World News Quick Take

The nation’s first Ebola case of the current outbreak in Africa is the Bundibugyo strain and the patient is a diplomat, an emergency meeting to discuss the outbreak was told yesterday. “We did three levels of tests, but all molecular. The strain was Bundibugyo,” Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Lab Service Director Olajumoke Babatunde said, referring to the same strain of the virus behind the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “This person is actually a diplomat,” another official said adding that the patient has deteriorated into “multi-organ failure.” The case, which was recorded on Tuesday, was detected in a woman who had traveled from Uganda to the capital, Abuja, the government said.

The front page of a newspaper carrying a headline about a reported Ebola case in Abuja is displayed at a newspaper stall in Lagos, Nigeria, yesterday.

Photo: Reuters

FRANCE

One dead in fighter jet crash

A Mirage 2000D fighter jet crashed in the country’s northeast during a training flight, killing at least one member of its crew, the air force said yesterday. The plane went down on Tuesday night near its air base on the outskirts of Nancy, and a search was under way for the second member of the crew. “It appears that at least one of the crew members was not able to eject,” air force spokesman Colonel David Papalardo told franceinfo radio. One of the crew members was a young trainee pilot and the other was an experienced weapons officer, he said.

JAPAN

Diplomat sent to Moscow

A senior diplomat was sent to Moscow this week to discuss the release of a journalist detained by Russia on spying accusations, Tokyo said yesterday. Russian authorities last week said that a Japanese national had been arrested on its far eastern island of Sakhalin, near a disputed cluster of islands. The individual was later identified as Yuki Imai of the Hokkaido Shimbun, who faces accusations of “conducting espionage activities on Russian territory.” Tokyo denies the allegations, but has not yet been able to secure Imai’s release. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that European Affairs Bureau Director-General Kimitake Nakamura on Tuesday met Lyudmila Vorobyova, the head of the department at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs dealing with much of East Asia.

UNITED KINGDOM

Jackdaw drilling approved

The government yesterday announced plans to start drilling in a controversial gas field in the North Sea, claiming it would boost energy security amid price shocks from the Iran war. The decision to approve the Jackdaw site, about 240km east of Aberdeen, Scotland, ends months of speculation about the divisive project after a court ruling had put its future in doubt. Environmentalists said the approval would worsen carbon emissions, but industry groups and unions welcomed the project, which the government said would start supplying gas to homes and businesses within weeks.

MALAYSIA

Waze banned in government

The government has banned civil servants from using Alphabet’s navigation app Waze after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday said its origins in Israel raised security concerns. Anwar said the government was looking into potential security risks arising from the use of Waze, which he said was bound to Israeli laws. “We cannot compromise on the security of people’s data and identities,” he wrote on Facebook. Anwar did not provide details of the risks, but recommended the use of TuJu, developed by the Highway Authority, as an alternative.