TURKEY
Airstrikes target PKK
The military yesterday said its warplanes bombarded Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets overnight after the militants staged a deadly attack in which, one security source told reporters, 16 Turkish soldiers were killed. The PKK said it killed 15 troops in Sunday’s attack on an armed convoy in the Daglica area of Hakkari Province, near the Iraqi border, in what would be the bloodiest assault since the collapse of a ceasefire in July. “Two of our armored vehicles suffered heavy damage after the detonation of hand-made explosives on the road. As a result of the blast, there were martyrs and wounded among our heroic armed comrades,” the Turkish military said, without specifying a death toll. Two F-16 and two F-14 jets had struck 13 PKK targets and military operations were continuing “decisively” despite very poor weather, it said.
INDIA
Lightning kills 22 people
Lightning has killed 22 people, mostly farm laborers working in fields, across the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, officials said yesterday. The fatalities occurred on Sunday evening when thunderstorms and rain lashed eight districts in Andhra Pradesh, the state’s chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said. Two women’s cricket teams had a narrow escape when lightning struck a tree on the grounds where they were playing in Guntur Town, a district cricket official named Sitapati said. “It was a miraculous escape for the players and the people at the grounds,” said Sitapati, who goes by one name. A tree caught fire after it was hit by a lightning bolt and the deafening sound that followed led players and spectators to flee the grounds in panic, he said. Lightning strikes are common during India’s monsoon season, which runs from June to September. However, Sunday’s toll was unusually high.
SOMALIA
Al-Shabaab take over town
Al-Shabaab fighters took control of a second strategic town in Somalia after African Union peacekeeping troops withdrew, residents of Buq Aqable in the central Hiran region said. The Islamist militants also took over the southern town of Kurtunwarey on Friday last week when soldiers left after an attack three days earlier on an African Union military base at Janaale near the capital, Mogadishu. The Ugandan army, which has more than 6,200 troops supporting Somalia’s government against the insurgents, said 12 of its men were killed in that strike. “Masked al-Shabaab fighters, who were walking in large numbers, took control of the town,” Hassan Geele, a resident of Buq Aqable, told reporters by telephone on Sunday.
UNITED STATES
Boston eyes gangster movie
Anticipation is building in South Boston for a new movie about convicted gangster James “Whitey” Bulger. Black Mass is set for release in theaters on Friday next week. The movie starring Johnny Depp is based on a book by former Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. It tells the story of Bulger’s time as leader of an Irish-American gang and his corrupt relationship with former FBI agent John Connolly. Some lifelong residents of South Boston said they cannot wait for the movie, while newer residents said they are in no hurry to see it. One investigator who pursued Bulger for years said he hopes the movie does not glorify Bulger. The now 86-year-old Bulger is serving life in prison after being convicted in a 2013 federal racketeering trial, including 11 killings.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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