Greece clears final reform hurdle before new bailout talks

Greece clears final reform hurdle before new bailout talks

ATHENS, GREECE

Greek lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a new batch of reforms demanded by the country’s international creditors in return for a third multibillion-euro bailout. The vote followed a whirlwind debate.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras again suffered a revolt among his own radical left lawmakers, but had no trouble passing the draft legislation with the backing of pro-European opposition parties.

The reforms were the final prerequisite before Greece can start negotiations with creditors on a third bailout worth around 85 billion euros ($93 billion).

Market bombings kill 26, officials say

BAGHDAD

A pair of car bombs exploded Wednesday at crowded popular markets in predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killing at least 26 people and wounding 58, authorities said.

The first explosion took place in the impoverished neighborhood of al-Bayaa in southwestern Baghdad, a police official said. The blast killed at least 18 people and wounded 36, the official said.Later Wednesday, a second car bomb detonated in al-Shaab, killing at least eight people and wounding 22, police said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Official orca census shows 81 whales

SEATTLE

The annual July tally of endangered orcas is complete, and researchers have counted 81 whales, including four babies born since last winter.

Researchers tracking the southern resident killer whales have photo confirmation of each whale, and nobody is missing, said Ken Balcomb, a senior scientist with the Center for Whale Research. The population of 81 orcas is higher than last July’s count of 78 whales. But it’s still low. Listed as endangered in 2005, the whales are struggling because of pollution, lack of food and other reasons.

Poll shows a drop in ratings for the pope

NEW YORK

Two months ahead of his first trip to the U.S., Pope Francis’ approval rating among Americans has plummeted, driven mostly by a decline among political conservatives and Roman Catholics, according to a new Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Fifty-nine percent of Americans said this month they had a favorable view of the pope, compared with 76 percent in February 2014, Gallup reported. The share of Americans who disapproved of the pope increased from 9 percent to 16 percent in the same period. The changes were most dramatic among political conservatives, whose opinion of Francis nosedived by 27 percentage points to 45 percent. Among Catholics, Francis’ approval dropped by 18 percentage points to 71 percent.

FBI chief: IS a bigger threat than al-Qaida

ASPEN, COLO.

The FBI director says the Islamic State group’s effort to inspire troubled Americans to kill at home has become more of a terror threat to the U.S. than an external attack by al-Qaida.

FBI Director James Comey told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum that the Islamic State group has seen success in recent months after a yearlong social media campaign to radicalize disaffected Americans and Europeans. He said the FBI had made a number of arrests over the last eight weeks of people who had been radicalized and has hundreds of investigations pending.

Comey’s remarks signal a deepening concern about the impact of the Islamic State’s effort to inspire terrorist violence.

Associated Press