UKRAINE
Officials confirm terror attack
The Ministry of Internal Affairs said a police officer has been killed and four other people, including a lawmaker, injured by an explosion in the capital that it considers a terrorist attack. The blast happened late on Wednesday near the entrance to the Internet television station Espresso. In a statement on Facebook, the ministry said the blast injured Legislator Ihor Mosiychuk, of the nationalist Radical Party. The police officer who was killed was working as a bodyguard for Mosiychuk, it said. The ministry said an investigation on charges of terrorism has been opened.
UNITED NATIONS
1961 UN crash probed further
Former Tanzanian chief justice Mohamed Chande Othman, who has reviewed new information on the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed then-UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold, said “it is plausible that an external attack or threat may have been a cause of the crash.” Othman said in a report released on Wednesday that it also remains conceivable that the crash in Congo resulted from pilot error. The possibility of sabotage is also still being investigated, he said. However, despite progress in finding the truth of what happened, Othman said further investigation is needed to finally establish the facts. It is almost certain that Hammarskjold and members of his party were not assassinated after landing and that all passengers died from injuries during the crash, instantaneously or soon after, he said.
UNITED STATES
Bush Sr accused of groping
A television actress has accused former US president George H.W. Bush of touching her from behind while she was posing for a photograph alongside him and telling her a dirty joke. Bush’s office on Wednesday apologized and offered an explanation. “At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures,” the statement said. “To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke — and on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely.”
UNITED STATES
US Navy comes to Iran’s aid
A US Navy destroyer has come to the aid of an Iranian fishing boat after a pirate attack off Yemen, the US Navy said on Wednesday. The Islamic Republic of Iran Border Guard Command called the US Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain to report Tuesday’s incident and to ask for help following the attack south of Yemen’s Socotra Island, the navy said in a statement. The US command coordinated with the international naval task force that is in the region to battle pirates. Along with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer JS Amagiri, the USS Howard reached the vessel and its sailors “provided food and water, made repairs, and gave medical aid to three injured civilian mariners,” the statement said. The coordination between Iranian authorities and the US stands in contrast to a series of recent encounters in which the US has complained of unprofessional Iranian naval behavior. In July, a US Navy patrol ship fired warning shots at an Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessel in the Gulf as it closed in on the US vessel.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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