From Israel to Chernobyl fires, the non-coronavirus news you may have missed

Luxembourg has blocked a US bid for 9/11 compensation from Iran and Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden as the next US president

epa08348330 A forest fire burns near the village of Volodymyrivka, in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, 05 April 2020 (issued 07 April 2020). Ukraine's State Emergency Service said firefighters and rescue teams continued to put out fires at two sites near Rahivka, adding that radiation levels in the capital, Kyiv (Kiev), and Kyiv region is within a normal range. The total area affected by the fire near Rahivka was reported to be five hectares. The Kyiv police said they have identified on 06 April 2020 a man who allegedly started a mass fire in the uninhabited exclusion zone around the decommissioned Chornobyl nuclear plant last week. The 27-year-old resident of the Rahivka village told investigators that he had set some garbage and grass on fire for fun. The territory is a long-vacated area near where an explosion at the Chernobyl Soviet nuclear plant in April 1986 sent a plume of radioactive fallout high into the air and across swaths of Europe. EPA/YAROSLAV YEMELIANENKO

A forest fire burns in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine. EPA

The National

Apr 14, 2020

Luxembourg blocks US bid for 9/11 compensation from Iran

A long-running US request to transfer US$1.6 billion (Dh 5.88 billion) in Iranian assets to victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York has been blocked by a Luxembourg court.

An official statement said that an appeals court on April 1 found the US seizure demand "inadmissible", but that the verdict can be appealed.

Israel extends government formation deadline

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin has accepted a last minute request from opposition leader Benny Gantz to extend the deadline to form a coalition government, after previously rejecting a similar request on the grounds that he was not close to reaching a power-sharing agreement with rival Benjamin Netanyahu. The pair said they had made “meaningful progress” in their efforts to form a joint government.

Forest fires light up the night sky in this photo taken from the roof of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant. AP

Forest fires rage near Chernobyl nuclear plant

Forest fires are raging in the contaminated area near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but officials say there is no radiation threat.

Hundreds of firefighters backed by aircraft have been battling the fires since last week. They managed to contain the initial blazes, but new fires are now raging close to the decommissioned plant.

Sanders endorses Biden for US president

Bernie Sanders endorsed the Democratic candidate and former vice president Joe Biden for president, a week after ending his own campaign.

"We need you in the White House," Mr Sanders told Mr Biden during a videolink event Mr Biden streamed live online because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cardinal Pell links abuse accusations to his fight against corruption

Cardinal George Pell served 13 months in prison before Australia’s High Court last week acquitted him for molesting two choirboys in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne while he was archbishop in the 1990s.

The former finance minister to Pope Francis said on TV on Tuesday that some church officials believed he was prosecuted by Australian authorities because of the trouble he had caused in the Vatican with financial reforms.

“Most of the senior people in Rome who are in any way sympathetic to financial reform believe that they are” linked to his prosecution, the 78-year-old cleric told Sky News.