13 DEAD DURING SHOOTOUTS IN RIO DE JANEIRO
JANEIRO» At least 11 suspects RIO DE and two soldiers died during shootouts with military personnel and police in greater Rio de Janeiro on Monday as violence erupted in several areas of the city that hosted the Summer Olympics two years ago.
The direct confrontations between soldiers and armed traffickers also marked a deepening of the military’s role in Rio’s security. Since the military was put in charge of the state’s security earlier this year, soldiers have mostly played supporting roles to police during operations, such as securing perimeters or setting up checkpoints. On Monday, soldiers were clearly in the lead.
“Our goal is only to make arrests. If there are deaths, the criminals are to blame,” Carlos Cinelli, a military spokesman, told reporters while adding that military personnel came under fire during operations that began at 4:30 a.m. “The soldiers have a right to defend themselves.”
Europe sees sharp rise in measles: 41,000 cases, 37 deaths.
BERLIN» The World Health Organization says the number of measles cases in Europe jumped sharply during the first six months of 2018 and at least 37 people have died.
The U.N. agency’s European office said Monday more than 41,000 measles cases were reported in the region during the first half of the year — more than in all 12-month periods so far this decade.
The previous highest annual total was 23,927 cases in 2017. A year earlier, only 5,273 cases were reported.
The agency said half — some 23,000 cases — this year occurred in Ukraine, where an insurgency backed by Russia has been fighting the government for four years in the east in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people.
U.S. Army reinstates dozens of discharged immigrants.
At least three dozen immigrant recruits who were booted from the U.S. Army after enlisting with a promised pathway to citizenship are being brought back to serve, according to court records filed Monday.
Since Friday, the U.S. Army has reinstated 32 reservists, and revoked discharge orders of another six enlistees who had sued. Another 149 discharges have been suspended and are under review, Army Assistant Deputy for Recruiting and Retention Linden St. Clair said in the filing.
The reinstatements follow an Associated Press story in early July that revealed dozens of immigrant enlistees were being discharged or had their contracts canceled.
2 detained after shots are fired at U.S. Embassy in Turkey.
ISTANBUL» Shots were fired from a moving car at the U.S. Embassy in Turkey before dawn Monday, an attack that came during heightened tensions between the two NATO allies. Officials said two people with criminal records were detained.
There were no casualties in the fleeting attack, in which three of the six bullets fired hit the embassy gate and a reinforced window in the building in Ankara.
Los Angeles authorities looking into Asia Argento allegation.
YORK» Authorities said NEW
Monday that they are looking into sexual assault allegations by a young actor against Italian actress Asia Argento — one of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Darren Harris said investigators from his department will seek to talk to Jimmy Bennett or his representatives about the alleged incident at a Southern California hotel in 2013, when Bennett was 17.
The move comes in response to a New York Times story saying Argento, 42, settled a legal notice of intent to sue filed by Bennett, who is now 22, for $380,000 shortly after she said last October that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her.