International news brief: Islamic Jihad commander killed in Gaza as violence flares

Gaza, Aug 07: The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said on Sunday its top commander for the southern Gaza Strip, Khaled Mansour, was killed in an Israeli airstrike late on Saturday amid the worst cross-border conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants since last year.

The news comes as Israeli security forces said 20 members of the Islamist group have been arrested. Israeli officials claim the Islamic Jihad has been preparing an attack on Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank.

Cross-border violence has flared since Israel killed the Iranian-backed group's commander for northern Gaza in an air raid on Friday.

Prohibited funding case: Pakistan's top probe agency forms five-member monitoring team

Pakistan's top investigative has formed a five-member special monitoring panel to coordinate with zonal teams probing the prohibited funding case against former prime minister Imran Khan's Tehreek-i-Insaf party, as authorities expanded the probe into the matter, according to a media report on Sunday. The government had asked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the case after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in its verdict in the case on August 2 held Khan's party guilty of getting funding from prohibited sources.

Russian-backed official dies after shooting

Vitaly Gura, the deputy head of the Russian occupation administration in the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region, died after "an assassination attempt," Russian-appointed representatives said.

Katerina Gubareva, a spokesperson for Russian-backed authorities, confirmed Gura had "succumbed to his injuries," on Telegram.

Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-backed head of the Kakhovka district administration, told Russisan state-run Interfax that Gura was shot with an automatic weapon as he was going to work on Saturday morning.

Colombia to swear in ex-guerilla as president

Gustavo Petro, a former member of Colombia's M-19 guerrilla group, is set to be inaugurated as the country's first leftist president on Sunday at a ceremony in the capital, Bogota.

Some 100,000 people, including Spanish King Felipe VI and at least nine Latin American presidents, are expected to look on as he is sworn in as head of state and government by Senate chief Roy Barreras.

1 dead, 17 missing, 121 hurt in fire at Cuban oil facility

A fire set off by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility raged uncontrolled in the Cuban city of Matanzas, where four explosions and flames injured 121 people and left 17 firefighters missing. Cuban authorities said a unidentified body had been found. Firefighters and other specialists were on Saturday still trying to quell the blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, where the fire began during a thunderstorm Friday night, the Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted. Authorities said about 800 people were evacuated from the Dubrocq neighbourhood closest to the fire. The government said it had asked for help from international experts in "friendly countries" with experience in the oil sector.

Source: DW