The world in brief

Israeli vows help for Ethiopian Jews

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Israel’s justice minister vowed to help Ethiopia’s Jews immigrate to Israel as soon as possible during a rare visit to Ethiopia.

Ayelet Shaked visited the synagogue in Addis Ababa on Sunday and said she “will try everything within my power to work with relevant offices to make this happen in the shortest time possible.”

About 140,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel today, a small minority in a country of over 8 million. Their assimilation hasn’t been smooth, with many arriving without a modern education and then falling into unemployment and poverty.

Although many of those remaining in Ethiopia are practicing Jews, Israel doesn’t consider them Jewish, meaning they are not automatically eligible to immigrate under its “law of return,” which grants automatic citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent. Instead, the government must OK their arrival.

Malaysians probe militant’s slaying

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian police said Sunday that an investigation was underway into the gunning down of a Palestinian man a day earlier and gave assurances that security was being beefed up in the country after recent high-profile assassinations.

Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group said Fadi al-Batsh was an important member of the group and accused Israel of being behind his killing early Saturday in Kuala Lumpur.

His death comes just over a year after the assassination of the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport. Two Southeast Asian women have pleaded innocent to killing Kim Jong Nam by smearing a nerve agent on his face in a plot that prosecutors say was masterminded by North Korean agents.

Malaysian police say al-Batsh, 34, was gunned down by two assailants who shot at least eight bullets from a motorbike as he was heading to a mosque for dawn prayers in Kuala Lumpur.

Boat accident kills 17 people in China

BEIJING — Preparations for China’s traditional Dragon Boat Festival races took a tragic turn Saturday when 17 people died after two dragon boats flipped over.

The accident in the Guangxi region of southern China happened during training for the popular event, also called the Duanwu Festival, which will be held in June and features long boats powered by dozens of paddlers.

When two of these boats tried to pass an overflow dam on the Taohua River, they capsized and 57 people on-board fell into the fast-flowing water, an official Guangxi news website and other outlets reported Sunday.

The government has not issued a full explanation of why the two boats, each about 60 feet long, capsized. An officer who led the rescue, Wang Junshi, said video indicated that one boat flipped first and then the other after its paddlers tried to catch up to save people thrown out of the first boat, The Legal Evening News, a Chinese newspaper, said on its website.

A Section on 04/23/2018

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