The Boston Globe - 02.09.2019

A4 The Boston Globe MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019

The World

MANILA — All nine people

on a small medical evacuation

plane were killed Sunday when

the aircraft crashed into a re-

sort area south of the Philip-

pine capital and exploded in

flames, officials said.

The plane crashed into a re-

sort compound in Laguna prov-

ince near the foothills of Mount

Makiling. Police and rescuers

retrieved nine bodies from the

wreckage, police said. Two peo-

ple on the ground were injured

and brought to a hospital.

Eric Apolonio, a spokesman

for the Civil Aviation Authority,

said the plane was on a medical

evacuation flight from south-

ern Dipolog city in Zamboanga

del Norte province and disap-

peared from radar for un-

known reasons as it flew over

Laguna, about 37 miles south

of the capital.

The plane was supposed to

land in Manila.

The nine on board included

two pilots, two nurses, a doctor,

a patient, the patient’s wife,

and two other people, police

said.

Videos posted online by wit-

nesses showed flames and

black smoke billowing from the

private resort compound in

Pansol, a district popular for its

hot springs and swimming

pools. Firefighters and an am-

bulance can be seen near the

scene of the crash as local offi-

cials asked villagers to step

back to a safe distance.

The crash happened during

the monsoon season, when

fewer people visit Pansol’s re-

sorts, compared to the hot

summer months that ended in

June.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

9 die in crash of ambulance plane

WARSAW — Germany’s

president expressed deep re-

morse for the suffering his na-

tion inflicted on Poland and the

rest of Europe in World War II,

warning of the dangers of na-

tionalism as world leaders

gathered Sunday. ‘‘This war

was a German crime,’’ Presi-

dent Frank-Walter Steinmeier

told Poland’s top leaders, US

Vice President Mike Pence,

German Chancellor Angela

Merkel, and others at an 80th

anniversary ceremony marking

World’s War II’s outbreak.

Also attending were Polish

war veterans and a Holocaust

survivor wearing a yellow Star

of David and the striped clothes

that prisoners wore at Nazi

Germany’s death camps.

Steinmeier expressed sor-

row over the mass killings

Adolf Hitler’s regime commit-

ted in Poland, where the war

began Sept. 1, 1939. He ex-

pressed gratitude to Poles for

gestures of forgiveness. ‘‘I bow

in mourning to the suffering of

the victims,’’ Steinmeier said. ‘‘I

ask for forgiveness for Germa-

ny’s historical debt. I affirm our

lasting responsibility.’’

Two weeks after the German

invasion, the Soviets invaded;

by the war’s end, about 6 mil-

lion Poles had been killed,

more than half of them Jews.

Polish President Andrzej

Duda appealed to those assem-

bled not to close their eyes to

imperial tendencies, citing ag-

gression against Georgia and

Ukraine.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

German leader to Poles: Forgive us

JERUSALEM — The Leba-

nese militia Hezbollah fired

missiles at an Israeli military

border post Sunday in what it

called payback for an Israeli

airstrike a week earlier that

killed two Lebanese operatives

inSyriaandadronestrikethat

damaged Hezbollah infrastruc-

ture in the Beirut suburbs.

Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu said Israel suffered

no casualties — “not even a

scratch.” And while Israel re-

turned fire with attack helicop-

ters and about 100 artillery

shells, both sides appeared ea-

ger to let the hostilities subside.

The fighting between Israel

and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed

military force that dominates

politics in Lebanon, comes as

Israel is pushing back against

what it sees as Iranian aggres-

sion in the Middle East.

Israeli said Hezbollah fight-

ers fired two or three anti-tank

missiles after 4 p.m. at a post

just outside the town of Avivim.

Hezbollah not only claimed

responsibility, it named the

unit that launched the attack

afterHasanZbeeb and Yasser

Daher, the two Lebanese fight-

ers killed Aug. 24 in an Israeli

airstrike. The Israelis said they

were preparing to use an explo-

sive-laden drone to attack.

The airstrike, near the Da-

mascus airport, was followed

hours later by an explosion set

off by a drone near a Hezbollah

office in Beirut’s southern sub-

urbs. Israeli officials said that

blast destroyed machinery vital

to what Israel contends is Hez-

bollah’s strategic effort to pro-

duce precision-guided missiles

in Lebanon.

NEW YORK TIMES

Hezbollah fires missiles at Israeli post

ROME — Pope Francis

keeps to a schedule. Abroad, he

is punctual. On Sundays, when

he delivers the Angelus in St.

