VANUATU
US marines survey wharf
The US has conducted a survey of a Chinese-funded wharf in Vanuatu ahead of a military exercise by US forces planned for the South Pacific later this year, the US Marine Corps said yesterday. The wharf had been the subject of reports in Australia’s Fairfax Media that China wanted to establish a permanent military base in the Pacific island nation. Vanuatu and China denied the report. US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Curtis L Hill said by e-mail that a small contingent of marines from the First Marine Expeditionary Force based in California had conducted a site survey in preparation for the exercise that US forces are to hold.
KENYA
Famed conservationist dies
Dame Daphne Sheldrick, a well-known conservationist who helped protect the nation’s wildlife for 60 years, has died, her organization announced on Friday, describing her as a friend of elephants who “learned to read their hearts.” Born in 1934, Sheldrick died on Thursday evening “after a long battle with breast cancer,” said her organization, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which she helped found in 1977 after her husband’s death. The statement praised her for helping deepen the world’s understanding of elephants and rhinos. She pioneered raising orphaned infant elephants and rhinos on milk, the statement said, adding that the knowledge has since saved 230 elephants.
SOUTH AFRICA
Stadium funeral for Winnie
Winnie Mandela was to be laid to rest with full state honors at a stadium funeral in Soweto yesterday. The ceremony was to conclude 10 days of national mourning during which thousands have paid tribute to the “Mother of the Nation” at her Soweto home and elsewhere. Mandela, who on April 2 died in Johannesburg aged 81 after a long illness, has been celebrated for helping keep former president Nelson Mandela’s dream of a non-racial nation alive while he was behind bars for 27 years. On the eve of the funeral, Winnie Mandela’s body was transferred from a funeral parlor to lie in state at her Soweto home. Hundreds of people lined the township’s streets as a black hearse carrying her body slowly drove to her house led by uniformed men bearing the flag of the African National Congress.
CAR
Bangui violence kills 135
At least 135 people have been injured in the worst outbreak of violence in years in the Central African Republic (CAR), straining hospital trauma centers, aid agencies said on Friday. At least 21 people died in clashes this week after UN peacekeepers and local security forces battled armed groups in Bangui’s PK5 neighborhood — a Muslim enclave of the majority Christian city — over three days, a local official said. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had treated 83 people since the weekend at a hospital and a health center, while the Red Cross said 52 injured had arrived at another hospital.
BRAZIL
Governor urges border close
Roraima Governor Suely Campos said she wants to close her state’s border with Venezuela due to a heavy influx of migrants, and on Friday asked the top court to let her take that step. There is no deadline for a decision by the court. Campos said in her request that the health system in her poor state has been overwhelmed by the arrival of Venezuelans and that crime has spiked. She estimates that up to 700 Venezuelans are crossing the border every day.
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