The World in Brief

Turkish officials investigate the explosion Friday of a bomb in a car that was carrying three Syrians in the border town of Reyhanli.
Turkish officials investigate the explosion Friday of a bomb in a car that was carrying three Syrians in the border town of Reyhanli.

Bomb in car kills 2 Syrians in Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey -- A bomb went off Friday in a car near Turkey's border with Syria, killing two Syrians inside the vehicle, Turkey's interior minister said. A third Syrian was injured.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the explosion appeared to be terror-linked.

The blast occurred inside a car some 750 yards from a government office in the border town of Reyhanli, in Hatay province, the Anadolu news agency said.

Earlier, Erdogan said three Syrians were killed in the explosion, but Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu later said two were killed. The third Syrian was in serious condition.

Soylu said the explosion was caused by a homemade bomb that went off while the car was moving. He said all three Syrians were legally registered in Turkey. He did not identify them.

"It is clear that there was a bomb inside the vehicle," Erdogan said. "The findings at the moment indicate that it was ... linked to terrorism."

Russian envoy's aide faces treason case

MOSCOW -- An aide to the presidential envoy to Russia's Urals region has been arrested on charges of high treason in the first publicly known case of a government official facing a treason case in post-Soviet Russia.

The aide, Alexander Vorobyov, told Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court on Friday that he worked as an assistant to President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the region, Nikolai Tsukanov. He was wearing a camouflage ski mask while attending the court session.

The court ruled that Vorobyov be held in custody for two months as the investigation continues.

Earlier Friday, the Federal Security Service, the top KGB successor agency, said it arrested Vorobyov on treason charges that carry punishment of up to 20 years in prison, but didn't offer any details.

Vorobyov, 39, had worked as an aide to the presidential envoy for a year. Before that, he had held various jobs in the provincial government of Russia's westernmost Kaliningrad region.

Rescuers wait for Italy to take migrants

ROME -- An Italian humanitarian group whose boat has been barred from docking in Lampedusa said it is waiting for about 40 migrants still on board to be transferred to Malta on military patrols, a move that stands to avert another standoff with Italy's populist government.

Mediterranea Saving Humans said Friday in a tweet that its boat was just outside Italian territorial waters, just off the southernmost island of Lampedusa, and that it has been banned from entering Italian jurisdiction by ministerial decree.

However, 13 migrants were disembarked by an Italian coast guard boat and taken to Lampedusa because they have health problems. Three pregnant women were given ultrasounds before being allowed off the boat. Four children and one unaccompanied child were part of the group allowed to disembark.

The nongovernmental organization said the ministerial decree is illegitimate because it can't be applied to a ship carrying people rescued at sea, and because Italy can't ban an Italian-flagged ship from entering its waters.

Meanwhile, German humanitarian group Sea-Eye said one of its rescue ships picked up 65 people who were found in a large dinghy about 34 miles off Libya's coast.

Sea-Eye said on its Facebook page that the crew of the Alan Kurdi took the African migrants on board their vessel early Friday. It added that Libyan authorities failed to respond to communication for more than three hours. It was unclear whether the Alan Kurdi will try to dock in Italy, too.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Friday that none of the rescued migrants can go to Italy. Referring to the Alan Kurdi ship, he said "the German [nongovernmental organization] can choose between Tunisia and Germany."

Fires ravage Greek island; villagers flee

ATHENS, Greece -- Greek authorities sent reinforcements Friday to firefighters battling four wildfires on the island of Evia, while at least five villages were evacuated.

The fire agency sent dozens of reinforcements as well as extra firefighting aircraft to the area.

More than 330 firefighters, assisted by eight water-dropping planes, nine helicopters and more than 100 vehicles, were trying to get the flames under control in central Evia.

One of the blazes broke out Thursday afternoon and was burning woodland and agricultural areas, while another two started simultaneously just before midnight Thursday. The blazes led to five villages being evacuated.

The fire agency said a fourth, a forest fire, broke out in the same area Friday afternoon.

The fires were the largest so far this year in Greece, a country where wildfires are common in the hot, dry summer.

Earlier Friday, fire authorities said that a 64-year-old man had been arrested on accusations of starting Thursday's first fire by using a flame to burn dried weeds near his house.

The man was to appear in court Friday.

-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

photo

AP/THANASSIS STAVRAKIS

Villagers give directions to firefighters Friday on the Greek island of Evia, where four wildfires were raging.

A Section on 07/06/2019

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