BELARUS
Lukashenko rumored unwell
President Alexander Lukashenko, who has not been seen in public since Tuesday last week, did not appear on Sunday at a ceremony in Minsk, triggering speculation that he is seriously ill. The BelTA state news agency reported that Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko read a message from Lukashenko during an annual ceremony at which young people swear allegiance to the former Soviet state’s flag. The agency gave no reason for Lukashenko’s absence five days after he appeared unwell and skipped parts of commemorations in Moscow marking the Soviet Union’s World War II victory over Germany. Lukashenko also did not speak at an event in Minsk marking the anniversary for the first time in his long presidency. Lukashenko’s office has declined to comment. Opposition news outlet Euroradio said that he was taken to an elite Minsk clinic on Saturday.
UNITED STATES
Cyberattack hits newspaper
The Philadelphia Inquirer experienced the most significant disruption to its operations in 27 years due to what the newspaper has called a cyberattack. The company was working to restore print operations after a cyberincursion that prevented the printing of the newspaper’s Sunday print edition, the Inquirer reported on its Web site. The Inquirer “discovered anomalous activity on select computer systems and immediately took those systems off-line,” Inquirer publisher Lisa Hughes said. The cyberattack has caused the largest disruption to publication of Pennsylvania’s largest news organization since a massive blizzard in January 1996, the Inquirer reported. The cyberattack precedes a mayoral primary election scheduled for today. Hughes said the operational disruption would not affect news coverage of the election, but journalists would be unable to use the newsroom on election night.
CHAD
Pardon for coup suspects
Eleven men accused of planning a “coup d’etat” have been sentenced to 20 years in prison, the attorney general in N’Djamena said on Sunday, but the presidency said they would be pardoned. In early January, the government announced that 10 army officers and prominent rights campaigner Baradine Berdei Targuio had been arrested, accused of “attempting to destabilise ... the constitutional order” and the country’s institutions. On April 21, President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno vowed to free the men. “The president will keep his promise,” presidency spokesman Brah Mahamat said, adding that the sentence must be announced before a pardon can be given.
UNITED STATES
Kelly Clarkson on allegations
Kelly Clarkson has responded to a Rolling Stone report accusing her daytime talk show of being a toxic workplace. Eleven current and former employees complained about being overworked and underpaid on The Kelly Clarkson Show and called their work “traumatizing to their mental health” in the report on Friday. The anonymous employees said Clarkson was “fantastic,” but the show producers were “monsters” who made their lives “hell.” “To find out that anyone is feeling unheard and or disrespected on this show is unacceptable,” Clarkson said. “As we prepare for a move to the East Coast, I am more committed than ever to ensuring that not only our team is moving, but also our new team in NY is comprised of the best and kindest in the business,” she said. “Part of that build will include leadership training for all of the senior staff, including myself.”
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
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