RUSSIA
Scores rescued from ice floe
Emergency services rescued 675 fishermen on Sunday from an ice floe that was drifting out to the Sea of Okhotsk. None of the rescued ice fishermen required medical treatment, the emergency services on Sakhalin Island said. About half of the 675 fishermen were picked up by helicopters and the others by boat. Ice fishermen routinely get stranded on ice floes in the country, especially in the spring as temperatures rise. Sunday’s operation was unusual only in the high number that had to be rescued. One of the rescued fishermen, Vladimir Vasilenko, said they should have known better than to go out on such a day. “Of course the wind was blowing from the shore. We should have thought that something could happen,” he said in a televised interview. “We also heard on the radio that it was the last chance for fishermen, and so we went fishing.”
FRANCE
Minimal interest in elections
Three weeks before the presidential election, a record number of voters are thinking of abstaining, testimony to widespread frustration with a lackluster campaign. An IFOP poll on Sunday said a record 32 percent of voters could abstain in the first round, up 3 percentage points from two weeks ago. Political analyst Vincent Tiberj, writing in Le Monde daily, said that voters seem to be bored with the campaign that had “failed to live up to its promises.” Neither President Nicolas Sarkozy nor Socialist Francois Hollande has excited much passion. With neither candidate likely to win an outright majority in the first round of voting, a second round, with just two candidates, will take place on May 6.
AFRICAN CONTINENT
High oil prices stunt growth
Developing countries in Africa received less in overseas aid last year than they paid for oil imports, International Energy Agency (IEA) figures showed yesterday. Sub-Saharan Africa received about US$15.6 billion in overseas development aid last year, but this was outweighed by the US$18 billion cost of importing oil. Even though overseas aid has increased, poor nations are effectively “running to stand still” in development terms, because they are paying so much for energy imports. With oil prices likely to remain high, the only answer is for developing countries to move to cleaner renewable sources of energy, IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said. When industrialized economies were developing, oil was the equivalent of US$13 a barrel, but now developing countries must pay US$120 to US$130, which leaves developing countries “hamstrung,” Birol said, adding that clean energy was imperative if more people were to be lifted out of poverty.
UNITED STATES
Skin cancer on the rise
Skin cancer is on the rise among young adults, according to a study published yesterday that suggests indoor tanning beds and childhood sunburns may be to blame. Between 1970 and 2009, the rate of melanoma among women increased eightfold and it quadrupled among men, according to the research by Mayo Clinic experts who studied all medical records for a county in Minnesota over that timespan. However, death rates from melanoma fell during the same period, suggesting that early interventions may be helping to save some lives, the researchers said. Although the study did not focus on reasons for the increase, lead investigator and Mayo Clinic dermatologist Jerry Brewer said other researchers have found that people who use indoor tanning beds are 74 percent more likely to get melanoma than non-tanners.
MEXICO
Miguel de la Madrid dies
Former president Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, who was faulted for his slow response to a massive 1985 earthquake, has died, sources close to his family told local media. He was 77. Born in Colima in the east on Dec. 12, 1934, De la Madrid studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and at Harvard University, going on to serve as finance minister from 1978 to 1981. Elected president in 1982, he opened up the economy, knocking down tariff barriers and bringing the nation into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the predecessor to the WTO, in 1986. However, his administration was also criticized for its handling of the magnitude 8.1 earthquake that struck Mexico City on Sept. 19, 1985, killing at least 6,000 people by the official count, and more than 30,000 by some estimates. Even as citizens mounted their own relief operations to help the homeless in the face of government inaction, De la Madrid barred the military from taking part and refused international aid.
UNITED STATES
Sandler sweeps razzies
Comedian Adam Sandler and his movie Jack and Jill swept the annual Razzies on Sunday, winning a record-breaking 10 awards for the worst film and performances of last year. The Golden Raspberry Foundation said the cross-dressing comedy, in which Sandler played both the male and female lead parts, was the first film in the 32-year history of the Razzies to sweep all 10 dishonorable categories. Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino was also declared a winner in the contest that was created as an antidote to the love-fest that engulfs Hollywood around awards season that ends with the Oscars in late February. This year, the awards were handed out on April Fool’s Day in a change of tradition that for years saw the Razzies announced on the eve of the Oscars.
JAMAICA
Huge marijuana bust
Two men have been arrested after police allegedly found nearly 453kg of marijuana in their car during a routine traffic stop in a southern parish. Authorities said on Sunday that police in the parish of Clarendon signaled the driver of a sedan to stop along a main road. Police allege that a subsequent search of the car led to the discovery of a large cache of marijuana packed in plastic bags. The motorist and a passenger were taken into custody.
UNITED STATES
Banjo picker remembered
Earl Scruggs was remembered as an influential, helpful and humble banjo player who put his own mark on bluegrass music. About 2,300 mourners attended Scruggs’ public funeral on Sunday at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, where he played his songs for years on the Grand Ole Opry country music show and recorded his final album. On Sunday evening, the Academy of Country Music paid tribute to Scruggs at its annual awards show in Las Vegas. “No one will ever play the banjo like Earl,” Charlie Daniels, better known for his fiddle and guitar playing, told mourners in Nashville. Daniels recalled that when he was a young studio musician, Scruggs invited him to join the Earl Scruggs Revue. Scruggs, a four-time Grammy winner, died on Wednesday last week at age 88. The pioneering banjo player and his pickin’ partner Lester Flatt, a guitarist, had teamed up for 20 years to become the most famous duo in bluegrass history. Flatt and Scruggs were best known for their song The Ballad of Jed Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies TV series.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema