CHINA
Collapse kills 10 workers
At least 10 workers were killed after a retaining wall under construction collapsed on Saturday in Shandong, authorities said yesterday. Six were killed immediately, and four died in a hospital, a statement on the Lanling municipal government’s Web site said. Three others were in stable condition. Police were investigating the collapse at a local transportation company, the statement said.
YEMEN
Saleh survives strikes
Former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his family are safe after airstrikes reportedly targeted his residence in Sana’a early yesterday, a news agency allied to him said. Three strikes hit Saleh’s residence, but the president and his family are “well,” news agency Khabar said.
THAILAND
King leaves hospital
Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej left a hospital yesterday after seven months of convalescence following surgery last year, to the joy of many in Thailand where Bhumibol is widely revered. Tearful crowds shouted “Long live the king” as Bhumibol, wearing a red shirt, and Queen Sirikit passed by in a convoy en route to their Klai Kangwon palace in the seaside town of Hua Hin, televised coverage of the departure showed.
AFGHANISTAN
Verdicts delayed in slaying
A judge has postponed issuing verdicts for the 19 police officers charged over the mob killing of a woman in Kabul. Judge Safiullah Mojadedi yesterday said that more time is need to complete the investigation into the officers, who are charged with failing to prevent the March 19 attack on the woman named Farkhunda. He did not specifically say when he would issue the verdicts. Of the 49 defendants charged over the slaying, four have been sentenced to death and eight to 16 years in prison. Another 18 were freed for lack of evidence. Farkhunda was beaten to death by a mob after being falsely accused of damaging a copy of the Koran, an attack that shocked the nation.
PAKISTAN
Taliban issues crash video
A militant video purports to show Taliban fighters with a surface-to-air missile, saying that they used a similar one to shoot down a Pakistani helicopter carrying diplomats. The video, obtained by The Associated Press, includes a message from the Pakistani Taliban claiming they fired a missile from a distance of 3km to down the helicopter on Friday. The crash killed the ambassadors to Pakistan from the Philippines and Norway and the wives of the ambassadors from Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as three Pakistani crew members. Pakistan said a technical failure caused the crash and dismissed an earlier Taliban claim to have shot down the helicopter as opportunistic.
CHINA
Five hurt in plane incident
Chinese carrier Joy Air said five people were injured when one of its airplanes veered off a runway upon landing in the southeastern city of Fuzhou. Joy Air is investigating the cause of yesterday’s incident, it said in a statement, apologizing to the 45 passengers and seven crew members on board. The aircraft that swerved off the runway is Modern Ark 60, a turboprop made by China’s state-owned Xian Aircraft Industrial Corp. There have been at least four incidents since 2013 in which the aircraft had landing issues. Yesterday’s flight took off from the eastern city of Yiwu.
UNITED STATES
Two police officers killed
Two police officers on Saturday were shot and killed in Mississippi and the police are looking for a suspect, according to local media. Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict said that both officers were shot in Hattiesburg and taken to hospital where they were confirmed dead, according to the Clarion-Ledger newspaper. At least one of the officers was alive when he entered the hospital, the newspaper reported. Officials did not say what the motive was for the attack. Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree urged residents to stay indoors while the police searched for the shooter. The police said they believed the suspect stole a police car after the shooting, which was later found abandoned. The Clarion-Ledger said it was the first police killing in Hattiesburg in 30 years. A plainclothes police officer on Monday last week died after he was shot in the head by a suspect in New York. He was the third on-duty officer killed in the past five months.
UNITED STATES
Tornado leaves one dead
One person was killed and another seriously hurt on Saturday in a tornado that tore across Texas, US authorities said. The US National Weather Service, which reported damaged homes in Eastland County, Texas, also issued tornado watches covering parts of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. In a relatively small area at higher risk for tornadoes were cities such as Arlington, Dallas, Garland, Fort Worth and Plano in Texas, the service added. Fire Chief Walter Fairbanks told CNN a twister cut a path through Eastland County, and the town of Cisco, in west-central Texas. The central US is hit by more tornadoes than the rest of the nation, but the often destructive weather system has been reported in all 50 states.
COLOMBIA
Rebels murder two soldiers
Two Colombian soldiers were killed in clashes with leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, the military said. The army accused guerrillas from the ELN of launching an attack in the northeastern town of Cubara near the Venezuelan border. Officials said the insurgents on Saturday attacked soldiers who were trying to dismantle oil infrastructure that the ELN is building in the area. “During the security and defense operation, our soldiers were brutally murdered,” the army said in a statement. Last week, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos ordered his government to step up an offensive against the group after the rebels showed off a soldier’s severed leg, apparently blown off by an anti-personnel mine. There are about 2,500 fighters in ELN, Colombia’s second-largest rebel group after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), another leftist insurgency. Both the ELN and the FARC have been at war with the Colombian government since the mid-1960s.
NEW ZEALAND
Prince Harry visits islands
Britain’s Prince Harry did not fulfill his hope of seeing a kiwi in the wild, but he did get to see other native birds during a visit to a remote New Zealand island. Harry yesterday traveled by boat to uninhabited Ulva Island during the second day of a week-long visit to the South Pacific nation. He was immediately greeted by a weka, a flightless bird which resembles a kiwi. Conservation workers on Ulva have eradicated rats and other predators that can eat the eggs of native birds, allowing the birds to flourish. Harry first traveled south to Stewart Island, which has a population of 378.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
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