NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
Heat wave: A Siberian town with the world’s widest temperature range has recorded a new high amid a heat wave that is contributing to severe forest fires. The temperature in Verkhoyansk hit 100.4 degrees on Saturday, according to the Pogoda i Klimat website. The town is located above the Arctic Circle in the Sakha Republic. Much of Siberia this year has had unseasonably high temperatures, leading to sizable wildfires. In the Sakha Republic, more than 680,000 acres are burning, according to Avialesokhrana, the government agency that monitors forest fires.
Libya fighting: Egypt’s president warned that an attempt by Turkeybacked forces in Libya to attack the strategic city of Sirte would trigger a direct Egyptian military intervention into the conflict. Abdel Fattah elSissi, in televised comments Saturday, said Egypt could intervene in neighboring Libya with the intention of protecting its western border with the oilrich country and to bring stability. ElSissi warned that any attack on Sirte or the Jufra air base by forces loyal to the U.N.supported but weak government in Tripoli would amount to crossing a “red line.” Libya has been in turmoil since 2011 when a civil war toppled longtime dictator Moammar Khadafy, who was later killed. The country has since split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments.
Drug sweep: Police in the German city of Stuttgart said Sunday that 24 people were arrested and 19 police officers injured after a check for drugs sparked attacks on officers and police vehicles and widespread vandalism of stores in the city center. Police said several hundred people were involved. The disturbance started as an apparent reaction to a police search for drugs as groups of people partied outside late Saturday and early Sunday in a park. People then attacked storefronts in a nearby shopping street, according to German public television reports, tearing up paving stones and smashing store windows. Some 200 officers responded to the incident and 19 were injured.
Kashmir violence: Indian troops backed by artillery fired on villages along the border in the Pakistaniadministered side of the Kashmir region, killing a 13yearoldgirl and wounding her mother and brother, local officials and Pakistan’s military said Sunday. The military blamed the Indian army for initiating Saturday night’s “unprovoked ceasefire violation” in the villages of Hajipir and Bedori. It said Pakistani troops “effectively responded” to the Indian fire, without elaborating. In neighboring India, the local police blamed Pakistani troops for initiating the fire, saying Pakistani mortar shelling wounded five Indian civilians on their side of Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries and claimed by both in its entirety. The latest incident comes days after Indian fire killed four villagers. Volcano erupts: Indonesia’s most active volcano on Sunday spewed ash and hot gas in a column as high as 3.7 miles into the sky. Mount Merapi’s clouds of ash blanketed several villages on the main island of Java. Villagers living on Merapi’s fertile slopes were warned of possible lava flows. The 9,737foot mountain is the most active of 500 Indonesian volcanoes. It has rumbled and generated hot clouds since last year. Its last major eruption in 2010 killed 353 people. Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoeshaped series of fault lines around the ocean. Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center did not raise Merapi’s alert status, which already was at the thirdhighest level since it began erupting last August.