At least 4 Americans held by Yemen’s rebels
WASHINGTON – At least four Americans are being held in Yemen by rebels who toppled the U.S. backed government, The Washington Post reported late Friday.
Citing unnamed sources, the report says attempts to free the Americans have failed. The Americans are believed to be imprisoned in the capital Sanaa, which Saudi Arabia repeatedly has bombed in a campaign to oust the rebels, known as Houthis, from power, the report says.
The Houthis cleared one of the prisoners for release, but the report says members of the Houthi rebellion reversed that decision.
Three of the prisoners held private-sector jobs, and the fourth holds dual U.S. Yemini citizenship. None is a U.S. government employee, the report says.
The Post report says the newspaper is withholding details about the four at the request of relatives and U.S. officials, who cited safety concerns.
One more American is being held in Yemen. Sharif Mobley also is in Houthi custody. He’s been held for more than five years on terrorism-related charges brought by the previous government; his capture has been reported previously.
Bomber, grenades kill at least 30 in Nigeria
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – A suicide bomb blast outside a mosque and rocket-propelled grenades that exploded into homes as people slept killed at least 30 people in the Nigerian city Maiduguri on Saturday, residents and officials said.
The explosion killed people who were prostrating themselves for afternoon prayers outside the mosque, including traders from the nearby crowded marketplace in the largest city in Nigeria’s troubled northeast, survivors said.
Trader Ali Bakomi said the bomber was pushing a wheelbarrow and pretending to be an itinerant trader when he joined them.
Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima toured the scene where one wall was reduced to rubble and another was splattered with blood. Officials told him the bomber killed himself and 16 other people.
Earlier on Saturday, rocket-propelled grenades killed at least 13 others in the city and injured more, resident Idrissa Mandara said. Such grenades are a new tactic that has brought terror to the city that is the birthplace of Boko Haram.
Obama leaves Putin off G-7 guest list
WASHINGTON – Russia’s Vladimir Putin won’t be on the guest list when President Barack Obama and other world leaders assemble in Germany this week, as part of the punishment for alleged Kremlin-supported aggression in Ukraine.
Yet the Russian president remains a central player in international affairs, including the U.S.-led nuclear talks with Iran, even with the pledge by Western leaders to try to isolate Putin while the crisis in Ukraine persists.
Just this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Moscow for talks with Putin, and Secretary of State John Kerry went to Sochi to confer with him. Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke by telephone in recent days and agreed to resume talks aimed at ending Syria’s civil war, where Putin’s cooperation also is crucial.
U.S. officials say the engagement is limited to areas where Moscow and the West have shared interests. Outreach to Putin on such matters, officials argue, should not be seen as a sign that the West has accepted the status quo in Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists continue to stoke instability.
China tells the USA to mind own business
SINGAPORE – China vigorously defended its South China Sea land reclamation projects in the face of persistent criticism from U.S. leaders at an international security summit Saturday as the standoff in the Asia-Pacific region shows few signs of abating.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and other officials sharply condemned the artificial island-building but provided no details about what steps the U.S. may take to press China into diplomatic talks.
Carter said China’s land reclamation was out of step with international rules and that turning underwater land into airfields would not expand its sovereignty.
He and others said the U.S. opposes “any further militarization” of the disputed lands. That was a reference to two large motorized artillery vehicles that officials said China had placed on one of the artificial islands.
Chinese officials, in public statements and a private meeting, defended the construction and slammed the U.S. for interfering.
U.S. and Iran holding ‘intense’ nuclear talks
GENEVA – A month away from a nuclear-deal deadline, U.S. and Iranian diplomats tried to narrow differences over how quickly to ease economic penalties against Tehran and how significantly the Iranians must open up military facilities to international inspections. American officials described the session as “at times intense.”
The talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lasted six hours, in what officials described as the most substantive negotiating round since world powers and Iran clinched a framework pact in April.
Last month’s agreement left big questions unanswered, which weeks of subsequent technical discussions have done little to resolve. It was unclear how much progress Kerry and Zarif made before the Iranian delegation began leaving for Tehran, or if they fully rediscovered their momentum.
Asked about completing the full accord by June 30, Zarif said, “We will try.” His deputy, Abbas Aragchi, said lower-level officials would meet again in Vienna this week.
U.S. officials provided hints of what must have been a difficult dialogue but said the encounter ultimately proved fruitful. American members of the negotiating team were not authorized to discuss publicly the private talks and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Associated Press
