News in brief
Iran nuclear deal will fuel terrorism: Netanyahu
AFP, FLORENCE, Italy: The deal to curb Irans nuclear programme will bolster Tehrans ability to fund global terrorism by providing the Islamic state with billions of dollars in sanctions relief, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Saturday.
Iran will get hundreds of billions of dollars from sanctions relief and investments to fuel its aggression and terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond, Netanyahuwho is bitterly opposed to the deal agreed by Iran and world powers in Julysaid during a visit to the Italian city of Florence.
The Israeli leader is on a tour of Italyhis first major overseas visit since being re-elected in June.
Speaking ahead of a meeting Saturday evening with his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi he compared the threat posed by the Islamic State jihadist group with the far more serious threat...posed by another Islamic state, the Islamic state of Iran and specifically its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
IS executes over 90 people in Syria in one month
AFP, BEIRUT: The Islamic State jihadist group has executed more than 90 people, a third of them civilians, over the past month in areas of war-torn Syria under its control, a monitoring group said
yesterday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 32 civilians were among 91 people executed for crimes in the jihadist groups self-proclaimed caliphate between July 29 and August 29.
The toll included IS members, rebel fighters and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Witchcraft, homosexual acts and working with the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria are among crimes punishable by death for thegroup.
Since it announced its caliphate in June 2014, IS has swept across Syria, seizing swathes of land in central Hama and Homs provinces, Deir
Ezzor and Hasakeh in the east, and the norths Raqa and Aleppo.
Six dead, dozens hurt in fire at Saudi housing complex
AFP, RIYADH: At least six people were killed and 206 injured in Saudi Arabia yesterday when a fire broke out at a residential complex housing employees of oil giant Saudi Aramco, authorities said.
The fire started in the basement of a tower in the eastern city of Khobar, the kingdoms civil defence said on Twitter.
It added that several of the injured were in a critical condition and that the casualties were from various nationalities, without giving details.
Photographs published on the civil defence website showed plumes of black smoke rising from the windows of one of the buildings.
Algeria detains former counter-terror chief
AFP, ALGIERS: A retired Algerian intelligence chief, formerly in charge of counter-terrorism, is being held in a military prison after his arrest in Algiers, the daily El-Watan reported yesterday.
After being forcibly retired at the end of 2013, General Hassan, born Abdelkader Ait-Ouarab, was arrested at his home on Thursday and is being held in Blida military prison 50 km (31 miles) south of Algiers, the newspaper said.
A security source confirmed his arrest to AFP, but gave no further details. News sites first announced that he had been detained on Friday, but there has been no official confirmation.
2 cops, one youth killed in Portugal shooting
AFP, LISBON: Three people, including two police officers, were killed in a shootout in Portugal on Saturday following a row in a town near Lisbon, police said.
Another person was seriously injured when a man opened fire in Quinta do Conde, around 30 kilometres south of the capital, following what television reports called a row between neighbours.
A plainclothes policeman, who lived in the neighbourhood, was gunned down after rushing to the spot to investigate after hearing shots.
