sanctions hint
AP, Belgrade
Russia will deliver a sophisticated anti-aircraft missile system to Serbia even though the U.S. has warned of possible sanctions against the Balkan country in the event of such purchases.
Russia’s state TASS news agency said Wednesday that the Pantsir-S system will be delivered to Serbia “in the next few months in accordance with the signed contract.”
Rebels missile, drone attack kills 8 in Yemen
AP, Sanaa
Yemen’s rebels staged missile and drone attacks Wednesday on forces allied with the country’s internationally recognized government in a Red Sea town, killing at least eight people, including three civilians, and causing large fires, military officials said.
Wadah Dobish, a spokesman for government forces on Yemen’s western coast, told The Associated Press at least four missiles fired by the Iran-backed rebels struck warehouses used by the allied force known as the Giants Bridges in the port town of Mocha. He said their defenses intercepted at least three other missiles.
Two Australians die in New Zealand mountain fall
AFP, Wellington
Two Australian climbers have fallen 300 metres to their deaths in New Zealand after it appeared a rope connecting the pair was severed on sharp rocks, rescuers said Thursday.
Brett Lentfer, 62, and James Spaile, 44, were on a guided ascent of the Remarkables mountain range near the southern tourist resort of Queenstown when the accident happened on Wednesday.
Brazil cancels ban on sugarcane farming
in Amazon
AFP, Brasilia
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro canceled a ban on sugarcane farming in the country’s Amazon and Pantanal tropical wetlands Wednesday, a move that environmentalists say threatens the ecologically vulnerable regions.
The ban on the crop, which Brazil uses to make ethanol, had been put in place under a 2009 decree, which Bolsonaro and his economic and agriculture ministers overturned.
