NEWS BRIEFING
Heavy-arms fire rocks capital of South Sudan; dozens hurt
The fighting began in the morning and continued until about 8 p.m., when a large thunderstorm seemed to put a damper on the violence, said U.N. mission spokeswoman Shantal Persaud. She confirmed that a U.N. armored personnel carrier was hit by a shell at a camp sheltering civilians. U.N. peacekeepers in the vehicle were wounded, witnesses said.
“The condition is really very bad. We have a lot of casualties this side, I think around 50 to 60 besides those of yesterday,” said Budbud Chol, who oversees security at a clinic in the camp.
At least one person has died in the camp, he said, but he did not know about casualties outside where the fighting was heavy.
The opposition side blamed government forces for starting the fighting Sunday morning with an attack on a rebel base in the Jebel area of the capital. Three helicopter gunships bombed rebel camps, said William Gatjiath Deng, a spokesman for the rebel forces.
South Sudan's army confirmed the Sunday clashes but it is not clear how the fighting started.
About 10,000 Juba residents fled neighborhoods where there was fighting, said Jeremiah Young, policy adviser for World Vision in South Sudan.
Sunday's fighting was a resumption of the conflict that erupted Friday in which more than 100 people died. A precarious calm was restored on Saturday — the day South Sudan marked its fifth independence day.
Turkish jets strike Islamic State militants and Kurdish rebels
U.S.-led coalition jets and Turkish howitzers hit Islamic State rocket and mortar batteries in north Syria's Dabik region overnight. Eight militants were reportedly killed, the General Staff said.
Meanwhile, Turkish jets also struck seven Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, targets in Turkey's southeastern province of Hakkari.
On Sunday, a roadside bomb in Hakkari killed five soldiers, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, which blamed the attack on PKK rebels.
Meanwhile, the U.N. began airlifting humanitarian aid to families cut off from supplies in northeastern Syria, bringing 40 tons of food to Qamishli, an area controlled by the Syrian government, the U.N. said.
Police: Third victim dies after attacks on San Diego's homeless
Police said 23-year-old Dionicio Derek Vahidy died at a hospital on Sunday. He was attacked and burned on Wednesday, and authorities had not expected him to survive.
Police said Vahidy was from San Diego and was homeless.
He was the last of the men attacked. Two other men were killed, and a third was severely injured. Most of the men were sleeping when they were attacked, and some were set on fire.
On Thursday, 36-year-old Anthony Padgett was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and arson in the attacks.
It's not clear if he has hired an attorney.
Japan's ruling coalition set to win in parliamentary elections
Half of the seats of the less powerful upper house were up for grabs. There had been no possibility for a change of power because the ruling coalition, headed by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, already controls the more powerful lower house, but the balloting was a key gauge of how much support Abe's coalition has among the public. The opposition had called on voters to show their rejection of Abe's position to have a more assertive military role for Japan.
Australian leader claims win, but queries remain
Though the question of who won the July 2 election was answered, the question of exactly how the conservatives will rule the fractured Parliament was not. With official results still days or even weeks away, it was unclear whether Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal Party-led coalition had won enough votes to govern in its own right or whether it would need the support of independent and minor party lawmakers to form a government.
Either way, Turnbull faces a rough road ahead with a divided party, a splintered Senate and a politically weary public that has endured five prime minister changes in as many years.
U.S. releases Yemeni from Gitmo, sends him to Italy
The Pentagon said Sunday that the release of Fayiz Ahmad Yahia Suleiman reduces the number of men held at the U.S. base in Cuba to 78. He is one of about two dozen low-level Guantanamo prisoners expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Military records show Suleiman was suspected of fighting with al-Qaida against U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He was never charged. He was cleared for release in 2010, but the U.S. does not send Yemeni prisoners to their homeland because of instability there and had to find another country to accept him for resettlement.
The U.S. transferred two Guantanamo detainees to Italy in November 2009.
After a two-day meeting in Shanghai, the ministers said they're “concerned” about rising protectionism.