UKRAINE
Fighting erupts in Luhansk
The military and separatist authorities on Tuesday blamed each other for an outbreak of fighting in the rebel-held Luhansk region. The fighting erupted on the fifth anniversary of the UN Security Council’s endorsement of the 2015 Minsk agreements aimed at bringing peace to the volatile eastern region. The two sides accused each other of trying to invade their territory. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another five were wounded in combat, the military said, adding that four separatists were killed and six others wounded. The separatists said two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and three were wounded.
CAYMAN ISLANDS
Islands top money hideout
The British territory, the US and Switzerland do most to help the globe’s richest citizens hide and launder money, said a study published on Tuesday by the Tax Justice Network, a group pushing for reform. The study tests how much countries’ legal and financial systems enable the hiding of wealth by checking money-laundering laws, controls and the amount of financial activity in a country, among others. The islands ranked in the study as the most prominent center for financial secrecy. It hosts more than 100,000 companies, a number that outstrips the local population. The government said the study ignored the fact that it met global standards, adding that it did not work “in secret,” but cooperated with authorities around the world.
UNITED STATES
Bloomberg rises in polls
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday was to join fellow Democratic presidential candidates for the first time on the debate stage and face incoming fire from rivals unnerved, even angered, by his increasing prominence in the race. While candidates, such as front-runner Senator Bernie Sanders have spent months barnstorming early states, seemingly visiting every town in Iowa and New Hampshire in a personal quest for votes, Bloomberg has parachuted late into the Democratic nomination contest. The US media tycoon’s rise in polling, fueled by his astronomical spending on campaign advertising, has helped him qualify for his first debate.
FRANCE
Russian activist charged
Russian activist Pyotr Pavlensky on Tuesday was charged for his role in the dissemination of a sex video that brought down President Emmanuel Macron’s candidate for Paris mayor, his lawyer said. Pavlensky, who was granted political asylum in France in 2017, has admitted to uploading the images onto a purpose-built Web site, saying he wanted to expose the “hypocrisy” of candidate Benjamin Griveaux, a married father of three. He and his girlfriend, Alexandra de Taddeo, who was the recipient of the video, were charged with invasion of privacy and publishing images of a sexual nature without consent.
COSTA RICA
Watchman gets 16 years
A hotel watchman has been convicted of killing a Florida tourist staying at an Airbnb lodging and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The court in Pavas on Monday found that Bismark Espinoza Martinez had taken advantage of his position at the Villa Le Mas hotel in Escazu to enter the rooms where Carla Sefaniak was staying and kill her. Stefaniak, an insurance agent, had visited the nation to celebrate her 36th birthday. She checked into the small hotel on Nov. 27, 2018, and was scheduled to fly home the next day.
AUSTRALIA
Planes collide, killing four
Four people yesterday were killed in a mid-air collision between two light airplanes, scattering debris across a rural area north of Melbourne. The two twin-engine aircraft were each carrying a pilot and a passenger when they crashed at about 1,200m above the town of Mangalore, police said. “We’re not sure why both aircraft were exactly on the same trajectory,” Victoria Police Inspector Peter Koger said.
THAILAND
Deadly mall shooter arrested
Police yesterday arrested a man suspected of killing his ex-wife in the country’s latest incident of deadly gun violence in a shopping mall. The suspect, a salesman at another Bangkok mall, acknowledged that he fatally shot his former spouse, who was working at a beauty clinic at the Century Plaza Mall, and wounded another female employee on Tuesday, Police Deputy Spokesman Colonel Krissana Pattanacharoen told state broadcaster MCOT. The shooting was the third instance in six weeks of gun violence at a mall.
SOUTH KOREA
Ex-president imprisoned
Former president Lee Myung-bak yesterday was taken to prison to begin a 17-year term for bribery and embezzlement after losing an appeal against a lighter sentence. Lee, in office from 2008 to 2013, was briefly jailed in 2018 after being sentenced to 15 years and fined 13 billion won (US$10.92 million), but was granted bail while he appealed. He was found guilty of creating slush funds of tens of millions of dollars and accepting bribes from Samsung Electronics in return for a presidential pardon for its chairman, Lee Kun-hee, who was jailed for tax evasion.
AFGHANISTAN
President claims poll win
President Ashraf Ghani has won a second term, the country’s independent election commission announced on Tuesday, but his closest opponent refused to recognize the results, declaring himself the winner and potentially endangering peace negotiations with the Taliban. The Taliban also rejected Ghani’s win, further putting into question a US peace plan that calls for a reduction in violence followed by a more permanent agreement expected to be signed on Saturday next week between Washington and the Taliban. The bickering in Kabul and Ghani’s surprise suggestion that the Taliban participate in elections would seem to throw a wrench into peace plans announced last weekend at a Munich Security Summit.
INDIA
Fan prays to Trump idol
Bussa Krishna, a diehard fan of US President Donald Trump, is celebrating the visit of his hero to the country next week the only way he knows how — by offering prayers to a life-sized idol of Trump in his home. The 33-year-old has built the statue — where he performs the Hindu prayer ritual pooja usually meant for deities — in the backyard of his house in Telangana state’s Jangaon District. “Trump sir, you are my god,” the devotee said after performing the pooja. “Welcome to India. I am so happy.” Trump and his wife Melania are due to visit the nation and hold meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a high-profile two-day trip from Monday next week. “I am praying to God to see that I meet my ‘god’ at least once,” Krishna told local newspaper Telangana Today last year. Trump has built up a fan base in the country among some Hindu nationalists drawn to his hardline rhetoric toward Muslims.
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