FRANCE
Artifacts to be returned
President Emmanuel Macron on Friday agreed to return 26 cultural artifacts to Benin “without delay,” a move that could put pressure on other former colonial powers to return African works of art to their countries of origin. The decision came as he received the findings of a study he commissioned on repatriating African treasures held by French museums. Macron agreed to return the works, mainly royal statues from the Palaces of Abomey — formerly the capital of the kingdom of Dahomey — taken by the French army during a war in 1892 and now in Paris’ Quai Branly museum. He also proposed gathering African and European partners in Paris next year to define a framework for an “exchange policy” for African art.
UNITED STATES
Teens steal small plane
Two teenagers on Thursday stole a small plane in a rural area of eastern Utah, flying it at low altitude over a highway and landing at a regional airport before being arrested, officials said. The teens, aged 14 and 15, took the single-engine propeller aircraft from a private airstrip in the small town of Jensen in the northeastern corner of Utah, the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. They flew at low altitude over Highway 40 and were seen in the air above the area of Gusher, about 50km west of where they took off, the office said. The teens thought about continuing to fly west to a more populated area of Utah, but they decided to turn around and land the plane at the Vernal Regional Airport, about 25km from where they took off.
UNITED STATES
Judge dismisses MH370 case
A judge has dismissed nationwide litigation over the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in which victims’ families sought to hold the carrier, its insurer, Allianz SE, and Boeing Co liable for the still-unexplained disaster. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in Washington on Wednesday ruled that the wrongful death and product liability litigation, encompassing 40 lawsuits, did not belong in the US. She said the case belonged in Malaysia, which has an “overwhelming interest” in and “substantial nexus” to the March 8, 2014, disappearance of Flight MH370 with 239 people on board.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Chopper crash kills five
Five people have died after a helicopter crashed near a popular tourist area, authorities said. The EC20 helicopter disappeared late on Thursday after the pilot picked up four people at a hotel in Rio San Juan on the north coast, the director of the Investigative Commission of Aviation Accidents said. Colonel Emmanuel Souffront told reporters on Friday that the group was headed to the southeast coastal city of La Romana. Authorities said they lost contact with the helicopter about 39km northwest of their destination. No further information was immediately available.
ZIMBABWE
Hunters, pilot killed in crash
Four Finns on a hunting expedition died in a plane crash on Friday that also killed their pilot near the southern city of Masvingo, the Finnish consul’s wife told reporters. “There were four Finnish citizens and their pilot in the plane, they all died,” Sally Ward said. “It was cloudy and they were trying to get above the clouds.” The accident occurred near Renco, a gold mine on the outskirts of Masvingo, police spokesman Paul Nyathi said, adding that investigators had found a Finnish identity card and a passport at the scene.
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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