NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Yemen war: Fighting escalated around the key port city of Hodeida over the weekend, with more than 150 combatants killed from both the rebel and government-backed side. Air strikes and naval artillery pounded rebel positions around the city, with government backed-troops opening a ground assault, authorities said Sunday. Yemen has been at war since March 2015 when Houthi rebels occupied northern regions and forced the government into exile. The Saudi-led coalition backing the exiled government accuses the Houthis of acting as Iran’s proxy.
2 Italy storms: Storms lashing Sicily have killed at least 12 people, Italian authorities said Sunday. Divers recovered nine of the victims from a home flooded by a rapidly swelling river in the countryside near Palermo. Other storms battered northern Italy earlier last week, killing at least 15 people and leaving several villages without electricity or road access for days.
3 Mexico hiker: Dozens of police officers fanned out over the weekend in the northern Mexico state of Chihuahua to search for a missing American hiker. Patrick Braxton-Andrew, a 34year-old teacher from North Carolina, was last seen a week ago by hotel staff where he was staying in Urique at the base of one of the many canyons that make up the Copper Canyon National Park. The state prosecutors’ office shared images of police and volunteers searching for Braxton-Andrew along rocky paths and steep gorges.
4 Independence vote: A majority of voters in the South Pacific territory of New Caledonia chose to remain part of France instead of backing independence, election officials said Sunday as French President Emmanuel Macron promised a dialogue on the region’s future. The decision to keep ties with France was watershed moment for the archipelago that lies east of Australia. Final results showed 56.4 percent of voters choosing to remain part of France. Residents of the region include the native Kanaks, who represent about 40 percent of the population. Most Kanaks had tended to back independence, while most descendants of European settlers had favored keeping ties to France.
5 Syria envoy: State authorities said Sunday they will cooperate with new U.N. envoy Geir Pedersen if he avoids the “methods” of his predecessor. Pedersen succeeds Staffan de Mistura, who steps down this month after four years of peace efforts that led nowhere. Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told the progovernment daily Al-Watan that Syria would cooperate with Pederson if he commits to the country’s territorial integrity and stops supporting “terrorists, as his predecessor did.” The government regularly refers to the opposition as “terrorists.” The conflict, now in its eighth year, has killed more than 400,000 people. 6 Bahrain crackdown: A Shiite cleric who was a central figure in Bahrain’s 2011 Arab Spring protests was sentenced to life in prison Sunday on spying charges. The ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeals came after Sheikh Ali Salman was acquitted of the charges by a lower court in June. Human rights groups and activists say the charges against him are politically motivated and related to his work as a leading opposition figure. The verdict was issued just weeks before parliamentary elections are set to take place without the Al-Wefaq political group Salman once led. Al-Wefaq was ordered dissolved in 2016 as part of a crackdown on dissent in the kingdom, which has a Shiite majority but is ruled by a Sunni monarchy.