Briefly

JAPAN

Council calls for military pact revision

A liaison council comprising the governors of 15 Japanese prefectures hosting US military bases and related facilities submitted a petition to the central government on Thursday, calling for a revision of the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA. The petition said that safety issues arising from US military flights, as well as the leakage of hazardous substances into areas surrounding US military bases, could significantly impact residents' lives, stressing the need to restrict such activities under Japanese domestic laws. Japan and the US signed SOFA in 1960. The bilateral pact gives US servicemen and civilian workers in Japan privileged legal status and has long been criticized.

EUROPE

Israel's West Bank settlement slammed

France, Italy, Britain and Germany on Thursday piled on mounting international condemnation of a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli authorities opened bidding for more than 1,200 homes in the area. The E1 plan was greenlit by Israel last year and would further separate east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel and predominantly inhabited by Palestinians, from the West Bank.

DR CONGO

Ebola outbreak toll surpasses 2,500

The Ebola outbreak raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has now killed more than 2,500 people, out of over 5,000 cases, the United Nations senior Ebola coordinator said on Friday. The death toll in the outbreak declared on May 15 is now "more than 2,500" and it "increases every day", Julien Harneis told reporters, speaking from Bunia in DR Congo.

UNITED STATES

8 killed as plane crashes in Alaska

A charter aircraft carrying eight people crashed at a remote radar site in western Alaska on Thursday, killing all on board, the US military said. The crash happened near Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport. The radar site is managed by the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center. It's part of a network of remote radar sites that tracks aircraft operating in Alaska's airspace and along its borders, the statement from Alaskan Command said.

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