ISRAEL
Two sought for stabbings
Security forces yesterday launched a search for two Palestinians suspected of killing three people in an attack on Israel’s Independence Day. The attack on Thursday night in Elad was the sixth in which Israelis have been targeted since March 22. Witnesses said that two assailants leapt from a vehicle swinging axes at passersby, killing three and wounding four, before fleeing in the same vehicle. Security forces have mounted a massive search operation for the attackers, identified by the police as Assad Yussef al-Rifai, 19, and Subhi Imad Abu Shukair, 20. The dead were identified by Israeli media as Yonatan Habakuk, 44, and Boaz Gol, 49, both from Elad, and Oren Ben Yiftah, a 35-year-old from the central city of Lod. Minister of Defense Benny Gantz announced that a closure of the West Bank — in place for the anniversary — would remain through tomorrow.
SRI LANKA
Millions strike nationwide
Bus and train networks yesterday ground to a halt, while offices and factories were empty amid a nationwide strike demanding the government’s resignation over the country’s worsening economic crisis. Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have sparked widespread turmoil across the nation. Millions of workers stayed off the job in a strike organized by the country’s trade union movement, with all but one scheduled train service canceled. Privately owned buses were off the roads while industrial workers demonstrated outside their factories and black flags were hung across the country in an expression of anger against the government. “We can pinpoint the policy blunders of the president that led to this very sorry state of our economy,” trade union leader Ravi Kumudesh said. “He must go.” President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has insisted he would not step down despite escalating demonstrations.
MEXICO
Journalist killed
Another journalist was on Thursday found dead in northern Mexico, the ninth media worker killed in the country so far this year. Prosecutors in the northern state of Sinaloa said the body of Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos was found on a dirt road near a junkyard in the state capital, Culiacan. Prosecutors said his body was wrapped in black plastic, and that the 59-year-old died from multiple blows to the head. Ramirez Ramos’ news Web site said that he had been abducted near his house hours earlier. Prosecutors said that he had not been reported missing to police. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it lamented the killing and “calls on authorities to urgently investigate this act.” Ramirez Ramos is listed as “founding director” of the Web site, which reported on local political disputes, which is often a risky subject for reporters, especially in Sinaloa.
UNITED STATES
Man exits taxiing plane
A man opened an emergency exit of a United Airlines jet, walked onto a wing as the plane taxied at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and jumped onto the tarmac early on Thursday, police said. Chicago Police said the passenger on Flight 2478 was arrested and taken into custody. The 57-year-old Escondido, California, man was charged with reckless conduct. Police said the incident happened at about 4:31am when the jet was approaching the gate at Terminal 1. Police said when the man jumped onto the tarmac, he attempted to guide the aircraft to the gate. United said that members of its crew stopped the passenger.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
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