China denies troop plans in Afghanistan
BEIJING -- China on Thursday denied reports that it plans to deploy troops to Afghanistan, saying the neighbors are engaged merely in "normal military and security cooperation."
Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian said reports in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper and elsewhere that hundreds of People's Liberation Army soldiers are to man a base in eastern Afghanistan are "simply not true."
China shares a narrow border with Afghanistan in the remote Wakhan corridor region and is wary of the country's violence and chronic instability overflowing into its restless Xinjiang region.
However, Wu said China, like other nations, is helping Afghanistan increase its defense capabilities, particularly in the area of counterterrorism.
"China and Afghanistan have normal military and security cooperation," he told reporters at a monthly briefing.
Afghanistan's ambassador to China, Janan Mosazai, said this week that Beijing is helping Afghanistan set up a mountain brigade to bolster counterterrorism operations, but that no Chinese troops would be stationed in the country.
"While the Afghan government appreciates this Chinese assistance and our two militaries are working in close coordination on utilizing this assistance, there will be no Chinese military personnel of any kind involved in this process on Afghan soil," Mosazai said.
China has sought to increase its presence in Afghanistan, including in dialogue with the Taliban, after 17 years of Western involvement that has left the country still at war.
Along with Pakistan, Iran and Russia, it is gaining a growing influence even as the United States spends billions of dollars covering much of the $6.5 billion spent annually to support the Afghan National Security Forces, which are struggling to contain an energized Taliban.
Despite the denials of Chinese military activity in the area, unconfirmed reports have shown what appear to be Chinese military vehicles operating in the Wakhan corridor, which lies in the shadow of the Hindu Kush mountains with Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south.
Greece makes migrant-smuggling arrests
ATHENS, Greece -- Authorities in western Greece have arrested two people who investigators said tried to smuggle 71 migrants out of the country on a U.S.-flagged yacht.
The Greek merchant marine ministry said the yacht was stopped in the Gulf of Patras after a tip. The vessel is believed to have been heading for Italy.
The ministry said the suspects were identified as 25- and 27-year-old foreign citizens. No details were available on the nationalities of the migrants.
Thousands of migrants enter Greece illegally every year, mostly by sea from Turkey.
Border crackdowns by other European countries have made it increasingly difficult for them to continue their journeys to Europe's prosperous heartland.
Tens of thousands are stuck in Greece, including nearly 20,000 migrants stranded on the Aegean Sea islands where most smuggling boats from Turkey arrive.
Ethiopia copter crash kills 18 people
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Ethiopian state media are reporting that a military helicopter has crashed and killed all 18 people on board, including two children.
Police official Aschalew Alemu told the Ethiopian News Agency that the crash occurred Thursday morning in the Oromia region. The helicopter was traveling from the eastern city of Dire Dawa to an air base in Bishoftu town southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.
Aschalew said the cause of the crash is under investigation.
The state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported that 15 military personnel and three civilians are dead.
Dam ruptures, disrupts traffic in Burma
RANGOON, Burma -- Flooding from a ruptured dam in Burma has forced the relocation of more than 63,000 people and disrupted traffic on a major road that connects the country's three biggest cities, officials said Thursday.
The Information Ministry said the water that rushed from the Swar Chaung Dam in Bago Region beginning Wednesday caused flooding in 85 villages, affecting 63,421 people.
Makeshift repairs began Thursday on a damaged bridge on the Rangoon-Mandalay Highway. The bridge's supports appeared to be intact, but its spans had buckled.
The bridge over the Swar River, south of the capital, Naypyidaw, consists of two separate structures to accommodate traffic in each direction. All traffic was being routed onto the undamaged structure.
Some sections of the highway were under water.
Rainy season downpours that began in June have wreaked havoc in much of mainland Southeast Asia, filling dams to their limits and beyond, and flooding many areas. A breach in a dam in southern Laos in July caused a flash flood that took at least three dozen lives.
A series of floods in eight regions and states in Burma since July have killed at least 17 people and displaced more than 200,000.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/31/2018