UNITED KINGDOM
London sells water cannons
After the collapse of his political dreams, top “Brexit” campaigner Boris Johnson suffered one final humiliation on Friday — the sale of three unused water cannons he bought when he was mayor of London. His replacement, Sadiq Khan, said he would sell them off to fund youth services in the British capital. “This shows the inability of Boris Johnson to get a good deal... We want to get rid of them,” Khan said, complaining that the city had also had to pay storage costs. Khan said the whole deal “beggars belief.” Johnson bought the three vehicles second-hand in Germany two years ago for about £200,000 (US$265,460) to deploy them in case of rioting, even though police do not have authorization to use them in mainland Britain. Water cannons have only been used in Northern Ireland, not in the rest of Britain. Calls have grown for their use since London and other major British cities were hit by a week of rioting and looting in 2011.
UNITED STATES
Child killings investigated
The mother of four young children who were stabbed to death in a gated apartment complex in Tennessee is being held for questioning, but authorities have not charged her with a crime. The deaths of the children on Friday saddened and dismayed neighbors and county officials, as authorities try to piece together what happened in the apartment near a verdant golf course in a typically quiet neighborhood in suburban Memphis. Deputies were called to the complex in unincorporated Shelby County shortly before 1pm on Friday. Officials have not released the ages of the children, but sheriff’s office spokesman Earle Farrell said deputies responding to the scene called them “babies.” Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham called the killings an “egregious act of evil,” though he did not specifically allege that the mother had stabbed the children.
PERU
Tourist falls to death
Authorities said a German tourist plunged to his death in a deep Andean ravine while posing for a photo in an area above the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu that is closed to visitors. The director of the Machu Picchu archeological park said that 51-year-old Oliver Paps fell more than 100m on Wednesday after entering a dangerous area by crossing over a barrier meant to keep tourists away from the edge. Director Fernando Astete on Friday said that the body had been recovered. Astete said other tourists reported details of the accident at a platform overlooking Machu Picchu that can be reached from the citadel by hiking up a mountain for more than an hour. Machu Picchu is the main tourist destination in Peru.
VENEZUELA
Power rationing to end
President Nicolas Maduro said he is lifting electricity rationing that began more than two months ago because a drought had caused low water levels at the hydroelectric dam that provides most of the country’s power. Maduro announced that beginning tomorrow the government would no longer cut off electricity to much of the country for four hours a day. Only Caracas and four states had been spared from the power cuts that were instituted on April 25. Officials had previously reported that a resumption of rain was improving the water level behind the Guri Dam, which produces 60 percent of Venezuela’s electricity. On June 14, the government ended a two-day workweek for civil workers ordered for power conservation and it suspended power cuts on weekends.
CHINA
Bus accident kills 26
A bus accident in the country’s north killed 26 people and injured four when the coach crashed through a highway guard rail and plunged into a canal, state media reported yesterday. Images of the scene of Friday’s accident showed rescue workers pulling bodies from a coach submerged in deep water below an expressway near the northern port city of Tianjin. The long-distance coach was carrying 30 people from Hebei Province to the northeastern city of Shenyang, the Xinhua news agency reported. The vehicle crashed when a tire blew out and the driver lost control, it said, sending the bus over the edge of the road. The four survivors included the ticket collector, second driver and two passengers, it reported. The accident occurred days after a bus burst into flames in Hunan Province, killing 53 and injuring 11.
SOUTH SUDAN
Peace agreement flouted
An international conflict research group said the country is at risk of falling back into full-scale war, just two months after the government and rebels formed a coalition government aimed at ending more than two years of conflict. The International Crisis Group on Friday said that the two sides are flouting a peace agreement they signed in August last year and are preparing for widespread conflict. The group’s South Sudan researcher Casie Copeland said the two sides have not shown willingness to compromise on issues such as oversight of security arrangements. The warning comes after violence last month rocked three of the country’s 10 states.
IRAQ
IS commanders killed: US
The Pentagon yesterday said that a US-led coalition airstrike killed two senior commanders of the Islamic State (IS) group on Saturday last week in northern Iraq, including a fighter considered to be the group’s deputy minister of war. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the strike killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari and a lower-level commander, Hatim Talib al-Hamduni. Cook said al-Bajari was a former member of al-Qaeda who oversaw the IS’ fight in June 2014 to capture the northern city of Mosul and worked to consolidate the group’s control over the city. Cook said that removing the two senior leaders would help as Iraqi forces and the coalition continue preparations to retake Mosul. Iraqi leaders have pledged to retake Mosul this year, but US officials say that timetable might not be realistic.
NIGERIA
Millions march for freedom
The country’s Shiite movement and journalists yesterday said that more than 1 million Shiites have marched to demand freedom for their detained leader and Israeli-occupied parts of Palestine. Shiite Islamic Movement spokesman Ibrahim Musa said millions of people marched on Friday on International Quds Day in a dozen northern cities and towns. Independent journalists reported more than 1 million people participated in the ancient Islamic city of Zaria that is the organization’s headquarters. Human rights groups say the country’s army killed hundreds of Shiites in raids in December last year. Shiite leader Ibraheem al-Zakzakhy was hit by seven bullets and has been detained ever since. The army said the raids came after Shiites tried to assassinate Nigeria’s army chief — a charge the movement denies. Musa’s statement demanded Zakzakhy’s unconditional release and the “complete and unconditional withdrawal from all Israeli-occupied territories.”
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