CHINA
Air force holds Pacific drills
The air force has held another round of drills in the disputed South China Sea and the Western Pacific after passing though Japan’s southern islands, it said yesterday, calling such exercises the best preparation for war. H-6K bombers, and Su-30 and Su-35 fighters, among other aircraft, carried out combat patrols over the South China Sea and exercises in the Western Pacific after passing over the Miyako Strait, it said in a statement, although it did not say when the exercises took place and did not specify the parts of the South China Sea or the Western Pacific. The more exercises the air force performs far from its shores, the better it will be positioned as “an important force for managing and controlling crises, containing war and winning battles,” it added.
EGYPT
Car bomb kills two police
A bomb placed under a car on Saturday exploded in Alexandria as the city’s top security official’ convoy passed by, killing two policemen and wounding four others, the Ministry of the Interior said. Local media reports said that Major General Mostafa al-Nimr survived the explosion and he was seen on a local TV channel in good condition while inspecting the area of the blast shortly after it took place. Ministry of Health spokesman Khaled Megahed said two policemen were killed and four others wounded in the explosion, adding that one civilian was also wounded.
CHINA
Beijing issues orange alert
Beijing declared its third major smog alert of the year and the second this month, just a day after being named the top performer among 28 Chinese cities that took special measures to rein in pollution. Saturday’s orange alert, the second-highest in a four-level system after red, is to run from today through Wednesday, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said in a post on its official Sina Weibo account. The central part of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is forecast to see medium to heavy pollution over the three days, it added. An orange alert requires factories that make furniture, cement and other heavy industry to limit output by 30 to 50 percent.
AFGHANISTAN
Russia denies aiding Taliban
Russia has rejected allegations by NATO’s top commander in the nation that it has been supporting and even supplying weapons to the Taliban. In an interview with the BBC last week, US Forces Afghanistan Commander General John Nicholson said that Russia had been acting to undermine US efforts, despite shared interests in fighting terrorism and narcotics, with indications that Moscow was providing financial support and even arms. “We’ve had weapons brought to this headquarters and given to us by Afghan leaders and said this was given by the Russians to the Taliban,” he said. A statement from the Russian embassy in Kabul dismissed the comments as “idle gossip,” reiterating previous denials by Russian officials.
INDIA
Former chief minister jailed
Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was on Saturday sentenced to 14 years in prison for embezzling 37 million rupees (US$569,060) from the state treasury while he was the its top elected official. Yadav, 69, was convicted of embezzling the money to buy fictitious medicines and cattle fodder while he was chief minister from 1990 to 1997. Eighteen former Bihar state officials, contractors and suppliers were sentenced in the case to jail terms ranging from three-and-a-half to five years.
UAE
Briton convicted of murder
A British newspaper editor in Dubai was yesterday found guilty of bludgeoning his wife to death with a hammer and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Francis Matthew, the former editor of the English-language Gulf News, had faced the possibility of the death penalty in the killing of Jane Matthew, his wife of more than 30 years, in July last year. Neither Matthew nor his lawyer were present in the Dubai Court of First Instance for the verdict read by Judge Fahad al-Shamsi. Matthew’s lawyer, Ali al-Shamsi, said he would appeal the sentence. A brother of Matthew’s wife, who was in court for the verdict, expressed disappointment. “Our family has been saddened by the sentence given to Francis Matthew, Jane’s killer. We believe the facts clearly demonstrate that this crime was a deliberate act,” Peter Manning said in a written statement.
ITALY
New speakers chosen
Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni formally resigned on Saturday following the election of new parliament speakers, but was immediately asked by the president to stay on while political factions try to form a new government. The March 4 election produced no majority in parliament. Lawmakers voted to give the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement the leadership of one chamber of parliament and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia leadership of the other. Forza Italia Senator Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati became the first woman to be elected Senate president. The 5-Stars’ Roberto Fico was elected president of the lower Chamber of Deputies.
GERMANY
Airline sorry for stranding
TAP Air Portugal has apologized for keeping more than 100 passengers stranded at Stuttgart Airport for two nights after one of its flights was canceled last-minute because of a drunken copilot. Shortly before the TAP Air Portugal flight was to takeoff for Lisbon on Friday night, an airport employee noticed the copilot walking unsteadily and smelling of alcohol. He notified airport authorities, which decided to ground the plane. The 106 passengers were put up at hotels overnight. TAP tweeted on Saturday that the passengers would only be able to fly to Lisbon today, “which is, at the moment, the first day with seats available.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Bahrain court criticized
Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei, a prominent Bahraini rights campaigner exiled in London, on Saturday said that a Bahraini court had sentenced his wife to two months in jail in absentia last week and that his mother-in-law had begun a hunger strike in a Bahraini jail. AlWadaei, director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, alleges the government’s treatment of his family was aimed at silencing his activism. “Their escalation against both of my family members was no coincidence,” said AlWadaei, who has lived in exile since 2012. Asked if Bahraini authorities were trying to muzzle him, he replied: “Of course. My wife was beaten, mistreated and threatened that they are going after our family to punish me. Now all their threats were executed.” AlWadaei’s wife, Duaa, was detained and interrogated as she and their son departed Bahrain’s airport after a visit in 2016. When she complained that she was physically abused during questioning about his activities and movements — charges authorities have denied — she was charged with insulting state institutions and sentenced in absentia to two months in jail on Wednesday, AlWadaei 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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