News in Brief

Date: 10 May 2021 - 21:30

News ID: ۹۰۰۹۰

BUCHAREST (Reuters) -- U.S. President Joe Biden was to join a virtual summit of eastern European NATO states held in the Romanian capital Bucharest on Monday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said, with a focus on security in the Black Sea region and Ukraine. The summit of the Bucharest Nine, a group of European countries on the eastern edge of NATO, was jointly hosted by Iohannis and Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and aimed at coordinating the security positions of countries in the region. "Glad to welcome Joe Biden to the Bucharest9 Summit which I host in Bucharest today,” Iohannis said on his Twitter account. "Together with President Andrzej Duda we’ll also welcome ... Jens Stoltenberg in preparation of NATO Summit, focusing on Transatlantic ties, NATO 2030, defence and deterrence on the eastern flank.” Biden, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia video-conferenced into the gathering. Earlier this month, Washington said it could increase security help for Kyiv after Russia moved troops near its border with Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, where Ukrainian troops are in conflict with pro-Russia separatists.

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WELLINGTON (Reuters) -- Four people were stabbed on Monday in a supermarket in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island, police said after detaining the man believed to have been responsible. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the incident did not appear to be a terror-related attack, for which authorities have been on alert since 2019, when a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch."There is nothing to suggest, from the police’s perspective, that this is what they would define as a domestic terror event,” Ardern told reporters. Police said they had yet to formally interview or charge the alleged offender and would investigate the motive for the assault at the Countdown supermarket. Police arrived to find store shoppers had detained the attacker, Paul Basham, commander of the Southern District, told reporters in Dunedin in a televised media conference. The victims are in hospital along with the alleged assailant, who is under police guard. Supermarket chain Countdown said it has been concerned about escalating violence towards its staff.

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CATAWBA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina cardboard factory has found itself in the middle of a stinky situation as environmental regulators order it to lower emissions after receiving thousands of complaints relating to a "noxious,” rotten egg-like smell coming from the plant. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control ordered the New-Indy Containerboard factory in Catawba to check its regulations and equipment and decrease emissions of what the agency called a "noxious air contaminant” by mid-May, The State reported. Residents have complained that the smell was wafting through nearby counties and some neighboring areas in North Carolina, even causing health issues such as nausea and headaches for some. The factory is located about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the North Carolina state line. The department said it logged approximately 17,135 complaints about the plant, a majority relating to the odor, since it started counting in February. The Environmental Protection Agency contended its research shows the factory was emitting high levels of smelly hydrogen sulfide, and that wastewater, storage and a landfill on the grounds could contain other odor-producing sulfurs.

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BEIJING (Reuters) -- China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that an event planned by Germany, the United States and Britain on the Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang was an insult. China has said the organizers of the virtual UN event, which is due to be held Wednesday, use "human rights issues as a political tool to interfere in China’s internal affairs”, and has urged other member states not to attend. Hua made the remarks at a daily news conference in Beijing.

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NAYPYITAW (Reuters) -- More than 11,000 academics and other university staff opposed to Myanmar’s ruling junta have been suspended after going on strike in protest against military rule, a teachers’ group told Reuters. The suspensions come as the resumption of universities after a year closed due to the coronavirus epidemic prompts a new confrontation between the army and the staff and students who are calling for boycotts over the Feb. 1 coup. A professor on a fellowship in the United States said she was told she would have to declare opposition to the strikes or lose her job. Her university authorities had told her every scholar would be tracked down and forced to choose, she told Reuters. As of Monday, more than 11,100 academic and other staff had been suspended from colleges and universities offering degrees, an official of the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation told Reuters, declining to be identified for fear of reprisals. Myanmar had more than 26,000 teachers in universities and other tertiary education institutions in 2018, according to the most recent World Bank data.