MEXICO
Colima Volcano erupts
A volcano in the nation’s west erupted, spewing ash more than 7km into the air and sending lava down its flanks. The activity at the Colima Volcano began on Thursday and continued into Friday morning. The volcano is also known as the Volcano of Fire. Civil Protection Agency director Luis Felipe Puente tweeted on Friday that preventive protocols were activated. A statement from the Colima State Civil Protection Agency on Thursday said the initial eruption occurred just after 11am. Ash was falling to the southwest of the crater. People were advised to recognize a 5km perimeter around the peak.
VENEZUELA
Bolivar boats as value sinks
Origami-like boats made from the nation’s rapidly depreciating bolivar bills sit on the cash register of a small fruit and vegetable store in Caracas. Cashier Marisol Garcia makes the bolivar boats to illustrate roaring inflation and the currency’s tumble on the black market, where even the country’s biggest bill is worth just US$0.16. “People ask: ‘What’s that?’ I say: ‘Our reality,’” Garcia said. “We’re sinking.” The bolivar sank past 600 per US dollar on Thursday, compared with 73 a year ago, according to anti-government Web site DolarToday. “We’re behind. We’re going to have to make six little boats out of 100 bolivar bills,” added Garcia, who empties her cash register more than 20 times a day and stores notes in shoe boxes in a locked cabinet.
CANADA
Stamp honors author
Canada Post on Friday issued a stamp in honor of Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, the writer of short stories whose style has often been compared to that of Russian great Anton Chekhov. The stamp, issued on Munro’s 84th birthday, combines a black-and-white photograph of the author taken by her daughter, a sample of her handwriting and an image of her hometown Wingham, in Ontario province. Many believe that Wingham inspired the rural settings of several of her stories. “Alice Munro is not only one of Canada’s most critically acclaimed writers, but also one of the most popular,” said Minister of Transportation Lisa Raitt, who oversees Canada Post. Munro, who won the Nobel literature prize in 2013, is known for short stories — often set in small towns — that focus on the frailties of the human condition. Canada Post president and CEO Deepak Chopra said: “Munro’s literary talent, wisdom and humanity, reflected in her stories over several decades, have earned her recognition that few writers in any language or country attain.”
UNITED STATES
Tweet pre-empts speech
A technical glitch put Republican Scott Walker into the presidential race prematurely on Friday, days ahead of his official announcement speech. “Scott is in. Are you? Join our team today,” Walker said in a tweet accompanied by an image of him waving with the headline: “Scott Walker is running for president. Join the team.” The tweet was later deleted. It was unclear why Walker’s tweet was inadvertently sent. A Twitter representative said in an e-mailed statement: “We’re looking into today’s issue and we’ve determined the Walker team was not at fault.” Walker, a two-term governor of Wisconsin, is to announce his bid for the Republican presidential nomination tomorrow in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The Walker team responded to the accident by saying: “Stay tuned for Governor Walker’s announcement on Monday at 5pm CT [central time].”
SPAIN
Four gored in Pamplona
Four people were gored on the fifth day of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, the Red Cross said. One bull charged into runners packing the narrow streets and gored one deeply in a thigh while cutting another runner’s leg as it lifted its head. Red Cross spokesman Jose Aldaba said four people were receiving treatment after being gored yesterday, while at least five others were recovering from bruises. Normally, six bulls run in the San Fermin festival, but on this occasion one of them turned back and returned to its corral. The run covers 850m from a holding pen on the edge of town to the central bullring where the large animals face matadors and almost certain death in afternoon bullfights.
PHILIPPINES
Durian candy sickens 1,350
More than 1,000 students in the south have fallen ill after eating durian-flavored sweets, a provincial governor said yesterday. Up to 1,350 elementary and high-school students were hospitalized in nine towns overnight after developing stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and headaches late on Friday, Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel told reporters. As of yesterday, 250 remained hospitalized, but were expected to be discharged later, Pimentel said. Nine men and women accused of selling the sweets from a van to children on their lunch breaks have been arrested, he said. Police are investigating whether the sweets were expired or were deliberately laced with poison, Pimentel added. “The suspects had a plan to sell only to schoolchildren. They went around nine towns the whole day selling candies,” he said. The group told police that they did not mean to poison the children, he added. Pimentel said police were still trying to establish why the group had traveled about 300km from their home province to sell the sweets.
FRANCE
Fashion police: Beards clear
Police officers have been given approval to sport beards and tattoos on the job so long as they respect certain conditions, officials said on Friday. Responding to a police officers’ union request, officials said officers may wear beards on duty “as long as they are clean and well-trimmed” and may let stubble grow two or three days between shaves. Police officers of both genders hankering for tattoos are free to get inked as long as the result “is not contrary to [police] ethics” by carrying religious, political or racist messages, or is otherwise capable of “provoking clashes with the population.” In addition to the general authorization, the police union has asked officials to provide detailed directives about sporting facial hair and tattoos while in uniform.
CHINA
One killed, 12 hurt in knifing
A knife-wielding assailant allegedly stabbed a woman to death and injured 12 people in Shenzhen yesterday, Xinhua news agency said, in the latest of a series of attacks that have unnerved the country. Police said the injured were all hospitalized in stable condition. The incident, attributed to a 32-year-old man, appeared to have been provoked by a marital dispute, Xinhua quoted the Southern Metropolitan Daily newspaper as saying. Public sensitivity to knife attacks in the nation has been heightened by a series of incidents including a mass stabbing at a train station in March last year in Kunming that left 31 dead. Authorities blamed that attack on separatist militants from Xinjiang.
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the