SRI LANKA
Fleeing cops lose gun
Police who were charged by elephants as they staked out a cannabis farm dropped an automatic rifle as they ran for their lives, sparking a hunt yesterday for the missing weapon. Policemen who had been camping out near the plantation in a bid to catch the cultivators turned tail and scarpered after the elephants started after them. “The constables dropped their weapons and fled to save their lives when the elephants charged,” a statement said. Officers were now looking for the T56 automatic assault rifle in the bush.
CHINA
Ministry rebukes US
The Ministry of National Defense said the US should abandon a “Cold War” mindset and view Chinese national security and military efforts “rationally and objectively.” The instigators of militarization of the South China Sea are “other countries” that don’t seem to want to see peace in the region and are using the banner of “navigational freedom” to undertake military activities in a tyrannical manner, ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang (任國強) said in a statement released late on Saturday in response to a US Department of Defense strategy report released last week that singled out China’s military modernization and expansion in the South China Sea as key threats to US power. China’s activities in the South China Sea is “a matter within China’s sovereign rights,” Ren said.
BRAZIL
Yellow fever alert declared
The government of Minas Gerais state has decreed a state of emergency for its public health system due to an outbreak of yellow fever in 94 of its 853 cities. The decree was published on Saturday in the state’s official gazette and allows the government to contract health providers without going through a bidding process. Since July last year, 35 cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in the nation and 20 people have died, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health. The WHO last week that all of Sao Paulo state is also at risk for yellow fever and recommended that international visitors to be vaccinated.
HONDURAS
Protester shot and killed
A 60-year-old demonstrator was shot dead on Saturday, opposition leader and former president Manuel Zelaya said as activists blocked roads and clashed with police as part of nationwide protests against the contested re-election of President Juan Orlando Hernandez. The opposition had called for a “national strike” to block the nation’s main roads ahead of the start of the president’s new term in office this coming Saturday. The government deployed police and soldiers to confront protesters.
NIGERIA
Kidnapped foreigners freed
Two Americans and two Canadians who were kidnapped on Tuesday in Kaduna state have been freed and are in good condition, police said on Saturday. Police and a special anti-kidnapping squad rescued the four in the Kagarko local government area on Friday night after a massive manhunt, state police commissioner Agyole Abeh said. “No ransom was paid. It was the efforts of the police through the directives of the inspector general of police that led to their release,” he said. One suspect was arrested in connection with the kidnapping and police were on the trail of remaining suspects, Abeh said. “They are in good condition but due to trauma they have to undergo medical observation,” Kaduna state police spokesman Mukhtar Aliyu said.
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