News In Brief

UN chief launches Syria inquiry amid protests over secrecy
AP, United Nations
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres selected a Nigerian general Friday to lead a U.N. investigation into attacks on hospitals and other civilian sites in Syria’s last opposition stronghold in the northwest amid protests that its findings will be kept secret.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that the three-member board of inquiry to start work Sept. 30 will be led by Lt. Gen. Chikadibia Obiakor and include Janet Lim of Singapore and Maria Santos Pais of Portugal.

Moscow holds talks with Taliban
AFP, Moscow
A Taliban delegation held talks with Russian officials in Moscow after US negotiations with the Afghan insurgents collapsed, the Russian foreign ministry said Saturday.
“The Russian president’s special representative for Afghanistan … , Zamir Kabulov, hosted a Taliban delegation in Moscow,” a ministry spokesman said, quoted by RIA Novosti state-funded news agency.

US puts sanctions on N Korea hacking groups behind major thefts
AFP, Washington
The US Treasury on Friday placed sanctions on three North Korea government-sponsored hacking operations which it said were behind the theft of possibly hundreds of millions of dollars and destructive cyber-attacks on infrastructure.
The Treasury said the three groups-dubbed Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel-were behind major thefts from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as the 2018 WannaCry hack that crippled Britain’s National Health Service.

Fujimori returns to prison after hospitalization
AFP, Lima
Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori returned to prison Friday after being taken to the hospital last week with heart problems, his doctor said. “After overcoming serious health problems that forced him to have prolonged hospitalization, today President @albertofujimori is returning to prison,” Alejandro Aguinaga said on Twitter.