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EFE News Briefs for Thursday, Aug. 21
[August 21, 2014]

EFE News Briefs for Thursday, Aug. 21


(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Israel kills 3 top Hamas military commanders Gaza/Jerusalem (EFE).- Three top military commanders of the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Rafah, a town in the southern Gaza Strip.



The bodies of Muhamad Abu Shamala and Raed al-Attar, prominent members of Hamas's military wing, were taken to a hospital after more than a dozen shells landed on the three-story building in which they lived, eyewitnesses told Efe.

The two men were on Israel's most-wanted list. The body of a third commander, Mohammad Barhoum, was still in the rubble of the destroyed house, media reports said.


___ U.S. reaffirms no-ransom policy in wake of Foley's death Washington (EFE).- Islamic militants' execution of kidnapped U.S. journalist James Foley will not lead Washington to re-evaluate its policy of refusing to pay ransom, the State Department said.

"We do not make concessions to terrorists. That includes - we do not pay ransoms," department spokeswoman Marie Harf said when a reporter asked if officials were reconsidering the policy in light of Foley's case.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant demanded a ransom of 100 million euros ($132.5 million) for Foley, a media outlet that published his dispatches said earlier Thursday.

ISIL released on Tuesday a video of the beheading of the 40-year-old Foley, who was abducted in November 2012 while reporting on the Syrian civil war.

___ Mexico's economy grows 1.7 pct. in first half of 2014 Mexico City (EFE).- Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.7 percent in the first half of this year, compared to the same period in 2013, the National Statistics Institute, or INEGI, said.

Latin America's second-largest economy grew 1.6 percent in the second quarter, marking a slowdown from the first quarter, when GDP expanded at a 1.9 percent annualized rate, the INEGI said.

Mexican officials and financial institutions expect a better economic performance in the second half of this year, thanks to strength in exports and increased government spending on public works projects.

The Bank of Mexico revised its GDP forecast downward last week from a range of 2.3 percent to 3.3 percent to a 2 percent to 2.8 percent range.

___ Brazil aims to raise at least $5.36 bn in 4G wireless auction Rio de Janeiro (EFE).- Brazil's government expects to raise at least 11.8 billion reais ($5.36 billion) in a Sept. 30 auction of six fourth-generation (4G) wireless licenses.

The Anatel telecommunications regulator published the auction terms Thursday in the official gazette, establishing the minimum bid required to compete for each of the licenses.

The winners will be authorized to offer 4G mobile telephony - featuring high-speed Internet access - on the 700 MHz frequency band, currently used by analog TV operators that must make the transition to digital technology.

The winners of licenses to operate in the 700 MHz frequency range will need fewer antennas to offer the same coverage as Brazil's existing 4G wireless providers, which use the 2.5 GHz band.

___ Bank of America pays $16.5 bn to settle financial fraud case Washington (EFE).- The U.S. Justice Department announced a settlement with Bank of America Corp. that calls for the country's No. 2 bank to pay $16.5 billion for misleading investors into buying risky mortgage-backed securities.

The penalty is equivalent to Bank of America's total profit over the past three years.

"This historic resolution - the largest such settlement on record - goes far beyond 'the cost of doing business,'" Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference.

The bank will pay $9.65 billion in cash and extend $7 billion in mortgage relief.

___ Marina Silva enters Brazilian presidential contest Brasilia (EFE).- The Brazilian Socialist Party named former Environment Minister Marina Silva as its candidate for the Oct. 5 presidential election, replacing Eduardo Campos, who died last week in a plane crash.

"I thank God for helping us through the difficult crossing represented by the loss of our candidate, of our leader," Silva, an evangelical Christian, said in accepting the party's nomination at an assembly in Brasilia.

A poll taken after Campos' death indicated that Silva, an Afro-Brazilian who finished third in the 2010 presidential election as leader of the Green Party, could pose a serious obstacle to President Dilma Rousseff's bid for a second four-year term.

"I carry the weight of the responsibility and a commitment to everything built under the leadership of Eduardo Campos," Silva said, vowing to make no changes to the party's platform.

EFE dr (c) 2014 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.

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