UNITED STATES
Flooding sparks water fears
Record flooding along the Missouri River has impaired treatment of drinking supplies in Kansas City, Missouri, raising health risks for infants, the elderly and other people with compromised immune systems, the KC Water utility said on Saturday. The advisory came as utility crews struggled to replace broken pumps at a wastewater treatment plant submerged by floodwaters about 48km upstream in Leavenworth, Kansas, a town of 35,000 on the river’s west bank. The crest of the flood-swollen Missouri inundating kilometers of farmland and wooded areas along both banks in murky brown water. It was expected to reach Kansas City yesterday. The utility said water drawn from the river had failed to meet “enhanced treatment technique standards.” It said the diminished water quality was not considered an emergency, but advised customers with compromised immune systems, the elderly and those with infants to seek advice from healthcare providers.
FRANCE
Noise triggers stampede
Crowds of holidaymakers stampeded for safety in Disneyland Paris on Saturday when they mistook the din from a broken escalator or elevator for the sound of weapons, officials and witnesses said. “There was an enormous panic,” said one witness, who identified herself as Alexia. “Everyone thought it was an attack. After a few minutes they made us leave through the back. There were police everywhere.” The Ministry of the Interior later tweeted that it had been a false alarm: “Security forces confirm there is no threat.”
CANADA
Stabbing suspect charged
A man who allegedly stabbed a priest in front of his congregation live on television during a Mass on Friday at the nation’s biggest church was on Saturday charged on with attempted murder and assault with a weapon. Vlad Cristian Eremia, 26, appeared briefly by video link in a Montreal court on Saturday afternoon; his next hearing was scheduled for today. He is accused of attacking Claude Grou, the 77-year-old priest of St Joseph’s Oratory, who was left with minor injuries. Police have described the assault as an isolated incident committed by a man known to authorities, although the motive remains unclear. Grou was able to leave hospital on Friday and would rest for a few days before resuming his duties, the church said in a statement on Saturday.
ISRAEL
Aircraft target Hamas sites
Military aircraft targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip early yesterday after Palestinians there threw explosive devices at the border fence during “riots,” the army said. Palestinians in Gaza had thrown a number of explosive devices toward the border fence with Israel, one of which set off air raid sirens in the south of the country late on Saturday, the army said. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Gaza.
ISRAEL
Famed spymaster dies
Former minister and veteran spy Rafi Eitan, who led the 1960 operation to capture fugitive Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann, died on Saturday at the age of 92. “We have lost a brave fighter whose contribution to Israel’s security will be taught for generations to come,” President Reuven Rivlin said. Eitan died after being hospitalized in Tel Aviv, YNET news Web site and other media reported. Eitan was also involved in the attack on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather in July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad. Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm. The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other
CODIFYING DISCRIMINATION: Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in prison, while same-sex relations could land a person in jail for more than a decade Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the