News in Brief
CARACAS (Dispatches) – A senior Russian diplomat has said the Kremlin is prepared to send more troops to Venezuela to support President Nicolas Maduro in his face-off with the U.S.-backed opposition trying to depose him.
Speaking in Caracas, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters that troops previously sent to the oil-rich nation have completed their assignment and that Moscow stands ready to launch repeat missions, the state-backed Tass news agency reported.
U.S. authorities said Sunday that a Venezuelan fighter jet "aggressively shadowed" an American intelligence plane flying in international airspace over the Caribbean, underscoring rising tensions between the two nations.
U.S. authorities said their EP-3 plane was performing a multi-nationally approved mission on Friday and the Venezuelan SU-30 fighter jet closely trailed the plane, which the U.S. says endangered its crew.
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MANILA (Reuters) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launched a spirited defense of his relationship with China on Monday, insisting that his refusal to challenge its maritime assertiveness was not capitulation, but an avoidance of conflict.
Known for his stinging rebukes of Western powers, the firebrand leader devoted part of his annual state of the nation address to arguing that it was senseless to confront a country with claims to the same waters, and a far superior military.
"I will send our marines to drive away the Chinese fishermen, I guarantee you, not one of them will come home alive,” he said in a 1-1/2-hour speech to Congress that frequently went off script.
"If I send my new frigate, they will be decimated because there are already guided missiles on that island,” he said, referring to a reef that China has turned into a de facto military installation.
"The fastest that they have installed can reach Manila in seven minutes. You want war?”
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DHAKA/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- The death toll from severe flooding in parts of India, Nepal and Bangladesh rose to more than 300 on Monday, even as heavy rains are starting to ebb and water levels started to recede in some of the worst-affected areas.
Heavy rains and overflowing rivers swamped vast swathes of eastern India more than week ago, and officials on Monday said so far 102 people have died in Bihar state, 35 more than what the state government had estimated on Thursday.
Torrential rains in Bangladesh killed more than 47 people in the last two weeks and at least 120 are missing and feared dead following severe floods and landslides in mostly mountainous Nepal, authorities from the two countries said.
Parts of Pakistan have also been flooded. In Bangladesh, at least 700,000 people have been displaced.
Deaths due to flooding in the region more than doubled in the last five days.
In India’s tea-growing state of Assam, close to the border of Bangladesh, severe flooding has displaced millions of people and killed more than 60, officials have said.
Separately, at least 32 people were killed on Sunday in lightning strikes in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state in the north.
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KIEV (Reuters) -- Servant of the People, the party of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, could win a majority in the new parliament, a senior party official said on Monday.
Under Ukraine’s mixed election system, half of the seats in the 450-member parliament are chosen on the basis of party lists and the rest in first-past-the-post constituency races.
Oleksandr Korniyenko said Servant of the People could win 121-122 seats in the party list voting and 125-127 seats in the constituencies following Sunday’s parliamentary election.
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NEW DELHI (AP) — India successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft to the far side of the moon on Monday, a week after aborting the mission due to a technical problem.
Scientists at the mission control center burst into applause as the rocket lifted off in clear weather as scheduled at 2:43 p.m. from Sriharikota in southern India. K. Sivan, head of India’s space agency, said the rocket successfully injected the spacecraft into orbit.
The spacecraft — named Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for "moon craft” — is scheduled to land on the lunar south pole in September and send a rover to explore water deposits that were confirmed by a previous mission that orbited the moon.
India’s first moon mission orbited the moon in 2008 and helped confirm the presence of water. The country plans to send its first manned spaceflight by 2022.
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PARIS (Reuters) -- The French Navy has found the wreckage of its ‘Minerve’ submarine, which disappeared off the coast of Toulon in the Mediterranean Sea in 1968, leading to the loss of 52 lives.
"We have just found the Minerve. It was a successful operation, a moment of relief and a demonstration of technical prowess. I would like to spare a thought for the families of those who have waited for this moment for so long,” said French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly on Monday.
