Russia ready to police Syria safe zones
ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Russia said it’s ready to send peacekeepers to Syria as it won backing from Turkey and Iran for a plan to establish safe zones inside the war-torn country in an effort to shore up a shaky cease-fire brokered by the three powers.
The three countries signed a memorandum on the creation of the socalled de-escalation areas on Thursday after two days of talks in Kazakhstan that also included representatives of the Syrian government and rebel groups.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he had secured the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump for the proposal, which could include a ban on bombing raids. The United Nations’ Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who also attended the Astana talks, described the agreement as a “step in the right direction.”
10 killed in Mexico clash
MEXICO CITY — At least 10 people were killed, including four soldiers, in clashes between Mexican troops and fuel thieves in Puebla state, Mexican officials said Thursday.
The clashes, which took place Wednesday evening, were the most deadly confrontations to date between Mexican law enforcement authorities and fuel smugglers known as huachicoleros.
The huachicoleros have been tapping into pipelines and pilfering fuel for more than a decade, authorities say, but the thefts have accelerated as gasoline prices have risen this year.
Suspected smugglers
BERLIN — Hungary indicted 11 people suspected of being smugglers on Thursday in the suffocation of 71 refugees, whose decomposing bodies were found stuffed inside a locked truck parked in neighboring Austria two summers ago at the height of Europe’s migration crisis.
The indictments of the suspects, including at least one Afghan, a Lebanese and several Bulgarians, were announced by Hungarian prosecutors. They also revealed for the first time that 67 other refugees had narrowly averted the same fate from the same smuggling ring, by kicking open the doors of their truck to escape.
Somalia minister killed
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s minister of public works, a 31-yearold former refugee who was the youngest Cabinet member in the country’s fragile government, was shot to death by armed soldiers Wednesday, officials said.
The soldiers — who were guarding another official, the auditor general — shot the minister, Abbas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji, near the presidential palace.
A government spokesman, Abdirahman Omar Osman, confirmed Mr. Siraji’s death “following gunfire from soldiers.” He said Mr. Siraji had a “full and promising future ahead of him.”
Also in the world ...
On Thursday, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan warlord, returned to Kabul, Afghanistan after decades of allying with and then fighting against almost every faction in Afghanistan, backed by a peace deal with President Ashraf Ghani. ... The death toll in a coal mine explosion in northern Iran has risen to 35, Labor Minister Ali Rabii said Thursday.