News in Brief
BERLIN (Reuters) - Two Eurofighter warplanes belonging to the German armed forces crashed in northeastern Germany on Monday, several media outlets reported, with some saying that the pilots of the jets escaped the crash by ejecting.
A spokeswoman for the interior ministry of the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern said: "I can confirm that there was an accident involving two aircraft in northern Germany.”
Two media outlets reported that the pilots of the Eurofighters - made by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo - were yet to be located.
Meanwhile, the German government will ban exports of German-produced small arms to countries outside NATO and the European Union, the Funke group of newspapers cited government sources as saying.
It said the new guidelines for arms exports were due to be approved by the German cabinet on Monday.
***
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -- The man accused of trying to seize control of Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region was shot dead on Monday, a senior government official said, and a number of other plotters have been arrested.
The government accused General Asamnew Tsige of masterminding gun attacks on Saturday night that killed five people including the national army’s chief of staff and Amhara’s state president.
Asamnew was shot on Monday near Amhara’s capital Bahir Dar, the prime minister’s press secretary, Negussu Tilahun, told Reuters. He declined to give any other details.
The reasons behind the attempted coup in the state remain unclear, although it may have been a reaction from Asamnew to a plan by state officials to rein him in after they were alarmed by reports of his ethnic rhetoric and recruitment of militias.
Saturday’s violence unfolded in two separate attacks.
Army chief of staff Seare Mekonnen and a retired general were shot by Seare’s bodyguard at his residence in the national capital Addis Ababa.
Amhara state president Ambachew Mekonnen and an adviser were killed in the region’s main city Bahir Dar. Amhara’s attorney general was also shot, and died of his wounds on Monday, state media reported.
***
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Democratic presidential hopefuls prepare for their first 2020 primary debate this week, 74 medical and public health groups aligned on Monday to push for a series of consensus commitments to combat climate change, bluntly defined by the organizations as "a health emergency.”
The new climate change agenda released by the groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association, comes amid early jostling among Democratic candidates over whose environmental platform is more progressive. The health organizations’ policy recommendations, while a stark departure from President Donald Trump’s approach, represent a back-to-basics approach for an internal Democratic climate debate that has so far revolved around the liberal precepts of the Green New Deal .
"The health, safety and well-being of millions of people in the U.S. have already been harmed by human-caused climate change, and health risks in the future are dire without urgent action to fight climate change,” the medical and public health groups wrote in their climate agenda, shared with The Associated Press in advance of its release.
***
ALMATY (Reuters) -- The Kazakh government ordered the evacuation of a town of 44,000 on Monday after a series of blasts at a nearby munitions depot killed one person and injured dozens, the Central Asian nation’s authorities said.
The blasts occurred at a military base near Arys in the former Soviet republic’s southern Turkestan province, which houses a large Soviet-era storage facility for explosive munitions.
The cause of the fire which led to the explosions was unclear. Similar incidents in the area, in 2009, 2014 and 2015, were blamed on negligence and failure to observe safety regulations.
Videos posted by local residents showed frightened people staring at a giant cloud of smoke and dust rising from the site, accompanied by thunder-like noise of more munitions exploding.
Another video showed agitated soldiers screaming profanities as they run out of the military base in full gear, stepping on shattered glass.
They can be seen stopping two cars on a nearby highway and ordering the drivers to take away several civilian women they had escorted out of the facility. The soldiers drop to the ground as more explosions are heard.
Provincial governor Umirzak Shukeyev told a briefing that one person has been killed and 31 injured. The authorities warned locals against trying to return to the town because unexploded shells could turn its streets into minefields.
***
LONDON (Reuters) -- Jeremy Hunt, one of the two candidates vying to replace British Prime Minister Theresa May, said on Monday that rival Boris Johnson was a coward for avoiding public head-to-head debates on what to do about Brexit.
"On the question of debates, he is being a coward,” Foreign Secretary Hunt said. "It is cowardice not to appear in head-to-head debates.”
Hunt, 52, said it was disrespectful for Johnson to have turned down the opportunity for a head-to-head debate on Sky television. Sky has cancelled the debate as Johnson declined to take part.
"People need to know what you’re going to do and you need to answer those questions,” Hunt said. "I promise Boris Johnson the fight of his life and he’s going to have that and he’s going to lose.”