The government decided in 2018 to renew efforts to find the Minerve, following requests from the bereaved families, and found it thanks to the use of new sonar and drone technology. The reason the submarine sank remains unknown.
Speaking in Caracas, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters that troops previously sent to the oil-rich nation have completed their assignment and that Moscow stands ready to launch repeat missions, the state-backed Tass news agency reported.
U.S. authorities said Sunday that a Venezuelan fighter jet "aggressively shadowed" an American intelligence plane flying in international airspace over the Caribbean, underscoring rising tensions between the two nations.
U.S. authorities said their EP-3 plane was performing a multi-nationally approved mission on Friday and the Venezuelan SU-30 fighter jet closely trailed the plane, which the U.S. says endangered its crew.
***
MANILA (Reuters) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launched a spirited defense of his relationship with China on Monday, insisting that his refusal to challenge its maritime assertiveness was not capitulation, but an avoidance of conflict.
Known for his stinging rebukes of Western powers, the firebrand leader devoted part of his annual state of the nation address to arguing that it was senseless to confront a country with claims to the same waters, and a far superior military.
"I will send our marines to drive away the Chinese fishermen, I guarantee you, not one of them will come home alive,” he said in a 1-1/2-hour speech to Congress that frequently went off script.
"If I send my new frigate, they will be decimated because there are already guided missiles on that island,” he said, referring to a reef that China has turned into a de facto military installation.
"The fastest that they have installed can reach Manila in seven minutes. You want war?”
***
DHAKA/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- The death toll from severe flooding in parts of India, Nepal and Bangladesh rose to more than 300 on Monday, even as heavy rains are starting to ebb and water levels started to recede in some of the worst-affected areas.
Heavy rains and overflowing rivers swamped vast swathes of eastern India more than week ago, and officials on Monday said so far 102 people have died in Bihar state, 35 more than what the state government had estimated on Thursday.
Torrential rains in Bangladesh killed more than 47 people in the last two weeks and at least 120 are missing and feared dead following severe floods and landslides in mostly mountainous Nepal, authorities from the two countries said.
Parts of Pakistan have also been flooded. In Bangladesh, at least 700,000 people have been displaced.
Deaths due to flooding in the region more than doubled in the last five days.
In India’s tea-growing state of Assam, close to the border of Bangladesh, severe flooding has displaced millions of people and killed more than 60, officials have said.
Separately, at least 32 people were killed on Sunday in lightning strikes in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state in the north.
***
KIEV (Reuters) -- Servant of the People, the party of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, could win a majority in the new parliament, a senior party official said on Monday.
Under Ukraine’s mixed election system, half of the seats in the 450-member parliament are chosen on the basis of party lists and the rest in first-past-the-post constituency races.
Oleksandr Korniyenko said Servant of the People could win 121-122 seats in the party list voting and 125-127 seats in the constituencies following Sunday’s parliamentary election.
***
NEW DELHI (AP) — India successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft to the far side of the moon on Monday, a week after aborting the mission due to a technical problem.
Scientists at the mission control center burst into applause as the rocket lifted off in clear weather as scheduled at 2:43 p.m. from Sriharikota in southern India. K. Sivan, head of India’s space agency, said the rocket successfully injected the spacecraft into orbit.
The spacecraft — named Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for "moon craft” — is scheduled to land on the lunar south pole in September and send a rover to explore water deposits that were confirmed by a previous mission that orbited the moon.
India’s first moon mission orbited the moon in 2008 and helped confirm the presence of water. The country plans to send its first manned spaceflight by 2022.
***
PARIS (Reuters) -- The French Navy has found the wreckage of its ‘Minerve’ submarine, which disappeared off the coast of Toulon in the Mediterranean Sea in 1968, leading to the loss of 52 lives.
"We have just found the Minerve. It was a successful operation, a moment of relief and a demonstration of technical prowess. I would like to spare a thought for the families of those who have waited for this moment for so long,” said French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly on Monday.
The government decided in 2018 to renew efforts to find the Minerve, following requests from the bereaved families, and found it thanks to the use of new sonar and drone technology. The reason the submarine sank remains unknown.