Peter’s Square, he begins uni-

formly at noon. But this Sun-

day, the pontiff was late.

When he poked his head out

of a window of the apostolic

palace, the building overlook-

ing the square from which he

gives his weekly address, he

apologized for the tardiness

and explained: ‘‘I had an unex-

pected event. I was stuck in an

elevator for 25 minutes.’’ He cit-

ed a ‘‘drop in voltage.’’

‘‘Thank God the fire depart-

ment came; I thank them so

much,’’ the pope continued. ‘‘A

round of applause for the fire-

fighters!’’

Francis, 82, leaves Wednes-

day for a one-week trip to Afri-

ca that includes stops in Mo-

zambique and Madagascar.

He also said Sunday that he

plans to elevate 13 men to the

rank of cardinal, including 10

who are under 80 years old,

and thus eligible to vote in the

conclave that will one day se-

lect his successor. Following the

trend under Francis, some of

the new cardinals represent

countries from the periphery of

the Catholic world, including

Cuba and Indonesia. No Ameri-

cans are in the group.

WASHINGTON POST

Running late: Elevator traps pope

Daily Briefing

By Austin Ramzy
and Amy Qin
NEW YORK TIMES
HONG KONG — Prodemoc-
racy demonstrators in Hong
Kong began a new campaign
Sunday to squeeze access to the
airport, hours after one of the
most tumultuous days since
protests in the city began in
June.
Tens of thousands of people
marched through parts of the
city center Saturday despite a
ban on the protest by police.
Some protesters gathered
around the government’s head-
quarters, where they threw
bricks and firebombs as police
responded with tear gas, pep-
per spray, and water cannons.
On Sunday, demonstrators
began congregating at Hong
Kong International Airport in a
new effort to obstruct access to
the critical Asian travel hub.
The airport has been off limits
to protesters since mid-August,
when days of sit-ins led to as-

saults on two men from main-

land China and hundreds of

canceled flights.

With classes set to begin

Monday for many Hong Kong

students, schools could become

the next front in the protest,

which began over widespread

anger over an extradition bill

that would allow criminal sus-

pects to be taken to mainland

China. Since then, demonstra-

tors’ demands have grown to

include a call for universal suf-

frage and an inquiry into accu-

sations of police brutality.

Hundreds of protesters be-

gan to converge on the airport

Sunday afternoon, traveling by

bus, by car, and on foot from a

nearby subway station. A court

injunction obtained after the

airport protests last month al-

lows only ticketed passengers

and airport employees to enter

the main terminals. But dem-

onstrators gathered outside

near the entrances, chanting,

“Fight for freedom! Stand with

Hong Kong.” Some used their

cars to block lanes of traffic.

MTR, the Hong Kong sub-

way operator, announced Sun-

day that the Airport Express

rail service between the airport

and the city center was can-

celed, and trains to the city

were later suspended after pro-

testers threw debris on the

tracks. Tung Chung Station, the

subway stop closest to the air-

port, was also closed Sunday

evening because protesters had

damaged the facilities, it said.

The protests forced many

travelers to find alternative

routes to the airport.

Nicole Zhao, 38, who flew in

from Beijing, was one of many

who had to wend, dodge, and

hopscotch their way through

barriers that had been set up on

the roads. “What the protesters

are doing is crazy,” said Zhao,

who works in education. “This

just shows how different the

Hong Kong and mainland sys-

tems are.”

Othertravelersweremore

supportive of the protests.

Eric Jabal, 47, an education

consultant, walked with his

roller suitcase and suit jacket

on a debris-strewn road, dodg-

ing protesters and barricades.

He said he had left his home at

12:30 p.m. for an 8:50 p.m.

flight to Bangalore and had

been walking for 25 minutes af-

ter he had been dropped off.

But Jabal, a Canadian who

has been living in Hong Kong

for 25 years, said he didn’t

mind the inconvenience.

“I’m really sad,” he said.

“That the failure of leadership

has led to such profound unrest

among such a broad cross sec-

tion of people — it’s clearly gone

beyond the tipping point.”

Students have been a major

part of the protests all summer,

and the beginning of classes

Monday raised questions about

whether the start of school

would mean a lessening of the

movement or whether activism

would shift to campuses.

Students have planned two

mass assemblies, one in the

central business district in the

morning and another after

school at the Chinese Universi-

ty of Hong Kong. Many high

school students have also nego-

tiated with school administra-

tors to participate in sit-ins or

set aside classrooms for self-

study sessions or silent protests

on the first day of school.

