News in Brief

US charges 3 for supporting ISIS
Afp, New York

Two New York Muslims were hauled before a federal court Wednesday charged with plotting to join Islamic State extremists in Syria and threatening to carry out attacks in the United States. FBI agents arrested Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, at John F Kennedy airport allegedly attempting to board a flight to Istanbul and Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24 -- who had offered to kill President Barack Obama -- was detained at home in Brooklyn. A third New York resident, Abror Habibov, 30, was arrested for funding Saidakhmetov's jihadist quest.

US Senate strikes homeland security deal
Afp, Washington

US Senate leaders struck a deal Wednesday to avert an ugly shutdown and fund homeland security operations through September, but it remained unclear whether lawmakers will agree to the plan before Friday's deadline. Republicans, irate over President Barack Obama's unilateral action in November to shield millions of undocumented workers from deportation, attached their immigration order repeal efforts to the DHS funding bill.

One killed in Egyptian Capital bombings
Afp, Cairo

One person was killed in a bombing outside a pizzeria in the Egyptian capital yesterday as other blasts hit a police station and offices of cell phone companies, a health official said. Two other people were wounded in the attacks.

Cuba, US at odds on terror blacklist
Afp, Washington

Just two days ahead of a second round of talks on restoring diplomatic ties frozen for five decades, Cuba and the United States on Wednesday staked out competing demands to ensure progress. Cuban officials demanded that as a preliminary step to renewing relations, Washington must remove the island from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. But a US official insisted the two issues should not be linked.

Sharp spike in Ebola cases in Sierra Leone
Afp, Freetown

Sierra Leone said on Wednesday it was seeing a spike, 16 cases a day, in Ebola infections, blaming unsafe burials that threaten to undermine the recovery from the deadly epidemic. The west African nation, which has registered some 3,400 deaths in the nine months since the outbreak spread from neighbouring Guinea.