The world in brief

Jet's windshield shatters; co-pilot hurt

HONG KONG -- A Sichuan Airlines plane heading for Tibet made an emergency landing Monday after its windshield shattered and a co-pilot was partially sucked out of the cockpit, local news agencies reported.

Flight 8633 left the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing at 6:26 a.m. and was scheduled to land at 9:05 a.m. in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, about 1,500 miles west, according to the flight tracking website FlightView.com.

But the windshield on the Airbus A319 later "shattered with a loud sound," the pilot, Liu Chuanjian, said in a video posted by the news outlet Chengdu Business News. "When I looked over to my side, half of my co-pilot's body was hanging out of the window."

"Fortunately, he was wearing a seat belt," Liu said.

The plane made an emergency landing at 7:42 a.m. in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.

Later Monday, Sichuan Airlines said in a post on Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging platform, that 29 of the plane's 119 passengers were sent to a hospital for examination. One cabin crew member was being treated for a waist injury and the first officer suffered scratches, but the remaining passengers were discharged, the post said.

Bahrain pulls 115 people's citizenship

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A Bahrain court on Tuesday revoked the citizenship of 115 people at a mass terrorism trial, the most to lose their nationality at any one time, amid a yearslong crackdown on dissent in the island kingdom.

Bahrain's Sunni-rule government increasingly has wielded denaturalization as a hammer to beat back dissent on the Shiite-majority island off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf.

The court decision Tuesday came as much of the Mideast focused on Israeli security forces killing dozens of Palestinian protesters as the U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem the day before. Like much of the crackdown, it has quietly escaped attention.

Bahrain's Public Prosecution said the case involved a militant group it identified as the "Zulfiqar Brigades," whose mass arrests authorities previously announced in 2016. Zulfiqar is the name of the forked sword of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad who is revered by Shiites.

Prosecutors accused defendants of building and detonating bombs, receiving weapons training and plotting to kill police officers.

A statement from prosecutors said 53 defendants received life sentences, while dozens of others faced prison time. It said 23 defendants were acquitted.

Dozens missing as India ferry capsizes

HYDERABAD, India -- Rescuers were searching late Tuesday for at least 40 people missing after a river ferry capsized in heavy winds in rural south India.

Andhra Pradesh Home Minister N. Chinarajappa said 20 people swam to safety Tuesday evening after the ferry flipped on the Godavari River.

He said others, including a group traveling to a wedding, were missing.

Fishermen rescued survivors, and officials deployed police and a team from the National Disasters Relief Force.

But the search was slowed by poor communications in the area and the fall of darkness.

Ferry disasters occur frequently in India because of overcrowded boats. Yet there were no immediate reports of overcrowding Tuesday, and the ferry captain quickly reported to the police station to give a statement.

Appeal over Erdogan poem dismissed

BERLIN -- A German court on Tuesday dismissed a television comedian's appeal of a ruling that prohibits him from repeating elements of a crude poem he wrote about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Comic Jan Boehmermann recited the poem last year on public television to illustrate something he said wouldn't be allowed even in democratic Germany. The poem described Erdogan as "stupid, cowardly and uptight" before descending into sexual references.

Chancellor Angela Merkel granted a Turkish request to allow possible prosecution for insulting a foreign head of state. A Hamburg court issued an injunction ordering Boehmermann not to repeat most of the poem.

On Tuesday, an appeals court upheld that decision, rejecting both Boehmermann's appeal and a bid by Erdogan's lawyers to have the ban extended to the whole poem.

A Section on 05/16/2018

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