Migrants descend on tunnel
CALAIS, France — Undeterred by an influx of French riot police, a surveillance helicopter or a ninth death this summer among the tens of thousands who attempt to cross the English Channel, migrants walked single file Wednesday to sneak over a bent fence along the train tracks leading to the tunnel and ultimately to England.
One migrant was crushed to death and another was critically injured after being electrocuted in Paris on Wednesday alone.
Migrants pressing northward toward France and Britain are fleeing war, dictatorship and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.
Turkey escalates air war
ISTANBUL — Turkey stepped up its offensive against Kurdish militias in northern Iraq early Wednesday, pounding targets in six locations from the air.
The Iraqi government condemned the airstrikes, calling them “a dangerous escalation and an assault on Iraqi sovereignty.”
Turkish officials said the airstrikes were carried out in response to a string of terrorist attacks in Turkey by militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Greek PM warns his party
ATHENS — Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took on dissenters within his own party, warning he’ll call an election unless backbenchers opposing a deal with creditors fall into line or quit.
Greece has no other viable option but to accept its creditors’ demands, he said, and governing party lawmakers who have a different view should “give up their seats.”
French-Iranian ties
DUBAI — On the first visit to Iran for 12 years by a French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius conveyed an invitation from President Francois Hollande to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani to visit France in November.
Mr. Fabius is seeking to smooth over any strains in the relationship created by France’s hard line during negotiations that produced a historic nuclear agreement on July 14, and thereby create a climate conducive to stronger economic ties.
West Bank demolitions
JERUSALEM — After an Israeli court ruled on Wednesday that two apartment blocks in a West Bank settlement had been built illegally and ordered them demolished, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the immediate construction of 300 more housing units in the same settlement.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office also announced that 91 housing units would be put on the market in predominantly Jewish areas of East Jerusalem and that planning would begin for more than 400 more.
Saudi-led coalition
BEIRUT — After four months of setbacks, fighters backed by Saudi Arabia have seized the offensive in Yemen’s war, taking control of Aden and pressing to expand ground operations against rebel forces.
The shift in momentum after the Saudi-led coalition failed to make headway appears to be due to the arrival since mid-July of hundreds of Yemeni fighters who had been secretly trained in Saudi Arabia.
Pacific trade talks start
Top officials from 12 AsiaPacific nations formally kicked off a four-day bid to hammer out a massive but so far elusive free-trade agreement that has been in the works for six years.
Speaking at the opening plenary of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks in Hawaii, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told his counterparts they need to resolve the “tough political issues” blocking a deal.