Thousands await flood rescue in India
TRIVANDRUM, India -- Thousands of stranded people were waiting to be rescued Saturday and officials pleaded for more help as relentless monsoon floods battered the southern Indian state of Kerala, where more than 190 people have died in a little over a week and much of the state is partially submerged.
Heavy rains hit parts of the state again Saturday morning, slowing attempts to deploy rescuers and get relief supplies to isolated areas. Many have seen no help for days and can only be reached by boat or helicopter.
More than 300,000 people have taken shelter in more than 1,500 state-run relief camps, officials said. But authorities said they were being inundated with calls for assistance, local media reported.
Officials have called it the worst flooding in Kerala in a century, with rainfall in some areas well over double that of a typical monsoon season.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Saturday with the state's top officials, promising more than $70 million in aid. While the central government has dispatched multiple military units to Kerala, state officials are pleading for additional help.
"Please ask Modi to give us helicopters, give us helicopters. ... Please, please!" state legislator Saji Cherian said on a Kerala-based TV news channel, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
Modi said 38 helicopters had been deployed for search and rescue operations in the state, which has a population of more than 33 million.
"We all pray for the safety and well-being of the people of Kerala," he said in a tweet.
At least 194 people have died in the flooding and 36 more are missing, according to Kerala's disaster management office.
Turkish leader vows to defy U.S. threat
ISTANBUL -- Turkey's president said Saturday that his country will stand strong against an "attempted economic coup" amid heightened tensions with the United States.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told thousands of supporters in Ankara that the country was being "threatened by the economy, sanctions, foreign currency, interest rates and inflation."
"We tell them that we see their game and we challenge them," he said.
Turkey is reeling from a sell-off of its currency as Washington imposed sanctions and threatened new ones if an American pastor under house arrest isn't released.
Evangelical pastor Andrew Craig Brunson faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted of espionage and terror-related charges. He maintains his innocence.
The lira's value dropped 38 percent against the dollar since the beginning of the year and sunk as low as 7.24 this week.
On Friday, ratings agencies Standard & Poor and Moody's downgraded Turkey's credit rating further to "junk" status, pointing to currency volatility and concerns over central bank independence.
U.K. academy reviews claim of torture
LONDON -- Authorities at Britain's Sandhurst military academy said they are investigating allegations that two cadets waterboarded another at the officer-training school.
The Sun newspaper reported Saturday that two officer cadets pinned down another, covered his face with a cloth and poured water over it. The practice is considered torture by the British government.
Sandhurst's commander, Brigadier Bill Wright, said he has ordered the Royal Military Police to investigate the allegations.
Wright said "the Army and I expect the highest standards of behavior at Sandhurst; anyone found to have fallen short is dealt with robustly, including dismissal, if appropriate."
Sandhurst, 30 miles southwest of London, has trained British army officers for more than 200 years. Its former cadets include Prince William and Prince Harry.
Refugee says ISIS man seen in Germany
BERLIN -- German prosecutors said Saturday that they are taking seriously a Yazidi refugee's claim that she ran into her former Islamic State captor twice in Germany, but say they need more information to identify him.
The case of 19-year-old Ashwaq Haji Hami made headlines this past week after she was quoted telling the Iraqi-Kurdish news portal basnews that she returned to her homeland of Iraq for fear that her alleged tormentor could harm her in Germany. Several reports in foreign media suggested that German authorities were unwilling to act on the woman's claims.
"The young woman was interviewed but the information [she provided] wasn't precise enough," Frauke Koehler, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, said on Saturday. When authorities tried to follow up, the woman had already left Germany, Koehler said.
The Associated Press spoke to the woman at a camp for displaced people near Shekhan in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Hami said she was captured by the Islamic State extremist group in August 2014, and enslaved and abused by an Islamic State member called Abu Humam, whose real name she said was Mohammed Rashid. After managing to escape from the Islamic State, she said she encountered her tormentor in Germany in 2016 and again in February this year in the southwestern German town of Schwaebisch Gmuend.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/19/2018