UNITED STATES
Dog returns after 10 years
A Pennsylvania family has been reunited with its dog 10 years after it went missing. Debra Suierveld and her family assumed that their dog Abby had died after she ran away in 2008 from their home in Apollo. Decade-old sadness turned to joy yesterday, when Suierveld received word that someone had found the dog. George Speiring said that the black Labrador mix showed up on his front porch in Lower Burrell, 16km west of Apollo. Speiring contacted Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley, which discovered the dog’s microchip and was able to contact Suierveld.
POLAND
Israel blasts Holocaust bill
The Israeli embassy in Warsaw on Friday said that it has observed a “wave of anti-Semitic statements” in Poland, as a diplomatic row rages over a new bill regarding the Holocaust and the definition of Nazi death camps. The senate on Thursday passed the controversial bill that had been meant to defend the country’s image abroad, but which instead provoked Israel’s anger and drew concern from the US. The legislation, which still needs the president’s signature to take effect, was introduced to stop people from erroneously describing Nazi German death camps as Polish. However, Israel has expressed concern that the bill could serve to deny the involvement of individual Poles in the Holocaust.
UNITED STATES
Cosmonauts bungle antenna
A record-setting Russian spacewalk on Friday ended with a critical antenna in the wrong position outside the International Space Station. NASA’s Mission Control reported that the antenna was still working. It is used for communications with Russia’s Mission Control outside Moscow. The trouble arose toward the end of the more than eight-hour spacewalk — the longest-ever by Russians — after Russian Commander Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shkaplerov replaced an electronics box to upgrade the antenna. The pair watched in dismay as the antenna got hung up on the Russian side of the complex and could not be extended properly.
LIBYA
Refugees feared drowned
About 90 people are feared drowned after a smugglers’ boat carrying mostly Pakistani refugees capsized off Libya’s coast early on Friday, the UN’s migration agency said. Ten bodies have washed ashore near the Libyan town of Zuwara following the tragedy in the early morning, International Organization for Migration spokeswoman Olivia Headon said, citing information from its partner agencies. “We are told that two survivors swam to shore and one person was rescued by a fishing boat,” Headon said by telephone from Tunis to reporters at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. We are working to get more details on the [capsizing] and where the survivors are so that we can assist them better.”
FRANCE
Five killed in chopper crash
Five army officers were killed on Friday after two training helicopters crashed into each other near a lake in the country’s south, officials said, one of the deadliest such accidents involving the country’s armed forces in recent years. The collision took place near the lake of Carces, about 50km northwest of the resort of Saint-Tropez, just a few minutes after takeoff at 8:30am. All three people aboard one aircraft and the two in the other died in the crash, Marseille Prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux 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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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