U.S. troops to help get aid to Nepal
KATHMANDU, Nepal — A week after a devastating earthquake leveled many areas of Nepal, the U.S. military is sending up to 500 troops, plus aircraft and equipment, to help deliver supplies that have been stuck at the tiny country’s airport.
The supplies have been pouring in from around the world but have been slow to reach victims in Kathmandu, the capital, as well as smaller towns and villages.
The magnitude-7.8 quake that struck April 25 killed more than 6,250 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, many stranded in remote areas, some of which have yet to receive help.
Yemen rebels’ appeal
CAIRO — Yemeni Houthi rebels called on the United Nations on Saturday to seek an end to Saudi Arabian airstrikes against them that they described as blatant aggression against the country.
Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition are targeting Iranian-allied Houthis who have seized the capital Sanaa and large areas of the country.
The Ansar Allah Zaydi Houthi movement sent a letter addressed to the U.N. secretary-general. Zaydis are a sect of Shiite Islam that predominates in Northern Yemen.
Bodies, trafficking tied
PADANG BESAR, Thailand — Thai police trekked into the mountains and dug up 26 bodies from dozens of shallow graves at an abandoned jungle camp that has been linked to human trafficking networks, which activists say are “out of control” in the Southeast Asian country.
A lone survivor, now hospitalized with severe malnutrition, told authorities that smugglers escaped days earlier with around 100 Rohingya Muslims, a long-persecuted religious minority in neighboring Myanmar.
N. Korea holds student
HONG KONG — North Korea said Saturday that a man it identified as a South Korean student at New York University had been arrested and charged with illegally entering the country.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the student, Won Moon Joo, 21, from New Jersey, was detained on April 22 after crossing the Yalu River from Dandong, China. The river forms part the North’s border with China.
Also in the world …
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday championed the new Sri Lankan government’s push for democratic overhaul and promised closer ties with the strategically located Indian Ocean nation. … Armed men attacked a Mexican army helicopter on Friday in western Mexico, killing three on board and forcing it to the ground on a day of violence that left at least seven people dead and vehicles, banks and gas stations ablaze. … Five people died in flooding north of Brisbane, Australia, after storms dumped more than 7 inches of rain near the capital of Queensland state. … Germany has a duty to deal sensitively with the Nazi era, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday, citing a debate in Greece about German responsibility for the country’s occupation during World War II.