UNITED KINGDOM
London sells water cannons
After the collapse of his political dreams, top “Brexit” campaigner Boris Johnson suffered one final humiliation on Friday — the sale of three unused water cannons he bought when he was mayor of London. His replacement, Sadiq Khan, said he would sell them off to fund youth services in the British capital. “This shows the inability of Boris Johnson to get a good deal... We want to get rid of them,” Khan said, complaining that the city had also had to pay storage costs. Khan said the whole deal “beggars belief.” Johnson bought the three vehicles second-hand in Germany two years ago for about ￡200,000 (US$265,460) to deploy them in case of rioting, even though police do not have authorization to use them in mainland Britain. Water cannons have only been used in Northern Ireland, not in the rest of Britain. Calls have grown for their use since London and other major British cities were hit by a week of rioting and looting in 2011.
UNITED STATES
Child killings investigated
The mother of four young children who were stabbed to death in a gated apartment complex in Tennessee is being held for questioning, but authorities have not charged her with a crime. The deaths of the children on Friday saddened and dismayed neighbors and county officials, as authorities try to piece together what happened in the apartment near a verdant golf course in a typically quiet neighborhood in suburban Memphis. Deputies were called to the complex in unincorporated Shelby County shortly before 1pm on Friday. Officials have not released the ages of the children, but sheriff’s office spokesman Earle Farrell said deputies responding to the scene called them “babies.” Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham called the killings an “egregious act of evil,” though he did not specifically allege that the mother had stabbed the children.
PERU
Tourist falls to death
Authorities said a German tourist plunged to his death in a deep Andean ravine while posing for a photo in an area above the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu that is closed to visitors. The director of the Machu Picchu archeological park said that 51-year-old Oliver Paps fell more than 100m on Wednesday after entering a dangerous area by crossing over a barrier meant to keep tourists away from the edge. Director Fernando Astete on Friday said that the body had been recovered. Astete said other tourists reported details of the accident at a platform overlooking Machu Picchu that can be reached from the citadel by hiking up a mountain for more than an hour. Machu Picchu is the main tourist destination in Peru.
VENEZUELA
Power rationing to end
President Nicolas Maduro said he is lifting electricity rationing that began more than two months ago because a drought had caused low water levels at the hydroelectric dam that provides most of the country’s power. Maduro announced that beginning tomorrow the government would no longer cut off electricity to much of the country for four hours a day. Only Caracas and four states had been spared from the power cuts that were instituted on April 25. Officials had previously reported that a resumption of rain was improving the water level behind the Guri Dam, which produces 60 percent of Venezuela’s electricity. On June 14, the government ended a two-day workweek for civil workers ordered for power conservation and it suspended power cuts on weekends.
CHINA
Bus accident kills 26
A bus accident in the country’s north killed 26 people and injured four when the coach crashed through a highway guard rail and plunged into a canal, state media reported yesterday. Images of the scene of Friday’s accident showed rescue workers pulling bodies from a coach submerged in deep water below an expressway near the northern port city of Tianjin. The long-distance coach was carrying 30 people from Hebei Province to the northeastern city of Shenyang, the Xinhua news agency reported. The vehicle crashed when a tire blew out and the driver lost control, it said, sending the bus over the edge of the road. The four survivors included the ticket collector, second driver and two passengers, it reported. The accident occurred days after a bus burst into flames in Hunan Province, killing 53 and injuring 11.
SOUTH SUDAN
Peace agreement flouted
An international conflict research group said the country is at risk of falling back into full-scale war, just two months after the government and rebels formed a coalition government aimed at ending more than two years of conflict. The International Crisis Group on Friday said that the two sides are flouting a peace agreement they signed in August last year and are preparing for widespread conflict. The group’s South Sudan researcher Casie Copeland said the two sides have not shown willingness to compromise on issues such as oversight of security arrangements. The warning comes after violence last month rocked three of the country’s 10 states.
IRAQ
IS commanders killed: US
The Pentagon yesterday said that a US-led coalition airstrike killed two senior commanders of the Islamic State (IS) group on Saturday last week in northern Iraq, including a fighter considered to be the group’s deputy minister of war. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the strike killed Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari and a lower-level commander, Hatim Talib al-Hamduni. Cook said al-Bajari was a former member of al-Qaeda who oversaw the IS’ fight in June 2014 to capture the northern city of Mosul and worked to consolidate the group’s control over the city. Cook said that removing the two senior leaders would help as Iraqi forces and the coalition continue preparations to retake Mosul. Iraqi leaders have pledged to retake Mosul this year, but US officials say that timetable might not be realistic.
NIGERIA
Millions march for freedom
The country’s Shiite movement and journalists yesterday said that more than 1 million Shiites have marched to demand freedom for their detained leader and Israeli-occupied parts of Palestine. Shiite Islamic Movement spokesman Ibrahim Musa said millions of people marched on Friday on International Quds Day in a dozen northern cities and towns. Independent journalists reported more than 1 million people participated in the ancient Islamic city of Zaria that is the organization’s headquarters. Human rights groups say the country’s army killed hundreds of Shiites in raids in December last year. Shiite leader Ibraheem al-Zakzakhy was hit by seven bullets and has been detained ever since. The army said the raids came after Shiites tried to assassinate Nigeria’s army chief — a charge the movement denies. Musa’s statement demanded Zakzakhy’s unconditional release and the “complete and unconditional withdrawal from all Israeli-occupied territories.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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