missing
The death toll in India’s southern state of Kerala rose on Monday to nearly 400 after its worst flood in a century, as authorities handed out medicine and disinfectants to ward off disease in thousands of relief camps.
Uganda police disperse protesters in capital as unrest goes on
(In this August 20 story, clarifies police statement in third paragraph)
Merkel sees no urgent need to help Turkey financially
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her Christian Democrats (CDU) at a meeting that she saw no urgent need to offer financial aid for Turkey to ease its currency crisis, the conservative party’s general secretary said on Monday.
U.S.-led coalition service member killed in Iraq crash
A member of the U.S.-led military coalition fighting Islamic State militants was killed and several injured when their helicopter crashed on a counter-terrorism mission in Iraq late on Sunday, the coalition said.
Spanish police treat attempted knife attack as terrorist act
A man, wielding a knife and uttering the word “Allah” lunged at an officer in a police station near Barcelona, Spain, on Monday in what police said was a terrorist act, and was shot dead.
Accused Russian in U.S. faces ‘borderline torture’: Moscow
Russia accused the United States of trying to break the spirit in jail of Maria Butina, a woman U.S. authorities say is a Russian government agent, and complained she was being subjected to “borderline torture.”
Mali’s top court confirms Keita as presidential election winner
Mali’s constitutional court on Monday confirmed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s re-election in a run-off ballot, rejecting fraud accusations by the opposition candidate.
Uri Avnery, first Israeli to meet Arafat, dies at 94
Uri Avnery, a left-wing peace activist who in 1982 became the first prominent Israeli to meet in public with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died on Monday in a Tel Aviv hospital. He was 94.
