GREECE
Confidence vote hinted at
Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panos Skourletis yesterday gave the strongest indication yet that the government will call a confidence vote following a rebellion among lawmakers from the ruling SYRIZA party over the country’s new bailout deal. The government has said its priority is to secure a start to funding from international creditors so that Athens can make a debt repayment to the European Central Bank on Thursday. However, asked on Skai television about the possibility of a parliamentary confidence vote after this, Skourletis said: “I consider it self-evident after the deep wound in SYRIZA’s parliamentary group for there to be such a move.” He also alluded to the possibility of early elections should Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras lose such a vote. “There is also an issue of democratic accountability,” he said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Plane crash kills five
Five people were killed on Sunday when a small medical plane crashed in a nature reserve east of Cape Town, the emergency services said. “A Namibian medical plane which was carrying five South Africans crashed this morning. The pilot, his copilot, a paramedic, the patient and his daughter were all tragically killed.” Radio contact with the plane was lost at 6:14am as the plane was about to land at Cape Town international airport, the statement said. The Tygerberg Nature Reserve is 25km east of Cape Town.
DENMARK
Arrest made in mosque fire
Police on Sunday said that they had arrested a man on suspicion of torching a mosque in Copenhagen earlier in the day. The fire, which caused only superficial damage to the outside of the building, was quickly contained, police said. The suspect, who was born in 1980, was scheduled to appear in court yesterday. The religious association whose members worship at the mosque denounced the fire as “an act of terrorism.” This act “was likely the result of political and religious motives... As tragic at it is, it unfortunately does not surprise us,” the center said on its Web site.
UNITED STATES
Beijing warned over agents
The government has warned Beijing about Chinese agents it says are operating secretly to pressure fugitives to return to China, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the effort, part of Beijing’s global manhunt dubbed Operation Fox Hunt, sought to repatriate fugitives wanted for corruption and other misdeeds and recover illicit funds. The Department of State has issued a warning in recent weeks to Chinese officials to halt these activities. The paper said the agents, working undercover for China’s Ministry of Public Security, were most likely entering the country on tourism or trade visas. Their strong-arm tactics include threats to family members, and have increased in recent months.
UNITED STATES
Military to boost drone use
The military will drastically increase drone flights over the next four years, in a bid to boost intelligence and strike capabilities across a growing number of conflict zones, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The Pentagon is planning to expand the number of daily flights from 61 to as many as 90 by 2019, a senior official told the newspaper. As well as providing extra surveillance in regions such as Ukraine, Iraq and the South China Sea, the new plan would expand the capacity for lethal drone air strikes.
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