YEMEN
Suicide bombers kill 12
Two al-Qaeda-linked suicide bombers targeting Shiite Muslims blew themselves up at a school and a protest march in the north on Friday, killing at least 12 people, the Ministry of Defense said. The attacks came less than a week after a suicide bomber in army uniform detonated an explosive belt at a military parade rehearsal in Sana’a, killing more than 90 soldiers and wounding at least 200 more. The US and its Gulf Arab allies have watched with mounting alarm as al-Qaeda-linked militants, emboldened by political instability in the country, have launched a series of audacious attacks in the impoverished state. A militant Sunni Islamist group affiliated with al-Qaeda said it had carried out both attacks in revenge for the killing of fellow Sunni Muslims in the north, a Shiite rebel stronghold bordering Saudi Arabia. Sunni Muslim militants affiliated to al-Qaeda view Shiite Muslims as heretics. One attack occurred in al-Jawf Province, where a suicide bomber drove into a school in which members of a Shiite rebel group, also known as Houthis, had gathered to pray, killing 12 people, a local official said. Earlier on Friday, another suicide bomber targeted a Houthi protest march in Saada Province. There were no casualties in the attack, the Houthis said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
Knightley to wed Righton
Keira Knightley, the glamorous star of Pirates of the Caribbean, is engaged to marry musician James Righton, her publicist said on Friday. Publicist Sara Keene said the couple were not releasing any details of the proposal, and did not have any comment on wedding plans. Righton is a keyboard player for the rock group Klaxons. He and Knightley, 27, have been dating since early last year. Previously, Knightley dated actor Rupert Friend for several years. Knightley first won notice for her role as a soccer-playing teenager in Bend It Like Beckham. She went on to star in the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies and was nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
TURKEY
Say faces blasphemy charge
The country’s state-run news agency says a prosecutor has proposed charging an internationally known pianist and composer with insulting Islamic religious values in comments he made on Twitter. Anadolu Agency said on Friday that an Istanbul court would decide whether to accept the proposed indictment against Fazil Say, who has played piano with the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Tokyo Symphony. The prosecutor accuses 42-year-old Say of inciting hatred and public enmity, and insulting “religious values.” Say, who has served as a culture ambassador for the EU, allegedly mocked Islamic beliefs about paradise. The agency says Say could face a maximum one-and-a-half years in prison.
LEBANON
Hostages in Turkey: minister
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said on Friday that freed hostages in Syria had crossed safely into Turkey. “The latest information that we have received is that they are in good health and now crossed into Turkey,” he told reporters at the airport who were waiting for the plane carrying the freed hostages. He said they would arrive in Beirut “within two or three hours.” The hostages, who are Shiites, were kidnapped by Syrian Sunni rebels, raising fears that sectarian tensions and violence in Syria’s uprising could spill over into the country.
UNITED STATES
Man who killed boy ‘bipolar’
A lawyer for a man accused of strangling a six-year-old New York City boy in 1979 says his client is mentally ill and has a history of hallucinations. Pedro Hernandez was arraigned on a murder charge on Friday, the 33rd anniversary of Etan Patz’s disappearance. He has been held without bail. The 51-year-old Hernandez appeared in court via video camera from a conference room at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted after making comments about wanting to kill himself. Court-appointed lawyer Harvey Fishbein told the judge Hernandez is bipolar and schizophrenic.
UNITED STATES
Tornado didn’t stop wedding
On the plains of Kansas, tornadoes are so unremarkable that wedding guests barely flinched as a couple exchanged their vows as a twister loomed in the distance. Video of the wedding for Caleb and Candra Pence has generated more than 20,000 views on YouTube. The footage was captured by the groom’s uncle and shows the couple and their guests seemingly unconcerned as a tornado swirls about 16km behind them. The National Weather Service says the twister packed winds of at least 222kph and ripped up a farm and wind turbines.
UNITED STATES
Hostage-taker shoots self
A gunman who held hostages at an Indiana real-estate office shot himself after releasing them unharmed and has died, police said on Friday. The gunman “was transported to the hospital and later died in the hospital” after suffering from “two self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head” while holed up at the Prudential Executive Group Real Estate office, Valparaiso police Sergeant Michael Grennes said. The Post-Tribune cited the Porter County coroner in identifying the gunman as Roy Ferguson, 48, of Texas. It said the man entered the building with a gun, believing an employee owed him money.
UNITED STATES
Thief leaves calling card
A man whose camcorder was briefly stolen has found a way to get back at the suspected thief: He uploaded to YouTube a video that the suspect took with the camera, a clip in which the man reveals his name, shows his face and admits he stole the camera. Chris Rochester, 25, said his camera was stolen a few weeks ago from the car of his boss, state Senate candidate Bill Feehan. Police eventually arrested the suspect and returned the camera to Rochester, who set it aside. Then, when Governor Scott Walker made a recent visit to La Crosse, Rochester used the camera to film the event. When he went back to retrieve the video, he found 20 other segments the suspect apparently recorded.
UNITED STATES
Star’s ex-boyfriend freed
An Italian ex-boyfriend of actress Anne Hathaway has been released from a federal prison following a real-estate scam. Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke says Raffaello Follieri was released on Friday morning from a prison in Loretto, 129km east of Pittsburgh. Follieri pleaded guilty to cheating investors by falsely claiming he had Vatican connections that enabled him to buy church property at a discount. He was sentenced in 2008 to four-and-a-half years in prison. Follieri agrees he owes more than US$3.6 million to those he ripped off. The proceeds supported a playboy lifestyle that included a US$37,000-a-month New York City apartment and lavish vacations with the star of The Princess Diaries. They dated for four years.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia