BANGLADESH
Train strikes wedding party
At least 10 people were killed in a northwestern town after a train hit a wedding party van at an unguarded crossing, officials said on Monday. The Dhaka-bound train hit the van in Ullahpara, about 145km from the capital, as 14 people were returning home from a wedding ceremony, local Police Chief Koushik Ahmed said. The crash occurred as the van crossed without noticing the approaching train, leaving eight people dead, including the bride and groom. “Another two died in the hospital and the rest were injured,” he said.
AFGHANISTAN
Threats shut radio station
The head of a local radio station in eastern Ghazni Province said that it was forced to shut down after repeated threats from the area’s Taliban commander. Ramez Azimi, director of the Samaa station in the city of Ghazni, said that he received telephone calls as well as written warnings purportedly from the Taliban commander. Azimi said that the Taliban, who control several districts in the province, threatened them because three of the station’s 16 employees are women. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that the insurgents had threatened the station.
JAPAN
Cybersecurity lifts fund 37%
One of the country’s best-performing funds this year invests in upcoming US technology stocks at the forefront of fighting cybercrime. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management’s Cybersecurity Fund has returned 37 percent this year, beating almost all peers, after shares of top picks surged. The fund invests in everything from online identity-management firms to cloud-based security providers. “It’s been a real big hit,” company senior fund manager Ting Li said. “It’s an investment theme with the potential for very high returns.”
TURKEY
EU rebuke on Cyprus panned
EU decisions to curb contacts and funding for the country over its drilling for gas and oil off Cyprus would not affect its determination to continue energy activities in the region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that the EU’s failure to mention Turkish Cypriots in its decisions, taken on Monday, “showed how biased and partisan the EU is on the subject of Cyprus.” The EU suspended negotiations on the Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement and agreed not to hold the Association Council and further meetings of high-level dialogues for the time being. The government does not recognize Cyprus as a state and claims 44 percent of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone as its own, according to Cyprus government officials.
SUDAN
Scores decry civilian’s death
Scores of demonstrators yesterday night took to the streets in a Khartoum district to protest the killing of a civilian allegedly by paramilitary forces the previous day. Riot police looked on as a crowd waved national flags and chanted revolutionary slogans in the capital’s eastern district of Burri, a hotbed of protests since demonstrations first erupted in December, witnesses said. The civilian was killed in unrest when residents gathered in el-Souk to demand that members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces leave the town, according to residents and doctors close to the protest movement. The paramilitaries allegedly opened fired at the demonstrators.
GERMANY
Cocoa truck catches fire
A busy stretch of highway had to be shut down after a truck carrying 17 tonnes of cocoa caught fire, authorities said on Monday. The fire started when the truck was on the A14 autobahn near the town of Grabow, between Berlin and Hamburg, police said. The driver escaped unharmed, but all of the cocoa was destroyed in the flames, they said. The northbound lanes of the A14 were temporarily shut down, but photographs from the scene indicate hot chocolate did not spill onto the autobahn.
UNITED STATES
Trump digs in on tweets
Defiant in the face of widespread criticism, President Donald Trump renewed his belligerent call on Monday for four Democratic congresswomen of color to get out of the country “right now,” cementing his position as the most willing leader in generations to stoke the discord that helped send him to the White House. “It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me,” Trump said at the White House. “A lot of people love it, by the way.” There was near unanimous condemnation from Democrats for Trump’s comments and a rumble of discontent from a subset of Republicans — but notably not from the party’s congressional leaders.
MEXICO
Poison mushrooms kill five
Authorities on Monday said five people have died and two more were sickened after gathering wild mushrooms and eating them. The health department in Chiapas State said the deaths occurred in two separate incidents. The first case killed three members of a family in the town of Huixtan, near the colonial town of San Cristobal de las Casas, last week. Another relative survived and was being treated. Two members of another family died in the same area on Sunday, and one woman survived. State officials have issued warnings encouraging inexperienced mushroom gatherers to get advice before eating fungi.
UNITED STATES
‘Preppers’ accused of abuse
A Florida couple described as “doomsday preppers” has been accused of sexually and physically abusing adoptive twins who escaped and reported them. Mirko and Regina Ceska were on Friday arrested on charges including sexual assault and neglect. Wakulla County Sheriff officials said the couple had custody of the two women. The women told authorities they were forced to raise livestock, sheer sheep and use a loom. They said the couple had properties across the country stocked with food and weapons in case of disaster. According to a Facebook post, the sheriff’s office said the women were not allowed to talk in public, were beaten with a metal rod and fed little food.
PUERTO RICO
Governor urged to resign
Thousands of people on Monday demonstrated demanding the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rossello following the leak of a group text chat, in which he and other officials made obscene, sexist and homophobic remarks about political opponents and others, including pop star Ricky Martin, local media reports said. At nightfall police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the capital San Juan who shouted “Ricky corrupto” in a third day of protests which also questioned Rossello’s handling of the Hurricane Maria emergency and the island’s financial crisis. “We want him arrested, him and his wife jailed for stealing money from the people of Puerto Rico,” protester Tatiana Gomez told the local newspaper Primera Hora.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia