Storm takes heavy toll in Philippines
MANILA, Philippines -- A tropical storm in the Philippines has left at least 19 people dead, disaster response officials said Thursday.
Philippine authorities say they are still investigating a further 11 deaths that may have been caused by the tropical storm Kompasu, which triggered landslides and flash floods as it barreled over the northern tip of the Asia-Pacific islands Monday.
Another 14 people have been reported missing in the Philippines.
Kompasu also left one person dead in Hong Kong as it reached typhoon strength while crossing open sea south of the Chinese city Wednesday.
Kompasu returned to tropical storm strength after making landfall on the Chinese island province of Hainan and weakened further as it headed out to sea and toward northern Vietnam on Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph.
Syria says Israeli airstrike killed soldier
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria's defense ministry said Thursday that one of its soldiers has been killed and three injured in an overnight Israeli airstrike on a telecommunication tower in the central province of Homs.
A military official said the strike shortly before midnight in the Palmyra region hit the tower and some posts around it. The official did not identify the targets further. Syrian air defenses were activated to respond to the incoming missiles, which the defense ministry said originated from the Tanf region in southeast Syria.
In a rare acknowledgement that their bases had been struck, Iran-backed groups in Syria vowed retaliation. The groups said they will "have a harsh response" to the Israeli strikes in Palmyra.
The groups also blamed the United States for the strikes, which originated in an area where the U.S. has a small outpost that straddles the Baghdad-Damascus highway.
The groups said the strikes hit service and youth centers, causing a number of causalities. The groups did not provide details.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the strikes hit an airbase known as T4, adding that Iran-backed militiamen based in it were targeted.
Chief resigns over 'streetwise' remark
LONDON -- A British police chief resigned Thursday after sparking an outcry with comments he made about how women should be more "streetwise" when he spoke about the abduction, rape and murder of a woman by a police officer.
Philip Allott stepped down as North Yorkshire police, fire and crime commissioner after being accused of misogyny and victim blaming for comments he made in a radio interview in the aftermath of the sentencing of London police officer Wayne Couzens.
Couzens was convicted last month of tricking 33-year-old Sarah Everard into his car by arresting her on the pretext of breaking covid-19 lockdown rules, then raping and murdering her.
In the BBC interview earlier this month, Allott said women "need to be streetwise about when they can be arrested and they can't be arrested." He said Everard should "never have been arrested and submitted to that."
The comments have angered many women as well as those working in police and fire services, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the comments were "wrong-headed" and "totally the opposite" of what was needed.
Allott, who had already apologized and retracted the comments, resigned after his staff gave him a vote of no-confidence Thursday.
Captain convicted in migrants' return
ROME -- A court in Naples has convicted the captain of an Italian commercial ship of abandonment-related charges for returning 101 migrants rescued at sea to Libya in 2018, in a ruling praised by human rights organizations.
But the court absolved the captain of the most serious charge -- abuse of office -- and sentenced him to a year in prison, according to a copy of the sentence and the Avvenire newspaper of the Italian bishops conference.
The U.N. refugee agency and the European Union do not consider Libya a safe port, making the forced return there of refugees, especially unaccompanied minors, a possible violation of their rights to protection and to seek asylum.
The verdict issued Wednesday by Naples judge Maria Luisa Miranda, first reported by Avvenire, was the first of its kind in Italy. It followed a 2012 verdict against Italy by the European Court of Human Rights after Italian military vessels sent back migrants to Tripoli in 2009.
The case before the Naples court concerned the July 30, 2018, rescue of 101 migrants by the Asso Ventotto, an Italian oil rig supply ship that was working for the Mellitah Oil and Gas company, a joint venture of Italy's ENI and Libya's National Oil Corp., on the Sabratha oil platform north of Tripoli.
The ship captain, Giuseppe Sotgiu, was absolved of a charge of abuse of office but was convicted of two other charges concerning abandonment of minors and vulnerable people, according to Avvenire and the prosecutors' request for a conviction.
Another defendant was acquitted of all charges.