Stranded cope after fatal Chinese quake
BEIJING -- Stranded tourists and residents worked Wednesday to clear roads and make do with power failures caused by an earthquake that killed at least 19 people and injured 343.
The magnitude-6.5 quake struck a mountainous Chinese region near a national park known for waterfalls and karst formations. Rescuers dug through rubble with their hands and used detectors to search for signs of life. The Tuesday night quake knocked out power and phone networks, complicating efforts to locate and evacuate survivors.
Most of the deaths and injuries were recorded in Zhangzha township, near the Jiuzhaigou national park, also known as Jiuzhai Valley.
President Xi Jinping called for rapid efforts to respond to the disaster, which struck a quake-prone region bordered by Sichuan and Gansu provinces. The area is on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and home to many Tibetan and other ethnic-minority villages.
Among the injured, 40 people were listed in serious condition, according to the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture government in Sichuan. At least six of the dead were tourists, China's Xinhua News Agency said.
Among the injured were a Canadian woman, who suffered a slight head injury, and a French citizen, who suffered wounds in both legs and needed surgery to remove stone fragments, according to Xinhua.
Migrants put off boat to drown, U.N. says
JOHANNESBURG -- Scores of migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia were "deliberately drowned" when a smuggler forced them into the sea off Yemen's coast, the U.N.'s migration agency said in a statement Wednesday.
The International Organization for Migration statement called the incident "shocking and inhumane." It said agency workers found the shallow graves of 29 migrants on a beach in Shabwa during a routine patrol.
The statement said the smuggler forced more than 120 migrants into the sea Wednesday morning when approaching Yemen's coast.
The statement said agency workers provided aid for 27 surviving migrants who remained on the beach, while other migrants left. The agency said 22 migrants are missing.
The narrow waters between the Horn of Africa and Yemen have been a popular migration route despite Yemen's ongoing conflict.
Militants kill 4 Pakistani officers in fight
ISLAMABAD -- A shootout with militants in a Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan early Wednesday killed an army major and three other officers, the military said. The Pakistani Taliban later claimed responsibility.
According to a military statement, one of the attackers blew himself up and another was shot and killed during a military raid on a home in the Dir tribal region. The slain officers included an intelligence officer, the statement added.
The military said one militant was captured in the raid.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said in a text message sent to the media that the group was behind the killing of the soldiers.
Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the group, said the soldiers were targeted while they conducted a search operation.
"We will continue to avenge the killing of our fellow fighters in custody," he said.
The latest military casualties came weeks after the army began a new operation against militants in another Khyber tribal region in the northwest. The operation aims to prevent insurgents from carrying out cross-border attacks in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military has undertaken several operations in the tribal regions in recent years and at one point claimed it had cleared the areas. But militants still swiftly move across the porous border to regroup and stage new attacks.
Israel hits at Hamas after rocket attack
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The Israeli military said Wednesday that it carried out airstrikes against two Hamas positions in Gaza in response to a rocket fired toward Israel.
Ayman Sahbani, an emergency director at Gaza's Shifa hospital, said three Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, in Wednesday's strike.
Israel has seen occasional rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in the three years since its last war with Gaza's militant Hamas rulers. Most have been claimed by Salafist Muslim groups in the territory.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for all fire out of the Gaza Strip -- even rockets launched by any of the various militant groups challenging it.
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group took control of Gaza a decade ago, most recently in 2014. A cease-fire has largely held since then.
A Section on 08/10/2017