NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Taliban attacks: A Taliban suicide bomber disguised as a woman rammed his motorcycle into an international convoy, killing a NATO soldier from Georgia and two Afghan civilians in an attack north of the Afghan capital, the U.S. military said Friday. It was the second deadly assault this week on a NATO convoy. Stepped up Taliban attacks this week have focused mostly on the country’s south, but there was also a deadly bombing in the western city of Herat, where 32 people died in a militant assault on a Shiite mosque. Thursday evening’s attack hit the NATO patrol near the town of Qarabagh, just 18 miles north of Kabul. The day before, a suicide attacker hit a convoy on the edge of the southern city of Kandahar, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding another four. Both attacks were claimed by the Taliban.
_2 Refugee deaths: The U.N.’s migration agency has tallied a 17 percent increase this year in deaths among refugees trying to cross from Mexico to the United States compared with a year ago. The International Organization of Migration counts 232 migrant deaths on the route through the end of July, up from 204 a year earlier. It comes even though U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants have fallen nearly by half this year, to just over 140,000. The agency said Friday that 50 bodies were found in July alone, including 10 discovered in a truck in San Antonio, Texas. The Geneva agency made no reference to President Trump’s calls for tighter border controls, but cited factors like hot weather and swelling Rio Grande waters.
_3 Russia flood: A flood in a Russian diamond mine has left nine people missing, the mine’s owner said Friday. Water surged into the Mir mine in eastern Siberia in Mirny while 142 people were down in the pit, the Russian state-controlled company Alrosa said in a statement. Russian authorities said 133 people had been evacuated. The cause of the flooding was under investigation. Local media reported last week that mine workers recorded dangerously high levels of underground water and that the company had installed extra pumps to extract it.
_4 Torture probe: The U.S. military has opened an inquiry into allegations that Cameroonian troops carried out torture and murder at a base where American troops were present, a U.S. spokesman said Friday. Amnesty International said last month it had documented 80 cases of abuse by Cameroonian troops at their Salak base in the country’s Far North region. Amnesty alleged the abuses were carried out between 2013 and 2017 against people suspected of involvement with Nigeria-based Boko Haram extremists. Amnesty said U.S. troops were present at several locations within the base. _5 Grave conflict: The husband of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe is causing a stir in one of the world’s oldest monarchies. Prince Henrik has announced he won’t be buried next to Margrethe in the Roskilde cathedral, where Danish royals have been buried since 1559. Margrethe acceded to the throne in 1972 and became Denmark’s first female monarch in centuries. The 83-year-old prince has long complained that he should have been crowned king. “The decision not to be buried beside the queen is the natural consequence of not having been treated equally in relation to his spouse,” said Lene Balleby, a spokeswoman for Denmark’s royal house.