Israel strikes at Syria twice in two days (we got video!), A prominent member of the UK’s ruling coalition is arrested on sex charges, and illegal machinery apparently contributed to the building collapse in Bangladesh.

 

A second Israeli Airstrike in Syria in as many days.  This time, rockets have hit a military research center on the outskirts of Damascus.  A video has gone viral, purporting to show a massive fireball rising up over the hills across which the research center is located.

 

Yesterday, Israel conducted an airstrike in Syria to target a shipment of missiles from Iran because Israel suspects those missiles were being transferred to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.  That’s according to US officials.  The missiles were reportedly Fateh-110s, a model that is a marked improvement over the old Russian-derived Scud-D rockets, and would raise Iran’s ability to threaten Israel through its proxy Hezbollah.  It’s the third time in four months that Israel struck out to break the supply line from Tehran to Hezbollah.

 

Israel is questioning Google’s decision to change its geographic and search references from “Palestinian Territories” to “Palestine”.  “Google is not a diplomatic entity, which begs the question why are they getting involved in international politics and on the controversial side,” said Yigal Palmor of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.  Google denies any political intent, saying it is merely “following the lead of the UN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, International Organization for Standardization, and other international organizations.”

 

Hundreds of members of Hungary’s far-right “Jobbik” party rallied against the World Jewish Congress meeting, which starts Sunday in the capital Budapest.  Jobbik is Hungary’s third largest political party and is known for spouting the usual anti-Semitic crap that you’d think they would have learned not to say after World War II.  The WJC says it picked Budapest for this year’s conference because of the “alarming rise of neo-Nazi political parties and anti-Semitic incidents in several European countries, including Hungary.”

 

It’s been an interesting few days for Britain’s Tory Party.  Detectives arrested a senior Conservative MP on suspicion of rape and sexual assault.  Two men filed complaints of attacks at the home of Nigel Evans, in July 2009 and March 2013.  Evans is Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons and represents a Tory stronghold in the north near Blackpool.  MPs from across the political spectrum are shocked at the allegations.  He’s out on bail until 19 June.

 

Meanwhile, Conservatives who aren’t under arrest are urging PM David Cameron to pay attention to last week’s drubbing in local elections, and to hold a referendum on staying in the European Union.  The Tories lost control of 10 councils, because disaffected Conservative voters fled to the anti-EU “UK Independence Party”.  Cameron had previously branded UKIP members as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”. 

 

An Air India Flight Crew has been suspended because the pilot and the co-pilot both left the cockpit to take naps in business class.  It happened on 12 April at 33,000 feet on a flight from Bangkok to New Delhi.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, they left to flight attendants in charge of the cockpit, one of whom accidentally shut off the autopilot.  She managed to wake the pilots before there was a disaster.

 

Four illegally installed generators contributed to the building collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 500 people. Uddin Khandaker of the Home Ministry says the generators were switched on during power failures, and the vibrations combined with the vibrations from the sewing machines in the garment sweatshops weakened the structure.  Khandakar says the Rana Plaza building was designed as a commercial center, not for the heavy demands of factory production.

 

Australia is voluntarily suspending cattle exports to Egypt after seeing “horrific” video showing extreme cruelty to animals in Egyptian abattoirs.  The group Animals Australia presented the video to the cattle industry and the government.  It’s the second time in recent years Oz has done this because of abysmal slaughterhouse conditions in Egypt.