Masked men kidnap 16 Turkish workers

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi security officials say masked men in military uniforms have kidnapped 16 Turkish workers and engineers in Baghdad.

They say the 16 are employed by a Turkish construction company contracted to build a sports complex in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City.

The officials say kidnappers stormed the construction site at dawn today, where the workers were sleeping in caravans, and took the 16 away in several SUVs. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Neither the identity nor the motives of the kidnappers were immediately known.

Turkey recently began launching airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group in northern Iraq and allowing U.S. warplanes to use bases in southeastern Turkey to strike against the extremist group.

8 dead in Paris apartment blaze

PARIS (AP) — French officials say eight people died in an apartment fire early today in Paris and police are investigating whether the fire was started intentionally.

Speaking on French TV BFM, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the dead included two children. Four survivors are hospitalized.

Brandet said the firefighters extinguished a small paper fire around 12:23 a.m. GMT in the building, located at the foot of Paris’ famed Montmartre hill. They were called back two hours later for a new fire that began in a ground floor stairwell and quickly engulfed the building’s upper stories.

Monkeys on bird patrol for China WWII parade

BEIJING (AP) — China is leaning on the animal kingdom — including a squad of nest-wrecking monkeys — to ensure its military parade commemorating the end of World War II goes smoothly.

To minimize the chances of birds striking engines during the many airplane flyovers connected to the Beijing parade, state media reports say, the military has used falcons to chase away birds and a team of trained macaques to flush nests out of trees around the pilots’ training grounds.

“We bought two monkeys in April last year from Henan province. After one month’s training, the macaques mastered the skill of taking apart birds’ nests,” air force official Wang Mingzhi was quoted as saying by China News Service. Three more monkeys were later added to the team, which can dismantle up to 60 nests per day in return for

rewards, Wang said.

Indonesia extradites man sought in murder

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — A former Austin, Texas, police officer has been extradited from Indonesia to the United States to face trial in the murder of his pregnant girlfriend.

VonTrey Jamal Clark was deported today through Ngurah Rai airport in Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali resort island.

Clark, 32, was handed over to 13 agents of the FBI and was flown to Texas on a specially chartered plane from the bureau.

Bali police spokesman Hery Wiyanto said Clark arrived in Indonesia on July 19 on an American Airlines flight through Jakarta. He was then arrested in Canggu neighborhood in Bali on July 30 based on a red notice from Interpol.

Clark is a suspect in the Feb. 4 murder of Samantha Dean in Texas.

Congo warlord goes on trial at ICC

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Congo militia leader known as The Terminator has pleaded innocent to 18 charges, including murder, rape and sexual slavery, as his long-awaited trial started at the International

Criminal Court.

Bosco Ntaganda, who for years was a symbol of impunity in Africa before turning himself in to the court in 2013 as his powerbase crumbled, looked on impassively today as the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, accused him of commanding troops who slaughtered hundreds of civilians in the resourcerich Ituri region of eastern Congo in 2002 and 2003.

Prosecutors plan to call more than 80 witnesses, including former child soldiers, at the trial that is expected to last for months. Ntaganda faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.