IRAN
Ten killed in stabbing spree
Police arrested an Afghan man suspected of stabbing 10 other farm workers to death following a quarrel over land, state media reported yesterday. The rampage in a remote village in the southeast was a rare such incident in the Islamic Republic. The official IRNA news agency said four Iranians and six Afghans were killed, and one farm worker was wounded in the rampage on Sunday and was in hospital. The suspect was mentally unbalanced, the report said. A decades-long drought has caused increased disputes over water resources and land with better access to water. Hunting rifles are the only weapon that Iranians are allowed to possess legally.
UKRAINE
More grain ships depart
Two more ships, carrying corn and soybeans, departed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports yesterday, Turkey and Ukraine said, taking the total to 10 since the first ship sailed last week under a deal with Russia to unblock Ukrainian grain exports. The UN and Turkey brokered the agreement last month after warnings the halt in grain shipments caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world. The Sacura, which departed from Pivdennyi, is carrying 11,000 tonnes of soybeans to Italy, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, while the Arizona, which left Chornomorsk, is carrying 48,458 tonnes of corn to Iskenderun in southern Turkey.
ITALY
Alliance collapses in days
A centrist party quit its alliance with the Democrats, days after agreeing to join forces in a bid to prevent a right-wing landslide in next month’s elections triggered by the fall of Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government. The Azione party pulled out because “the pieces just didn’t fit together,” its leader, Carlo Calenda, said during an interview with national broadcaster Rai on Sunday. “I’m not comfortable with this, there is no courage, beauty, seriousness and love in doing politics, so I communicated to the leaders of the Democratic Party that I do not intend to continue with this alliance,” Calenda said.
UNITED STATES
Man drowns in flash flood
A man drowned on Sunday in northern New Mexico when a flash flood swept through a burn area left by the state’s largest recorded wildfire, a local rancher said, marking the fourth such death reported in just more than two weeks. A torrent of water carried the man’s pickup truck off highway 434 at about 2pm about 14km northeast of the town of Mora, Kenny Zamora said, adding that the man’s vehicle was found on his ranch. “The water was so strong it pushed him into the arroyo,” Zamora said, using the term for a usually dry riverbed that runs during heavy rain.
CHILE
Sinkhole doubles in size
A sinkhole has doubled in size, prompting officials to order work to stop at a nearby copper mine. The sinkhole, which emerged on July 30, now stretches 50m across and goes down 200m. The National Service of Geology and Mining late on Saturday said that it is still investigating the gaping hole near the Alcaparrosa mine operated by Canadian company Lundin Mining, about 665km north of Santiago. In addition to ordering all work to stop, the geology and mining service said it was starting a “sanctioning process.” The agency did not provide details on what that action would involve.
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