RUSSIA
Killings over ‘noisy talk’
A man in the Ryazan region shot and killed five people for talking noisily at night under his windows, investigators said yesterday. A 32-year-old man from the small town of Yelatma opened fire on a group of four young men and a woman who “were talking loudly in the street under his windows” at about 10pm on Saturday, investigators said. The man went to his balcony to complain to the group and a dispute erupted before he reached for his hunting rifle, the Investigative Committee said. The shootings took place during stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19.
JAPAN
Virus cases jump in Tokyo
More than 130 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo, public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday, citing metropolitan government officials. It was the highest daily jump in confirmed cases so far, bringing the number of positive cases in the capital to more than 1,000, NHK said. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike appeared on a morning news program yesterday and repeated her call to residents to avoid unnecessary outings, saying that “lives were at stake.”
GREECE
Second camp quarantined
A second refugee facility has been quarantined after a 53-year-old man tested positive for the new coronavirus, the Ministry of Migration and Asylum said yesterday. The Afghan man lives with his family at the Malakasa camp, but he has been transferred to a hospital in Athens. The camp would be put into quarantine for two weeks, the ministry said yesterday, adding police guarding the site would be reinforced to ensure the restrictions are implemented.
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Five ferry bodies found
Police yesterday said that five bodies have been recovered in the search for 27 people swept off an inter-island ferry on Friday. The MV Taimareho, with more than 738 people on board, left Honiara on Thursday night for West Are’are, ahead of a tropical cyclone, even though authorities warned against sailing. “The bodies discovered includes three female and two male,” police said.
AFGHANISTAN
IS leader captured
The leader of an Islamic State (IS) group affiliate and 19 other militants have been arrested, authorities said on Saturday. The National Directorate of Security said in a statement that Aslam Farooqi, also known as Abdullah Orakzai, the mastermind behind an IS-claimed attack on a Sikh temple in Kabul last month that killed at least 25 people, had been arrested. Farooqi had admitted to having links with “regional intelligence agencies” — a reference to Pakistan, the directorate said.
INDIA
Kashmir clashes kill 12
Nine rebels and three Indian soldiers were killed in two gunbattles in disputed Kashmir, an army official said yesterday. Soldiers killed five suspected militants along the de facto front line in Keran sector as an armed group of militants infiltrated from the Pakistani side of the state, army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said, adding that three three soldiers had been killed. The other gunbattle broke out in a neighborhood in southern Kulgam town as police and soldiers scoured the area looking for militants on Saturday, Kalia said. As troops began conducting searches, they came under heavy gunfire, leading to a clash that killed four militants.
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
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