SANA — Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis marched Saturday in support of Shi’ite Houthi rebels and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The march in the rebel-held capital, Sana, was in support of a new combined governing council the rebels and Saleh announced late last month but which was immediately rejected by the internationally recognized government and the United Nations. Saleh was forced to step down in 2012 amid protests.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ITALY
Refugees say seven died in shipwreck
MILAN — The UN refugee agency says that survivors of a shipwreck off Libya have reported at least seven people, including three children, died when the small wooden boat carrying 27 people, mostly Syrian refugees, capsized. A Spanish aid group recovered five bodies, including two Syrian children, during the rescue Thursday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTH KOREA
North Korea calls defector ‘scum’
SEOUL — North Korea said Saturday that a diplomat in its London embassy who recently defected to South Korea had fled rather than face punishment for various crimes, calling him “human scum.” The statement, from the official Korean Central News Agency, was North Korea’s first reaction to the defection of Thae Yong Ho, its most senior official to defect in almost two decades. The North Korean statement said Thae had been ordered in June to return to Pyongyang.
NEW YORK TIMES
TURKEY
Bomb blast strikes wedding ceremony
ANKARA — A bomb exploded at an outdoor wedding ceremony in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, killing at least 30 people and wounding at least 94, authorities said. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek of Turkey said the ‘‘barbaric’’ attack in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, appeared to be a suicide bombing. Other officials said it could have been carried out by either Kurdish militants or Islamic State group extremists.
ASSOCIATED PRESS