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.
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
‘VERY DIRE’: This year’s drought, exacerbated by El Nino, is affecting 44 percent of Malawi’s crop area and up to 40 percent of its population of 20.4 million In the worst drought in southern Africa in a century, villagers in Malawi are digging for potentially poisonous wild yams to eat as their crops lie scorched in the fields. “Our situation is very dire, we are starving,” 76-year-old grandmother Manesi Levison said as she watched over a pot of bitter, orange wild yams that she says must cook for eight hours to remove the toxins. “Sometimes the kids go for two days without any food,” she said. Levison has 30 grandchildren under her care. Ten are huddled under the thatched roof of her home at Salima, near Lake Malawi, while she boils
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