The world in brief

Smoke billows as a helicopter flies past the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica on its way to extinguish a fire that broke out in the Monte Mario hill area of Rome on Tuesday.
Smoke billows as a helicopter flies past the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica on its way to extinguish a fire that broke out in the Monte Mario hill area of Rome on Tuesday.

‘Severe’ quakes shake Italians awake

AMATRICE, Italy — Strong earthquakes struck central Italy early today, causing substantial damage and tremors that awakened sleeping residents in Rome nearly 100 miles away.

Severe damage was reported in the town of Amatrice, where Mayor Sergio Pirozzi said “half the town no longer exists.” Amatrice, he added, had been cut off because of damage to roads and to a bridge, and appealed during a live television broadcast for assistance.

“There are people stuck in the rubble,” he said, calling on the emergency services to help clear roads. “Houses are no longer there,” he added, suggesting that victims had been buried in the rubble.

Fabrizio Curcio, the director of Italy’s Civil Protection Department, said the earthquake had been “severe” and that the national emergency procedures had been activated.

Sea trips riskier, so more migrants die

BERLIN — New and more dangerous smuggling practices and attempts to reach Europe by riskier routes have led to a spike in the number of migrants dying as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean, according to a new analysis released Tuesday.

The International Organization for Migration’s Global Migration Data Analysis Center in Berlin said 2,901 people died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean in the first six months of 2016, a 37 percent increase over the first six months of last year.

Most of the deaths, 2,484, occurred on the so-called Central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Italy, where some 70,000 people crossed in the first half of 2016.

“The numbers have not increased hugely in terms of those crossing, but the risk of death remains high and is increasing,” said Frank Laczko, head of the Berlin center.

He added that further study needs to be done to determine whether other factors in the rising death toll may be at play, like whether the overland journey to the coast has become so grueling that migrants undertake the Mediterranean crossing already undernourished and exhausted.

The number of deaths in the Central Mediterranean peaked in May at 1,130, and dropped to 388 in June, 208 in July and only 29 so far in August.

N. Korea fires missile from submarine

SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean ballistic missile fired from a submarine this morning flew about 310 miles in the longest flight by that type of weapon, Seoul officials said, a range that can place much of South Korea within its striking distance.

Seoul officials condemned the launch as an “armed protest” against the start of annual South Korean-U.S. military drills that North Korea calls an invasion rehearsal.

The missile fired from a submarine off the eastern North Korean coastal town of Sinpo landed in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to a statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.S. Strategic Command said it tracked the North Korean submarine launch of the presumed KN-11 missile into the Sea of Japan.

The launch came a day after the U.S.-led United Nations Command in South Korea accused the North of planting land mines near a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas. South Korean media said no land mines had been planted in the area of the truce village of Panmunjom until North Korea placed an unspecified number there last week.

Iran military draws flak over base use

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s parliament on Tuesday pushed back against the military after it appeared to dismiss civilian oversight of Russia’s use of an Iranian air base to launch airstrikes on Syria.

The rare parliamentary response is part of the larger give-and-take between civilians and the country’s powerful security services since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. It also highlights the public unpopularity of allowing Russia to use the air base — which marked the first time since the revolution that a foreign military has used Iran as a staging ground.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani brought up the topic Tuesday as lawmakers gathered in Tehran for the body’s opening session, a day after Iranian officials said that Russia’s use of the Shahid Nojeh Air Base has stopped for the time being.

The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Larijani as criticizing Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan for not “speaking properly” to lawmakers’ concerns. Dehghan over the weekend said Russia’s use of the air base was not their concern, though the parliament has oversight of all government ministries.

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