ECUDAOR
Earthquake survivor found
Crews have rescued a 72-year-old survivor of the nation’s deadly earthquake almost two weeks after it struck the South American country, Venezuela announced on Saturday. A visiting Venezuelan search team located Manuel Vasquez, who had been trapped under rubble since the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed 660 people, the Venezuelan embassy in Quito said on its Web site. They found Vasquez “making sounds in a partially collapsed building” on Friday in Manabi Province while doing inspections for structural problems, it said. The April 16 quake was the worst to strike the nation in decades, causing buildings to collapse and damaging roads and other infrastructure in tourist areas along the coast. Vasquez was admitted to hospital with kidney trouble and lost toes. He was also dehydrated and disoriented. The nation welcomed hundreds of rescue teams, doctors, nurses, firefighters and other support staff after the quake from a slew of countries.
SOUTH AFRICA
Malema ‘whispers’ to Zuma
Fiery opposition politician Julius Malema told 40,000 cheering supporters that President Jacob Zuma should step down before the army turns on him because of the corruption allegations against him. “I am whispering to you, Zuma, wherever you are, those soldiers are going to turn their guns against you,” Malema said to roars from the crowd. “Be warned, leave office before the soldiers turn their guns on you.” Malema spoke on Saturday to supporters of his Economic Freedom Fighters party who filled the Orlando Stadium in Soweto. Malema described the policies of his party ahead of local government elections which are to take place in August. He said many members of South Africa’s current parliament are “agents of apartheid.” Malema dismissed the treason charges pressed against him earlier this week by the African National Congress. The party filed the charges after Malema said he would take up arms against the government if he saw rigging in the elections.
VENEZUELA
Minimum wage rises 30%
President Nicolas Maduro is ordering a 30 percent increase in the minimum wage, the latest move by the socialist government to grapple with high inflation and economic stagnation. The boost announced Saturday night by Maduro comes after a 25 percent increase on March 1. The new increase was effective from yesterday, which is Workers’ Day, and would push the minimum wage to 15,051 bolivars (US$1,512.7) per month. This translates into about US$50 at the current black market rate, which largely sets prices of goods for Venezuelans.
INDIA
Teen selfie fan shoots self
An Indian teenager accidently shot himself in the head with his father’s gun while trying to take a “selfie” photograph, police said yesterday. The 15-year-old is being treated in hospital at Pathankot in Punjab State and is expected to survive, Pathankot deputy police superintendent Manoj Kumar said. The accident happened on Friday evening when the schoolboy was playing at home with the licensed revolver which is normally kept in a wardrobe, Kumar told reporters. “The boy’s father and family said that he was trying to take a selfie with his gun,” he said. “We will speak to the boy when he is declared medically fit. We think that part of the blame obviously goes to the father for not keeping his loaded gun under lock and key at their home.”
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion