CHINA A navy fighter jet on a nighttime training mission crashed into buildings in an eastern city, but the pilot ejected safely and there were no reports of casualties.
AUSTRALIA All 46 people aboard a tourist catamaran were rescued after the vessel caught fire and sank off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, police said. A police statement said 19 of those rescued were taken to hospitals in Bundaberg and Gladstone for treatment of non-life threatening injuries after the vessel, Spirit of 1770, sank. Most of those on board were Chinese tourists, Nine Network television reported.
MALAYSIA The government says that two more pieces of debris, discovered in South Africa and Rodrigues Island off Mauritius, were “almost certainly” from Flight 370, bringing the total number of pieces believed to have come from the missing Malaysian jet to five.
BRAZIL Speaking hours after the Senate voted to impeach her yesterday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff blasted the process as “fraudulent” and promised to fight what she characterized as an injustice more painful than the torture she endured under a past military dictatorship.
USA Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan pledged to work together despite their differences after a meeting yesterday aimed at repairing their breach and unifying a party torn over Trump’s rise to the cusp of the GOP presidential nomination.
IRAQ A twin suicide bombing hit a police station in Baghdad’s westernmost suburb yesterday, killing at least five policemen a day after a wave of attacks by the Islamic State group killed nearly a hundred people in the Iraqi capital. The IS-claimed bombings were the deadliest in Baghdad this year, coming at a time of turmoil and deadlock in Iraq’s government and parliament.
ITALY joined the rest of Europe yesterday (Macau time) in giving some legal rights togay couples after a years-long battle and opposition from the Catholic Church to anything that smacked of authorizing gay marriage. The lower Chamber of Deputies voted 372-51 with 99 abstentions to approve legislation already passed in February by the Senate.
EUROPE A U.S. missile defense system aimed at protecting Europe from ballistic missile threats is moving into higher gear this week, with a site in Romania becoming operational yesterday and officials breaking ground at another site in Poland a day later.
ZIKA There’s little doubt: Zika is coming to the continental United States, bringing frightening birth defects — and, most likely, newly urgent discussions about abortion and contraception. The highest risk of Zika spreading is in Southern states where long-lasting birth control and abortions are harder to procure.
NIGERIA Shell is temporarily closing the terminal exporting Nigeria’s benchmark Bonny Light crude and reportedly withdrawing workers from an offshore field.
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