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.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing