ISRAEL
Soldier begins hunger strike
A soldier who has refused to serve in the Palestinian Territories has gone on hunger strike in a military prison in solidarity with Palestinian administrative detainees, a report said on Sunday. The 31-year-old army reservist, Yaniv Mazor, was jailed for 20 days last week for refusing to take part in army duties in protest at the occupation of the Palestinian Territories, Haaretz newspaper said on its Web site. The day after his incarceration, Mazor went on hunger strike, it said, adding he had stressed through his lawyer the protest was not to highlight his own situation, but in solidarity with Palestinians held in administrative detention. About 1,550 imprisoned Palestinians ended a mass hunger strike on May 14 in exchange for a package of measures, which would allow visits from relatives in Gaza and the transfer of detainees out of solitary confinement.
JAPAN
Quake hits off east coast
A magnitude 6.4 undersea earthquake yesterday jolted the sea area off the east coast of Honshu, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, but no injuries or damage were reported. The USGS said the quake had a depth of 31km and hit at 4:32am about 140km east of the city of Sendai.
THAILAND
Bosom brush draws rebuke
An episode of Thailand’s Got Talent has stirred a morality debate after a contestant painted a canvas using her bare breasts, drawing a rebuke from Minister of Culture Sukumol Kunplome, who called it shocking. Sukumol summoned the show’s producers yesterday, saying that nudity on public television is not considered appropriate in local society. On Sunday evening, the show featured a 23-year-old artist who politely addressed the judges, then turned to face her canvas. She removed her shirt, doused her torso with multicolored paint and used her body as a paintbrush, while dance music played in the background. She advanced to the next round after a female judge rejected her, but two male judges voted her through.
ISRAEL
Gunmen, civilian killed
Two gunmen and a civilian were killed yesterday morning during an exchange of fire along the southern border with Egypt in an area that is close to the Gaza Strip, public radio said. Three gunmen, initially believed to be Palestinians, opened fire toward a convoy of vehicles carrying construction workers to the place where they were building part of a vast border fence along the frontier, prompting troops in the area to open fire. Initial reports said two of the gunmen were killed along with one of the construction workers.
ISRAEL
Illegal migrants deported
A plane carrying 127 illegal immigrants took off overnight yesterday for the South Sudanese capital of Juba, in the first wave of expulsions of tens of thousands of Africans, the Maariv daily said on its Web site. The first charter flight left Ben Gurion airport carrying 127 men, women and children, Maariv said. Over the past week, Israel has been conducting mass raids to round up illegal immigrants, most of them Africans. Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who has vowed to rid the country of all illegal immigrants from Africa, was on hand at the airport to see them off, the correspondent said. Rising tensions over the growing number of illegal immigrants exploded into violence last month when a protest in Tel Aviv turned ugly, with demonstrators smashing African-run shops and property, chanting “Blacks out!”
CANADA
Stage collapse investigated
Investigators combed through the wreckage of a Toronto stage collapse on Sunday, trying to determine what caused the structure to come crashing down hours ahead of a concert by British rock band Radiohead, in which the group’s drum technician was killed and another three people were injured. Officials from the Ontario Ministry of Labour searched through the wreckage for clues to the cause of the collapse on Saturday in Downsview Park. They were also investigating whether safety regulations and standards were followed and if staff were properly trained. Ministry spokesman Matt Blajer said the massive structure is “still fairly unstable” and work is under way to make it safe.
FRANCE
Shooting suspect arrested
A suspect was arrested during a massive manhunt early yesterday after a man shot dead two female paramilitary gendarmes with one of their own pistols in a village in the southeast. The gendarmes, aged 29 and 35, were intervening in a dispute on Sunday when a man who had been accused of burglary knocked down one of them, grabbed her gun and killed her, investigators said. He then pursued the second officer and shot her in cold blood in a nearby square. The suspect, who an investigator said appeared to be drunk, made off with the gendarmes’ revolvers. “A person corresponding to the description” of the wanted man — aged 25, tall and well-built, with a shaved head — was being held, Toulon prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux said in the village of Collobrieres, where the drama occurred. “All verifications must be carried out” to make sure the man, who was arrested with his girlfriend, was the main suspect, Tarabeux said. The gendarmerie said the suspect had a criminal record. One of the dead women was married with daughters aged five and 13.
UNITED KINGDOM
Blair aide’s memoirs let rip
Former prime minister Tony Blair thought his successor Gordon Brown was “bonkers” and a “malign force” that was “hell-bent” on his destruction, according to his ex-media chief’s diaries aired yesterday. The extracts from Alastair Campbell’s diaries shone a light on the tension and bitterness behind the scenes during Blair’s decade in office from 1997, when Brown served as his finance minister. The sections from Campbell’s latest volume of diaries, The Burden of Power: Countdown to Iraq, were published in the Guardian newspaper. Blair and Brown had been the twin driving forces behind the Labour Party’s modernization and return to power after 18 years in opposition, but their relationship soon soured and turned into bitter rivalry. Brown eventually took over from Blair as prime minister in 2007, but lost power in the 2010 general election. In a diary entry from September 2002, Campbell said Blair felt a “dark cloud of GB [Brown] over him the whole time. He said GB was getting desperate and now was acting as a destructive force much of the time.”
CHILE
Soldier killed in Haiti
A soldier who worked at the embassy of Chile in Haiti died there on Sunday after being shot by unidentified assailants, authorities said. “The officer was assaulted by strangers and he received four bullet wounds in his abdomen and arm. Due to these injuries, he was taken to Lambert Sante Hospital, where he died,” the Chilean Defense Ministry said in a statement. The incident took place outside a restaurant in the Petionville suburb of Port-au-Prince and is being investigated by Haitian police.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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