24 killed in Papua New Guinea tribal massacres
AFP, Port Moresby
Twenty-four people have died -including two pregnant women with their unborn children – in tribal fighting in Papua New Guinea’s lawless highlands, prompting the prime minister on Wednesday to promise swift justice.
Local officials said at least 24 people had been killed in Hela province, a rugged region in the west of the country, in a three-day spasm of violence between rival tribes.
Kurdish militants kill 3 elite Iran Guard members
AP, Tehran
Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency is reporting that Kurdish militants have killed three members of the elite Revolutionary Guard in the country’s northwest.
The Tuesday report said armed members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party also wounded a Guard member after they opened fire on a Guard vehicle in an ambush in a village near the Iran-Iraq border town of Piranshahr, some 700 kilometers (450 miles) west of the capital Tehran.
Putin says wind power harmful to birds and worms
Reuters, Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned on Tuesday the use of wind power, saying wind turbines were harmful to birds and worms.
Russia, a world-leading producer of fossil fuel, is lagging other countries in its development of renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind-powered energy.
UN atomic agency holding meeting on Iran
AP, Tehran
Diplomats are gathering in Vienna for a special meeting of the board of the U.N. atomic watchdog requested by the United States to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.
U.S. and Iranian envoys to the International Atomic Energy Agency are expected to address the group on Wednesday.
Yemen’s rebels sentence 30 to death on
espionage charges
AP, Sanaa
A Yemeni lawyer says a rebel-controlled court has sentenced 30 people to death on charges they committed espionage for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels.
Abdel-Majeed Sabra says the criminal court in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday acquitted six others in the case, which dates back to 2016.
Indian aircraft technician crushed by landing gear
AFP, Kolkata
A trainee technician in India was crushed to death on Wednesday by the landing gear flaps on an aircraft while conducting maintenance work, airline SpiceJet said.
“Inadvertently, the main landing gear hydraulic door closed and he got stuck in between the hydraulic door flaps,” SpiceJet said after the incident at Kolkata airport in eastern India. “The hydraulic doors were broken to rescue (Rohit) Pandey but he was declared dead,” the airline said. “The entire SpiceJet family stands together in grief in this unfortunate incident.”
