IRAQ
Over 5,000 civilians killed
At least 5,576 Iraqi civilians have been killed this year in violence, the UN said yesterday. At least 11,665 have been wounded since January, when Sunni insurgents led by al-Qaeda offshoot known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant overran the city of Fallujah in the western province of Anbar, the UN said in a report. The UN found the group had executed civilians, committed sexual violence against women and girls, carried out kidnappings and targeted assassinations of political, community, and religious leaders and killed children, among other violations. The report also details violations committed by government forces and affiliated groups, citing “summary executions/extrajudicial killings of prisoners and detainees,” which it said may constitute a war crime.
SOUTH KOREA
Nation to develop fighter jet
The Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday endorsed a plan for the country to design its own mid-level fighter jet, which a state think tank estimated would cost up to 8.5 trillion won (US$8.24 billion). Dubbed the KF-X program, the fighter jet is expected to be built by the nation’s sole jet builder, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), after being codeveloped with Lockheed Martin Corp, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The Joint Chiefs said in a statement that they had endorsed a twin-engine fighter jet to be developed for delivery starting in 2025. KAI makes the T-50 family of jets, the nation’s first home-built light trainer and fighter, which was codeveloped by Lockheed Martin. KAI sold 12 T-50 variants to the Philippines in March, after previously exporting the jets to Iraq and Indonesia.
SRI LANKA
Politician jailed over killing
The High Court yesterday sentenced a ruling party politician to 20 years in prison for killing a British tourist and raping his Russian girlfriend more than two years ago. Three others were given the same sentence as Sampath Vidanapathirana by the court. It found them guilty of murdering Khuram Sheikh and raping his girlfriend at a tourist resort on Christmas Day in 2011. The case attracted global attention amid allegations that Vidanapathirana was enjoying impunity because of his connections to the family of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
CHINA
Typhoon renews strength
A typhoon heading toward southern China has strengthened into a super typhoon, the government said yesterday, ordering an all-out effort to prevent loss of life from a storm that has killed at least 54 people in the Philippines. Typhoon Rammasun, which was packing winds of up to 180kph, was expected to make landfall between the provinces of Hainan and Guangdong yesterday afternoon, the National Meteorological Center said on its Web site. Waves could reach up to 13m high in northern parts of the South China Sea and residents were being warned away from coastal areas, Xinhua news agency said.
UNITED STATES
Package delays Obama
President Barack Obama was held aboard Air Force One for more than a half-hour after returning to Washington on Thursday night because of a suspicious package found at the White House, a spokesman said. Obama, who spent the day traveling in Delaware and New York, landed at Andrews Air Force Base just after 10pm, but remained on the plane for 40 minutes while White House security checked out the package. It was the third suspicious package found at the White House on Thursday.
UNITED STATES
Chikungunya case reported
A Florida man is the first person in the nation to contract the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus locally, officials said on Thursday. Previously the only cases recorded had been of people who contracted the virus after getting bitten while traveling, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, an average of about 28 cases a year since 2006. “The arrival of chikungunya virus, first in the tropical Americas and now in the United States, underscores the risks posed by this and other exotic pathogens,” said Roger Nasci, chief of agency’s Arboviral Diseases Branch. The agency said it was working closely with the Florida Department of Health to investigate how the man contracted the virus.
UNITED STATES
Ricin sender gets 18 years
Actress Shannon Guess Richardson,who tried to blame her husband for sending ricin-laced letters to Obama, then-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and a gun control activist, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday. US District Judge Michael Schneider sentenced Richardson, 35, to 216 months in federal prison on a biological weapons charge and ordered her to pay US$367,222.29 in restitution. She pleaded guilty in December last year to possession of a toxin for use as a weapon. Prosecutors said she had bought the ingredient to make ricin and then mailed three threatening letters containing the drug on May 20. Ten days later, Richardson traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana, and told police that her husband was responsible for sending the letters. She was arrested in June last year.
TURKEY
‘Bookworm’ driver sacked
An Istanbul bus driver was fired on Wednesday after video footage showed him immersed in a book while travelling at high speed on a busy street. In the video shot by a passenger, the driver holds his book open over his steering wheel, paying far more attention to the words than the road. He only occasionally glances at the street. Goksel Ovacik, the head of the bus company, told private CNN-Turk television that the man had been sacked and had his driving license revoked after the passenger who filmed the video sent it to city authorities. The passenger also launched a criminal complaint against the driver for risking the lives of those in the bus.
CANADA
Senator faces 31 charges
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Thursday laid 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery against a suspended senator who is accused of receiving US$90,000 from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff. The charges against Senator Mike Duffy cover more than US$200,000 in allegedly falsified expenses as well as money Duffy allegedly received from Nigel Wright, Harper’s former chief of staff, to repay the government for the improperly claimed expenses. If convicted, Duffy could be face prison.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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