PHILIPPINES
Lava prompts evacuation
More than 9,000 people have evacuated the area around Mount Mayon as lava flowed down its crater yesterday in a gentle eruption that scientists warned could turn explosive. Lava flowed at least half a kilometer down a gulley from the crater and yesterday morning, ash clouds appeared mid-slope, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology head Renato Solidum said. People in the danger area have put up huge white crosses in their neighborhoods, hoping to protect their lives and homes.
JAPAN
China criticized over sub
Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera yesterday criticized China for sailing an advanced stealth nuclear submarine close to disputed islands claimed by the two nations, saying the action had stoked tension. The submarine was a 110m long Shang-class vessel, which is able to dive deeper and for longer than older boats and is armed with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, the Ministry of Defense said. “Operating a submerged submarine close to another country’s territory goes against the norms of international rules,” Onodera said.
RUSSIA
School knifing injures 15
Authorities yesterday said 15 people have been hurt in a knife incident at a school in the Ural Mountains city of Perm, 12 of whom were hospitalized. The local department of the Investigative Committee said the incident started with a knife fight between two students and that teachers and other students were hurt when they tried to break it up. The regional health ministry said a female teacher and two students aged about 15 were seriously wounded and undergoing in surgery. Nine students received what officials calls “superficial injuries.”
CHINA
Tampering officials punished
The Ministry of Environmental Protection has punished officials in Jiangxi and Henan provinces for tampering with pollution monitoring equipment in order to reduce smog readings, it said in a notice on Sunday. City officials in Xinyu in Jiangxi and Xinyang in Henan had sought to reduce emissions readings by spraying water on their air quality sensors, the ministry said. The two local governments said the officials responsible were dismissed or subjected to “administrative” punishments.
SRI LANKA
Presidential bid rejected
The Supreme Court has rejected a controversial attempt to extend President Maithripala Sirisena’s term in office by an extra year, further souring the ruling party’s relations with its coalition partners. Sirisena had asked the court whether a limit on presidential terms, which he introduced in 2015 as part of measures to curb the power of the executive, applied to his own mandate. His chief attorney general last week told the court that the constitutional provision reducing terms from six to five years would not apply to the incumbent, but that position was unanimously rejected by the five-judge bench which ruled that Sirisena was not exempt from the law.
TURKEY
Istanbul canal plan unveiled
The government yesterday unveiled the route of its planned new canal for Istanbul, a hugely ambitious 45km-long project designed to be its answer to the Panama and Suez canals. The government says it will create attractive new living areas and take pressure off the Bosphorus Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
SYRIA
Regime decries border force
The army is determined to end any form of US presence in the country, state television said yesterday, citing an official source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The US-led coalition on Sunday said it was working with militia allies to set up a new border force of 30,000 personnel. The ministry blasted the US-backed border force as a “blatant assault” on the nation’s sovereignty, state media said. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag yesterday also criticized the US move, saying Washington was “playing with fire” by setting up a Syrian border security force, including Kurdish militia forces.
GERMANY
Paramilitary to add base
The head of the nation’s elite paramilitary unit said it will be increased by one-third and will open a second base due to increased terror threats. Jerome Fuchs yesterday told rbb Inforadio that in addition to the GSG-9’s base near Bonn, it will add another base, likely in Berlin, “because if you look at comparable terror situations across Europe, often the capitals were affected.” The secretive GSG-9 unit was created in response to security services’ failure to prevent the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. The actual staffing of the unit is not public, but is estimated at 400.
SOUTH AFRICA
ANC defends land reform
People should not be nervous about the African National Congress’ (ANC) decision to seek land expropriation without compensation, party president Cyril Ramaphosa said. “Land is a very broad, as well as a complex issue and it has to be handled very delicately because around land there is quite a lot of emotion,” Ramaphosa said in an interview broadcast on Sunday on eNCA. “We will have a workshop or a conference on land and look at all its various aspects and beyond that we will come up with a clear policy, or direction on how this will be handled.” The ANC decided at its conference in December that it would propose amendments to the constitution to seize land without compensation to speed up the process of giving back black people land that they were stripped of during white rule. The party said this will only be done if it does not harm the economy, agricultural production or food security. “The real issue, though, is that most of the redistributed land is lying derelict at the moment,” he said. “It is not being worked.”
UNITED STATES
Casino shuttle boat burns
Fire on Sunday swiftly engulfed a shuttle boat used to ferry patrons to a casino ship off Florida’s Gulf Coast, forcing the crew and dozens of passengers to jump into chilly waters close to shore, authorities said. Fifteen people complaining of chest pain, smoke inhalation and other minor injuries were taken to the hospital to be checked, authorities said, adding that no injuries were life-threatening, after the huge fire consumed the boat close to a residential neighborhood.
MEXICO
Cabinet struck by eye issue
President Enrique Pena Nieto and several members of his Cabinet experienced severe eye irritation after attending an event in the central state of Queretaro last week, the president’s office said in a statement on Sunday evening. Pena Nieto and other senior officials required medical attention after attending the inauguration of the National Center of Aeronautic Technology in Colon on Friday, the statement said. It was unclear what caused the incident, but the Health Ministry was investigating, the president’s office said.
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