MOZAMBIQUE
Cyclone leaves 19 dead
Tropical Cyclone Idai on Friday battered the center of the nation, killing at least 19 people and cutting off more than half-a-million people in Beira, one of the country’s largest cities. Public broadcaster Radio Mocambique said that “preliminary information points to 19 deaths and more than 70 injured in Sofala Province as a result of Cyclone Idai.” Most of the deaths occurred in Beira — a port hub and capital of the province — which has virtually been cut off after power lines crashed, the airport was shut and roads swamped by flooding. The flooding had already killed 66 people nationwide in days preceding the cyclone.
SYRIA
IS attacks fleeing crowds
The Islamic State (IS) group on Friday launched three coordinated suicide attacks against crowds leaving its embattled last redoubt in eastern Syria, killing six people, a spokesman for the force battling the militants said. “A suicide bomber hid among those fleeing and blew himself up, killing at least six of those who wanted to get out” of the holdout in the village of Baghouz, Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Jiaker Ahed said. Two others detonated themselves near the forces’ positions, causing light wounds, he said.
AFGHANISTAN
TV reporter shot dead
A local TV reporter was shot and killed in the east, police said, less than a week after a journalist in the southern Helmand Province was wounded by a sticky bomb attached to his car. A police officer in eastern Khost Province said that Sultan Mahmoud Khirkhowa of local Zhman TV and radio was on Friday killed by two men on a motorcycle who opened fire on his vehicle. No one immediately claimed responsibility. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) group are active in the area. IS has targeted reporters and publicly threatened to kill them. Last year, 17 journalists and media workers were killed in Afghanistan.
PALESTINE
Hundreds protest tax hikes
Hundreds of Palestinians on Friday gathered in Gaza for a second day to protest against tax hikes by Hamas authorities that have made life even harder in the blockaded territory. In the central town of Deir al-Balah, demonstrators burned tires and blocked roads. Witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said that Hamas forces beat and arrested dozens, including local reporters and advocates. Hamas violently dispersed larger protests on Thursday in several parts of Gaza.
IRAQ
French IS members tried
Iraq has begun court proceedings against 14 suspected French members of the IS captured by US-backed forces and transferred to Iraq from Syria last month, two legal sources said. The men appeared before an investigative judge of Baghdad’s anti-terrorism court on Wednesday last week in a procedural step toward putting them on trial, a court-appointed lawyer who attended the session and a member of the judicial council said. All 14 signed confessions saying that they had been in Mosul when it was under IS rule from 2014 to 2017, the two legal sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. If they are tried in Iraq and found guilty of having committed crimes against Iraq and the Iraqi people, they could face the death penalty, the council member said. “The course of investigations and indictment are leaning towards handing them the death sentence eventually,” the lawyer said.
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