The world in brief: Israel’s parliament votes to dissolve

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (left) and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid react Thursday after a vote on a bill to dissolve the parliament at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem.
(AP/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (left) and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid react Thursday after a vote on a bill to dissolve the parliament at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. (AP/Ariel Schalit)


Israel's parliament votes to dissolve

Israel's parliament voted Thursday to dissolve itself and paved the way to the country's fifth election in less than four years after a fragile governing coalition collapsed.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will become interim prime minister, replacing Naftali Bennett, until a new government is formed after elections on Nov. 1. Bennett does not intend to run in the next vote. Lapid and Bennett announced their plan to dissolve Israel's parliament, known as the Knesset, on June 20.

Thursday's vote throws Israel back into renewed political instability just weeks ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden's first Middle East visit next month. The government's collapse also comes at a sensitive time for Israel as it looks to expand regional security and defense partnerships with Arab countries while engaging in an increasingly overt shadow war with Iran.

Bennett's year-old coalition had grouped together an uneasy alliance of secular and religious factions, hawks and doves, free marketeers and social democrats, as well as an Arab party for the first time in Israeli history. Internal divisions ultimately proved too much.

For opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who was Israel's longest-serving premier, the demise of the coalition could present an opportunity to return to power. He tried to form an alternative right-wing government that could take over from Bennett's without the need to dissolve parliament but was not able to garner enough support.

Burma warplane breaches Thai airspace

BANGKOK -- A Burma fighter jet crossed the border into Thailand's airspace on Thursday, prompting Thai air force jets to scramble and officials to order the evacuation of villages and classrooms, officials said.

The Royal Thai Air Force said it dispatched two F-16 fighters to patrol the area after receiving a report of an aircraft that crossed into Thailand's airspace while carrying out an attack in Burma territory held by an ethnic minority group. It asked the military attache at the Thai Embassy in Burma to convey a warning to Burmese authorities and work with them to avoid similar incidents in the future.

The sound of a fighter jet flying over Phop Phra district in Thailand's Tak province alarmed local authorities, who ordered the evacuation of villages and schools in the area. Teachers at Wale School led over 200 elementary and middle school students from their classrooms to fortified buildings inside the school grounds for safety.

Local media reported that residents saw an aircraft that some identified as an MiG-29 making several circles into Thai airspace over villages and schools before firing on the Burma side.

Central America seen in path of storm

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A storm that has hurled rain on the southern Caribbean and the northern shoulder of South America was expected to hit Central America as a tropical storm over the weekend and eventually develop into a hurricane over the Pacific, forecasters said Thursday.

The fast-moving disturbance known merely as Potential Tropical Cyclone Two has been drenching parts of the Caribbean region since Monday without ever meeting the criteria for a named tropical storm.

On Thursday, it was blowing past the northernmost part of Colombia and was centered about 455 miles east of Bluefields on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

It was moving west at 20 mph and was projected to hit the Nicaragua-Costa Rica area as a tropical storm by late today or Saturday.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph -- right at the edge of tropical storm force, through with ragged wind circulation, apparently due to its rapid advance westward. The Hurricane Center said that pace should be slowing.

The storm was expected to drop 3 to 5 inches of rain on parts of northern Colombia, then 4 to 8 inches on Nicaragua and Costa Rica, posing the threat of flash flooding.

Lumumba's remains buried in Congo

KINSHASA, Congo -- The remains of Congo's independence hero and first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, were laid to rest in Kinshasa on Thursday amid honors including a procession through the capital, military salutes and music in front of thousands of people.

Congo's President Felix Tshisikedi saluted Lumumba, calling him a humanist who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

"Today, the Congolese people are able to understand how and why he fought the oppression of the time without fear or trembling," said Tshisikedi.

Lumumba was buried in a Chinese-built mausoleum topped by a towering statue in a central square in Kinshasa. The ceremony was attended by diplomats and dignitaries including President Denis Sassou N'guesso of the neighboring Republic of Congo who mingled in the courtyard in front of the mausoleum.

The ceremony was held on Congo's Independence Day, marking when the country became independent from Belgium in 1960.



  photo  A military vehicle carries a gold-capped tooth belonging to Democratic Republic of the Congo independence hero Patrice Lumumba to a memorial built in his honor in Kinshasa on Thursday. (AP/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
 
 


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