News of the day from across the globe, Aug. 13

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Wednesday that he will seek a popular mandate to change the country’s constitution amid widespread calls to fight corruption and curtail government spending.

The announcement came as Islamic State militants ambushed a military convoy in Iraq’s western Anbar province, killing at least 14 soldiers.

Taliban insurgents dressed in police uniforms and driving in a police car attacked a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province on Wednesday, killing 14 police officers, an Afghan official said.

The attack, the latest in a stepped-up campaign by the Taliban targeting Afghan forces and government institutions, underscores the tenaciousness of their insurgency even as the group is plagued by infighting and rivalries following last month’s announcement of the death of its longtime leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The military said rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK on Wednesday fired shots and rockets at the post near the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

Turkey has seen a sharp increase in violence in recent weeks with Kurdish rebels attacking Turkish security forces and the military conducting air strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey.

Less than 10 months into his term, President Joko Widodo on Wednesday fired four Cabinet ministers, including crucial members of his economic team, in a much-anticipated reshuffle that reflected growing frustration with his government’s struggles to improve the country’s sluggish economy.

5 Copter crash: A U.S. Army helicopter crashed while landing on a Navy ship during training Wednesday off Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, injuring seven people and damaging the aircraft, officials said.