Around the world

Powerful quake kills 39 on Lombok island

MATARAM — A powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok on Sunday, killing at least 39 people and shaking neighboring Bali, one week after another quake on Lombok killed more than a dozen.

The latest quake, which triggered a brief tsunami warning, damaged buildings as far away as Denpasar on Bali, including a department store and the airport terminal, where ceiling panels were shaken loose, authorities said.

Video showed screaming people running in panic from houses in a Bali neighborhood and vehicles rocking. On Lombok, soldiers and other rescuers carried injured people on stretchers and carpets to an evacuation center.

Muhammad Rum, head of the disaster management agency in West Nusa Tenggara province, which includes Lombok, told Indonesian TV the death toll had risen to 39. Earlier, officials had said at least three people had died.

The quake, recorded at magnitude 7.0 by the U.S. Geological Survey, struck early Sunday evening at a depth of 6 miles in the northern part of Lombok.

A tsunami warning was lifted after waves just 6 inches high were recorded in three villages, said the head of Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, Dwikorita Karnawati.

Egypt

Security forces kill 52 militants in Sinai

CAIRO — Egypt says its security forces have killed at least 52 suspected militants in recent days in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula.

The military said in a statement Sunday that another 49 suspected militants have been arrested. It says it destroyed 26 hideouts and weapons depots, and dismantled 64 explosive devices.

The military says airstrikes destroyed 32 vehicles containing weapons and ammunition in the Western Desert and in the south.

Egypt launched a nationwide operation against militants in February. It has struggled to combat a long-running insurgency in the Sinai that gained strength after the military overthrew a divisive Islamist president in 2013 and which is now affiliated with the Islamic State group.

Greece

Police, fire chiefs let go in wake of deadly fire

ATHENS — The Greek government announced Sunday that the chiefs of the national police and fire service had been fired and replaced by their deputies in the wake of a forest fire that killed at least 91 people near Athens.

The dismissed chief of Hellenic Police, Constantine Tsouvalas, had been in the post since February 2016. Sotiris Terzoudis had been head of the Hellenic Fire Service since February of this year.

The changes came a day after Greece’s public order minister, Nikos Toskas, resigned. Interior Minister Panos Skourletis took over Toskas’ duties overseeing Greece’s security services.

The death toll from the July 23 fire rose to at least 91 after the weekend deaths of a 55-year-old woman, an 85-year-old man and a 95-year-old woman, all with extensive burns.

Bangladesh

Protests over safer streets surge in capital

DHAKA — Thousands of angry young people took to the streets of Bangladesh’s capital again Sunday to demand safer streets, facing tear gas and pro-government activists who attacked them with clubs.

Protests have flared repeatedly in Dhaka since two students were killed last week by speeding buses.

The protests have become a serious embarrassment to the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of a general election due in December. Her party is blaming the main opposition, led by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, for using the student anger to create chaos for political gains.