Here is some international news in brief.
Posted at 8:23 a.m.
Updated at 2:02 p.m.
Eleven people were killed and five injured Tuesday by a powerful explosion at a munitions factory in Türkiye. More than ten days after the cyclone hit Desire which ravaged the French archipelago of Mayotte, local elected officials denounce a lack of aid.
12 dead in explosion at munitions factory in Türkiye
Eleven people were killed and seven injured Tuesday by a powerful explosion at a munitions factory in northwest Turkey, according to a new report from the authorities.
“There are unfortunately eleven deaths […]eight women and three men. And we have seven injured,” declared Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on the spot.
A previous official report reported twelve dead and five injured.
According to Balikesir provincial governor Ismail Ustaoglu, the explosion occurred shortly before 8:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. Eastern Time) Tuesday due to a “technical malfunction” on a production line.
The employees injured in the explosion were hospitalized without their state of health being considered worrying, the governor said.
According to Turkish authorities, the factory where the explosion occurred, located north of the city of Balikesir, produces ammunition and explosives for civilian use.
Images broadcast by Turkish television channels show part of the factory completely destroyed, as well as metal panels and pieces of glass thrown dozens of meters around.
A fire that broke out following the explosion was extinguished by firefighters and the factory was completely evacuated, the provincial governor said.
An investigation has been opened and the possibility of sabotage has already been ruled out, according to the authorities.
Agence France-Presse
Elected officials denounce a lack of aid in Mayotte
“What are they doing?” »: more than ten days after the passage of the cyclone Desire which devastated the French archipelago of Mayotte, local elected officials are raising a cry of anger at the “gap” between the State's announcements and the glaring lack of aid on the ground.
A week after the passage of the most devastating cyclone that this Indian Ocean archipelago has experienced in 90 years, certain Mahorese municipalities have still not received any aid, elected officials from Mahor and Reunion noted on Monday during a meeting organized by the national association of social assistance centers.
“We see that the mobilization is there, but it is not concrete on the ground,” laments Sitirati Mroudjae, responsible for social action in the commune of Dembeni, on Grande-Terre, the main island of the archipelago. .
Water, foodstuffs, her municipality “hasn’t seen the color of it”, she notes, so “we manage as best we can”.
For lack of sufficient quantities, the municipality chooses “to whom we give, to whom we do not”, and has closed its emergency accommodation centers “because we do not have enough to give food to the families”, laments -she.
“I don't understand how, almost ten days after the cyclone, the help is still not there,” says the elected official, for whom it is “a question of life and death”.
According to the authorities on Monday, 390,000 liters of water and 65 tonnes of food have already been distributed to the population.
Agence France-Presse
Five men sentenced for violence linked to Ajax-Maccabi match in Amsterdam
An Amsterdam district court on Tuesday sentenced five men to up to six months in prison for violence that erupted around a Europa League soccer match between Dutch club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv from Israel in November.
The riots, which sparked international outcry and accusations of deliberate anti-Semitic attacks, left five people hospitalized and 20 others lightly injured. More than 60 people were arrested. The court on Tuesday sentenced one man to six months in prison, another to two and a half months and two to one month in prison. A fifth defendant received 100 hours of community service.
A series of violent incidents took place between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli fans around the soccer match. The five defendants, all Dutch residents and aged between 19 and 32, were charged with public violence, theft and assault.
Six other suspects will be tried at a later date, including three minors. According to Dutch rules, proceedings for minors take place behind closed doors.
Molly Quell et Raf Casert, Associated Press
Bridge collapse in Brazil: threat of sulfuric acid pollution
The collapse of a bridge in northern Brazil left four dead and 13 people remained missing on Tuesday, according to a new report from the authorities, who also fear serious environmental damage in the face of the risk of sulfuric acid pollution of the river adjoining.
At the time of the disaster, on Sunday, eight vehicles were crossing the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge, the main connecting route between the states of Maranhao (Northeast) and Tocantins (North).
Among these vehicles, three heavy goods vehicles “transported 22,000 liters of pesticides and 76 tonnes of sulfuric acid, a corrosive chemical”, according to the National Water Agency (ANA). Water analyzes are underway to assess the level of pollution in the Tocantins River. Authorities have still not established whether the acid spilled outside the trucks.
This possibility makes the search for the missing more complicated. They continue on board boats from the surface, the use of divers being prohibited as long as the risk linked to the acid has not been eliminated. “Four bodies have been recovered,” Tocantins firefighters said at midday on Tuesday.
Agence France-Presse
American sentenced to 15 years in prison in Russia for “espionage”
A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced an American citizen, Gene Spector, to 15 years in prison in an “espionage” case whose contours remain mysterious, Russian state agencies announced.
He will have to serve his sentence “in a penal colony with a strict regime”, according to the verdict reported by the Ria Novosti agency.
He also received a fine of 14 million rubles, or approximately 199,360 Canadian dollars, according to the same source.
The trial had until then taken place behind closed doors, and very few details have filtered out about the accusations against Gene Spector.
Gene Spector, an American of Russian origin, had already been sentenced in September 2022 to three and a half years in prison for “corruption” in a case concerning a former assistant to former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
Russian authorities announced to State 2023 that he was also accused of espionage and had pleaded guilty and entered into a collaboration agreement with investigators.
As the case was classified, no other information had been made public.
Agence France-Presse
Acquisition of American arms: Manila rejects criticism from Beijing
The Philippines' defense secretary on Tuesday rejected Chinese criticism of Manila's plan to acquire a US-built missile system and called on Beijing to stop its “interference” in internal affairs.
The Philippine army announced on Monday that it was considering acquiring the American Typhoon missile system in order to protect its maritime interests, a project immediately described as an “arms race” and a “provocation” by Beijing.
“The Philippines is a sovereign state and is not the gateway to any country,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said.
“Any deployment and acquisition of assets related to the security and defense of the Philippines are within the sovereign prerogatives of this country and are not subject to any foreign veto,” he said in a statement.
At the end of April, the US military deployed the Typhoon missile system to the Philippines as part of annual joint military exercises, and decided to keep it there despite criticism from Beijing, which considered it destabilizing for the region.
Philippine military officials said the Typhoon system would be able to protect ships up to 370 kilometers from the coast, the limit of the Philippines' maritime rights under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Agence France-Presse
