GERMANY
Gas terminals ‘fast tracked’
The government has committed to “fast track” the construction of two liquefied natural gas terminals as part of a new long-term deal with Qatar, the Qatari Ministry of Energy said on Sunday. Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck secured the accord during talks in Doha with the Qatari emir and energy minister. A Berlin spokeswoman confirmed that a long-term partnership had been struck, saying that companies would “enter into the concrete contract negotiations.” Ahead of his trip, Habeck told Deutschlandfunk radio that Germany had major concerns over securing supplies for next winter.
AZORES
Nearly 90 small quakes hit
Authorities in Portugal’s Azores archipelago have been placed on alert after nearly 90 small earthquakes hit the mid-Atlantic volcanic island of Sao Jorge in a little more than 24 hours, although there have been no reports of damage. Sao Jorge’s Urzelina volcano last erupted in 1808 and the Azores Civil Protection authority has requested an evaluation by experts from the region’s volcanic surveillance center. The authority said in a statement that it had already contacted local mayors and fire units, asking them to “remain vigilant” and help the people of Sao Jorge if needed. The seismic activity began on Saturday afternoon, the authority said.
NORWAY
Bodies of marines found
The bodies of four US marines killed when their plane crashed during NATO exercises in Norway have been retrieved, the Ministry of Defense said on Sunday. A Norwegian Sea King rescue helicopter found the bodies at the accident site south of Bodo, where their V-22B Osprey aircraft belonging to the US Marine Corps was reported missing on Friday evening. The ministry said the bodies would be brought to Bodo prior to transportation to the US. It added the plane went down just south of Bode during a training mission as part of Cold Response military exercises involving 30,000 troops from NATO and partner countries.
PERU
Final landslide victim found
The death toll in a landslide in the country’s north has risen to eight with the recovery of a young child’s body, officials said on Sunday. “With deep regret, I want to inform you that we have recovered the body of a child under three years of age in the town of Retamas,” Defense Minister Jose Luis Gavidia said. At least three other victims of the landslide on Tuesday last week were children, Gavidia said earlier. The landslide in Retamas, a remote mining town about 500km north of Lima, buried a half-dozen homes. Several bodies were found in a market in the path of an avalanche of mud provoked when a hillside collapsed in torrential rains.
UNITED STATES
Biden to travel to Poland
President Joe Biden is to travel to Poland on Friday to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda for discussions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the White House said on Sunday. “The president will discuss how the United States, alongside our allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. Vice President Kamala Harris also met with Duda in Warsaw earlier this month, with both condemning Russia’s military action, especially against civilians.
EAST TIMOR
Ramos-Horta leads election
Jose Ramos-Horta over the weekend secured a commanding lead in the presidential poll with two-thirds of the vote counted. Asia’s youngest nation held its fifth presidential election since independence from Indonesia in 2002, with resistance figure Ramos-Horta leading with 45.7 percent after 64 percent of the votes had been counted, data from the Election Administration showed. The next closest candidate was incumbent president and former guerrilla fighter Fransisco “Lu Olo” Guterres, with 22.5 percent. If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the votes, the poll is to proceed to a runoff on April 19 between the top two contenders.
CHINA
Shanghai hits virus record
Shanghai on Sunday saw a record 758 new cases, including 734 asymptomatic patients, with the daily caseload doubling in two days, the National Health Commission said. The flare-up in the city came after authorities expanded testing to more residents to root out silent transmission chains. More than 200 cases are centered around Pudong District, home to a bevy of domestic and international financial institutions, including the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The city last week ruled out imposing a broad lockdown, but officials yesterday said that some areas would remain locked down for further testing.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban scrap public holiday
The Taliban administration said there would be no public holiday for the Persian New Year, or Nowruz, but said they would not stop people from celebrating the festival. The popular festival is usually marked by families gathering to eat festive dishes. Ministry of Labor spokesman Mohammad Yunus Sidiqi said that no official public holiday was to be held yesterday. Ministry of Information publications head Abdul Ahad Amad said that while Nowruz was not in accordance with Islamic law, private celebrations by civilians would be allowed. “We are not officially celebrating Nowruz. If people want to do something we are not preventing them,” he said.
ISRAEL
Prime minister to visit India
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is next month to visit India, in a trip marking 30 years since the countries established diplomatic ties, his office said in a statement on Saturday. “At the invitation of the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi — Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will pay his first official visit to India in early April,” it said. Modi visited the country in 2017, and then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a high-profile return visit a year later. While India has historically been a vocal supporter of the Palestinians, it has increasingly purchased military hardware from the country.
BURKINA FASO
Twelve soldiers killed
At least 12 soldiers on Sunday were killed in the eastern part of the country by suspected extremists, security sources said, the sixth attack of its kind in the country in 10 days. “On Sunday, armed elements attacked a [military] unit around Natiaboani. The provisional toll is 12 fallen soldiers,” a security source said. “Multiple elements on the enemy side were also neutralized,” they said. Natiaboani is in the Eastern Region administrative area, which since 2018 has been regularly targeted by armed groups. About 15 young men were kidnapped by gunmen during an attack on Friday in nearby Nagre, the country’s information agency said.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
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