UKRAINE
Portugal wins Eurovision
Portugal’s Salvador Sobral on Saturday won the Eurovision Song Contest performing a jazz-style ballad written by his sister, taking the top spot for the first time in the country’s history and celebrating with a call to “put emotion back into music.” Along with singers from Italy and Bulgaria, Sobral was a favorite going into the final of the annual song fest, which was held in Kiev, and he led the voting throughout the evening. A soft-spoken 27-year-old with a scraggly beard, Sobral won with Amar Pelos Dois (Love For Both of Us). It is the first time Portugal won since it first entered the contest in 1964.
TUNISIA
Thousands protest amnesty
Several thousand people marched through central Tunis on Saturday to protest against a bill that would grant amnesty to businessmen accused of corruption when former president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was in power. Critics of the Economic Reconciliation bill say it is a step back from the spirit of Tunisia’s 2011 revolution to oust Ben Ali, but government officials say it is a way get the businessmen to inject some of their ill-gotten cash back into the economy. The draft law allows businessmen to reveal stolen funds and repay them.
GREECE
Train derails, hits house
Three people died and 10 were injured when a train derailed in the county’s north on Saturday night and ripped through a house, police said. The train carrying 70 passengers and five crew was heading from Athens to the second-biggest city of Thessaloniki when it derailed in the town of Adendro, 37km from Thessaloniki, railway company TRAINOSE said. At least two carriages crashed into the ground floor of a house, ripping through its walls. Others toppled on to their sides, their windows smashed. It was unclear what caused the accident. “Death came calling,” the Athens News Agency quoted local resident Yorgos Mylonas as saying. “I heard a strange noise and then I saw the train approaching and ramming into my neighbor’s house.” Three of the injured are in serious condition, TRAINOSE said. Earlier, in a statement on its Web site, the company had said that four people were killed in the crash, but it removed that reference. At least two dozen fire trucks were deployed in the rescue operation.
ITALY
Hundreds rescued from sea
Rescuers on Saturday saved 484 migrants from boats in the Mediterranean Sea and found the bodies of seven men who had died in the attempt to get to Europe, the coast guard said. The migrants were rescued from four separate rubber boats by the coast guard and navy, an aid group and two private vessels, the coast guard said in a statement.
AUSTRIA
Snap election for fall: Kern
The nation is to hold a snap parliamentary election this year, probably in the autumn, Chancellor Christian Kern told ORF TV yesterday, hours before the conservative party in his coalition was due to meet to choose a new leader. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration Sebastian Kurz, who is widely expected to take over as leader of the conservative People’s Party, has said he wants to hold a snap election, which Kern opposes. “There will definitely ... be an election, I assume in the coming autumn,” Kern told ORF, adding that he did not think carrying on with a minority government was a viable option.
NEPAL
Local elections held
Voting began yesterday in the nation’s first local elections in two decades. Polls opened in three provinces at 7am, with nearly 50,000 candidates vying for the position of mayor, deputy mayor, ward chairman and ward member in 283 municipalities. Long lines started to formed early outside polling stations in Kathmandu, where the paper ballot was about 1m long to accommodate names of the 878 candidates. “It is difficult to expect much from our politicians — they have always been selfish and not worked for the people — but I hope that with this election things will change,” housewife Shova Maharjan, 41, said after casting her vote in the capital. Results are expected later in the week.
INDIA
Jilted man held for murder
A jilted man who allegedly kidnapped and raped his ex-girlfriend before smashing her head with bricks and running her over with a car has been arrested, Indian police said yesterday. Police in the northern state of Haryana said the 23-year-old victim was abducted by the man and his friend who then allegedly raped and mutilated her. They then dumped her in an isolated industrial area where a resident discovered her four days later when they noticed stray dogs nibbling at her body. “We have arrested two men under various sections,” said Jagjeet Singh, spokesman for Sonipat city police in Haryana. “The main accused, Sumit, and she [the victim] were in a relationship, but she didn’t want to marry him and he lost it. He wanted revenge.” Singh said a post-mortem showed the woman had been drugged or sedated during the attack.
ISRAEL
Alleged attacker slain
A Jordanian man on Saturday stabbed and wounded an Israeli officer in east Jerusalem before being shot dead, police said. The officer was taken to hospital with “moderate” injuries after the attack in the walled Old City. The assailant was identified as Mohammad Skaji, a 57-year-old Jordanian who a police statement said had “entered Israel a few days ago.” The Jordanian government denounced the “crime” of the death of its citizen, giving his full name as Mohammed Abdullah Salim al-Kassaji.
IVORY COAST
Army mutiny draws protest
At least five people were wounded by gunfire yesterday during protests against an army mutiny in the nation’s second city, Bouake, according to a witness, as popular opposition to the three-day revolt over bonus payments grew. The witness saw five people being treated for gunshots at Bouake’s main hospital following an attempt by city residents to stage a protest march. Two other protesters, who had been beaten, were also being treated. Earlier in the day, mutinous soldiers had opened up access to the city to allow residents to go to work, but were searching vehicles and checking the identity documents of bus passengers.
EGYPT
Colonel killed in blast
An army colonel was killed and three recruits injured yesterday when their armored vehicle was hit by an explosion in the Sinai Peninsula, security sources said. The Islamic State group said one of its members drove a motorcycle packed with explosives into a gathering of the tribesmen and detonated it, killing 15 and damaging military equipment. There has been no immediate comment was available from the army.
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
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the