NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
Terror arrests: French authorities have made eight new arrests in connection with the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice that left 86 people dead, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Tuesday. The office said the suspects detained Monday were French and Tunisian and had links to the attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who plowed a 19-ton truck down Nice’s Promenade des Anglais and into a crowd assembled for a July 14 fireworks display. All eight were arrested in the Alpes-Maritimes region in the southeastern corner of France that includes Nice. At least five people already face preliminary terrorism charges in the attack, and are accused of helping Bouhlel obtain a pistol and providing other support. It wasn’t immediately clear what the men arrested this week are suspected of.
Kashmir conflict: Indian soldiers on Tuesday battled two groups of suspected militants along the highly militarized de facto border dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, leaving one soldier dead, the Indian army said. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan by a heavily militarized and mountainous frontier called the Line of Control. The two nucleararmed rivals have fought three wars, including two over their competing claims to the Himalayan territory.
3 abducted, 3 freed: Libyan authorities said Tuesday that they were searching for two Italians and a Canadian abducted at gunpoint near the Algerian border, while another official said three North Koreans kidnapped more than a year ago have been freed by Libyan forces from Islamic State militants. Libya slid into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Khadafy. Much of the country is ruled by a patchwork of local and tribal militias, and Islamic militants have also gained a foothold there.
Islamic State sanctions: The European Union adopted new rules allowing the bloc to impose travel bans and asset freezes on associates of the Islamic State extremists. The move by EU member nations in Brussels Tuesday also targets foreign fighters who train or work with Islamic State. Sanctions could be imposed on people who have planned or carried out attacks, as well as financed, recruited for or supported the group’s activities. Islamic State sympathizers from outside Europe could be banned from entering, while EU nationals who work with the extremists outside the bloc would be permitted to travel only to their home countries. Until now the 28-nation EU could impose sanctions only on people and entities listed by the United Nations, or as EU member states acting individually.
U.S. pastor deported: A U.S. pastor who has made antigay comments is being deported, Botswana’s government said Tuesday, shortly after he spoke on local radio and called the people killed in the June shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando “disgusting.” The tweet by the government said Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church of Tempe, Ariz., “has been declared a prohibited immigrant” but did not give details. The Orlando attack, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, left 49 people dead. Neighboring South Africa earlier this month prevented Anderson from entering the country, saying he and church members allegedly promote hate speech and “social violence.”