NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Plane crash: A Turkish private jet flying from the United Arab Emirates to Istanbul carrying a group of young women crashed Sunday night in a mountainous region of Iran during heavy rain, killing all 11 people on board, authorities said. The doomed aircraft days earlier carried a bachelorette party bound for Dubai. Iranian state television quoted the spokesman of the country’s emergency management organization as saying the plane hit a mountain and burst into flames in Shahr-e Kord, about 230 miles south of the capital, Tehran. Turkey’s Transport Ministry said the plane belongs to a company named Basaran Holding.
2 Deadly lightning: At least 16 people were killed and 140 others injured when lightning struck a Seventh Day Adventist church in southern Rwanda, a provincial governor said Sunday. At least two of the injured were hospitalized in serious condition. A similar incident occurred on Friday when lightning struck a group of 18 students, killing one. Lightning strikes are frequent across Rwanda, which has many hills and mountains, and the country’s police record a number of human and livestock deaths each year. Lightning killed 30 people, injured 61 and killed 48 livestock in 2016, the most recent year with full figures.
3 Poland shopping ban: A new law banning almost all trade on Sundays took effect, with large markets and most retailers closed for the first time since liberal shopping laws were introduced in the 1990s after communism’s collapse. Many Poles feel workers are exploited under the liberal regulations of the past years and want them to have a day of rest. But others say consumer freedom is one of the most tangible benefits of the free market era and resent the new limit. The influential Catholic Church, to which more than 90 percent of Poles belong, has welcomed the change. The new law at first bans trade two Sundays per month, but steps it up to three Sundays in 2019 and finally all Sundays in 2020, except for seven exceptions before the Easter and Christmas holidays.
4 Chile inauguration: Conservative Sebastian Pinera returned to Chile’s presidency on Sunday, vowing to revive an economy that has slumped under outgoing center-left leader Michelle Bachelet. Pinera, a billionaire entrepreneur, oversaw growth that averaged 5.3 percent a year during his first term from 2010 to 2014, aided by pro-business policies, rising prices for Chile’s chief export, copper, and a massive rebuilding effort following a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that hit just before he took office. Pinera, whose first term ended 20 years of left-leaning governments, has said he hopes to work with center-left rivals to achieve his goals, but he also faces a challenge of herding his own sometimes fractious coalition. 5 Canada politics: The new leader of Ontario’s conservative party is the brother of late Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who became famous for smoking crack cocaine. The Progressive Conservatives elected Doug Ford as the party’s new leader late Saturday ahead of the June election in Canada’s most populous province. Doug Ford is a former city councilor and was his brother’s most aggressive defender. Rob’s Ford’s tenure as mayor of the country’s largest city was marred by revelations about his illegal drug use. He was repeatedly videotaped while intoxicated in public. Rob Ford died of cancer in 2016. “We’re going to spend the coming weeks getting the party in fighting shape, because the people of this province are ready for change,” Doug Ford said.