SERBIA
Airline honors tennis star
The new national airline, Air Serbia, began flying on Saturday with a plane named after favorite son Novak Djokovic, the men’s tennis world No. 2. The Airbus A319, emblazoned with a double-headed eagle and the national red, blue and white colors, took off for Abu Dhabi. Air Serbia said all its future planes would be named after prominent Serb figures. The airline was formed in August, when the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways acquired 49 percent of the country’s sole air carrier JAT.
REUNION
Shark bites off surfer’s leg
A 24-year-old surfer was fighting for his life in hospital after a shark attack off the French Indian Ocean island on Saturday, authorities said. “The body boarder’s right leg was severed at the thigh,” the territory’s local administration said in a statement. The incident took place around 20m from the beach. The two other shark attacks reported off the island this year were deadly. The authorities said the latest victim, a local man, was outside the protected perimeter. They urged beachgoers to exercise the utmost caution. Some argue that the growing amounts of wastewater poured into the sea attract sharks while others blame a marine reserve where fishing is banned for the spike in attacks in recent years.
IRAN
Anti-US posters removed
Tehran city officials have ordered the removal of some posters featuring anti-US slogans, a sign that the nation is seeking better relations with the US as the two sides hold talks over its nuclear program. A Tehran municipal official said some anti-US billboards had been put up illegally and that the city had taken them down, state news agency IRNA said on Saturday. “In an arbitrary move, without the knowledge or confirmation of the municipality, one of the cultural institutes installed advertising billboards,” said Hadi Ayyazi, spokesman for the municipality, according to IRNA. Ayyazi did not specify which posters had been taken down. According to IRNA, new anti-US posters questioning the US’ honesty had been put up near busy Tehran thoroughfares since last week, ahead of next Monday’s anniversary of the taking of hostages in the US embassy in 1979. One such poster depicted an Iranian negotiator sitting at a table with a US official who is wearing a suit jacket, but also army trousers and boots, with a caption that reads, “American Honesty.” It is unclear who was behind the posters, but hardliners have expressed skepticism of President Hassan Rouhani’s efforts to engage with the West and the US. Anti-US graffiti and posters in prominent areas of Tehran and other major cities are common. The site of the former US embassy, for instance, depicts the Statue of Liberty with a skull for a face.
SYRIA
Damascus submits plan
The government handed over a detailed plan to destroy its chemical stockpile on time, the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said yesterday. “On 24 October 2013, the Syrian Arab Republic submitted to the OPCW its formal initial declaration covering its chemical weapons programme,” the international watchdog said in a statement, adding that Damascus had had until yesterday to do so. Damascus was required to submit the destruction plan under a US-Russian deal agreed last month that headed off military strikes on the country. The accord also gives the government until the middle of next year to destroy its chemical arsenal.
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
Venezuelan Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado yesterday said that armed men “kidnapped” a close ally shortly after his release by authorities, following former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s capture. The country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed later yesterday that former National Assembly vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa, 61, was again taken into custody and was to be put under house arrest, arguing that he violated the conditions of his release. Guanipa would be placed under house arrest “in order to safeguard the criminal process,” the office said in a statement. The conditions of Guanipa’s release have yet to be made public. Machado claimed that
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