NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
Spain secession: Hundreds of thousands of Catalan separatists rallied in Barcelona on Sunday to demand the release of secessionist leaders being held in pretrial detention. Nine separatists are in prison awaiting trial for their roles in last year’s failed breakaway bid by the region. Police said 315,000 people participated in the protest. An opinion poll published by the Catalan government in February said support for independence had decreased to 40 percent from near 49 percent in October.
China hostage: An Air China flight bound for Beijing was diverted to central China on Sunday after a passenger held a flight attendant hostage using a pen as a weapon, authorities said. All passengers and crew on Flight 1350 made it safely off the plane after it landed in Zhengzhou city. The flight had taken off from Changsha in Hunan province. The Civil Aviation Authority of China said in a statement only that “the matter was successfully handled,” but did not provide any details. Police in Zhengzhou’s Henan province said the alleged hostage-taker had a history of mental illness. He was arrested.
Brazil politics: Even imprisonment hasn’t knocked former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva out of the lead in Brazil’s presidential race. A poll released Sunday by the Datafolha institute shows the center-leftist with a strong advantage. It’s the first survey of Brazilians after the ex-leader’s April 7 jailing on corruption charges, which he’s appealing. At least 30 percent of those polled say they back da Silva. That’s down from as much as 37 percent in January. He also leads in all proposed runoff combinations. His closest rival is conservative Jair Bolsonaro with at least 15 percent. Da Silva’s Workers’ Party has pledged to register him, but judges are likely to bar his candidacy.
Mideast conflict: The Israeli military said Sunday that it destroyed a Gaza attack tunnel built by Hamas militants that penetrated Israeli territory. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the tunnel was connected to a network dug in the northern Gaza Strip and entered Israel near the community of Nahal Oz. It’s the fifth such Hamas tunnel Israel has destroyed in as many months. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said this was the longest and deepest tunnel Israel has discovered so far. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008. During the most recent conflict in 2014, Israel destroyed 32 tunnels.
Montenegro vote: The ruling party declared leader Milo Djukanovic the winner of Sunday’s presidential election after preliminary projections showed he swept the vote and avoided a runoff. The Center for Monitoring and Research said after counting more than 90 percent of the votes that Djukanovic won nearly 54 percent while his main opponent, Mladen Bojanic, won 33 percent. If confirmed, the result will represent a major boost for Djukanovic, who defied Russia to take his country into NATO last year.
Myanmar refugees: Myanmar has accepted what appears to be the first five Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled military-led violence against the minority group, even though the U.N. says it is not yet safe for them to return home. Five members of a family returned to Rakhine state from a refugee camp across the border in Bangladesh. Some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled an army crackdown that United Nations and the U.S. have described as “ethnic cleansing.” The two countries agreed in December to begin repatriating them, but the process has been delayed by safety concerns.
Chronicle News Services