RWANDA
Xi arrives for official visit
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday arrived in the country, the second stop in his tour of Africa. President Paul Kagame welcomed him as the first Chinese president to visit the East African country. Xi was yesterday expected to visit a memorial for Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and sign bilateral agreements. He then moves on to South Africa to participate in a summit of the BRICS emerging economies that starts tomorrow. Finally, Xi is to visit the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius. China is Africa’s largest trading partner and it also seeks closer military ties. China last year opened its first military base on the continent in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti.
AFGHANISTAN
Suicide attack kills 23
The death toll from a suicide attack near Kabul’s international airport has risen to 23, the Ministry of Public Health said yesterday. At least 107 others were wounded in Sunday’s powerful explosion, which happened as scores of people were leaving the airport after welcoming home Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum from exile. The ministry said the latest toll, which initially had been 14 dead and 60 wounded, could change. Agence France-Presse driver Mohammad Akhtar, 31, was among those killed when the suicide bomber blew himself up. The father of four had been on his way to work the night shift. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group through its official Amaq news agency.
THAILAND
Hunters track evasive croc
The country is in hot pursuit of a cagey crocodile that has made unwelcome appearances off the beaches of resort island Phuket only to slip through the clutches of local authorities. The evasive reptile was first seen near Rawai beach about a week ago, but has resurfaced in multiple locations near the beaches on the Andaman Sea. A group of hunters has joined an expanding team trying to track it down. Thawee Thongcha, the mayor of Karon town on the west coast of Phuket, yesterday told reporters that they had come very close to success. “We almost caught it when it was seen near the beach in Karon, [we were] meters away, but it moved quickly back to the sea,” Thawee said.
VIETNAM
Minister suspended
The government yesterday suspended the minister of information and communications for mismanagement at a state telecoms, official state media Vietnam News Agency reported, amid a crackdown on corruption. Police earlier this month arrested a former chairman of MobiFone Corp and another senior official of the Ministry of Information and Communications on allegations of economic mismanagement. The Communist Party’s inspection committee found MobiFone overpaid for a 95 percent stake in a loss-making pay TV provider.
SOMALIA
Al-Shabaab kills 27 soldiers
Fighters of al-Shabaab group attacked a military base with a suicide car bomb in the south of the country, killing 27 soldiers, the group said yesterday, a blast heard by residents of a nearby town. The attack follows last month’s attack on the base by the group that wounded seven soldiers. There was no immediate comment from government officials about the attack on the base in Baar Sanguni, about 50km from the port city of Kismayu. “We first attacked the base with a suicide car bomb and then stormed,” said Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations.
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