ARMENIA
Voters back amendments
Early results showed that voters in Sunday’s referendum supported constitutional changes that would give more powers to the prime minister and parliament at the expense of the president. The Central Election Commission yesterday said in a statement that 63 percent supported the amendments that would make the president largely a figurehead. The opposition has seen the reform as an attempt by President Serzh Sargsyan to extend his rule. Sargsyan has denied the claim, saying he has no intention of shifting into the prime minister’s seat after his second term in office ends in 2018. Sargsyan’s government has promoted the constitutional changes as a step toward improving democracy in the former Soviet state by providing for a greater balance of power and a stronger judicial branch.
FRANCE
U2 pay respects to victims
U2’s Sunday night performance in Paris was not just about music — it had a mournful tone, too. Frontman Bono paid his respects to the 130 people killed by extremists in Paris on Nov. 13 and the 14 people killed in a mass shooting last week in California. Names of Paris attack victims were projected on a huge video screen in the arena, not far from the site of the Nov. 13 rampage. Bono wrapped himself in a French tricolor flag for the encore, in which he sang a verse from French crooner Jacques Brel’s Ne me quitte pas, “Don’t Leave Me.” “We stand together with the families of those killed in Paris. We stand together with the families of those killed in San Bernardino,” Bono said.
PALESTINE
Israeli jets hit Hamas target
The Israeli military said its aircraft yesterday struck a Hamas target in the Gaza Strip in response to two shooting incidents. The statement said the aircraft hit a military post belonging to Hamas Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. No injuries from the strike were immediately reported. The military said shots fired from Gaza hit army vehicles along the border on two separate occasions over the weekend. The border with Gaza has remained mostly quiet during a nearly three-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. However, several Palestinians have been killed in violent clashes along the frontier and some rockets have been launched at Israel.
UNITED KINGDOM
Troops move flood victims
The army was called in on Sunday to help put down sandbags and evacuate people from their homes as stormy weather left northern towns and cities severely flooded. Storm Desmond’s torrential rain and strong winds swept across northwestern England and Scotland over the weekend. In Cumbria, known for its scenic Lake District, officials said the rainfall between Friday and Saturday likely exceeded the average for the month. The deluge left the Cumbrian city of Carlisle and hundreds of homes submerged. Many rivers burst their banks and in some streets cars were left almost entirely underwater. Rescue teams helped ferry those forced to leave their homes in boats. About 60,000 homes were left without electricity. In Kendal, rescue teams were searching for an elderly man who reportedly fell into a swollen river, while in London police said a 90-year-old man died after he was believed to have been blown into the side of a moving bus by a gust of wind. Further flooding and disruption was expected as forecasters warned of more heavy rain in Scotland, northwestern England and Wales.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
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