Nation and World briefs for September 20

Immigrant wanted in NY-area bombings captured in shootout

LINDEN, N.J. (AP) — An Afghan immigrant wanted in the bombings that rocked a New York City neighborhood and a New Jersey shore town was captured Monday after being wounded in a gun battle with police that erupted when he was discovered sleeping in a bar doorway, authorities said.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to the leg, and two officers were wounded but were not critically hurt in the shootout that followed a weekend of fear and dread across New York and beyond.

The arrest came just hours after police issued a bulletin and photo of Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan who lived with his Muslim family in an apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey, over a fried-chicken restaurant owned by his father.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, chief federal prosecutor in New York, said New Jersey officials will probably bring charges against Rahami in the police officers’ shooting while federal authorities weigh charges of their own.

“We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said after Rahami’s capture.

Aid convoy attacked as Syria calls cease-fire finished

BEIRUT (AP) — A U.N. humanitarian aid convoy inside Syria was hit by airstrikes Monday, U.N. officials said, as the Syrian military declared that the week-long U.S.-Russian brokered cease-fire had failed.

With the truce apparently teetering, the U.S. brushed off Damascus’ assertions and said it’s prepared to extend the agreement, while Russia — after blaming rebels for the violations — suggested it could still be salvaged.

U.N. officials said the U.N. and Red Crescent convoy was delivering assistance for 78,000 people in the town of Uram al-Kubra, west of Aleppo city. Initial estimates indicate that at least 18 of the 31 trucks in the convoy were hit, as well as the Red Crescent warehouse in the area.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 12 were killed in the attack, mostly truck drivers and Red Crescent workers. The Syrian Civil Defense, the volunteer first responder group also known as the White Helmets, confirmed that casualty figure.

Jan Egeland, humanitarian aid coordinator in the office of the U.N. envoy for Syria, told The Associated Press in a text message that the convoy was “bombarded.”

Congress struggles to finish Zika aid, prevent shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional negotiators on Monday pressed to wrap up a must-do spending bill to prevent an election-season government shutdown and finally provide money to battle the threat of the Zika virus, but numerous sticking points remain and top Senate leaders again postponed a planned procedural vote.

The stopgap measure would keep the government running past the end of the budget year this month. It’s the only measure that has to pass before Congress adjourns for Election Day. As such, the talks have been tricky, with Republicans controlling Congress battling Democrats and the Obama administration.

A controversy involving whether Planned Parenthood should be eligible for anti-Zika funding in Puerto Rico — which sparked a Democratic blockade of an earlier measure — appears to have been defused, lawmakers and aides say. But unrelated controversies over pesticide regulations, spending cuts and limitations on how many hours long-haul truckers can drive remain unresolved. A request by Democrats to add money to help the city of Flint, Michigan, fix its lead-tainted water system is being opposed by Republicans who want it to advance on a separate water projects measure.

After talks over the weekend failed to produce much progress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., postponed a procedural vote that had been slated for Monday evening. The delay probably means Congress won’t wrap up its pre-Election Day session this week. The move followed an earlier delay after talks slowed last week.

“I’m encouraged by the headway we’ve made,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “There’s still work to be done.”

World leaders at UN approve plan for refugee crisis

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — World leaders on Monday approved a declaration aimed at providing a more coordinated and humane response to the refugee crisis that has strained resources and sparked divisions from Africa to Europe.

The issue of what to do about the world’s 65.3 million displaced people took center stage at the U.N. General Assembly with leaders from the 193 member states taking part in the first-ever summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.

Advocacy groups worried that the New York Declaration on Migrants and Refugees — an outcome document which contains no concrete commitments and is not legally binding — falls short of what is needed, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, himself a refugee during the Korean War, hailed it as historic.

“Today’s summit represents a breakthrough in our collective efforts to address the challenges of human mobility,” Ban said.

Around the world, there are currently about 21.3 million refugees, 3.2 million asylum seekers, and 40.8 million migrants, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. The agency defines refugees as people forced to flee due to armed conflict or persecution, while migrants choose to move in search of a better life.

Obama, Iraqi leader vow rapid offensive to retake Mosul

NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi put the Islamic State group on notice Monday that they plan to recapture the city of Mosul within months. If successful, the operation could mark a major turning point in the campaign to defeat the extremist group.

Neither leader glossed over the immense difficulty of the battle ahead as they met in New York on the sidelines of a U.N. summit. Still, Obama said he and Abadi were confident that Iraq’s military and the U.S.-led coalition could make progress in Mosul “fairly rapidly,” adding that he was hoping for progress by year-end.

“This is going to be hard. It’s going to be challenging. It will require resources,” Obama said. But he professed confidence that more territory can be wrested from the militants, in part because he said “the Iraqi forces are getting more confident.”

Abadi, speaking in English, echoed Obama’s timeline for retaking Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the IS stronghold in Iraq. He called the group a “huge threat” to Iraq’s stability.

“We hope within the next few months we’re going to kick Daesh out of Mosul,” Abadi said, using an Arabic acronym for the group. He added: “They must be crushed on the ground.”

Somali community braces for Minnesota mall attack backlash

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — Leaders of Minnesota’s large Somali community acknowledged the prospect of a “long winter” for their people in the wake of the weekend’s mall stabbings by a young Somali man, but warned Monday not to quickly accept the terrorism connection.

Authorities are treating Saturday’s stabbings, which wounded nine people at Crossroads Center Mall, as a possible act of terrorism, in part because an Islamic State-run news agency claimed that the attacker was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who had heeded the group’s calls for attacks in countries that are part of a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition.

But it wasn’t immediately known whether the extremist group had planned the attack or knew about it beforehand. St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said the attack appeared to be the work of a single individual and there was no sign that the attacker, identified by his father as 20-year-old Dahir Adan, was radicalized or communicated with any terrorist group.

President Barack Obama said the stabbings had no apparent connection to weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey.

“We cannot give ISIS and other terrorist organizations more air time and propaganda without real facts,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Minnesota chapter.