Divers persist in finding lost Thai boys
MAE SAI, Thailand — Rescue divers cleared a key hurdle Sunday in the increasingly desperate search for 12 boys and their soccer coach who went missing in a cave in northern Thailand more than a week ago, officials said.
A team led by Thai navy SEAL divers pushed through the murk of a kilometer(half-mile-) long chamber to a passageway that could lead to where the missing possibly took shelter, said the SEAL’s commander, Rear Adm. Arpakorn Yookongkaew.
But Adm. Arpakorn said even though the SEALs have made some progress in their effort to find the missing, they are not yet where they want to be.
The missing boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach entered the sprawling ThamLuang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province after soccer practice on June 23. They were apparently trapped inside by flooding caused by heavy rain and have not been heard from since.
Iranian request to OPEC
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Sunday asked fellow OPEC members to “refrain from any unilateral measures” to increase oil production beyond the one million additional barrels of crude a day it already agreed to, a warning to Saudi Arabia after President Donald Trump said the kingdom would increase production.
The Iranian warning, in a letter to the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister, comes as Tehran faces a U.S. push to get its allies to stop buying its oil as part of Mr. Trump’s decision to pull America from the nuclear deal with world powers.
Meanwhile, Iran’s first vice president said the country’s private sector will be able to buy and export crude oil under a new plan to combat U.S. sanctions.
Afghan suicide bombing
KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 19 people died in a suicide bombing in the Afghan city of Jalalabad Sunday afternoon during a visit from President Ashraf Ghani, officials said.
At least 20 others have been injured in the bombing in the capital city of eastern Nangarhar, said Inamullah Miakhel, the province’s public health spokesman. He said most of the victims of the bombing were members of the minority Sikh community.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
S. Sudan truce short-lived
JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan government troops violated the country’s latest cease-fire just hours after it began at midnight, the armed opposition claimed Saturday, while a government spokesman accused the rebels of attacking instead.
The competing claims indicated a shaky start to the latest attempt at ending a devastating five-year civil war that has killed tens of thousands and created Africa’s largest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Millions are near famine and aid delivery is often blocked in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for humanitarian workers.
President Salva Kiir and rival Riek Machar, Mr. Kiir’s former deputy, had agreed on the “permanent” cease-fire earlier in the week in neighboring Sudan after their first face-to-face talks in nearly two years. They then ordered their supporters to observe it.
Opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said government forces and Sudanese rebel militias launched a “heavy joint attack” in Mboro, Wau County in the northwest around 7 a.m. Saturday, arriving in armored personnel carriers, trucks and Land Cruisers.