NEWS OF THE DAY

From Around the World

_1 Afghanistan attack:

Taliban militants attacked a small army base, killing 12 members of the security forces and leaving behind explosives that killed four tribal elders who had come to help collect the bodies. Safder Mohsini, head of provincial council in the northern Baghlan province, said the insurgents abducted two soldiers and wounded three others in the attack, which began late Saturday. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said they seized ammunition from the base. Seventeen years after the U.S.-led invasion, the insurgents control nearly half the country.

_2 Ukraine vote:

Residents of the eastern Ukraine regions controlled by Russia-backed separatist rebels were voting Sunday for local governments in elections denounced by Kiev and the West. The elections will choose heads of government and legislature members in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, where separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since the spring of 2014 in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people. Although a 2015 accord on ending the war calls for local elections in Donetsk and Luhansk, critics that include Ukraine’s president, the U.S. and the European Union say the vote is illegitimate because it is conducted where Ukraine has no control.

_3 Mideast conflict:

A fresh wave of fighting erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing an Israeli soldier and seven Palestinians, just as Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers had appeared to be making progress toward ratcheting down months of border violence. It was not immediately clear what set off the sudden, late-night burst of violence. Sunday’s development shattered what appeared to be a turning point after months of bloodshed along the Israel-Gaza border. More than 170 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the border protests. Last week, Israel allowed Qatar to deliver $15 million in aid to Gaza’s cash-strapped Hamas rulers. Hamas responded by lowering the intensity of Friday’s border protest.

_4 Haiti migrants:

U.S. Coast Guard officials have rescued nearly 90 Haitian migrants from a dangerously overloaded vessel. Miami Coast Guard officials said their helicopter crew spotted the overcrowded, 40-foot vessel near Cuba on Saturday. Officials deployed a cutter from Key West to rescue the migrants, saying the vessel was not equipped to carry its passengers and was perilously overcrowded. Once safely on the Coast Guard cutter, the migrants were given food, water and medical treatment. They were repratriated to Cap-Haitien, Haiti. The Coast Guard says roughly 221 Haitian migrants have attempted to cross open waters to illegally migrate to the U.S. since Oct. 1.

_5 Iraq violence:

The U.S. military says American and Iraqi forces killed more than 50 Islamic State militants, including several commanders, in northern Iraq last month. U.S. Central Command said Sunday that an Oct. 30 operation in Salahuddin province killed five Islamic State leaders and more than 30 other militants, and that an operation the following day in the Makhmour Mountains killed about 20 militant fighters. It says the leaders killed in the first raid were responsible for coordinating attacks across northern and western Iraq. Iraq declared victory over Islamic State last year, but the group has continued to carry out scattered attacks, particularly in the north. The extremists have lost virtually all the territory they once ruled in Syria and Iraq, but still control small, remote pockets in eastern Syria along the border.