BALTIMORE (AP) — The mayor of Baltimore called for a summer curfew after two teenagers were shot while police were attempting to break up a large crowd of minors. A 14-year-old and a 16-year-old were shot and wounded as police attempted to break up fights among a crowd of more than 200 teenagers gathered at the city’s Inner Harbor area around 9 p.m. Sunday, WBAL-TV reported. Two suspects were arrested, police said, including one with a loaded gun who matched a description of the shooter and another who was found with a loaded gun in a police garage, WBAL reported. Following the shooting, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced his intention to implement a 9 p.m. curfew for anyone 14 years and younger and 10 p.m. for those younger than 17 during the forthcoming summer months, WJZ-TV reported. “I want everyone to hear me and hear me clearly,” Scott said. “We are going back to the old days. We will be enforcing a youth curfew as we move into the latter spring and summer months.”

 

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BEIJING (Reuters) -- China firmly opposes a visit by India’s home minister to Arunachal Pradesh and views his activities in the area as violating Beijing’s territorial sovereignty, a foreign ministry spokesperson told a news briefing on Monday. China has renamed some places in what India regards as its eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of its territory. “Zangnan is China’s territory,” spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in response to a question on the visit by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah. “The Indian official’s visit to Zangnan violates China’s territorial sovereignty, and is not conducive to the peace and tranquility of the border situation.” China and India have had several skirmishes over the disputed border and clashes in mountainous regions in recent years have seriously strained ties.

 

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia plans to overhaul its air defense forces after gaining new experience in the war in Ukraine and will also bolster its air defenses to counter Finland’s accession to the NATO military alliance, a commander in Russia’s aerospace forces said. In an interview published on Monday with the Red Star newspaper, Lieutenant General Andrei Demin, deputy commander-in-chief of aerospace forces, said air defense forces had faced a number of challenges in the face of Ukrainian strikes. Russia, he said, had added more than 50 mobile radar stations and A-50 early warning and control aircraft patrolled 24 hours a day while missile and anti-aircraft installations in regions next to Ukraine had been bolstered. In Ukrainian regions under Russian control, air defense units had been set up to defend key installations, Demin said, while Russia had ramped up production of the RLK-MC anti-drone system.

 

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OCCUPIED AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Israel signed a 1.44 billion shekel ($400 million) deal to sell Spike anti-tank missiles to Greece, the occupying regime’s war ministry said on Monday, just days after reaching a similar-sized deal to provide air defenses to newly-inducted NATO member Finland. The Spike is a guided anti-tank missile used by many EU and NATO countries produced by the Zionist regime’s military contractor Rafael. Last week the occupying regime and Rafael said they would provide the advanced air-defense system David’s Sling to Finland, after it officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on April 4. Finland will receive the defense system designed to intercept ballistic and cruise missiles in a 316 million euro ($345 million) deal. It still requires approval from the United States, which is involved in the system’s development.

 

 

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- The Dalai Lama, the Tibetans’ 87-year-old spiritual leader, apologized on Monday after footage showed him asking a young boy to “suck my tongue” at a public event. “His Holiness wishes to apologize to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused,” said a statement on the exiled leader’s Twitter account The video, which has 1 million views on Twitter, also shows the Nobel peace laureate apparently giving the boy a peck on the lips in presence of an audience who are heard clapping and laughing, while a man captures the moment on a phone. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, is regarded by Beijing as a dangerous separatist. He now lives in a compound next to a temple ringed by green hills and snow-capped mountains in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala. 

 

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OSLO (Guardian) -- A record number of super-rich Norwegians are abandoning Norway for low-tax countries after the center-left government increased wealth taxes to 1.1%. More than 30 Norwegian billionaires and multimillionaires left Norway in 2022, according to research by the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv. This was more than the total number of super-rich people who left the country during the previous 13 years, it added. Even more super-rich individuals are expected to leave this year because of the increase in wealth tax in November, costing the government tens of millions lost tax receipts. Many have moved to Switzerland, where taxes are much lower. They include billionaire fisher turned industrial tycoon Kjell Inge Røkke who moved to the Italian-speaking canton of Lugano, close to his favored hangout Lake Como and fashion capital Milan.