SLOVAKIA
Fico moved to home care
Prime Minister Robert Fico was moved to home care from a hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica, where he had been recovering from an assassination attempt, the hospital said yesterday. An attacker shot Fico with four bullets at close range as the prime minister was greeting people at a government meeting in Handlova on May 15. The attack left Fico, 59, in a serious condition and needing a five-hour operation and another one two days later. The attacker, identified as 71-year-old Juraj C, was detained on the spot and charged with attempted premeditated murder.
IRAN
Larijani submits candidacy
Former parliament speaker Ali Larijani yesterday submitted his candidacy for a presidential election set for this month following former president Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash, state media reported. The election was originally slated for next year, but was brought forward following Raisi’s death on May 19. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday began accepting candidates for the early vote scheduled for June 28 and presidential hopefuls have until Monday to apply. Larijani, 66, submitted his application yesterday morning, footage broadcast by state television showed. He told journalists that one of his “priorities” if elected would be to “resolve the issue of [US] sanctions” and improve the country’s economy.
BURKINA FASO
Released lawyer kidnapped
Guy Herve Kam, a lawyer and civil society leader, was kidnapped just hours after being freed from prison, his movement said on Thursday. “National security agents had left Guy Herve Kam on open land not far from his home and immediately another group of armed men took him to an unknown destination” on Wednesday night, said Mouvement Sens, for which Kam is national coordinator. “We do not know the reasons why our coordinator was not returned directly to his family at his own house, and even less why he was retaken by force by a second group waiting in ambush,” Mouvement Sens said in a statement. It blamed Kam’s abduction on the country’s highest authorities. “The authorities’ fury” against Kam “fully shows that we live in a state where arbitrariness and the power of guns are what we have now for law and legitimacy,” it said. The nation’s Bar Association said in a statement that after his apparent abduction, Kam on Thursday appeared before a military judge who ordered him held. “Guy Herve Kam was driven to the army detention and correctional center, where he has been incarcerated since Thursday,” the association said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Necklace saved life: police
Police in Colorado say a man’s sturdy necklace probably saved his life by blocking a bullet fired at his neck. The bullet lodged in the 1cm-wide, silver-colored, metal chain in the shooting on Tuesday in Commerce City, a suburb north of Denver. The shooting happened during an argument. The victim, whose identity was not released, sustained only a minor puncture wound, the Commerce City Police Department wrote in a statement posted on Facebook. Police were unsure what the necklace was made of, but doubted it was silver, a soft metal unlikely to withstand a bullet, the statement said. The shooter was arrested on attempted homicide charges, police said. He was scheduled to make a court appearance on Monday, court records showed.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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