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Securing Syria chemical weapons may take tens of thousands of troops
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and its allies are discussing a worst-case scenario that could require tens of thousands of ground troops to go into Syria to secure chemical and biological weapons sites following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, according to U.S. and diplomatic officials. These secret discussions assume that all of Assad’s security forces disintegrate, leaving chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria vulnerable to pillaging. …

U.N. monitors quit, saying Syrians choose "path of war"
BEIRUT/ALEPPO (Reuters) – Syria's government and rebels have "chosen the path of war", a U.N. peacekeeping chief said as the world body ended its doomed monitoring mission to Damascus and deadlock persists among world powers over how to contain the spreading conflict. Two weeks after former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan quit as mediator in frustration with the failure of a four-month-old truce, military observers have no peace on the ground to monitor and U.N. officials said on Thursday the last of the few dozen remaining team members would quit Damascus by August 24. …

'Four dead' in fire at Thai tourist nightclub
A fire broke out early Friday at a nightclub popular with foreign tourists on the Thai resort island of Phuket, leaving four people dead and about a dozen injured, officials said.

WFP drops food to war refugees in South Sudan
Officials from the United Nations relief agency air-dropped 32 metric tons of food to refugees on the South Sudan-Sudan border, an expensive, last-ditch way to get food to tens of thousands of people who have been forced out of Sudan by fighting and hunger, an official said Thursday.

Appeals process begins for American imprisoned in Nicaragua
GRANADA, Nicaragua (Reuters) – A U.S. citizen serving a 22-year prison sentence in Nicaragua for drug trafficking and money laundering, who a United Nations group has said was wrongly convicted, appeared in court on Thursday for the start of a long-awaited appeals proceeding. In a brief statement before the court, Jason Puracal maintained his innocence, saying he hoped justice would prevail. Puracal, 35, was detained by Nicaraguan authorities in November 2010 along with 10 Nicaraguans and accused of transporting drugs to El Salvador and Guatemala. …