GERMANY
Two bombings in Dresden
Two improvised bombs exploded on Monday evening in Dresden — one at a mosque and one at an international conference center — but no one was injured, police said yesterday. “Even if we so far have no claim of responsibility, we must go on the basis that the motive was xenophobic,” Dresden Police President Horst Kretzschmar said in a statement. He said police believed there was a link to celebrations planned for this weekend in the city to mark the anniversary of German reunification on Oct. 3, 1990. At the time of the first explosion, the imam of the mosque was inside with his wife and sons, but they were not hurt although the building was damaged by pressure waves. Police officers were sent to protect other mosques in the city.
CANADA
Bad weather deters royals
Plans to show off one of British Columbia’s most beautiful areas to Prince William and his wife, Kate, were scuttled by bad weather. The aerial tour of the Great Bear Rainforest and a boat tour of Bella Bella Harbour were canceled on Monday as winds gusted, the water was choppy and it was pouring rain. The couple were greeted with a rousing cheer when they arrived at the Wawiskas Community Hall, where they met indigenous community members and about two dozen hereditary chiefs who were part of the official welcoming party.
SWITZERLAND
Air pollution kills: WHO
The WHO says more than nine out of 10 people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution, contributing to problems like strokes, heart disease and lung cancer. A report released yesterday says that 92 percent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits, with Southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and western Pacific regions hardest hit. The country-by-country figures come from new satellite data as well as traditional ground measurements of pollution, mostly in cities, in about 3,000 places worldwide. WHO says one in nine deaths worldwide is linked to indoor and outdoor pollution. The report focuses on outdoor air pollution, which is estimated to kill about 3 million people per year based on 2012 figures, the most recent available.
TURKEY
Detention warrants issued
The nation’s state-run news agency yesterday said that authorities have issued detention warrants for 121 people as part of an ongoing investigation into the July 15 failed coup. Anadolu Agency said that those wanted for detention include directors of a charity linked to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen’s movement. It said police have launched operations in 18 cities to apprehend suspects. Later in the day the government announced that 87 employees of the national intelligence organization have been dismissed because of suspected links to Gulen.
UNITED STATES
Drone hits rapper in face
The hip-hop rhythms of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are too fierce to be stopped. Even by a drone to the face. The group was performing at the High Life Music Festival in Victorville, California, on Sunday when a drone buzzed up and smacked rapper Stanley “Flesh-N-Bone” Howse in the face. He winced and grabbed his head, but he and the rest of the group did not stop the show or even the song. It is not clear whether a fan, the band or someone connected to the festival had launched the drone, which was about 61cm wide.
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