1. Brother of Syrian boy dies of wounds

    The older brother of the Syrian boy whose image, dazed* and bloodied after an airstrike, shocked people around the world, has died in Aleppo from wounds sustained* in the same incident, a war monitor and a witness said on Saturday.

    Ali Daqneesh, 10, was wounded in Wednesday’s airstrike, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group, and a witness who was present at the time of the death along with the boys’ father.

    He had internal bleeding and organ damage, doctors told the witness. His younger brother, 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pictured in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension* on his dust- and blood-caked face.

    2. Turkey blames IS for wedding attack

    Turkey’s president on Sunday blamed Islamic State (IS) for the bombing of an outdoor wedding party in the southeast that killed 50 people and wounded dozens of others.

    Officials said Saturday’s attack in Gaziantep, near Syria’s border, appeared to be a suicide bombing.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement early on Sunday denouncing the “heinous*” bombing and saying that IS was “the most likely perpetrator* of the Gaziantep attack.” It is the deadliest extremist attack of 2016.

    3. Duterte rails against UN

    Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte railed against the United Nations on Sunday after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed* by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organization.

    Two U.N. human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs.

    4. Russia launches first raids from Iran base

    Russia used Iran on August 16 for the first time as a base from which to launch airstrikes against Syrian militants, widening its air campaign in Syria and deepening its involvement in the Middle East.

    In a move underscoring Moscow’s increasingly close ties with Tehran, long-range Russian Tupolev-22M3 bombers and Sukhoi-34 fighter bombers used Iran’s Hamadan air base to strike a range of targets in Syria.

    5. N. Korea brands defector sex criminal

    North Korean state media on Saturday accused a diplomat, who defected* from Britain to South Korea, of fleeing to escape punishment for a variety of crimes, including child rape, for which Pyongyang had sought to extradite* him.

    A commentary by the KCNA news agency did not identify the diplomat by name, but South Korea on August 17 announced that Thae Yong Ho, who was deputy ambassador at North Korea’s embassy in London, had arrived in South Korea with his family.

    Thae is the highest-level diplomat to defect from isolated North Korea to the South, according to the South Korean Government.

    6. Mexico fears new cartel war

    The brazen* kidnapping of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s son has unleashed fears of a new war between rival cartels* in the violence-weary country.

    Police have confirmed that Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar — one of Guzman’s sons from his first marriage — was abducted from an upscale bar in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta on August 15 along with five other men.

    Authorities say they suspect the gunmen who seized them were from the Jalisco New Generation cartel, an upstart* rival of jailed kingpin* Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel. Jalisco New Generation emerged in Puerto Vallarta in 2010, when a power vacuum opened after the local boss of the Sinaloa cartel, Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, was killed in a shootout with the Mexican army.(SD-Agencies)