Sat, May 16, 2026 page5

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  FINLAND

  Drone scare disrupts flights

  The government early yesterday warned the public of drones possibly entering its airspace for the first time near Helsinki. Flights were disrupted at the country’s biggest airport, Helsinki-Vantaa, and about 1.8 million residents in the south were told to remain indoors after overnight Ukrainian strikes on Russia near Finland prompted concern that uncrewed aircraft had strayed into the country. The emergency warning was issued at 3:49am and authorities said a drone was expected to be heading toward an area between Helsinki and Porvoo, home to assets including Neste Oyj’s oil refinery on the south coast. The alert was lifted at 7:06am. The Finnish Defense Forces raised their readiness level and scrambled fighter jets, and air traffic at Helsinki-Vantaa airport and shipping traffic in the Gulf of Finland were rerouted. Some flights arriving from Asia were diverted to airports in the northern town of Rovaniemi and Stockholm. The Ministry of the Interior said one drone entered Finnish territory, but its location remains unknown and no damage or casualties have been reported.

  PAKISTAN

  Militant attack kills nine

  Militants attacked a security compound in the northwest with an explosives-laden truck and gunfire, killing at least nine paramilitary officers, officials said yesterday. The violence on Thursday in Bajaur follows a deadly car bomb and mortar attack in the past week that left 21 people dead in the same restive region bordering Afghanistan. “In the attack, nine paramilitary officers and 10 militants were killed,” a senior security official in Peshawar said, adding that the attackers drove the explosives-loaded vehicle into the compound’s gate. The attackers fled after a prolonged exchange of fire with security personnel, at least 35 of whom were wounded in the assault, the official added. The militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, very active in the region, claimed responsibility for the attack.

  PHILIPPINES

  Power cuts hit millions

  Widespread power cuts yesterday struck the nation, leaving millions without electricity in the tropical nation’s hottest month of the year. The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said rolling one-hour power outages hit parts of Metro Manila and the rest of the main island of Luzon from mid-afternoon. These were due to “major grid disruptions” that affected transmission lines, as well as a maintenance shutdown of several major power plants, the NGCP and the Department of Energy said. The disruptions are scheduled to spread to the central islands, leading to seven-hour power cuts, NGCP said.

  DR CONGO

  New Ebola outbreak: CDC

  The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the continent’s top public health body, yesterday confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in the remote Ituri province, with 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths recorded. The deaths and suspected cases have been recorded mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, the CDC said in a statement. Four deaths have been reported among laboratory-confirmed cases. Suspected cases have also been reported in Bunia, pending confirmation,” the agency said. The latest outbreak comes around five months after the nation’s last Ebola outbreak was declared over after 43 deaths. The new outbreak is the country’s 17th since the disease first emerged in the Congo in 1976.
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