ISRAEL
Two killed after car attack
Israeli forces yesterday shot and killed two Palestinians who carried out a car-ramming attack in the occupied West Bank, injuring a soldier and a policeman, police and the army said. The army said that forces opened fire at three Palestinian assailants, “neutralizing two of them and lightly injuring a third,” while police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said two of the Palestinians were killed. The policeman injured in the pre-dawn attack had already been released from hospital, Rosenfeld said. The Palestinian health ministry named the two men killed as Amir Mahmoud Darraj and Yussef Anqawi, both 20. Kafr Nama’s mayor said that troops were leaving the village on foot after a raid to arrest a Palestinian suspect there when the incident occurred. The Israeli army said its troops had arrested 11 alleged Hamas operatives in the Ramallah area overnight.
BANGLADESH
Envoy’s killer hanged
A Bangladeshi man was hanged in a jail outside Dhaka over the murder of a Saudi diplomat in 2012, an official said Monday. Khalaf al-Ali, 45, who worked in the consular section of the Saudi Arabian embassy, was shot in the capital’s diplomatic zone in front of his rented apartment. He later died in hospital. Police at that time said 30-year-old Saiful Islam, who was hanged on Sunday, led the gang who tried to rob the diplomat. The Supreme Court in August last year upheld Islam’s death sentence. He was originally sentenced to death in 2013 by a trial court which described him as the main perpetrator of the killing.
AUSTRALIA
Man kills Airbnb guest
A man has admitted in court to choking to death an Airbnb guest over an unpaid A$210 (US$149) bill. Jason Colton yesterday pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the Victoria Supreme Court, but admitted to manslaughter in Ramis Jonuzi’s death in 2017. Colton would face a potential life sentence if a jury convicts him of murder, or 20 years if the jury accepts Jonuzi’s death was manslaughter. Jonuzi had been renting a room in a Melbourne home where Colton was also a tenant. Jonuzi first rented a room for three nights on Airbnb, but agreed to stay another week for A$210. The trial continues today.
KENYA
Helicopter crash kills five
Four Americans and their Kenyan pilot were killed when their helicopter crashed on a remote island in Lake Turkana in a national park in the northwest, police said yesterday. The aircraft came down in Central Island National Park at about 8pm on Sunday, police said, killing all on board. The cause of the crash had yet to be determined. Police did not identify the victims, saying next of kin had to be notified first.
INDONESIA
Dam to proceed: court
Environmental advocates have lost a court challenge to a Chinese-backed dam that would rip through the habitat of the most critically endangered orangutan species. A court in North Sumatra Province’s capital, Medan, yesterday ruled that construction could continue, despite critics of the 510-megawatt hydro dam providing evidence that its environmental impact assessment was deeply flawed. Experts said the dam would flood and in other ways alter the habitat of an orangutan species numbering only about 800 primates and likely make it impossible to take a crucial step toward ensuring the species survives.
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number