AUSTRALIA
Coalition faces poll defeat
The ruling Liberal-National coalition is facing a major defeat in a by-election after voters vented their frustration over recent political infighting that led to a change in prime minister. Rural voters in Wagga Wagga, an agricultural electorate in New South Wales (NSW), yesterday posted a 29 percent swing against the Liberal Party in first preference voting, according to Electoral Commission figures, in a result that would strip the party of the rural seat for the first time since 1956. Independent candidate Joe McGirr was expected to win with a leading primary vote of 24.69 percent, although counting is to continue today to confirm the result. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian conceded defeat on behalf of the party in a news conference.
JAPAN
Pig cholera outbreak reported
The nation is suffering its first outbreak of pig cholera in more than 25 years, authorities said yesterday after culling more than 600 animals and suspending pork exports. A farm in Gifu city saw 80 pigs die last week after catching the highly contagious disease, a Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries official said. Early tests showed negative results for classical swine fever, but follow-up tests came out positive yesterday, prompting the cull of all 610 pigs at the farm, he added. The government has set up a team of specialists to analyze possible infection routes, the ministry said in a statement.
AUSTRALIA
NSW drought to persist
A devastating drought that has left farmers in the east of the nation struggling to stay afloat is set to persist, despite widespread and significant rain last month, authorities have said. “While the rain has been welcomed and has provided a more positive outlook for field conditions in some regions, the drought is far from over,” New South Wales (NSW) Department of Primary Industries’ agriculture climate specialist Anthony Clark said in a statement. “We need more significant widespread rainfall in the coming weeks and months for agricultural recovery to commence and farmland to return to a productive state.”
AUSTRALIA
Five found dead in Perth
Police in Perth yesterday found up to five dead people, including a woman and children, in a suburb of the city, a senior officer said. “This is early and we’ve not yet fully examined the scene. We understand that there are adults and children involved,” Western Australia Police Assistant Commissioner Paul Steel told a news conference. “I can say there was at least one woman, but I can’t say more than that I’m afraid. The scene has not yet been forensically examined, so the exact number of adults and children is actually unknown to me,” Steel said. A man in his 20s was helping police with their inquiries, he said.
NEPAL
Chopper crash kills six
An Altitude Air helicopter on Saturday crashed into a hillside in central Gorkha District, killing six on board, including a Japanese tourist, officials said. One woman survived the crash with injuries and has been airlifted to Kathmandu. District police chief Basanta Bahadur Kunwar said that authorities were working to retrieve the bodies, but that reaching the crash site, located in thick forest and with no road access, had been “challenging.” The cause of the accident remained unknown, he added.
UNITED KINGDOM
Unions might back poll
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) would support a second referendum on a Brexit deal if Prime Minister Theresa May fails to get a deal with the EU that can help the nation’s workforce, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said yesterday. O’Grady told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We should extend Article 50 [which gives two years to negotiate an exit deal]. We should focus on getting a deal that is actually good for this country and that means good for working people. But if the prime minister is not prepared to do that then I think it has to go back to the people and if there isn’t going to be an early general election the only way is a popular vote.” His comments came as the ruling Conservative Party was embroiled in a new dispute after former secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs Boris Johnson said the government’s strategy put the country in a “suicide vest,” with Brussels holding the detonator. “We have wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution — and handed the detonator to [EU Brexit negotiator] Michel Barnier,” he wrote in the Mail on Sunday.
KOSOVO
erbian leader blocked
Kosovar Albanians yesterday blocked roads and burned tires on a planned route by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in the former Serbian province, further fueling tensions between the two Balkan foes. During his two-day trip, Vucic planned to visit a Serb-populated village in the center of the country, but roads leading to the region were blocked by wooden logs, trucks and heavy machinery. Vucic and his entourage were later stopped by police on the road to the Drenica region and were told they could not continue for security reasons. Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj posted on Facebook that he had “canceled the permission issued by the Foreign Affairs Ministry for Serb President’s visit to the Drenica zone,” adding that “citizens’ security is above all.”
UNITED STATES
Forest fire shuts highway
A roaring wildfire that shut down a stretch of a major interstate near the California-Oregon border exploded in size as crews on Saturday scrambled to prevent flames from reaching rural communities. The blaze in California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest was burning out of control after chewing through 150km2 of timber and brush since Wednesday. Aircraft were temporarily prevented from making water and retardant drops because heavy smoke was trapped under cloud cover, making for limited visibility for pilots. The fire has destroyed thousands of trees — some 20m tall — that could fall onto the highway that traverses the entire West Coast from Mexico to Canada and serves as a main artery for commerce.
ITALY
Ancient coin cache found
Hundreds of ancient Roman gold coins have been discovered on the site of an old theater in Como, the Ministry of Culture said. The coins date back to the end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and were found in a kind of stone urn in the Cressoni theater basement, not far from the site of the ancient city of Novum Comum. Media reports said the coins could be worth millions of euros. The theater, which was inaugurated in 1870 and later became a movie theater before closing in 1997, was due to be demolished to allow the construction of a luxury residence. Authorities plan to suspend work at the site to allow further excavations.
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