ISRAEL
Driver killed in ‘ramming’
A Palestinian motorist was killed in a suspected ramming attack on Saturday near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank in which three Israelis were injured, police said. There has been a surge of street violence since the beginning of last month, with at least 14 Israelis killed in stabbings and shootings or being run down by cars. Security forces have killed at least 76 Palestinians, 45 of whom the government says were carrying out or were about to carry out attacks. In Saturday’s incident, the Palestinian driver sustained fatal injuries in a collision with an Israeli car near the settlement of Psagot, a police spokeswoman said. Three Israelis in the second car were lightly hurt. “Preliminary findings indicate that this was likely a terrorist attack,” the police spokeswoman said. She said the Palestinian’s car had Israeli license plates that had not been issued to it, a possible indication it was meant to be used to access Israel or a Jewish settlement illicitly.
SLOVAKIA
Eight die in helicopter crash
Eight people, including seven Afghan migrants, died earlier this week when a helicopter registered in Ukraine crashed in eastern Slovakia, the Ministry of the Interior said in Bratislava on Saturday, updating a previous toll. Ministry spokesman Ivan Netik said the victims of the crash, which likely occurred overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday last week, included a Ukrainian pilot and seven Afghans — five men and two women. “The Mi-2 helicopter registered in Ukraine flew too low in very poor weather conditions as it wanted to evade the air traffic control system,” Netik said. The helicopter crashed about 15km from the Ukrainian border, which is an outer frontier of the EU’s passport-free Schengen area. “It is likely that the helicopter was used by criminals to transport illegal migrants,” the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service said on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Liberty museum proposed
A large copper face is the first thing that greets visitors to the museum in the base of the Statue of Liberty. It is an exact replica of Lady Liberty’s own visage, giving people a chance to see an aspect of the statue that otherwise is far out of reach. However, it is a chance that only a limited number of visitors to Liberty Island get, since the museum is open only to those who have tickets to the pedestal or the crown. The National Park Service wants to change that, and has proposed the building of a larger museum on Liberty Island, but outside of the actual statue that would be accessible to anyone who traveled to the island.
NIGER
Amadou arrested on arrival
Opposition presidential candidate Hama Amadou was on Saturday arrested on his return from a year in exile over allegations of baby trafficking, a party colleague said. “He was arrested on leaving the plane. Police presented him with a warrant issued for his arrest,” lawmaker Amadou Salah said. The former prime minister and national assembly president fled the country in August last year. Salah said that after leaving the airplane, Amadou “was led to a car [and taken] to an as yet unknown destination.” Security forces blocked the route and access to the area as the two-time former prime minister was driven away. Earlier, a reporter had witnessed clashes between security forces and supporters of Amadou’s Modem party outside the airport. After sporadic clashes across the day, calm had returned as night fell at about 7pm.
CHINA
Landslide kills at least 16
A landslide that engulfed homes killed at least 16 people, with 21 still missing, as heavy rains brought misery across a large swath of the nation. Photographs posted on Sina Weibo showed rescue teams working through the night as they attempted to pull people from mud and rock that had buried 27 houses in Zhejiang Province. More than 300 people were evacuated after the landslide, which struck on Friday evening, state broadcaster CCTV said. Hunan Province was hit by the worst winter flooding in more than 50 years, Xinhua news agency reported, forcing thousands to flee.
NORTH KOREA
No-sail zone declared
The nation has declared a no-sail zone off its east coast in a sign it could be preparing a missile launch, Yonhap news agency reported yesterday. The warning covers all movement of ships from Wednesday last week through Dec. 7, the agency said, quoting an unnamed government source. “We are observing closely whether North Korea will launch a Scud missile or a new model of ballistic missile because the area under the warning is quite vast,” a government source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
INDONESIA
Tigers, piranhas turn jailer
When the country’s anti-drugs czar announced plans to guard a death-row prison island with crocodiles, the government rushed to explain that it was just a joke, but on Friday National Narcotics Agency head Budi Waseso said he was now thinking of using tigers and piranhas too. Media outlets quoted Waseso as saying that he had already obtained two crocodiles from a farm and might ultimately put as many as 1,000 in place to keep convicts from escaping.
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number