SOMALIA
Twin bombings kill 20
Two bomb blasts in Mogadishu carried out by an al-Qaeda-linked group left at least 20 people dead on Friday, including two members of parliament and the capital’s deputy mayor. A car bomb exploded at the Central Hotel and then a suicide-bomber came into the compound and detonated his explosives, police captain Mohamed Aloley said at the scene. Mohamed Aden, another police officer, said by telephone that at least 20 people have been confirmed dead, and more than 30 injured. The Muslim militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement published on the Web site of pro-al-Shabaab Radio Andalus. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud condemned the assault and vowed to keep making every effort to wipe out the rebels.
CHINA
Protest over Modi trip
The government on Friday said it had lodged an official protest against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to a border region claimed by both countries. “The Chinese government has never recognized the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh,’” a statement on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Web site said. It said Modi’s visit was “not conducive to the overall development of bilateral relations.” Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on Friday to inaugurate the opening of a train line and power station. Beijing says the region claimed by India is south Tibet.
INDONESIA
Envoy to Brazil recalled
The government yesterday said it has recalled its new ambassador to Brazil after the ceremony to seal his appointment was postponed just weeks after Jakarta executed a Brazilian national for drug trafficking. Ambassador Toto Riyanto had been invited to present his credentials at a ceremony at Brazil’s presidential palace on Friday that was postponed after Riyanto had arrived at the palace, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement said. “As a democratic sovereign state with its own sovereign, independent and impartial justice system, no foreign country nor party can and may interfere with the implementation of Indonesia’s prevailing laws within its jurisdiction, including in the enforcement of laws to address drug trafficking,” the statement added. Brazil and the Netherlands withdrew their ambassadors from Jakarta last month’s executions.
INDIA
Obama’s tree not dead
Government officials want to make one thing clear: The tree that US President Barack Obama planted in New Delhi three weeks ago is not dead — it just looks dead. The peepal tree was awash in leaves when Obama planted it at the New Delhi memorial to Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi. On Thursday, it was just a single lonely stem. Officials have been blasted by local media for allowing the tree to die less than a month after Obama’s visit. However, peepal trees often lose their leaves this time of year. “It’s a seasonal phenomenon,” B.C. Katiyar, a top regional government horticulturist, said on Thursday, after he and other officials visited the tree and pronounced it in good health. “It will send out shoots within the next 10 days.”
TURKEY
Search on for UK students
British police on Friday launched an appeal to trace three London schoolgirls who flew to Istanbul on Tuesday and are believed to be making their way to Syria. The three friends, two aged 15 and one 16, left home without telling their families.
UNITED STATES
Ex-governor’s wife gets jail
Former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell was on Friday sentenced to one year and a day in prison for public corruption. Prosecutors had sought a term of 18 months, while McDonnell’s lawyers had argued for 4,000 hours of community service, perhaps at a home for poor pregnant women. Her husband, former governor Robert McDonnell, was given a two-year prison term last month. The McDonnells were convicted together of using the prestige of the governor’s office to help entrepreneur Jonnie Williams promote a dietary supplement in exchange for loans, private plane flights, golf trips, a shopping spree and other gifts valued at US$177,000.
UNITED STATES
No parole for ex-Mafia chief
California Governor Jerry Brown has blocked parole for a former leader of the Mexican Mafia prison gang who has turned on his former comrades and now aids law enforcement. Brown announced on Friday that he was blocking the release of 52-year-old Rene “Boxer” Enriquez, who has been in prison since 1993 serving a sentence of 20 years to life for two murders, multiple assaults and conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances. He drew attention last month when Los Angeles Police Department officers cleared a downtown building so he could speak to a gathering of police chiefs and business leaders. Enriquez spoke about the growth and operations of a prison gang that has evolved into a transnational criminal enterprise.
UNITED STATES
Measles cases grow to 123
The number of measles cases in California has reached 123 in the wake of a December outbreak at Disneyland, the California Department of Public Health said on Friday, adding that 75 of the reported infections involved people who visited or worked at Disneyland or had contact with a sick person who was there. It said it was unclear how the 48 other people were infected, but the virus strain is similar to the one from the Disneyland outbreak. The Disneyland connection has been linked to at least two dozen other cases in six other states, Mexico and Canada. Most of those who fell ill were not vaccinated and health officials are urging people to get the measles shot.
RUSSIA
Couple kill to clean up city
A couple allegedly carried out a string of murders targeting homeless people in Moscow to “clean up” the city, investigators said on Friday. The Investigative Committee said it had detained a 20-year-old man on suspicion of seven murders and a 25-year-old woman believed to have taken part in four of the killings. “The detained man said he committed the murders with the aim of ‘cleaning up’ the city,” investigators said. The man is suspected of “choosing as his victims homeless people who were fond of drinking alcohol” and carrying out the crimes in lonely places at night, the investigators said in a statement. According to Life News Web site, the couple killed several people who were simply drinking in parks. It quoted their first alleged victim’s father, Alexander Yevseyev, as saying his 35-year-old son Sergei had simply gone out to have a beer with a friend in a wooded park and was stabbed 107 times. The killers’ second alleged victim was a man who lived in a communal flat, but spent much of his time drinking in parks, Life News reported, while the rest of their victims were actually homeless. The couple were captured after they knifed a street cleaner, who survived and managed to identify them to police, Life News said.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not