Mon, Jun 17, 2019 page5

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  TURKEY

  Russian missiles due soon

  The government expects the delivery of the controversial Russian S-400 missile defense system to begin next month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday told reporters on his plane as he was returning from a visit to Tajikistan. “I believe [S-400s] will begin to arrive in the first half of July. Colleagues in charge of the schedule are following the issue,” Erdogan said. Despite complaints from the US, he was adamant the deal was not one that the nation would walk away from. “If we now swallow our words, this would not comply with the manners of our state, and it would also not suit my statesmanship,” he said.

  ISRAEL

  PM’s wife fined

  Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been sentenced to pay a fine of about US$15,000 for misusing state funds. A Jerusalem magistrate court yesterday accepted the plea bargain that she signed with prosecutors to settle the allegations she misused about US$100,000 in state money on lavish meals. The State Attorney’s office said she would pay additional fines to close the case, which accused her of running up large tabs at luxury restaurants while the official residence employed a full-time chef. She was indicted on charges of fraud and breach of trust last year. The settlement saw her admit to more minor charges and reduced the overspending charge to US$50,000.

  JAPAN

  Policeman stabbed

  A police officer was stabbed several times in the chest with a kitchen knife and his loaded handgun stolen while on patrol in the western city of Suita yesterday morning, public broadcaster NHK reported. The attack, which police believe may have been premeditated, sparked a manhunt with police using loudspeakers at a railway station to warn people to be on the alert. The 26-year-old officer was found lying on the ground in front of a police box with a kitchen knife in his left chest at about 5:30am. A security camera showed a man, who appeared in his 30s, hanging around the police box about an hour before the stabbing, NHK said.

  BRAZIL

  Rio governor wants missile

  Far-right Rio de Janeiro Governor Wilson Witzel has advocated using a “missile” to blow up criminals in one of the city’s most violent slums. Witzel, who presided over a record number of police killings in the first three months of his term, on Friday said that Rio residents were living in a “state of terrorism,” in comments broadcast by RJTV. “If it were authorized by the United Nations, in other parts of the world, we’d have authorization to send a missile there to blow up those people,” Witzel said, referring to the City of God favela, where an intense gunfight between police and gangsters took place on Wednesday that killed at least one person.

  ITALY

  Director Zeffirelli dies at 96

  Director Franco Zeffirelli, who delighted audiences around the world with his romantic vision and extravagant productions for film, television, opera and theater, such as Romeo and Juliet, died on Saturday at 96. Zeffirelli’s son, Luciano, said his father died at home in Rome. The director produced classics for the world’s most famous opera houses, from Milan’s La Scala to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and plays for London and Italian stages. He had made it his mission to make culture accessible to the masses, often seeking inspiration in literary greats.
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