BRAZIL
Temer undergoes surgery
President Michel Temer was spending the weekend recuperating in the hospital after undergoing angioplasty in three blocked coronary arteries, doctors said on Saturday. Temer, 77, late on Friday had the procedure to widen obstructed arteries and have at least one stent implanted at the heart unit of the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo. “The procedure was a success and the president is recuperating,” doctor Fernando Ganem, the medical supervisor, said in a statement. Temer is to be released today and therefore had to put off a planned visit that day by Bolivian President Evo Morales, the presidency said.
HONDURAS
President seeks re-election
The nation’s 6 million voters yesterday were to cast ballots in a controversial election in which President Juan Orlando Hernandez is seeking a second mandate despite a constitutional one-term limit. His conservative National Party — which controls the executive, legislative and judicial branches — contends that a 2015 Supreme Court ruling allows Hernandez’s re-election. However, the opposition has denounced his bid, saying the court does not have the power to overrule the 1982 constitution. The nation has one of the highest murder rates in the world, although that metric has fallen under Hernandez’s last four years in office.
NIGERIA
Militants seize Borno town
Suspected members of the Islamic militant group Boko Haram on Saturday took over a town in the state of Borno, residents said. “We hurriedly took our families to the bushes before they could get us. Almost every resident is hiding here,” said Wakil Bulama, one of two residents who spoke to reporters by telephone. Residents said attackers entered Magumeri, around 50km from Borno state capital Maiduguri, at around 7pm. They said the insurgents shot sporadically and threw explosive devices, prompting locals to flee to a forest. A military source who did not want to be identified said that Magumeri had been attacked, but could not confirm whether it had been seized.
IRAN
Longer missile range warned
The deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards told Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the guards would increase the range of missiles to more than 2,000km, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday. France has called for an “uncompromising” dialogue with Iran about its ballistic missile program and a possible negotiation over the issue separate from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. “If we have kept the range of our missiles to 2,000km, it’s not due to lack of technology... We are following a strategic doctrine,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami said, according to Fars. “So far we have felt that Europe is not a threat, so we did not increase the range of our missiles, but if Europe wants to turn into a threat, we will increase the range of our missiles.”
YEMEN
Drone strike kills seven
A drone strike has killed seven suspected members of al-Qaeda in southern Yemen, a security official said yesterday. The US is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen. “A drone likely to be American” killed all seven overnight as they were aboard three vehicles on the road from the southern province of Shabwa to the central province of Bayda, the official said. Washington considers the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group’s most dangerous branch.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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