News Briefs

3 U.N. staff die in Benghazi blast

BENGHAZI, Libya - A car bomb explosion in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi killed three U.N. staff members and two other mission members on Saturday, the United Nations said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack, which came as the United Nations was brokering a truce in the capital Tripoli, where the eastern-based Libyan National Army force launched a surprise attack in April. – REUTERS.

North Korea says no talks with South due to drills

SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected Saturday’s test of a new weapon, state media KCNA said yesterday, as a senior diplomat dismissed the possibility of inter-Korean talks in protest against South Korea-U.S. military drills. North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Saturday, its fifth within two weeks, in what South Korea called a show of force against joint new military drills with the United States. – REUTERS.

Sonia Gandhi back as Congress head

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI - India’s opposition Congress party selected past president Sonia Gandhi as its interim leader on Saturday, while it searches for a successor to her son Rahul Gandhi, who quit following a crushing election defeat by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. – REUTERS.

Disgraced US financier found dead in cell

NEW YORK - Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead on Saturday after an apparent suicide in the New York jail cell where he was being held without bail on sex-trafficking charges, and a source said he was not on suicide watch at the time of his death. Epstein, 66, who once counted Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former President Bill Clinton as friends, was arrested on July 6 and pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls as young as 14, from at least 2002 to 2005. – REUTERS.