CHINA
Protest over Dalai Lama
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday reacted angrily after the Dalai Lama attended a Buddhist conference last week supported by the Indian Ministry of Culture. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader opened the conference on Friday in Rajgir, Bihar state, and then shared the stage with Indian government officials. “Recently, India ignored China’s solemn representations and strong opposition and insisted on inviting the 14th Dalai Lama to attend an international Buddhist conference organized by the Indian government,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying (‘) said. “China is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to this… We urge the India side to … abide by its promises on the Tibet issue, respect China’s core interests and avoid further disturbances and harm to China-India relations.”
ALGERIA
President appears in video
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Sunday appeared in a video for the first time in a month since his abrupt cancelation of a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Algiers triggered speculation over his health. Bouteflika, 80, has appeared rarely in public since a stroke in 2013 and usually only in state news images with visiting dignitaries. In the video broadcast on Sunday on state television, Bouteflika was seen receiving his minister of Africa and Arab affairs, Abdelkader Messahel.
GHANA
Falling trees kill 20 teens
Twenty students died after trees fell on them while swimming in a river during a storm, emergency officials said on Sunday. National Fire Service spokesman Prince Billy Anaglate said the “unusual incident” happened on Sunday afternoon, when a group of high-school students were swimming at the Kintampo waterfalls, a popular tourist destination in the Brong-Ahafo region. A brewing storm caused trees to topple and fall on the teens, he said, adding that 18 died at the scene while two others died after being taken to a nearby hospital. Eleven people were injured, including one of the school administrators in charge of the trip.
AUSTRALIA
US officials on Nauru
Asylum seekers say US Department of Homeland Security officers have begun fingerprinting refugees held on Pacific islands in the final stage of assessing who will find new lives in the US. The officers are taking biometric details from refugees on Nauru, including fingerprints, heights and weights, according to a document circulated among asylum seekers and provided to reporters yesterday by a refugee on Nauru who did not want his family name published for security reasons. The US officials also began scheduling appointments with asylum-seeker families, he said.
ITALY
Strikes strand travelers
Tourists and travelers at airports across the nation faced delays and canceled flights yesterday, thanks to strikes by air traffic controllers and air transport workers. The nation’s flagship carrier, Alitalia, said it was cancelling about 40 percent of its domestic and international flights. Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa and other carriers also were canceling flights due to a four-hour work action by air traffic controllers and a 24-hour strike by transport workers. It was the first day of a difficult week for transport, with a taxi strike planned for Thursday and traffic chaos expected in Rome on Saturday when the city hosts EU leaders for a summit.
FRANCE
Protesters clash with police
Police on Sunday fired tear gas in clashes with hooded demonstrators in Paris as thousands marched against “police brutality” after the alleged rape of a black youth with a police baton. The 22-year-old man, identified only as Theo, last month sustained severe anal and rectal injuries, as well as wounds to his head and face. Police said about 7,000 to 7,500 people joined the march to Place de la Republique, where demonstrators chanted “no justice, no peace” and “emergency, emergency, police are killing with impunity.” Two police officers were lightly injured in the clashes and taken to hospital, and 11 people were arrested, authorities said.
FRANCE
Assailant was drugged
Blood tests on Sunday determined that a suspected extremist consumed drugs and alcohol before a frenzied spree of violence that ended when he took a soldier hostage at Paris’ Orly Airport and was shot dead by her fellow patrolmen. The Paris prosecutors’ office said toxicology tests conducted as part of an autopsy found traces of cocaine and cannabis in the blood of the suspect, Ziyed Ben Belgacem. He also had 0.93g of alcohol per liter of blood when he died on Saturday, the prosecutors’ office said. The 39-year-old Frenchman had a long criminal record of drugs and robbery offenses. In an interview Sunday with French radio Europe 1, a man identified as the suspect’s father said Belgacem was not a practicing Muslim and drank alcohol. Europe 1 did not give his name.
ITALY
Refugees rescued at sea
About 3,000 refugees were rescued off the coast of Libya on Sunday as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. The rescue was undertaken in 22 separate operations coordinated by the coast guard. One participant was the Aquarius, a humanitarian ship run by the non-governmental organizations SOS Mediterranean and Doctors Without Borders, which said it saved 946 people, including 200 unaccompanied minors. According to the government, 16,206 people have been rescued at sea by Friday, compared with 11,911 in the same period last year.
UNITED KINGDOM
WWII singer honored
Renowned World War II singer Vera Lynn was yesterday to celebrate turning 100 with a special tribute: Her portrait was to be projected onto the iconic White Cliffs of Dover. Known as the “forces’ sweetheart,” Lynn famously boosted troops’ morale during World War II, traveling thousands of kilometers to Egypt, India and Myanmar to entertain soldiers with her songs. Lynn’s name has been strongly associated with the world-famous cliffs since she released The White Cliffs of Dover in 1942. She also celebrated the milestone by releasing a new album, Vera Lynn 100, becoming the first to do so at the age of 100.
UNITED STATES
California waiter fired
A waiter was fired from a Southern California restaurant after asking customers to prove they had legal residency before serving them. The Los Angeles Times on Sunday reported that Brenda Carrillo, 23, said she and a friend got the question at Saint Marc in Huntington Beach. Carrillo said the waiter later asked her sister and another friend to see their proof of residency. She said the women complained to the manager and left. The restaurant said in an online post that the waiter was fired and that it would donate 10 percent of its weekend’s sales to a nonprofit chosen by the women.
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