UNITED KINDOM
Carriers cancel Cairo flights
British Airways and Lufthansa on Saturday said they were suspending flights to Cairo for unspecified reasons related to safety and security. The British carrier said it was canceling flights to the Egyptian capital for a week. The German airline said normal operations would resume yesterday. Both carriers delivered two-sentence statements via e-mail. British Airways attributed its cancelations to what it called its constant review of security arrangements at all airports, calling them “a precaution to allow for further assessment.” Lufthansa said it was suspending its flights as a precaution, mentioning “safety,” but not “security” as its concern.
INDIA
Four killed for witchcraft
Four members of a family, including two women, were killed by fellow villagers in the country’s tribal heartland over allegations of witchcraft, authorities said yesterday. Four elders of a tribal family, all aged in their 60s, were attacked by about a dozen villagers outside their home late on Saturday. “It is linked to some local occult practitioner who blamed some negative development in the tribal village to the members of this family,” Gumla District Deputy Commissioner Shashi Ranjan told reporters in Jharkhand State. “Additional forces have been at the Siskari village since authorities found out about the incident,” he added. “It is peaceful, but no one, not even survivors from the family, are saying anything, probably out of fear,” he said.
MEXICO
Five new reefs found
Researchers on Saturday said that they have discovered five previously unknown coral reefs off the country’s Gulf coast. The reefs collectively cover an area of more than 1,100 hectares, the Department of Education said. They lie both inside and outside a marine protected area, and scientists have asked for them to be legally protected against oil extraction and development projects, it said. The discovery includes a 5km-long, 700m-wide reef off the Tamiahua Lagoon, near the city of Tampico, the longest and northernmost reported in the area to date, the department said.
VENEZUELA
US accused of intrusion
A US intelligence aircraft flew over the country’s airspace on Friday in “a clear provocation” and in violation of international treaties, Ministry of Defense officials said. The US military aircraft entered local airspace over the Caribbean in a one-hour flight in breach of international treaties until it was pursued by the country’s air force, officials said. They identified the US plane as an “EP-3E Aries II, a four-engine, low-wing aircraft.”
SERBIA
Man calls in threat for date
A man has confessed to calling in a fake bomb threat to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport because he was hoping for a date with a stewardess, local media reported on Saturday. The 65-year-old man told a court that he had met a Lufthansa flight attendant in Belgrade and wanted to date her. On Wednesday, having failed to find her in her hotel, he called the airport and reported that a bomb had been placed in a Lufthansa plane. The idea, he said, was to keep her in town, local media reported. Police tracked down the culprit after tracing the landline he had used to make the call. The court ordered the man held in custody for 30 days and he was to be charged with causing panic and unrest.
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