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Forty-one feared dead in migrant shipwreck in central Mediterranean

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Forty one migrants are thought to have died in a shipwreck last week in the central Mediterranean, Italian authorities and United Nations agencies said on Wednesday, citing survivors who have been taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa, Reuters reported.

Local public prosecutor Salvatore Vella and three U.N. agencies confirmed media reports that four people who survived the shipwreck had told rescuers they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children.

The survivors – a 13-year-old boy, a woman and two men – arrived in Lampedusa on Wednesday, almost six days after the sinking of their boat, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Unicef and UNHCR, said in a joint statement.

The boat had set off on Aug. 3 from Tunisia’s Sfax, a hot spot in the migration crisis, but capsized and sank during the night after being hit by a big wave, the survivors were quoted by multiple sources, including Ansa news agency, as saying.

The Italian Red Cross and the Sea-Watch charity rescue said the four had survived by hanging on to life jackets or other inflatable rubber devices and then finding another empty boat at sea, on which they spent several days adrift.

According to Reuters the migrants arrived in Lampedusa exhausted and in a state of shock and are due to be questioned by police, prosecutor Vella said. They are presumed to have had no food or drinking water until their rescue on Tuesday.

Vella, who has opened an investigation, said they were picked up after a surveillance plane of the EU border agency Frontex spotted them about 54 nautical miles (100 km) off Zuwarah in Libya.

The central Mediterranean is one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes. More than 22,000 people have died or gone missing in its waters since 2014, according to the IOM.

The U.N. agencies said migrants who set off from Tunisia in recent days faced “prohibitive weather and sea conditions”, making their journeys on unseaworthy iron boats “disproportionally dangerous”.

The agencies reiterated a call for governments to dedicate more resources to Mediterranean search and rescue missions – an expensive and politically sensitive endeavour for which there is little appetite in EU capitals.

On Sunday, the Italian coast guard reported two other shipwrecks, with 57 survivors, two dead and more than 30 missing, and media reports said they also involved at least one vessel that had departed from Sfax on Aug. 3.

A source with knowledge of the matter said the latest migrant sinking was probably a separate incident.

The coast guard did not respond to a request for comment, read the report.

Separately, Tunisian authorities said on Monday they had recovered 11 bodies from a shipwreck near Sfax on Sunday, with 44 migrants still missing from that incident.

Italy, a major route into Europe for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and other migrants, has seen some 93,750 arrivals by sea so far this year, interior ministry data shows, up from about 44,950 in the same period last year.

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Trump says United States will get uranium from Iran

One of ​Trump’s central objectives in launching ‌military ⁠strikes against Iran was to ensure Tehran does not develop a ​nuclear weapon.

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President Donald Trump said on ​Wednesday the United States ‌would get enriched uranium from Iran, as the ​two countries struggle ​to reach an agreement on ⁠ending the Gulf ​war, Reuters reported.

“We’re going to get ​it,” Trump told a reporter as he left a White ​House event.

One of ​Trump’s central objectives in launching ‌military ⁠strikes against Iran was to ensure Tehran does not develop a ​nuclear weapon. ​Iran ⁠has yet to hand over ​more than 900 pounds (408 ​kg) ⁠of highly enriched uranium.

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Trump says Iran “should wave the white flag of surrender”

When asked ⁠what Iran would need to do to violate the ceasefire, Trump ​said: “Well, you’ll find out, because ​I’ll ⁠let you know … They know what not to do.”

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed ​Iran’s military capability and said Tehran “should wave ‌the white flag of surrender” but is too proud to do so, Reuters reported.

Trump told reporters in ​the Oval Office that Iran’s military ​has been reduced to firing “peashooters” and ⁠that Tehran privately wants to make a ​deal despite its public sabre-rattling.

“They play games, ​but let me just tell you, they want to make a deal. And who wouldn’t, when your ​military is totally gone?” he said.

Trump heaped praise on the U.S. blockade of Iranian ‌ports ⁠in the region. “It’s like a piece of steel. Nobody’s going to challenge the blockade. And I think it’s working out very ​well,” he ​said, read the report.

When asked ⁠what Iran would need to do to violate the ceasefire, Trump ​said: “Well, you’ll find out, because ​I’ll ⁠let you know … They know what not to do.”

Trump said Iran “should save the white ⁠flag ​of surrender.”

“If this were ​a fight, they’d stop it,” said Trump.

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Secret Service says it exchanged gunfire with armed suspect near White House

The suspect was not on the White House property, Quinn said.

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The ‌U.S. Secret Service said on Monday its officers confronted an armed and “suspicious individual” near the White House who later fired at them before fleeing on foot and being shot by law enforcement, Reuters reported.

The incident led to a ​brief lockdown at the White House.

Agents patrolling the outer perimeter of the White House ​complex identified a person who Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said ⁠was a “suspicious individual that appeared to have a firearm.”

He briefly fled on foot after being ​approached by Secret Service officers and fired in their direction, Quinn said at a press ​conference.

Secret Service then fired at the suspect who was hit and subsequently hospitalized, Quinn added.

Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade transited through the area “not long before” the incident, Quinn said. There was no indication that the ​suspect intended to approach Vance’s motorcade, the Secret Service deputy director said.

A juvenile bystander was ​hit by the suspect but did not receive any life-threatening injuries and was being treated at a hospital, ‌Quinn ⁠added.

Agents observed “visual print of a firearm” in considering the individual’s behavior as suspicious when he was spotted, Quinn told reporters.

The suspect was not on the White House property, Quinn said.

Law enforcement have been on alert in recent days in the U.S. capital following a shooting at the ​White House Correspondents’ Association ​Dinner late last month ⁠over which a man has been arrested, read the report.

Quinn was asked if Monday’s incident was linked to “other recent attempts” on President Donald Trump’s life. Trump was ​in the White House when this incident unfolded.

“Whether or not it ​was directed ⁠to the president or not, I don’t know but we will find out,” Quinn said.

The Secret Service deputy director confirmed that a weapon was recovered from the suspect but did not elaborate.

The ⁠Secret Service said ​earlier its personnel were on the scene of the ​officer-involved shooting at 15th Street and Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C.

The DC Police Department was handling the probe.

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