NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
“Islamist attack”: An Iraqiborn man deliberately drove his car into motorcycles along a stretch of Berlin highway, leaving at least one person with lifethreatening injuries in what German officials classified Wednesday as a terror attack. “According to the current state of our investigation, we assume this was an Islamistmotivated attack,” Berlin’s senator for the interior, Andreas Geisel, said. Six people were injured, three of them severely, when the 30yearold man allegedly drove into several vehicles, intentionally hitting motorcycles, on Tuesday evening. Local media identified the suspect as Sarmad D, who is being investigated for three cases of attempted murder.
Spy case: Norway’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday expelled a Russian diplomat linked to the case of a man jailed on accusations of spying for Russia, officials said. It was unclear whether the expelled diplomat was the Russian intelligence officer that Norwegian authorities said was meeting with the suspected spy in an Oslo restaurant when he was arrested on Saturday. The accused man has not been officially identified beyond that he is a Norwegian national in his 50s who was born abroad. However, Norwegian broadcaster NRK identified him as Harsharn Singh Tathgar. If convicted, he faces a maximum prison term of 15 years.
Blast complaint: A Lebanese lawyer filed a legal complaint on Wednesday against the country’s president and prime minister for allegedly not taking action to remove dangerous material that had been stored at the port of Beirut. The material — 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives —ignited earlier this month, killing scores and wounding thousands of people. The move by lawyer Majd Harb is based on the fact that President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab received a report two weeks before the Aug. 4, explosion, warning about the dangers of storing the chemical. Aoun said that once he received the report, he asked his military adviser to immediately act on it. There has been no comment from Diab, who has since resigned.
Afghan attacks: Bomb attacks in Kabul and in northern Afghanistan, as well as an ambush in the country’s south killed at least five people on Wednesday and wounded 15, officials said. Two bombs targeted government employees in the Afghan capital, killing two people, including a police officer, and wounding two others, police said. Meanwhile in Puli Khumri, capital of northern Baghlan province, a bomb targeted a vehicle belonging to the intelligence department, killing two service members and wounding 11 people. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. The violence comes amid new uncertainties over the start of talks between the Taliban and the Kabul political leadership. The government said it would not release the last 320 Taliban prisoners it holds until the insurgents free more captured soldiers.
Power plant: A nuclear power plant in the oilrich United Arab Emirates has been connected to the country’s power grid, authorities said Wednesday. The Barakah nuclear power plant in the western desert near the border with Saudi Arabia began sending out electricity, according the staterun WAM news agency. Plans call for four reactors, which authorities say will provide some 25% of all energy needs in this OPECmember nation. The $20 billion Barakah nuclear power plant was built by the Emirates with the help of South Korea. It’s the first nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. has praised the UAE’s nuclear program for agreeing never to acquire enrichment or reprocessing capabilities, which prevents it from being able to make weaponsgrade uranium.