NEW ZEALAND
Ardern calls APEC meet
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced a hastily convened extraordinary meeting of APEC leaders aimed at improving the Asia-Pacific region’s response to COVID-19 and its economic impact. Ardern is scheduled to host the annual 21-nation summit online in November, but called a virtual meeting on Friday to examine immediate action on the crisis. She said US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin had confirmed they would participate, along with “the majority of other APEC leaders.” “This is the first time in APEC’s history that leaders have had an additional meeting at leaders’ level and it reflects our desire to navigate together out of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis,” Ardern said in a statement.
EGYPT
Brotherhood loses appeal
The highest appeals court on Sunday upheld the life sentences of 10 leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s head, the state-owned Middle East News Agency reported. In 2019, a Cairo criminal court convicted all 10, including group leader Mohamed Badie, of charges related to killing policemen and organizing mass jail breaks during the 2011 uprising. That revolt culminated in the ouster of then-president Hosni Mubarak. The defendants were found guilty of helping about 20,000 prisoners escape, and of undermining national security by conspiring with foreign militant groups — the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the Court of Cassation acquitted eight middle-rank leaders of the nation’s oldest Islamist organization, who were sentenced earlier to 15 years in prison. All of the sentences, which the court considered on appeal, are final.
BELGIUM
Sanction Belarus: Lithuania
The EU should consider a fifth round of sanctions on Belarus because its government is flying in migrants from abroad to send them illegally into the bloc, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis said yesterday. “When refugees are used as a political weapon ... I will talk to my colleagues in order for the European Union to have a common strategy,” Landsbergis said as he arrived for a meeting with his EU counterparts. Lithuania on Friday began building a 550km razor wire barrier on its border with Belarus. after accusing Belarusian authorities of sending hundreds of mainly Iraqi migrants into Lithuania. The EU border guard agency yesterday said it would send additional officers, patrol cars and experts to conduct interviews with migrants to gather information on criminal networks involved with Lithuania.
INDIA
Lightning kills at least 50
More than 50 people were killed in lightning strikes in several states, authorities said yesterday. Hundreds of people are killed each year in intense storms at the start of the monsoon season, which bring respite from the summer heat across the northern plains. Media reports said about 10 other people were killed on Sunday in the desert state of Rajasthan and authorities added that at least 42 died in different districts of Uttar Pradesh. In Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, bolts hit two watchtowers at the 12th-century Amer Fort, which were packed with visitors watching the storm cross the city. Eleven people were killed and another 17 were injured, with three in critical condition, police said. Up to 30 people were on the towers when the lightning struck, said Saurabh Tiwari, a senior Jaipur police officer.
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
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
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