News of the World

[kyonides]

Popocatépetl volcano: Alert level raised
as ash shutters Mexico schools, airports

The stoplight warning system for the Popocatépetl volcano in Mexico rose to yellow phase 3 on Sunday, according to officials.

In a tweet, the government shared a chart showing that alarm was just below the "red" level.

The phase includes large domes developing and exploding with increasing intensity, sending rock into the air and pyroclastic material down the sides.

For most of the years since the stoplight was introduced, it has been stuck at some stage of "yellow."

On Tuesday morning, the government tweeted that there is no visibility toward the stratovolcano, which is situated about 40 miles southeast of Mexico City, but that it "has been possible to observe an emission with a low ash content."

"The tremor episode of variable amplitude recorded during the last hours continues," it said.

Officials warned at a press conference the day before that there was "no risk to the population at this time."

On Monday afternoon, the Hermanos Serdán International Airport was reported to have suspended operations due to the presence of ash falling on its runways. This comes after Mexico City's two main airports temporarily shut down on Saturday due to the ash.

In addition, alert protocols were activated in hospital and medical units due to the alert phase.

Chinese envoy heads to Russia
following ‘peace’ mission in Ukraine

China’s special representative on Eurasian affairs Li Hui is set to travel to Moscow Friday to meet with top Kremlin officials to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, though Western officials remain dubious when it comes to Beijing’s neutrality in the matter.

China has come under international scrutiny for its refusal to condemn Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine that began more than 15 months ago, though Beijing turned heads earlier this year when it released a 12-step peace plan for restoring calm in Eastern Europe, which one expert described as lacking "any real substance."

"I'm not optimistic, for a variety of reasons, that this is going to actually result in any kind of meaningful peace proposal," Heino Klinck, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia and military attaché to China, told Fox News Digital.

Ukraine has flatly rejected any attempts to broker a deal with Russia if it involves conceding any territory, including Crimea, which Russia has illegally occupied since 2014. Additionally, Klinck argued that Kyiv is unlikely to be willing to negotiate with Moscow at all while its forces remain on Ukrainian territory.

Attack in central Japan kills 3, including 2 police officers

Three people including two police officers were killed in Nagano in central Japan on Thursday and a suspect with a rifle and knife was holed up inside a building, police said.

NHK public television said a person later escaped from the building and that some other people might still be inside.

A witness told NHK that a woman fell while being chased by the suspect, who then stabbed her with a knife and shot at two police officers as they arrived at the scene in a patrol car in Nakano city in Nagano prefecture.

The witness said he asked the suspect why he attacked her, and he replied that he wanted to kill her, NHK said.

The three victims were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were later pronounced dead, police said. A fourth person who was injured could not be rescued because he was near the suspect, Kyodo News agency reported.
...
Police described the suspect as a man wearing a camouflage outfit, a hat, a mask and sunglasses, Kyodo News said. Police set the area within a 300-meter (330-yard) radius of the site as no-go zone, and city officials urged people in the neighborhood to stay home.

Car rams into gate of UK Prime Minister’s residence, man arrested

UK police arrested a lone driver after he drove a car into the gates of the UK prime minister's residence on Downing Street in London on Thursday.

Police arrested the man on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving, but officials have yet to determine whether the crash was intentional. Armed security patrols the gate at all time, but no one was injured in the incident.

Images showed the vehicle, a white sedan, crashing into the gate at relatively low speed.

"I heard a bang and looked up and saw loads of police with taser guns shouting at the man," witness Simon Parry, 44, told the Associated Press. "A lot of police vehicles came very quickly and were very quick to evacuate the area."

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was inside the offices connected to the residence at the time of the incident.

London police closed Whitehall, a main thoroughfare connecting many of the city's popular monuments and tourist attractions, immediately after the incident. Officers soon reopened the road to the public.

Cyprus takes extra measures to ensure air safety
amid Turkish warplane incursions

Cyprus authorities say they’re taking extra efforts to ensure flight safety isn’t compromised from Turkish warplanes and military drones flying inside Cypriot-monitored airspace without filing either flight plans or communicating with air traffic control.

The issue over unregulated Turkish military flights again came to the fore earlier this month when Cypriot authorities said a Turkish warplane "illegally" flew low over a United Nations-controlled buffer zone that cuts across the ethnically-divided island nation on what was believed to be a surveillance mission.

"Despite these illegal acts by Turkey, and the illegal operation of the self-styled air traffic control by the secessionist entity, the Department of Civil Aviation of Cyprus is doing its utmost to ensure the safe provision of air traffic services within the Nicosia FIR in its entirety," the Cyprus government told The Associated Press late Wednesday.

Despite the International Civil Aviation Authority recognizing the Cyprus government as the sole air traffic authority within the island’s 67,567-sq. mile Flight Information Region (FIR), Turkish Cypriots have declared their own airspace in the north and direct flights in and out of an airport in the north that saw a combined 23,224 arrivals and departures last year.

Colombia suspends ceasefire with Marxist rebel group accused of killing 4

Colombia’s government said Monday it is suspending a cease-fire with rebels accused of recently killing four Indigenous people — at least three of them minors — who tried to avoid forced recruitment in the south of the country.

President Gustavo Petro’s administration said in a statement that the military will resume attacks on factions of the FARC-EMC group operating in the provinces of Caqueta, Putumayo, Guaviare and Meta, due to the group's lack of commitment to the cease-fire.

"If a bilateral ceasefire is not effective in protecting the life and integrity of the entire population in certain territories, then there is no point in persisting," the statement said.

The government said, however, that it will continue to maintain a cease-fire with FARC-EMC in other parts of the country where attacks on civilians have decreased, and said that it will soon appoint delegates who will lead peace talks with the rebel group.

Indigenous organizations accused FARC-EMC last week of killing four people who had escaped from one of the group's camps in the province of Putumayo, where they were being recruited into the organization. The government said at least three of them were minors.