UNITED NATIONS
Landmark deal to be signed
A record 155 countries are to sign a landmark agreement to tackle climate change at a ceremony at UN headquarters on Friday, the UN said on Friday. Spokesman Farhan Haq said that five countries — Barbados, Belize, Tuvalu, Maldives and Samoa — will not only sign the agreement reached in Paris in December last year, but deliver their ratification. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, French President Francois Hollande and French Environment Minister Segolene Royal, who is in charge of global climate negotiations, have invited leaders from all 193 UN member states to the event.
UNITED NATIONS
Pyongyang condemned
The UN Security Council on Friday condemned North Korea’s failed ballistic missile launch, saying that it was a “clear violation” of UN resolutions and the council could take further punitive measures against Pyongyang. Experts said North Korea attempted to launch an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Friday in defiance of UN sanctions. “The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the firing of a ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [DPRK] on April 15,” the council said in a statement, using North Korea’s official name. “Although the DPRK’s ballistic missile launch was a failure, this attempt constituted a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions,” it said. The council said it “would continue to closely monitor the situation and take further significant measures in line with [its] previously expressed determination.”
CROATIA
Jews remember Holocaust
The nation’s Jewish community has held a separate Holocaust commemoration at the site of a notorious World War II death camp to protest the government’s alleged inaction to curb the surge of neo-Nazi sentiment in the country. About 300 Jews held their remembrance on Friday at the Nazi-run World War II death camp at Jasenovac near Zagreb, a week before the ceremony that is to be attended by government officials. The president of the Coordinating Committee of the Jewish Communities, Ognjen Kraus, said that the separate commemoration was held as a warning to the new right-wing authorities that they are downplaying the crimes committed by the nation’s pro-Nazi regime during the war. Tens of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies died in Jasenovac, which is known as the Croatian Auschwitz.
SWEDEN
Promotion shocks dialers
Some of the people dialing “The Swedish Number” got a surprise. The call was answered by somebody who said, “Hello, this is Sweden. I’m the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.” “The Swedish Number” is a promotion launched earlier this month by the Swedish Tourist Association. It connects to any one of several thousand people in the nation who volunteered to answer their phones whenever somebody, somewhere was seized by the desire to talk to a random Swede. Ostensibly, the stunt celebrates the nation’s becoming the first country to abolish censorship 250 years ago. If you are wondering how the two things link up, callers are encouraged to “talk about anything.” Nobody mentioned who they might be talking to, though. Callers were a little shocked when they found out Lofven was on the line. Since its launch, thousands of people have called Sweden, according to the association’s Web site.
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
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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