MYANMAR
Military nominates stalwart
The military on Friday nominated a former junta stalwart who remains on a US sanctions list as its choice for vice president, pointing to battles ahead for National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her hand-picked president. The lower house of parliament on Friday voted to confirm Htin Kyaw, a close friend and confidant of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, as its presidential candidate. That brought the top office a step closer for the man expected to rule as her proxy. Across town in Naypyidaw, military lawmakers met behind closed doors and nominated retired general Myint Swe as their candidate. He was head of the feared military intelligence under former junta leader Than Shwe.
AUSTRALIA
Bishop travels to Fiji
Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop is to travel to Fiji today to meet Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama and survey the damage wrought by Cyclone Winston, her office said. The cyclone, which was the worst storm ever recorded in the southern hemisphere, hit the South Pacific archipelago last month, killing 43 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. Three weeks later, more than 25,000 Fijians remain in evacuation centers, according to the latest report from Fiji’s National Emergency Operation Center. During her visit, Bishop is also to meet Fijian Minister of Foreign Affairs Inoke Kubuabola and Fijian Minister of Agriculture and Natural Disaster Management Inia Seruiratu, as well as Australian aid workers there. Australia has committed A$15 million (US$11.34 million) to the recovery effort and deployed its largest navy vessel, the HMAS Canberra, to Fiji with 60 tonnes of emergency relief supplies.
SAUDI ARABIA
Police kill six wanted men
Police said they have tracked down and killed six men wanted for the murder of a counterterrorism security officer. The Ministry of the Interior on Friday said police encircled the suspects in the northwestern area of Ha’il and, after warnings to surrender, killed them in a shoot-out. The ministry had on Feb. 27 said that six male relatives of Special Forces Sergeant Badr Hamdi al-Rashidi took advantage of family links to lure him to a remote area and kill him. Police released the suspects’ photographs, names and ages, which ranged from 18 to 32. Soon after that, a video emerged of the suspects purportedly declaring their allegiance to the Islamic State group and shooting dead the officer beside a highway.
YEMEN
Troops advance on Taez
Pro-government forces on Friday gained ground around third city Taez, which has been under rebel siege for several months, an official said. The loyalists backed by a Saudi Arabian-led military coalition took back areas in the western and southern suburbs of the city, Taez Governor Ali al-Maamari said. They “reopened key roads that the Houthis [Iran-backed Shiite rebels] had been blocking for nine months,” said the governor, who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia. That should allow for humanitarian and medical aid to reach the about 200,000 besieged inhabitants of the city, he said. A source in the army’s 35th Brigade confirmed that loyalists had seized the al-Misrakh District to the south of Taez city after heavy fighting that led to several deaths over the past days.
UNITED STATES
Food company owners jailed
A judge in Iowa has sentenced two brothers who own companies that distribute and certify halal food products after they pleaded guilty to federal charges. US District Court Chief Judge Linda Reade on Friday sentenced Midamar Corp president Jalel Aossey to one year and one day in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit fraud. He admitted that labels on meat products and documents exported to Malaysia and Indonesia were falsified. He must resign from the Cedar-Rapids, Iowa-based company. His brother, Yahya Aossey, received three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to selling misbranded meat products. He may continue as the head of Midamar. Their father, Midamar founder Bill Aossey, was sentenced last month to two years in prison after being convicted of similar charges.
CANADA
Men shot after funeral
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said four men were on Friday afternoon shot at a Muslim cemetery just outside of Calgary. Sergeant Jack Poitras said the shooting happened near Cochrane and the injured people were being treated at Calgary hospitals. A police spokeswoman at the scene said all suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Police said there was a funeral at the cemetery and a group of people remained at the site following the service. Poitras said it appears the shooting involved people who were in the group. Zouheir Osman, who is in charge of the cemetery, said a service for a 21-year-old man was taking place before the shooting. He said he left shortly before the shots were fired. Osman said he did not believe the shooting had anything to do with the man being remembered at the funeral. However, Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy said he spoke with two people who attended the funeral and they suspect the shooting was gang-related.
PERU
Economist barred from vote
All bets are off in the presidential race after the disqualification of the moderate economist who was the chief challenger to front-runner Keiko Fujimori. Analysts say the decision throws the April 10 contest into confusion. It would not necessarily give Fujimori the strength to win the simple majority needed to avoid a second round of voting, but does make it likely she will face a weaker challenger in an eventual runoff. Peru’s electoral council on Wednesday blocked the candidacy of Julio Guzman, citing technical reasons having to do with the mechanism by which his party had chosen him as its candidate. Critics of the ruling party described it as petty and warned that the disqualification undermines confidence in the country’s democratic process.
EL SALVADOR
Suspected gangsters killed
Authorities said four suspected gang members have been killed at a training camp in the western part of the country. The attorney general’s office on Friday said that police and soldiers killed members of the Barrio 18 gang in the township of San Julian in Sonsonate department. It said the federal forces found the gang training camp in a forest acting on an anonymous tip and were fired on when they arrived. National police commissioner Mauricio Arriaza Chicas said two gang members escaped. Elsewhere, authorities said the bodies of two suspected members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang were found with their hands and feet bound on the side of a highway in the country’s northeast. More than 1,500 people have been killed there in the nation year.
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