GERMANY
Advanced drones planned
The army is preparing to develop long-range combat drones capable of striking targets deep in enemy territory, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported yesterday. Three consortiums are working on concrete concepts after the air force sent a request for deep-strike drones to leading defense companies and start-ups, the report said. Airbus Defence and Space is contributing to the project alongside US start-up Kratos, while Germany’s Rheinmetall has teamed up with drone specialist Anduril, it said.
Munich-based start-up Helsing is also involved. The Ministry of Defense confirmed preparations for such a project to Handelsblatt, saying that initial talks had taken place, but that no formal tender had been issued.
BULGARIA
Wildfires rage in 100 sites
Firefighters on Sunday battled wildfires at nearly 100 locations across the nation, with houses burned and residents evacuated, local media reported. A fire at the foot of the Pirin Mountains in the southwest was spreading across thousands of hectares of forest, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported. Another fire in the town of Simitli destroyed several houses, as it spread toward the Maleshevo Mountain. More than 200 firefighters sent to the area on Saturday were pulled out because high winds were putting their lives in danger, authorities said, adding they expected air support from other EU nations. In western Bulgaria, a fire which broke out on Saturday and quickly spread across the border into Serbia on Sunday along the Miloslavska mountain range, almost burned the village Rani Lug to the ground, Nova television reported. Authorities said three villages had been evacuated and the fire had caused significant damage.
GERMANY
Sewer overflow derails train
A train derailment in a wooded area in the southwest that killed three people on Sunday might have been caused by an overflowing sewer, local police and prosecutors said yesterday. “It is believed that heavy rain in the area of the accident caused a sewage shaft to overflow,” Ulm police and Ravensburg prosecutors said in a joint statement. “The water triggered a landslide on the embankment next to the tracks, which in turn caused the derailment,” they added. About 100 passengers were aboard the train when the accident occurred at about 6:10pm near the town of Riedlingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg state. Severe storms swept through the region at the time of the accident, according to weather services. Three people died in the accident, police and prosecutors said, including the train’s driver and a member of staff onboard. At least 41 people were injured, some of them severely, they added.
CHINA
Shaolin abbot removed
The head of the Chinese temple known as the birthplace of kung fu is to be disrobed for “extremely” bad behavior after allegations of embezzlement saw him placed under investigation. The Shaolin Temple on Sunday said that Abbot Shi Yongxin (釋永信), known as the “CEO monk” for establishing dozens of companies abroad, was suspected of “embezzling project funds and temple assets.” Shi had “seriously violated Buddhist precepts,” including by allegedly engaging in “improper relationships” with multiple women, it said on WeChat. “Multiple departments” were conducting a joint investigation, it added. In response, the Buddhist Association of China, overseen by the Chinese Communist Party, yesterday said it would cancel Shi’s certificate of ordination.
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
POINTING FINGERS: The two countries have accused each other of firing first, with Bangkok accusing Phnom Penh of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital Thai acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai yesterday warned that cross-border clashes with Cambodia that have uprooted more than 130,000 people “could develop into war,” as the countries traded deadly strikes for a second day. A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis yesterday. A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border, where the province of Oddar Meanchey reported that one civilian — a 70-year-old man — had been killed and
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
RSS