NEW YORK (Xinhua) – Gun theft is rising in major cities across the United States, which police and criminologists say is leading to more and more homicide, said an article published by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). “The number of stolen guns reported to police rose by 29 percent in 10 major U.S. cities over the past two years,” said the article. Earlier this month, a stolen handgun that had been fired 28 times was found at the scene of a gang shooting in Sacramento, California, where six people died and 12 were injured, the WSJ quoted local police as saying. Police officials tie the climb in theft to the rise in first-time gun owners, said the article, explaining that guns are frequently being stolen from cars after their owners left them there, something more-experienced owners know not to do. A record number of Americans bought guns over the past couple of years, driven by concerns related to the pandemic, protests and rising crime, it added.

 

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LONDON (Reuters) – A British lawmaker suspended by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party following accusations that he watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons debating chamber has claimed he opened the explicit content in error. Neil Parish was suspended as a Conservative lawmaker on Friday after reporting himself to parliament’s standards commissioner. He has said he will continue as a member of parliament while an investigation is carried out. Asked by reporters whether he had opened something on his phone in error, Parish said: “I did, but let the inquiry look at that.” British media have reported that a female minister said she had seen a male colleague viewing pornographic material while sitting beside her in the Commons chamber and the same lawmaker watching pornography during a committee hearing. In an interview with The Times newspaper published on Saturday, Parish’s wife said she was not aware of her husband having done anything similar before.  “It was all very embarrassing,” the newspaper quoted Sue Parish as saying. “My breath was taken away, frankly.” “People shouldn’t be looking at pornography. He would never just sit there with people looking ... These ladies were quite right to be as cross as they were because I was cross, too,” she said.

 

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QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso has declared a 60-day state of emergency, including curfews in some areas and the deployment of thousands of security forces, in three of the country’s 24 provinces, citing a rise in crime. It marks the second time Lasso has used emergency powers to counter violence that has shot up since late last year in the Andean country. His government blames drug trafficking gangs who use the country as a transit point for exporting narcotics to the United States and Europe. A state of emergency Lasso put in place in October faced criticism from the Constitutional Court, which halved the emergency period to 30 days and said the military should only support police operations. Violent deaths and crimes allegedly connected to drug trafficking are up this year in the provinces of Guayas, Manabi and Esmeraldas, where police operations have captured alleged gang members. “Through an executive decree I have declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Guayas, Manabi and Esmeraldas effective from midnight tonight,” Lasso said in video posted to his social media. “We protect life in every decision we take, in every corner of our country until all those who are violent have surrendered.”

 

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TRIPOLI (AFP) – Libya is losing tens of millions of dollars a day from the shutdown of its oil facilities, while global prices are at their highest in years, the country’s oil minister told AFP. Protesters have in recent weeks blocked oil facilities as part of a dispute between rival political factions. The North African country of seven million people has been ravaged by instability and conflict since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi. “Production has fallen by about 600,000 barrels a day,” which is about half, Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Oun said in an interview at his office in Tripoli. “Calculating the sale price at $100 a barrel, losses are at least $60m daily,” he said. The move means Libya has been unable to fully capitalize on a rise in crude prices since the conflict in Ukraine exacerbated supply concerns in what was already a tight market. The Libyan shutdowns follow the selection in February of a new prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, by Libya’s eastern-based parliament, in a direct challenge to Tripoli-based interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibah.

 

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Restaurants across Beijing will temporarily ban dining-in and residents will need clear Covid tests to visit public spaces, officials said Saturday, in a major ramp up of virus controls at the start of the Labor Day holiday. The five-day break is typically one of China’s busiest travel periods, but the country’s worst Covid resurgence since early in the pandemic is expected to keep people home. Faced with the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Chinese officials have doubled down on their zero-Covid policy, quashing virus clusters through mass testing and lockdowns. Despite mounting economic costs and public frustration, the capital city announced it would further restrict access to public spaces during and after the holiday period. From May 1 to 4, the city’s eateries will halt dining-in, and only allow deliveries, local commerce official Ding Jianhua told a press briefing Saturday. Authorities also said they have so far prepared 4,000 makeshift hospital beds -- typically used for patients with light or no Covid symptoms -- and are speeding up set-up of larger quarantine sites. A negative Covid test taken within the past week will also be needed starting May 5 to enter “all kinds of public areas and to take public transport”, according to a notice on the city’s official WeChat page.

 

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NEW DELHI (Arab News) – The extreme heat that has battered India for weeks has affected 70 percent of the country, the weather department says, with scorching temperatures affecting the livelihoods of millions in the region. Heat waves are common in India, especially in May and June, but the increase in temperatures started earlier this year. Last month was the hottest March that the country has experienced in decades, with heat waves sweeping the Indian subcontinent for weeks. The World Meteorological Organization warned earlier this week that extreme heat driven by climate change in India and Pakistan was affecting the health of millions of people, animals and crops. “Seventy percent of India and 30 percent of Pakistan are affected by the severe heat wave,” Dr. R. K. Jenamani, senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department, told Arab News. “Compared to past temperatures in March, this year was the highest in the last 72 years. April has also been very extreme compared to the past and many stations recorded temperatures of 45 to 46 degrees Celsius — much higher than normal.” The heat wave has affected power supplies in parts of the country. Authorities in the national capital region of Delhi, where the mercury level rose above 40 C, warned that a power crisis is imminent.