Reuters, Cairo
Russian’s transport minister and a team of high-level investigators has arrived in Cairo to help Egyptian authorities determine what caused a Russian airliner to crash in the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 people on board.
The Airbus A321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet, was flying from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia when it went down in central Sinai soon after daybreak on Saturday.
Islamic State takes over Syrian town
Reuters, Beirut
Islamic State fighters took control of the Syrian town of Maheen in the southwest of Homs province on Sunday after an attack on government forces in the area, a monitoring group and a statement by the jihadists said.
The attack killed and wounded at least 50 fighters on the government side and brought Islamic State to within 20 kilometers (13 miles) of the main highway that links Damascus to Homs and cities further north, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
US smooths Kyrgyzstan ties after rights row
AFP, Bishkek
US Secretary of State John Kerry carefully negotiated a delicate first day of his Central Asia tour on Saturday, patching up a human rights row with Kyrgyzstan.
The senior US diplomat’s visit to all five “‘Stans”, the landlocked former Soviet republics in Russia’s Asian back yard, began in one of the most suspicious of US influence.
Texas storms kill 6, bring
torrential rains
Reuters, Dallas
At least six people have died in Texas in storms that lashed parts of the state with heavy rains, causing flooding and the cancellation of dozens of flights as twisters were reported near Houston, authorities said on Saturday.
A day after tornadoes ripped through buildings outside San Antonio and heavy rains swelled some rivers near Austin to record levels, the National Weather Service reported an apparent twister south of Houston in Brazoria County early on Saturday that damaged 25 trailer homes near the town of Alvin.
4 killed, including suspect, in Colorado shooting
AFP, Washington
A gun-toting assailant opened fire Saturday in Colorado, shooting three people to death before officers returned fire and killed the shooter, authorities said.
Around 8:45 am (1445 GMT), the Colorado Springs Police Department had a report of shots fired in downtown Colorado Springs, said El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jackie Kirby.
“When the suspect fired multiple shots at the officers, CSPD officers returned fire,” she said.
