Afghanistan's relations with regional
countries improving: Acting FM
KABUL, Aug 23: The relations of the Afghan caretaker government with regional countries are on the track of strengthening, state media quoted Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi as saying. According to the state-run news agency Bakhtar on Tuesday, Muttaqi said at a meeting of a government accountability program that 70,000 foreign tourists, including 10,000 Europeans, traveled to different parts of Afghanistan last year. He said that the government has kept border routes with neighboring countries open so that Afghan products can be exported overseas, the press agency reported. — Xinhua
Israeli forces kill Palestinian
WEST BANK, Aug 23: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian militant during clashes that followed a military arrest raid in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Islamic Jihad armed group said. The Israeli military said that suspects threw explosives at soldiers in the confrontations near the flashpoint city of Jenin and that the troops responded with live fire. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed one fatality. Dozens of mourners marched at the militant's funeral, some of them masked gunmen who fired rifles into the air. — Reuters
At least 1,100 missing after Hawaii fires
LOS ANGELES, Aug 23: At least 1,100 people are still missing two weeks after deadly wildfires ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui, authorities said Tuesday, with the FBI seeking family members' help in identifying the remains of the dead. The fires were the deadliest to hit the United States in a century, claiming at least 115 lives, according to the latest provisional death toll. The tourist town of Lahaina, home to 12,000 people, was all but wiped off the map, with thousands of missing persons appearing on lists maintained by various organizations, including the police, Red Cross and shelters. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now working to collate and verify the data, Special Agent Steven Merrill told reporters on Tuesday. — AFP
Thaksin moved to hospital from jail
BANGKOK, Aug 23: Thailand's former premier Thaksin Shinawatra was moved from prison to a police hospital on Wednesday, officials said, a day after he was jailed on his return from 15 years in exile. The 74-year-old, twice Thai prime minister and ousted in a 2006 coup, is suffering from multiple health complaints, officials said, and was moved from prison quarantine to a police hospital shortly after midnight. Thaksin's homecoming on Tuesday came on the same day his Pheu Thai party returned to government in a power-sharing agreement with pro-military parties.— AFP
French heatwave sets new record
PARIS, Aug 23: Temperatures in France hit an all-time high for late summer on Tuesday, the weather authority said, as the country continues to swelter under a punishing heatwave. The nationwide average temperature over 24 hours hit 27.1 degrees Celsius (81 Fahrenheit), Meteo France announced Wednesday-ahead of an expected peak in the August hot spell expected in the second half of the week. Such continuously high temperatures have never been recorded so late in summer in records going back to 1947, the weather authority added. Monday had already brought temperatures topping the previous 26.6 C record set in 2012. — AFP
16 people killed in Mexico bus crash
MEXICO CITY, Aug 23: At least 16 people were killed and 36 injured in a bus crash in the central Mexican state of Puebla on Tuesday, local authorities said. The Interior Department in Puebla said on social media that the crash occurred early Tuesday at kilometer 91 of the Cuacnopalan-Oaxaca highway. The injured were taken to the Tehuacan General Hospital and other medical centers. The Interior Department of Puebla said it "remains in constant communication with the Federal Roads and Bridges, as well as ministerial and state authorities in order to support the victims of this regrettable event." — Xinhua
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