PHILIPPINES
Navy chief fired over frigates
Navy commander Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado was sacked for “insubordination” after he jeopardized a 15.5 billion peso (US$308 million) project for two new warships, Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana told reporters yesterday. Mercado was abruptly removed from office on Tuesday. Lorenzana, who was sworn in as temporary navy flag commander, said he obtained permission from President Rodrigo Duterte to remove Mercado owing to the frigate project. The government last year signed a contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries to build two frigates to be delivered to in 2020 and 2021. Lorenzana said the project was already several months behind schedule because the navy had failed to complete on time a “critical design review” of the ships before the contractor could start work.
VATICAN
Disgraced US cardinal dies
US Cardinal Bernard Law, a once-senior church figure forced to resign after revelations he failed to stop pedophile priests, has died after a long illness, the Vatican said yesterday. The former Boston cardinal, who lost his post in 2002, had been serving in a low-key position in a Rome basilica. Law became one of the main faces of the sex abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church after admitting to having failed to protect children from predator priests, despite evidence they had been molesting youngsters. John Geoghan had been moved from parish to parish, despite Law knowing he was accused of abusing up to 130 boys. It later emerged that Law and his predecessor had also known of dozens of accusations against another priest, Paul Shanley, but had allowed him to continue working closely with children.
VENEZUELA
Ex-cop claims rifle theft
A former police officer who spectacularly attacked the Supreme Court six months ago is claiming to be behind the theft this week of 26 rifles from a military armory. Oscar Perez, an ex-police helicopter pilot, said on Twitter late on Monday he led “an impeccable tactical operation in which we recovered these weapons of the people, for the people.” He posted videos he said were recorded during the robbery that occurred in Laguneta de La Montana in Miranda state. They showed him and a small group of masked men taunting what looked like a number of gagged soldiers. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that a group of men wearing uniforms stole 26 Kalashnikov assault rifles, three pistols and ammunition from an army base early on Monday.
BELGIUM
‘Champagner Sorbet’ wins
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) yesterday dashed brand-jealous champagne producers’ hopes with a ruling that a sorbet sold by German discounter Aldi Sud could be labeled with the word champagne because it contained it. The five-year-old case started when Aldi Sud sold the sorbet in its German stores marketed as “Champagner Sorbet.” It contained 12 percent champagne. Industry lobbying group Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne asked a German court for an injunction to stop the sale, saying the sorbet champagne was free-riding on the quality and prestige of the real thing. The court subsequently asked the Luxembourg-based ECJ to clarify the commercial use of the EU’s protected designation of origin. The ECJ said the sorbet did not exploit this rule. “A sorbet may be sold under the name ‘Champagner Sorbet’ if it has, as one of its essential characteristics, a taste attributable primarily to champagne,” it said.
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
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
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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