A top government official

said Sunday the administration

“steadfastly opposed” the

planned class boycotts, calling

them extremely irresponsible.

HongKongprotesterssqueeze

accesstoairport,battlepolice

Thousands defy

ban by marching

in the city center

ANTHONY KWAN/GETTY IMAGES

Police charged into a train at Tung Chung MTR station after protesters blocked routes to the Hong Kong airport Sunday.

By David Zucchino
and Jawad Sukhanyar
NEW YORK TIMES
KABUL — Taliban fighters
mounted their second attack in
two days on a provincial capital
in northern Afghanistan on
Sunday, as American and Tali-
ban negotiators finalized the
details of a preliminary peace
agreement.
Just before the top Ameri-
can negotiator, Zalmay Khal-
ilzad, said the two sides were on
“the threshold of an agree-
ment,” the Taliban attacked
poorly defended provincial cap-
itals and forced the Afghan gov-
ernment to send in commandos
to keep the cities from being
overrun.
The Taliban attack Sunday
targeted Pul-i-Kumri, the capi-
tal of Baghlan province in
northern Afghanistan, about
145 miles north of Kabul. On
Saturday, the militants
launched an offensive against a
neighboring provincial capital,
Kunduz, killing the top police
spokesman and wounding the
police chief, local officials said.
There were no immediate of-
ficial reports of casualties in
Baghlan province Sunday. But a
Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah
Mujahid, said on Twitter that
fighters had entered Pul-i-Kum-
ri after overrunning four gov-
ernment checkpoints and kill-
ing several soldiers and police
officers. He said heavy fighting
continued.

Since peace negotiations be-

gan last fall, both sides have

ramped up combat operations

in order to improve their posi-

tions on the ground. But the

Taliban have often seized the

initiative, as they did this week-

end, even as American and Af-

ghan government airstrikes

and US-backed commando

raids have inflicted heavy casu-

alties.

The Taliban are able to at-

tack government-held centers

almost at will because Afghan

troops and police generally

hunker down in defensive posi-

tions on bases, checkpoints,

and command centers, leaving

most offensive operations to

commandos and airstrikes.

Taliban fighters attacked

Pul-i-Kumri from two direc-

tions early Sunday, said Mah-

mood Haqmal, a spokesman for

the provincial governor. The

militants entered homes, kill-

ing local Afghans they accused

of conspiring against them, said

Leqaa Andarabi, a former po-

lice chief who commands a lo-

cal progovernment militia.

“They got in because the in-

telligence people weren’t doing

their jobs,” Andarabi said, echo-

ing frequent complaints from

local officials that government

military and intelligence com-

manders have failed to secure

provincial capitals.

Government officials said

Sunday that Taliban fighters

had been driven out of Kunduz

by commandos and airstrikes,

with many militants moving

south to attack Pul-i-Kumri.

Taliban fighters had been able

to penetrate deep into Kunduz,

briefly occupying the health de-

partment and a hospital, said

Ehsanullah Fazli, the health di-

rector for Kunduz province.

The fighting killed at least

20 security force members and

five civilians, and wounded 85

others, the Ministry of Interior

said in a statement. As many as

56 Taliban fighters were killed,

the ministry said.

Fawad Aman, deputy

spokesman for the Ministry of

Defense, said in a Twitter post

Sunday that government forces

in Pul-i-Kumri had rebuffed the

Taliban attack. But government

officials have said in the past

that they had regained control

of cities even as fighting contin-

ued in provincial capitals under

Taliban attack.

Khalilzad, the American ne-

gotiator, said he was flying Sun-

day from Doha, Qatar, the site

of the peace talks, to Kabul, the

Afghan capital, to brief Afghan

leaders. He said on Twitter that

he had warned Taliban negotia-

tors that “violence like this

must stop,” referring to the at-

tack on Kunduz.

The Afghan government,

which the Taliban has called an

American puppet, has been ex-

cluded from the talks. The

ninth round of negotiations

ended early Sunday, and an an-

nouncement of a final prelimi-

nary agreement was expected

soon.

Taliban hit 2d Afghan city as ‘peace’ nears

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Mourners buried Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar

Hussaini, who was killed by a suicide bomber on Saturday.

PETR DAVID JOSEK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A veteran spoke to girl scouts in Warsaw before a ceremony

to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II.