News In Brief

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8 Israeli warplanes damaged in
flooding at air base
AP, Jerusalem
Israel’s military said on Monday that heavy rainfall last week caused extensive flooding at an air force base, resulting in damage to eight warplanes.
The military said in a statement that “several planes were damaged, they were fixed and will return to flying in the coming days.”

Sri Lankan PM to visit India next month
PTI, Colombo
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will visit India early next month and hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a media report said on Monday.
This will be his first trip to India after assuming office in November last year and the third high-level visit to New Delhi by a member of the new Sri Lankan government headed by the prime minister’s brother and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

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Philippines on alert as volcano spews ash, lava
AFP, Philippines
Lava and broad columns of ash illuminated by lightning shot from an erupting volcano south of the Philippine capital on Monday, grounding hundreds of flights amid an alert for a possible “explosive eruption”.
Homes and streets across the region surrounding the Taal volcano, which exploded to life on Sunday accompanied by a series of earthquakes, were coated in fine grit and at least 10,000 people had sought refuge in evacuation centres.

China pneumonia
outbreak not spreading at present: WHO
Reuters, London
An outbreak of pneumonia that has killed one person in China and infected 40 others appears to be linked to a single seafood market in the central city of Wuhan and has not spread beyond there so far, the World Health Organization said on Sunday.
The cluster of infections had raised fears of a potential epidemic after China said last week that the virus causing it was a previously unknown type but came from the same family of viruses that caused the SARS and MERS epidemics.

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