NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Cyclone toll: Authorities began clearing roads and assessing damage on Friday after Cyclone Amphan barreled through coastal communities in eastern India and neighboring Bangladesh, killing more than 100 people and leaving millions displaced. In India’s West Bengal state, which bore the brunt of the storm that caused extensive flooding in its capital Kolkata, police and disaster response teams removed fallen trees and other debris, repaired communication lines and began moving hundreds of thousands of people out of shelters. Amphan came ashore Wednesday as the most powerful storm in the region in more than a decade, dumping heavy rain amid a battering storm surge. More than 3 million people evacuated before Amphan struck.
2 Earthquake: A relatively strong, 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck Friday in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake hit at a shallow depth of 6 miles about 105 miles southeast of the resort city of San Jose del Cabo, on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. No tsunami warning was issued.
3 Rwanda genocide: One of the most wanted fugitives in Rwanda’s genocide died 20 years ago, the international tribunal overseeing justice efforts announced Friday, less than a week after another highprofile fugitive was arrested in France. Confirmation of the death of former Rwandan defense minister Augustin Bizimana came when a DNA test on remains in a grave in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, positively identified him, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals said. It is not yet known how he died. Authorities say Bizimana was a central figure in the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsi and Hutus who tried to protect them were killed. News about the death came days after the arrest of Felicien Kabuga, another key suspect who is accused of supplying machetes to killers and broadcasting propaganda urging mass slaughter.
4 Mideast tensions: Iran’s leader on Friday called Israel a “cancerous tumor” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed” in an annual speech in support of the Palestinians, renewing threats against Iran’s Mideast enemy. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech marked a subdued Quds Day for Iran, which typically sees governmentencouraged mass demonstrations. “AlQuds” is the Arabic name for Jerusalem. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Iran asked demonstrators to stay home. Khamenei spoke to the nation in a speech aired on state television. Iran under the U.S.allied Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had relations with Israel. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the first Quds Day be held on the last Friday of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan to criticize Israel. 5 New Zealand politics: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has proved so popular during the coronavirus pandemic that it has prompted a change of leadership in the conservative opposition party just four months from a general election. Todd Muller on Friday replaced Simon Bridges as leader of the National Party following two disastrous opinion polls for the party that indicated Ardern was headed for a huge victory in September. Following a week of internal rumblings, National’s caucus elected Muller as the party’s new leader and Nikki Kaye as the new deputy. Before the pandemic hit, polling indicated the National Party and Ardern’s Labor Party were running neckandneck. But Ardern’s leadership since then has been praised, while Bridges’ criticism of some of her actions appeared to sour voters.