TURKISH artillery has been pounding suspected Syrian Kurdish positions near a town in north-east Syria as Turkey’s military incursion enters its seventh day.
Heavy bombardment of targets in the countryside of Ras al Ayn has been reported, days after Turkey announced that it had captured the border town.
Turkish jets also carried out at least one air strike.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported Kurdish fighters had retaken the town. A Turkish military official denied reports that Turkey had begun an assault on the town of Manbij.
READ MORE: Creation of a buffer zone in Syria is no solution
Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Turkey’s offensive in an article in the Wall Street Journal, calling on the international community to support the initiative or “begin admitting refugees”.
MEANWHILE, the toll of death and destruction from a massive typhoon that tore through central and northern Japan has risen to 53 and another nine people are presumed dead, according to the country’s leader.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also said the government was considering approving a special budget for the ongoing disaster response and eventual reconstruction. Lawmakers prayed in silence for the victims before starting the session.
Typhoon Hagibis hit Japan’s main island on Saturday, unleashing strong winds and dumping huge amounts of rainfall that caused more than 200 rivers in central and northern Japan to overflow.
ELSEWHERE, Hunter Biden, son of the former vice-president of the US, Joe Biden, has rejected assertions by President Donald Trump and his Republican allies that he did anything wrong in engaging in foreign work in Ukraine and China.
Hunter Biden slammed a “ridiculous conspiracy idea” but also said he failed to take into account potential implications for his father’s political career.
The former vice-president is a frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic presidential contest.
FINALLY, a newborn baby girl was found buried alive in an earthen pot in northern India and was taken to hospital in critical condition.
Police officer Abhinandan Singh says the girl was found last Thursday by a trader who went to a cremation ground to bury his stillborn daughter.
The trader, Hitesh Kumar, was alerted by the cries of the girl as the workers digging a grave for his daughter smashed the earthen pot.
The baby girl was taken to hospital in Bareilly.
Indian families, especially in poor communities, generally prefer boys, as they consider girls to be a financial burden for educating and marrying off, which requires money as a dowry.
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