NEW ZEALAND
Volcano search continues
A second land search of White Island yesterday failed to locate the bodies of the last two victims of a volcanic eruption that has now claimed 16 lives, most of them tourists. Police confirmed the 16th victim died on Saturday at Sydney’s Concord Hospital, one of several Australian hospitals where survivors suffering from severe burns were being treated.
PHILIPPINES
Magnitude 6.8 quake hits
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake yesterday hit the southern island of Mindanao, geologists said, the same area struck by a string of deadly tremors in October. People rushed from homes and restaurants set swaying by the strong jolt south of Davao. According to an initial report, a child died when a structure collapsed, and patients were evacuated from hospitals.
CHINA
Beijing halts tariff plan
Beijing suspended additional tariffs on US products that had been due to kick in yesterday, after Washington and Beijing announced a major thaw in their trade dispute on Friday. China would suspend the planned addition of 10 percent and 5 percent tariffs on some US imports, and “continue to suspend additional tariffs on US-made autos and spare parts,” the Chinese Ministry of Finance said. The move is part of a “phase one” trade deal that the two sides have yet to sign.
NEPAL
Gurkha deal might change
Kathmandu wants to review a military deal allowing its citizens to be enlisted in the British army, before a planned recruitment of Nepalese women in the Brigade of Gurkhas for the first time in two centuries, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said. It is not clear how many Gurkha women Britain plans to enlist, but the first Gurkha women could begin their training in the British army in next year, according to British media. Kathmandu now wants the 72-year-old deal renegotiated as that accord does not allow it to play any role in the recruitment process of Gurkhas by foreign armies, Gyawali said on Friday.
SUDAN
Court sentences al-Bashir
Former president Omar al-Bashir was on Saturday sentenced to two years’ detention in a correctional center for corruption in the first of several cases against the ousted autocrat. The charges stemmed from millions of US dollars received by the toppled strongman from Saudi Arabia. In a statement late on Saturday, the prosector-general confirmed al-Bashir was also being investigated for “killings and crimes against humanity,” adding that the punishment for some of his alleged crimes is death by hanging.
GERMANY
Official issues Huawei threat
China’s ambassador threatened Berlin with retaliation if it excludes Huawei Technologies Co as a supplier of 5G wireless equipment. Lawmakers in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, have challenged her China policy with a bill that would impose a broad ban on “untrustworthy” 5G vendors. “If Germany were to take a decision that leads to Huawei’s exclusion from the German market, there will be consequences,” Chinese ambassador to Germany Wu Ken (吳懇) said on Saturday at a Handelsblatt event. “Could we say one day that these German cars are no longer safe because we’re in a position to manufacture our own cars? No. That is pure protectionism.”
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not