UK’S MAY VOWS STRONG POST- BREXIT TIES WITH FRANCE
LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday (Saturday in Manila) promised a close post-Brexit relationship with France on security and defense as she met with Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in London. Both stressed the need for “an early agreement on the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU” as Britain prepares to plot its course out of the union, according to a statement released by May’s Downing Street office. “The Prime Minister was clear that while the UK is leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe,” said the statement. The pair also discussed unrest in Syria and Ukraine, migration and terrorism. May was hosting Cazeneuve ahead of negotiations to set the terms of Brexit, which will begin when the British leader triggers Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, expected before the end of March. May said she was “delighted” to meet with Cazeneuve, adding that they “worked so well together” when she was home secretary and he was France’s interior minister.
FRIENDS SAVE FISHERMAN FROM SHARK MAULING OFF AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY: A shark badly mauled a man spearfishing on Saturday in northern Queensland leaving him in serious condition. Cairns resident Glenn Dickson, 26, was spearfishing with three friends off Hinchinbrook Island, north of Townsville, when he was bitten by either a bull shark or a tiger shark. His friends were also in the water at the time of the attack but managed to haul him back onto the boat before calling emergency services. Paramedics said Dickinson suffered severe blood loss with multiple bites to his upper and lower leg. Dickson was brought to
RED CROSS URGES RELEASE OF TWO STAFF ABDUCTED IN AFGHANISTAN
KABUL: The Red Cross on Saturday called for the unconditional release of two staff members who were abducted when their convoy was ambushed in northern Afghanistan last week, leaving six other workers dead. The aid workers came under insurgent fire in Jowzjan province on February 8 while they were en route to a remote snowbound area to deliver much-needed relief supplies. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had earlier said the two employees were missing, in what was one of the worst attacks on the international charity in the country for years. ICRC did not specify who was behind the abduction. No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the ambush, but Jowzjan’s police chief has blamed local Islamic State jihadists.
SLOVENIAN NUCLEAR PLANT RESTARTS AFTER SHUTDOWN
LJUBLJANA: A 35-year- old nuclear plant in Slovenia was restarted Friday (Saturday in Manila) after it automatically shut down because of a water supply problem, its operator said. The facility in Krsko, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the capital Ljubljana, shut down on Thursday because of anomalies in a valve regulating the water supply system. There was no radiation danger during the incident, which came three months after a shutdown for regular maintenance work. The 700-megawatt Westinghouse reactor was built in the former Yugoslavia and went into service in 1983. It has been jointly run with neighboring Croatia since the breakup of Yugoslavia. The station was originally due to be switched off in 2023, but two years ago Ljubljana and Zagreb decided to extend its lifetime by another 20 years.