JAPAN
US marines chided
Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki has demanded that a top US military commander take tougher prevention measures and urged more transparency hours after officials were told that more than 60 US Marines at two bases have been infected with COVID-19 over the past few days. Okinawan officials yesterday reported a total of 61 cases — 38 at US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and 23 at Camp Hansen — since Tuesday last week. They said that US military officials told them the two bases have since been put in lockdown. The disclosure of the exact figures came only after Okinawa’s repeated requests to the US military.
IRAN
Jet downing explained
An air defense unit that “forgot” to adjust its radar system triggered a chain of communication and human errors, which led to the downing of a passenger jet in January, killing all 176 people aboard, a report from the Civil Aviation Organization said. Decoding of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752’s black boxes is expected to start next week. The plane was downed by missiles, fired from an air defense unit that mistook it for a missile.
CHINA
Flood alert level raised
The Chinese government yesterday raised its flood response alert to the second highest grade as downpours continued to batter regions along the Yangtze River, with the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Jiangxi among the worst hit, state media reported. Regional flooding in the Poyang county of Jiangxi Province has made water levels of Lake Poyang, its biggest freshwater lake, surge to above 22.52m, a historical high and well above the alert level of 19.5m. By Saturday evening, provincial military authorities had dispatched thousands of soldiers to help bolster nearly 9km of the lake’s banks to prevent them from bursting, state television said. According to the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources data, 212 rivers have since early this month exceeded alert levels.
THAILAND
Vaccine trials scheduled
Researchers plan to begin human trials of a potential vaccine for COVID-19 in November and are preparing 10,000 doses, a senior official said yesterday, aiming for a vaccine that could be ready for use by late next year. Following favorable results in trials on primates, the next step is to manufacture doses for human trials, said Kiat Ruxrungtham, director of the Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University vaccine development program. “At first we were going to send them in June, but it was not easy to plan everything,” Kiat told a news conference. The kingdom’s first facility should complete production in October and send the products to a second facility, which should finish by November, he said.
INDIA
Film stars recovering
The nation’s most famous film star, Amitabh Bachchan, and his son, Abhishek, are in stable condition after testing positive for COVID-19, a hospital official and government health authorities said yesterday. The 77-year-old actor said in a tweet on Saturday that he had tested positive, and within minutes, his actor son, 44, tweeted that he had also tested positive. They were moved to the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai, despite showing only mild symptoms. A senior official yesterday said that Abhishek’s wife, actress Aishwarya Rai, has tested positive as well, while Amitabh Bachchan’s wife, Jaya, is awaiting test results.
BELGIUM
Serbia, Kosovo hold talks
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell yesterday called on Serbia and Kosovo to show “political courage,” as their leaders held video talks on normalizing relations. Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic were each due to hold talks with Borrell and the EU’s special representative for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, before all sides gather for a virtual round table session. Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in 1998. The two sides have been facing mounting pressure from the West to resolve the impasse, which is as seen as crucial to either joining the EU.
UNITED STATES
No surprises in Louisiana
President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden have won Louisiana’s twice-postponed presidential primary on Saturday. Trump faced no true challenger for the Republican nomination, but four contenders ran against him on Louisiana’s ballot. Biden faced 13 other Democrats on the ballot, though he has already locked up enough delegates in other states to become the party’s presumptive nominee.
RUSSIA
Governor’s arrest protested
Hundreds of people yesterday joined a second day of protest in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk over the arrest of a popular governor accused of ordering the murders of several businessmen 15 years ago. Sergei Furgal, 50, on Thursday was detained and ordered to remain in pre-trial custody for two months, sparking a demonstration on Saturday that drew between 10,000 and 40,000 people. Several hundred people yesterday marched through the city center. Furgal has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
BULGARIA
Government ‘like mafia’
President Rumen Radev on Saturday called for the resignation of the “mafia-type” conservative government, which he blamed for ordering police raids on his offices last week. His legal affairs and anti-corruption secretary and his security and defense advisers were detained for questioning on Thursday and their offices searched as part of probes into influence-peddling and disclosure of state secrets. The searches brought thousands of demonstrators onto the streets of Sofia to condemn the raids as an attack by the government against Radev. “Turning the government into a mafia-type structure has pushed freedom-loving Bulgarians of all ages, regardless of their political affiliations, to raise demands for respect of the law,” Radev said in a televised address to the nation. “There is only one way out of the current situation — resignation of the government and the prosecutor general.”
POLAND
Police hunt puma, owner
Police are on the hunt for a former soldier who fled into a forest with a puma to avoid handing it over to a zoo. About 200 officers have been involved in trying to track down the former Afghan war veteran and the big cat for three days. The man had been ordered by a court to turn the animal over to a zoo, but when officials went to house on Friday, he threatened them with a knife before fleeing with the puma. The fugitives have won support in some quarters. “Love for the animal and a heartless court decision forced him to flee. He is hiding in the forest,” Myslowice Mayor Dariusz Wojtowicz said on Facebook. “Maybe someone could take a more humane look at this case.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the