Reuters World News Summary
Following is a summary of current world news briefs.
Nicaraguan police raid La Prensa newspaper, charge directors with fraud
Nicaraguan police on Friday raided the office of La Prensa, the only national newspaper, after President Daniel Ortega's government opened customs fraud and money laundering investigations against the publication. La Prensa has long been a thorn in the side of Ortega, repeatedly referring to him as a "dictator" after his security forces in 2018 crushed a wave of protests in the Central American country and 326 people died.
Taliban seize more Afghan cities, assault on capital Kabul expected
Taliban insurgents have seized Afghanistan's second- and third-biggest cities, local officials said on Friday, as resistance from government forces crumbled and fears grew that an assault on the capital Kabul could be just days away. A government official confirmed that Kandahar, the economic hub of the south, was under Taliban control as U.S.-led international forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.
U.S. imposes sanctions on Cuban officials, military unit over violence
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it was imposing sanctions on two Cuban Ministry of Interior officials and a military unit over the government's crackdown on protesters last month. The department said it was sanctioning Romarico Vidal Sotomayor Garcia and Pedro Orlando Martinez Fernandez and the Tropas de Prevencion (TDP) of the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Canada to accept 20,000 vulnerable Afghans such as women leaders, human rights workers
Canada plans to resettle more than 20,000 vulnerable Afghans including women leaders, human rights workers and reporters to protect them from Taliban reprisals, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said on Friday. The effort is in addition to an earlier initiative to welcome thousands of Afghans who worked for the Canadian government, such as interpreters, embassy workers and their families, he told a news conference.
Afghanistan spiraling into failed state where al Qaeda will thrive, UK says
Afghanistan is spiraling into a failed state and a civil war in which militant groups such as al Qaeda will thrive and likely pose a threat again to the West, Britain's defense minister said on Friday. After a 20-year war in Afghanistan, the United States has withdrawn most of its troops, allowing Taliban forces to sweep across the country in what diplomats have cast as a humiliation for Washington.
Turkey combats Black Sea floods, death toll rises to 31
Emergency workers battled to relieve flood-hit areas of Turkey's Black Sea region on Friday, as the death toll rose to 31 in the second natural disaster to strike the country this month. The floods, among the worst Turkey has experienced, brought chaos to northern provinces just as authorities were declaring wildfires that raged through southern coastal regions for two weeks had been brought under control.
In desperation, U.S. scours for countries willing to house Afghan refugees
President Joe Biden's administration has been holding secret talks with more countries than previously known in a desperate attempt to secure deals to temporarily house at-risk Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, four U.S. officials told Reuters. The previously unreported discussions with such countries as Kosovo and Albania underscore the administration's desire to protect U.S.-affiliated Afghans from Taliban reprisals while safely completing the process of approving their U.S. visas.
In rare British mass shooting, gunman kills five, including 3-year-old girl
A man shot dead five people, including a 3-year-old girl, in violence that police in the southern English city of Plymouth believe began with a domestic dispute and the killing of his mother. Mass shootings are rare in the United Kingdom, where gun ownership is relatively low, and Thursday's six-minute rampage was the worst such incident in more than decade.
Tears and anger as Greek island residents face wildfire aftermath
Residents of the Greek seaside village of Rovies mourn a lost paradise of pristine pine forests and family homes, scorched by wildfires that burned for nine days. But they are also angry as they start to see how little was salvaged.
Russia tells BBC journalist to go home in row with Britain -state TV
Russia has told a BBC journalist working in Moscow to leave the country by the end of this month in retaliation for what it called London's discrimination against Russian journalists working in Britain, state TV reported late on Thursday. In an unusual move that signals a further deterioration in already poor ties between London and Moscow, the Rossiya-24 TV channel said that Sarah Rainsford, one of the British broadcaster's two English-language Moscow correspondents, would be going home in what it called "a landmark deportation."
