UNITED STATES
Maduro’s plane seized
The government has seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s plane after concluding it was bought and operated in violation of Washington’s sanctions. The Dassault Falcon 900EX jet was seized earlier this year by police in the Dominican Republic when it landed in Santo Domingo. A Florida district court on May 22 requested an embargo on the aircraft, documents obtained by Bloomberg showed. The plane was purchased through a shell firm and smuggled out of the country, the Department of Justice said. It was found to be operating in violation of export control restrictions for the benefit of Maduro and those around him, the department said in a statement. The plane has been flown to Florida. Maduro’s government said in a statement it considered the “illegal” seizure by the US as part of a series of “incremental actions” against Venezuela.
DR CONGO
129 die in jail break try
At least 129 people were killed during a weekend prison break attempt at the nation’s largest jail, Minister of the Interior Jacquemain Shabani said in a video message yesterday. “The provisional human toll is 129 dead, including 24 who were shot after warnings,” Shabani said, adding that at least 59 others had been wounded at the Makala prison in Kinshasa. Several people had been crushed or suffocated and a number of women had been raped, the ministry said. Witnesses said gunfire had started at the prison at about 2am on Monday morning and lasted for several hours.
UAE
Jailed protesters pardoned
President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has pardoned 57 Bangladeshi citizens who were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for staging a rare protest in the Gulf country, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported yesterday. The decision cancels the sentences of those convicted and those pardoned are to be deported, the state media said. The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal last month sentenced 57 Bangladeshis in an expedited trial after they staged a protest against then-Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her government amid protests in Bangladesh. Three Bangladeshis had been sentenced to life in prison, while 53 were sentenced to 10 years in prison. One Bangladeshi, who state media said had entered the nation illegally and “participated in the riot,” was sentenced to 11 years. The Public Prosecution had accused the Bangladeshi nationals of “crimes of gathering in a public place and protesting against their home government with the intent to incite unrest.”
INDIA
Recruitments death probed
The government yesterday launched a probe after 12 applicants for coveted government jobs died during physical tests for posts as excise officers, with commentators saying it illustrated the scale of the unemployment crisis. The young men were among 500,000 applicants vying for just 583 jobs as constables in the excise department — more than 850 people for each post. The 12 died in the past two weeks during a series of 10km races in humid conditions in Jharkhand State. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren called the deaths “heartbreaking” and ordered health experts to examine the “untimely death of these youth, so that such accidents do not happen in future.” State police chief Anurag Gupta said investigations had begun. The recruitment drive has been paused.
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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