Egypt reopens Gaza main crossing point
RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- Egypt on Tuesday reopened Gaza's main passenger crossing point for the first time in months for thousands of Palestinians who have been stranded on both sides of the border because of the coronavirus crisis.
Gaza residents holding Egyptian passports, foreign passports and patients seeking treatment abroad were to leave through the Rafah crossing point during its three-day opening, the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza said. Some 500 people were scheduled to exit Tuesday, the first time the crossing has allowed departures since March.
Palestinians stranded in Egypt and abroad will be allowed to return home, the ministry added. Traffic for arrivals had been closed since May.
Gaza appears to have managed to keep the pandemic in check -- in part because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that severely restricts movement in and out of the territory. Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Won't monitor Venezuela vote, EU says
CARACAS, Venezuela -- The European Union said Tuesday that it won't send observers to monitor Venezuela's coming congressional election, citing a lack of fair conditions for a vote that could erase the opposition's last major domestic stronghold of power.
The government had invited the EU to send an electoral mission, but "I have to conclude that conditions are not met, at this stage, for a transparent, inclusive, free and fair electoral process," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
Still, he welcomed a report that President Nicolas Maduro's government and an unspecified sector of the opposition are in talks over possibly delaying the vote, which is now set for Dec. 6.
The election will fill seats in the National Assembly now headed by opposition leader Juan Guaido, who the U.S. and more than 50 other nations recognize as the country's legitimate leader. They said Maduro's reelection had been fraudulent.
Maduro sees the election as an opportunity to take over the one branch of government now out of his control and the pro-government Supreme Court made that more likely by ordering changes in the leadership of several major anti-Maduro parties. Opposition parties say the electoral commission also is stacked against them.
More than two dozen leading opposition parties recently announced a boycott, aiming to undermine the vote's legitimacy.
Iraqis: 2 officials die in Turkish drone hit
BAGHDAD -- A Turkish drone strike killed two senior Iraqi security officials, Iraq's military said Tuesday, marking the first time Turkey's operation to root out Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north produced fatalities among high-ranking Iraqi personnel.
The drone targeted a vehicle belonging to the Border Guards in the Bradost area, north of Irbil, the military statement said, causing the deaths of two commanders and the vehicle's driver.
Gen. Mohammed Rushdi, commander of the Border Guards' 2nd Brigade and Brig. Zubair Hali, commander of the 3rd Regiment, were killed in the attack Ihsan Chelebi, the mayor of Bradost, told The Associated Press. He said they had been establishing new posts in the area.
Attempts to reach Turkish military officials for comment were not immediately successful.
Two Iraqi security officials said the Border Guard commanders were meeting secretly with members of the Kurdistan Worker's Party during the attack. Turkey considers the Kurdistan Worker's Party a terrorist organization and has bombed their positions inside northern Iraq in several operations.
The security officials said five others were also killed in the attack. They did not say whether they were military personnel or civilians.
A Kurdistan Worker's Party official in northern Iraq said the meeting had taken place in Bradost. "The purpose of the meeting was to bring stability to the area," he said.
Virtual trial sought for U.S. envoy's wife
LONDON -- A U.K. lawmaker has asked the government to hold a virtual trial for the wife of an American diplomat who left Britain after being involved in a road accident that killed a British teenager.
The decision to charge Anne Sacoolas, who has claimed diplomatic immunity, has caused tensions between the U.K. and the United States. The Americans have refused to extradite her to stand trial for dangerous driving in the death of 19-year-old motorcycle rider Harry Dunn.
Sacoolas' husband was an intelligence officer at RAF Croughton, a military base in central England used by U.S. forces. The crash occurred near the base.
Dunn's family has urged her to return and face British justice, and met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington as part of their campaign.
Britain's Press Association reported that lawmaker Andrea Leadsom wrote to Home Secretary Priti Patel on Monday to put forward the idea of a virtual trial or a trial in absentia as a "way to achieve closure ... without undermining the U.S. decision not to accept the extradition request."
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports