TURKEY
US bill draws warning
The government would retaliate if the US enacts a proposed law that would halt weapons sales to the country, Minister of Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said yesterday. Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives on Friday released details released details of a US$717 billion annual defense policy bill, including a measure to temporarily halt weapons sales to Turkey. In an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk, Cavusoglu said the measures in the bill were wrong, illogical and not fitting between the NATO allies. “If the United States imposes sanctions on us or takes such a step, Turkey will absolutely retaliate,” he said. “What needs to be done is the US needs to let go of this.” Ankara plans to buy more than 100 of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jets, and is in talks with Washington over the purchase of Patriot missiles.
COLOMBIA
Cuba to host talks with ELN
Cuba will host peace talks between the government and leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels aimed at ending a five-decade conflict after Ecuador bowed out last month as host, negotiators said on Saturday. President Juan Manuel Santos is trying to conclude a peace agreement with the country’s 1,500-strong last active rebel group, similar to the one signed with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas in November 2016. “After jointly examining the options to renew dialogue as soon as possible,” the government and ELN negotiators will resume talks “in Havana starting next week,” a joint statement read.
UNITED STATES
Lava claims more homes
The number of homes destroyed by lava shooting out of openings in the ground created by Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano climbed to five as some of the more than 1,700 people who evacuated prepared for the possibility they may not return for quite some time. “I have no idea how soon we can get back,” said Todd Corrigan, who left his home in Leilani Estates in Puna with his wife on Friday as lava burst through the ground three or four blocks from their home. The Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory said eight vents have opened in the neighborhood since Thursday.
FRANCE
Paris picnic against Macron
Tens of thousands of protesters in Paris danced, picnicked and railed against President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday at a “party” marking his first year in office. Police fired tear gas on troublemakers on the margins of the largely festive protest, and eight people were arrested. Authorities deployed 2,000 police to the event. “Stop Macron!” read placards at the rally in front of the Opera Garnier. Demonstrators then marched toward the Bastille plaza. The far-left party Defiant France planned the event around the one-year anniversary of Macron’s election on May 7 last year.
UNITED STATES
Man eats 30,000th Big Mac
A retired Wisconsin prison guard has eaten his 30,000th Big Mac, nearly 46 years after eating his first. WBAY-TV reports that 64-year-old Don Gorske of Fond du Lac recorded the milestone at a local McDonald’s on Friday. Gorske says he has eaten at least one Big Mac almost every day since May 17, 1972. He has kept most of the boxes or receipts or has made specific notes in calendars that he has kept. Guinness World Records has recognized Gorske for the most Big Macs consumed since 2016, when his tally was 28,788. Gorske says he has eaten so many because he just loves hamburgers.
MALAYSIA
Human traffickers arrested
Authorities on Saturday said they have arrested more than a dozen members of an alleged human trafficking syndicate after intercepting a ship carrying 127 Sri Lankan migrants believed to be bound for Australia and New Zealand. Maritime authorities on Tuesday halted a modified tanker named Etra in territorial waters off southern Johor State, national police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement on Saturday. Nearly 100 Sri Lankan men, 24 women and nine children were aboard the ship, which was making its way to international waters when it was stopped.
PAKISTAN
Toll in methane blast climbs
The death toll from methane gas explosions in two coal mines near Quetta on Saturday has climbed to 23, Officials have said. Mine inspector Iftikhar Ahmed yesterday said that five more bodies have been recovered from one of the mines, bringing the death toll from the blast to 16. Another seven people died in a separate blast, which also wounded two people. Rescue operations have been completed at both sites, Ahmed said.
AFGHANISTAN
Roadside bomb kills seven
A vehicle carrying shopkeepers on their way to a market yesterday struck a roadside bomb in Faryab Province, killing seven of them. Another civilian was wounded in the attack, police spokesman Karim Yuresh said. In the Paktia Province, a car bomb killed two people and wounded another three. Abdullah Hsart, the provincial governor’s spokesman, said the attack late on Saturday targeted Hazart Mohammad Rodwal, a district chief, who was among the wounded. The Taliban claimed the second attack. Meanwhile, government forces backed by airstrikes have retaken a district in Badakhshan Province that was seized last week by Taliban insurgents, officials said.
CAMBODIA
Ten killed by tainted water
Ten villagers have died and 120 have been sickened after drinking water suspected to be contaminated with insecticide, a health official said yesterday. The dead and sickened villagers exhibited the same symptoms, including breathing problems, dizziness, vomiting and chest pains, said Chhneang Sivutha, the head of the Kratie Provincial Health Department. Villagers began getting sick on Thursday, he said. Health authorities have collected water and food samples from the two villages and are awaiting laboratory results. Deputy Provincial Police Chief Chhim Sokhim suspected rainwater from nearby farms that use insecticide had come into contact with a stream where villagers collect water used for drinking and cooking.
PALESTINE
Mystery blast kills six people
Six people were killed in an unexplained explosion in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, health officials said, with Hamas’ military wing saying they were members of its forces. The Gaza Ministry of Health confirmed that six people were killed, updating the figure from an initial five, and three others wounded in what residents said appeared to be an accidental explosion in the Az-Zawayda area of the central Gaza Strip. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Gaza’s Muslim rulers, said the fatalities were members of their group and blamed Israel for the explosion without providing details or proof.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in