Johnson, 55, is the favorite to win a vote of 160,000 Conservative Party members who will decide who will be the next prime minister. Betting markets give him a 79% implied probability of winning the top job, down from 92% last week.
A spokeswoman for the interior ministry of the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern said: "I can confirm that there was an accident involving two aircraft in northern Germany.”
Two media outlets reported that the pilots of the Eurofighters - made by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo - were yet to be located.
Meanwhile, the German government will ban exports of German-produced small arms to countries outside NATO and the European Union, the Funke group of newspapers cited government sources as saying.
It said the new guidelines for arms exports were due to be approved by the German cabinet on Monday.
***
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -- The man accused of trying to seize control of Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region was shot dead on Monday, a senior government official said, and a number of other plotters have been arrested.
The government accused General Asamnew Tsige of masterminding gun attacks on Saturday night that killed five people including the national army’s chief of staff and Amhara’s state president.
Asamnew was shot on Monday near Amhara’s capital Bahir Dar, the prime minister’s press secretary, Negussu Tilahun, told Reuters. He declined to give any other details.
The reasons behind the attempted coup in the state remain unclear, although it may have been a reaction from Asamnew to a plan by state officials to rein him in after they were alarmed by reports of his ethnic rhetoric and recruitment of militias.
Saturday’s violence unfolded in two separate attacks.
Army chief of staff Seare Mekonnen and a retired general were shot by Seare’s bodyguard at his residence in the national capital Addis Ababa.
Amhara state president Ambachew Mekonnen and an adviser were killed in the region’s main city Bahir Dar. Amhara’s attorney general was also shot, and died of his wounds on Monday, state media reported.
***
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Democratic presidential hopefuls prepare for their first 2020 primary debate this week, 74 medical and public health groups aligned on Monday to push for a series of consensus commitments to combat climate change, bluntly defined by the organizations as "a health emergency.”
The new climate change agenda released by the groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association, comes amid early jostling among Democratic candidates over whose environmental platform is more progressive. The health organizations’ policy recommendations, while a stark departure from President Donald Trump’s approach, represent a back-to-basics approach for an internal Democratic climate debate that has so far revolved around the liberal precepts of the Green New Deal .
"The health, safety and well-being of millions of people in the U.S. have already been harmed by human-caused climate change, and health risks in the future are dire without urgent action to fight climate change,” the medical and public health groups wrote in their climate agenda, shared with The Associated Press in advance of its release.
***
ALMATY (Reuters) -- The Kazakh government ordered the evacuation of a town of 44,000 on Monday after a series of blasts at a nearby munitions depot killed one person and injured dozens, the Central Asian nation’s authorities said.
The blasts occurred at a military base near Arys in the former Soviet republic’s southern Turkestan province, which houses a large Soviet-era storage facility for explosive munitions.
The cause of the fire which led to the explosions was unclear. Similar incidents in the area, in 2009, 2014 and 2015, were blamed on negligence and failure to observe safety regulations.
Videos posted by local residents showed frightened people staring at a giant cloud of smoke and dust rising from the site, accompanied by thunder-like noise of more munitions exploding.
Another video showed agitated soldiers screaming profanities as they run out of the military base in full gear, stepping on shattered glass.
They can be seen stopping two cars on a nearby highway and ordering the drivers to take away several civilian women they had escorted out of the facility. The soldiers drop to the ground as more explosions are heard.
Provincial governor Umirzak Shukeyev told a briefing that one person has been killed and 31 injured. The authorities warned locals against trying to return to the town because unexploded shells could turn its streets into minefields.
***
LONDON (Reuters) -- Jeremy Hunt, one of the two candidates vying to replace British Prime Minister Theresa May, said on Monday that rival Boris Johnson was a coward for avoiding public head-to-head debates on what to do about Brexit.
"On the question of debates, he is being a coward,” Foreign Secretary Hunt said. "It is cowardice not to appear in head-to-head debates.”
Hunt, 52, said it was disrespectful for Johnson to have turned down the opportunity for a head-to-head debate on Sky television. Sky has cancelled the debate as Johnson declined to take part.
"People need to know what you’re going to do and you need to answer those questions,” Hunt said. "I promise Boris Johnson the fight of his life and he’s going to have that and he’s going to lose.”
Johnson, 55, is the favorite to win a vote of 160,000 Conservative Party members who will decide who will be the next prime minister. Betting markets give him a 79% implied probability of winning the top job, down from 92% last week.