■ PHILIPPINES
Suspected clan war kills six
Six members of a family were killed and two other relatives wounded in an attack linked to a suspected clan war in the south, police said yesterday. Gunmen opened fire on the victims’ house on the island of Jolo late on Wednesday, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Joseph Ramac said, adding: “This is a rido [clan war].” Police are investigating the possible involvement of a neighbor who had accused a relative of the targeted family of rape and arson. Rido, or violent feuds among rival Muslim clans, have plagued the southern third of the mainly Roman Catholic country for decades, with families fighting over land, political power or matters of honor.
■ AUSTRALIA
Bikers face murder charges
Ten bikers will go on trial for murder after a vicious brawl between rival gangs at a Sydney airport resulted in a man being bludgeoned with a metal pole and stabbed to death with a knife and scissors, a court said yesterday. A chance meeting between members of the rival Hells Angels and Comanchero gangs on a flight led to cellphone calls for reinforcements when the plane landed. Hells Angel Anthony Zervas, 29, died after being struck and stabbed when a fight broke out in front of stunned onlookers at a domestic airport on March 22 last year. The battle began at an arrival gate and rolled through the airport to a Qantas Airways check-in desk where Zervas died.
■RUSSIA
Mortar wounds Abkhazian VP
The vice president of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia was wounded in a mortar attack on his house overnight, officials said yesterday. Abkhazian Vice President Alexander Ankvab suffered shrapnel wounds when his home in Gudauta was attacked early yesterday morning, Abkhazian Prosecutor General Safar Mikanba said in comments broadcast on Russia’s Rossiya-24 news channel. “His life is not in danger,” Mikanba said.
■ PHILIPPINES
State denies data ‘doctored’
The government yesterday denied allegations that it manipulated population data to support a controversial family planning campaign in one of the world’s most populous Roman Catholic nations. Bernardo Villegas, a conservative academic, has alleged the government’s statistics office padded the 2000 census data by 146,542 babies, leading to higher future population projections. “As a long-term student of Philippine demography, I had always suspected some doctoring of population data by birth-control pushers,” Villegas said. Abortion is illegal and artificial birth control methods are not provided at community health centers because of Church opposition. The National Statistical Coordination Board acknowledged increasing the estimated base population for 2000, but said it did so because census data on five-to-nine-year-olds suggested the number of kids aged four or younger was under-reported.
■VIETNAM
Mass grave discovered
An official says a mass grave has been found containing the remains of 47 communist commandos killed during the Vietnam War. Lu Dinh Phu says eight of the bodies have been identified. Phu is the deputy chief of Nghia Hanh district in central Quang Ngai Province, where the grave is located. The commandos were believed to have been killed during their attack on a building used by the US-backed Saigon government in January 1968. Former commandos who survived the attack tipped the government to the site of the grave.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number