YEMEN
Gunman kills nine
Medical and security officials say a crazed gunman opened fire on Sunday on worshipers marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in in al-Dhale, a governorate about 190km south of the capital, Sana’a, killing nine. The gunman targeted men praying outside a crowded mosque during morning Eid el-Fitr services. Ten people were wounded, the officials said, and the gunman was arrested at the scene. Also on Sunday, a security official said a suicide bomber blew himself up in a town in the southern governorate of Abyan, killing a leading member of a civilian militia that has fought alongside government troops to drive al-Qaeda militants from their southern strongholds.
IRAQ
Sunni cleric attacked
A bomb struck the convoy of a senior Sunni cleric in western Baghdad on Sunday, killing four and critically wounding the anti-extremist Muslim leader, police said. The attack highlights the threats faced by moderate Sunni clerics whom the Shiite government needs to help rebuild the country and establish security. The blast left Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaie badly hurt, a Sunni religious official said. The cleric had just finished leading prayers to mark the beginning of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
PHILIPPINES
Ten new owl species found
Scientists and birdwatchers have discovered 10 new owl species in the country, using advanced recording equipment that can distinguish between their hoots, a conservation official said on Sunday. Eight of the new species were previously considered sub-species, while two are totally new, said Lisa Paguntalan, field director of Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Program. “There is no significant variation in their forms. It was the sound difference of their calls that was very significant in distinguishing between species,” she said. Paguntalan said many of these new species were possibly endangered because they were found only in small isolated islands or in tiny pockets of forests. The research took 10 years, but the results were only announced after coordination between groups, including Michigan State University and Birdlife International.
SOUTH KOREA
Joint military drills begin
Seoul and the US have begun annual military drills that North Korea calls a precursor to war. The US says the two-week Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills started with more than 80,000 troops from the US, South Korea and seven countries that fought with them in the Korean War. Pyongyang has repeatedly denounced the exercises as preparation for an attack.
PHILIPPINES
Temblin brings flooding
Tropical Storm Tembin brought heavy rains, triggering landslides and flashfloods in the north, just weeks after a series of deadly storms and monsoon rains, the government said yesterday. The storm remained almost stationary off the northern tip of Luzon, battering the mountainous region with powerful downpours. The storm caused landslides, damaging eight major highways, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Tembin, packing maximum winds of 105kph, with gusts of up to 135 kph, was expected to remain off the northern tip of Luzon for more than a day, the council added. Local communities were warned to monitor the levels of rivers and streams in their area and prepare for evacuations in case they begin to rise.
RUSSIA
Pussy Riot dismiss pardon
The three members of punk band Pussy Riot sentenced to two years in prison for performing an anti-Vladimir Putin song in a famous church are not planning to ask the president for a pardon, their lawyer said yesterday. “Our clients will not ask for a pardon,” defense lawyer Nikolai Polozov said yesterday, adding: “Literally this is what they said: ‘Let them go to hell with their pardon.’” Band members Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich on Friday were each found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for their Feb. 21 protest in the Christ the Savior Cathedral and handed two-year jail terms. In connected developments, a group of Russian activists have sued pop singer Madonna for millions of dollars, claiming they were offended by her support for gay rights during a recent concert in St. Petersburg. Anti-gay sentiment is strong in the country and a recent law passed in St. Petersburg makes it illegal to promote homosexuality to minors. The author of that law has pointed to the presence of children as young as 12 at Madonna’s concert on Aug. 9.
MEXICO
Airport police replaced
Federal police have replaced all 348 officers responsible for security at the capital’s biggest airport after three agents were killed by corrupt colleagues smuggling drugs from Peru. The Ministry of Public Security said the officers had been reassigned to different states. One of the three police agents sought in the June 25 shooting at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport has been captured. Two others remain at large. From their hiding place, the fugitive officers told Proceso magazine that they had no links to drug trafficking, and accused their superiors of trying to coerce them into getting involved in organized crime.
UNITED STATES
Lawmakers party probed
The FBI has investigated an incident that saw at least one Republican congressman swim naked at a drinking party in Israel last year attended by top leadership staff, the news Web site Politico reported on Sunday. It said Representative Keving Yoder of Kansas stripped and jumped into the Sea of Galilee during the privately funded trip, joining colleagues and their family members who were partially or fully clothed. “Regrettably, I jumped into the water without a swimsuit,” Yoder told Politico. “It is my greatest honor to represent the people of Kansas in Congress and [for] any embarrassment I have caused for my colleagues and constituents, I apologize.” More than 20 people participated in the late-night dip on Aug. 18 last year, according to the news Web site. Some of the lawmakers who jumped in said they did so because of the religious significance of the waters, where Jesus is said to have walked on water and performed other miracles.
UNITED STATES
Ads where they should be
Two brothers have created toilet tissue paper that is printed with ads and sometimes even coupon codes that can be read by cellphones. The Journal-News said on Sunday that Bryan and Jordan Silverman expect their product to appear this fall in the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library. Twenty-two-year-old Jordan Silverman came up with the idea for Star Toilet Paper in 2010. His 18-year-old brother said he was initially skeptical, but came to see it as advertising to “a really captive audience.” The brothers from Rye Brook have entered their concept in a contest run by Entrepreneur magazine.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
RSS