INDIA/PAKISTAN
Border firing kills eight
Cross-border firing between India and Pakistan killed at least eight people yesterday, the day India marked the 50th anniversary of a war between the two nations. On the Pakistani side of the frontier, five civilians were killed and 48 were treated for wounds in hospital in the town of Sialkot, a spokesman for the Pakistan Rangers said. India’s Border Security Force (BSF) said three civilians had died and 22 were wounded in firing across the frontier in the northern Jammu region. Both said the other side had opened fire first. “Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing. Initially, small arms were used but later mortar bombs were shelled on BSF posts and civilian areas,” a BSF spokesman said. “The BSF also gave a fitting reply.” Pakistan Rangers spokesman Major Waheed Bukhari gave a different account, saying that unprovoked firing had started overnight from the Indian side. It was followed by retaliation from the Rangers.
VIETNAM
Thousands to be released
The government yesterday said it would free almost 18,300 prisoners to mark independence day celebrations, but political activists will be excluded from the nation’s second biggest-ever amnesty. The detainees will be released in batches starting from Monday ahead of the 70th National Day anniversary on Wednesday. “The president has decided to give amnesty to 18,298 prisoners... but none of them have committed crimes against national security,” Deputy Minister of Public Security Le Quy Vuong told a press conference in Hanoi. The prisoners to be freed had been sentenced to a range of crimes including murder, drug and people-trafficking and bribery. However, no one sentenced for “propaganda” against the state or attempting to overthrow the regime — charges frequently used against activists — were among the list to be released. The amnesty includes 34 foreigners: six Laotians, one Cambodian, one Thai, two Australians, 16 Chinese, six Malaysians and two Filipinos.
MYANMAR
Airport project delayed
A long-delayed international airport project has been postponed again, by four years this time, because of a delay in securing funds, state media and an official source said yesterday. A South Korean company first planned to build the Hanthawaddy International Airport on an old World War II Japanese airfield near the town of Bago, about 100km north of Yangon. However, the project was abandoned in 1994, soon after a groundbreaking ceremony. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the nation’s fourth international airport was now expected to open in seven years. A senior transport ministry official confirmed the project had been delayed because of a difficulty in seeking fund.
IRAQ
PM orders easier access
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi yesterday ordered military commanders to make it easier for civilians to get into Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone while improving access to streets across the country closed off by political and security factions. Militias, political parties and influential figures have created many no-go areas in Baghdad and other cities in response to waves of car bombings since the US-led invasion to topple former president Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Green Zone is a heavily defended district in central Baghdad that is home to many government buildings and several Western embassies. Ahead of fresh street protests expected in the capital and southern cities yesterday, Abadi ordered commanders to implement a plan “to protect civilians ... from being targeted by terrorism,” according to online statements.
MEXICO
ATT lacks reporting rules
Countries backing a major accord to regulate the international arms industry on Thursday failed to agree on a definitive format for reporting arms sales, kicking the issue down the road and disappointing advocates of arms control. Officials from 121 governments have been meeting in Cancun to agree details of how the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) will oversee the multibillion-dollar industry. However, on the final day of the first conference, officials resolved only to work together over coming months on crafting a lasting template for reporting sales. For the ATT to be effective, say arms control groups, there must be full disclosure of weapons sales, but the issue is contentious and officials had already suggested that reaching agreement might prove impossible at the inaugural conference.
UNITED STATES
Vegas canal dive injures two
Two men jumped into a canal at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas and, because they could not swim, had to be rescued and hospitalized, a spokesman for the hotel said on Thursday. The disturbance on Monday morning at the Venetian, which is located on the Las Vegas Strip and draws many tourists for its gondola rides inspired by the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, was first reported on Thursday. The two men were caught on hotel surveillance cameras jumping over the fence that surrounds the hotel’s canal along Las Vegas Boulevard, hotel spokesman Keith Salwoski said in an e-mail. “Apparently, the individuals were unable to swim and were pulled from the water,” he said. The two individuals were transported in critical condition by ambulance to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Clark County Fire Department Deputy Chief Jeff Buchanan said. He could not share any details on their latest condition. It was unclear what led the men to jump into the canal.
UNITED STATES
Bison gores conservationist
The head of a conservation group has been gored by a bison on Santa Catalina Island, off the California coast. Forty-three-year-old Chris Baker was airlifted to a hospital on Wednesday after the attack near the Two Harbors area. Baker is president and chief executive of the American Conservation Experience. The Flagstaff, Arizona-based group said Baker was doing field work for a new trail system when he turned a corner and found the bison in front of him. The group said the animal charged Baker. He then walked a half a kilometer on a hiking path until he saw three off-duty firefighters. The group said Baker is recovering from moderate injuries.
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