NEPAL
Yadav to be treated in Japan
President Ram Baran Yadav was to fly to Japan yesterday for medical treatment after he was diagnosed with intestinal problems, a spokesman said. The 70-year-old fell ill two days earlier and was admitted to a hospital in the capital late on Saturday, his press adviser, Rajendra Dahal, told reporters. X-rays showed a dark “stain in his large intestine,” Dahal said. “The doctors suggested to us to seek treatment abroad. So he is leaving for Japan this afternoon for further treatment.” Yadav was elected president by parliament in July 2008 after the 240-year-old monarchy was abolished.
NEW ZEALAND
Briton survives 15-story drop
A British man who survived a fall from a 15th-story apartment balcony was “extraordinarily” lucky to be alive, officials said yesterday. The 20-year-old, identified by local media as Tom Stilwell from Brighton, was in a stable condition after his plunge on Sunday morning, Auckland Central Hospital said. Police said he found he was locked out of his 14th-floor apartment when he returned home from going out with friends. He woke a neighbor on the 15th floor, telling her he wanted to clamber down from her balcony onto his own. The neighbor, Geraldine Bautista, said the man appeared “tipsy” and she allowed him into her apartment, intending to point out to him how foolhardy his plan was. Instead, she said he immediately tried to lower himself from her balcony and slipped as she tried to grab him. “I thought I was dreaming. It happened so fast. It happened within seconds,” she told the New Zealand Herald. St John Ambulance medical director Tony Smith said the man’s fall was broken by an adjacent roof, although he still dropped 13 stories. “Survival from falls of that height are extraordinarily unusual,” he said. Stilwell suffered back and neck fractures as well as internal injuries, a broken wrist and grazes, but was awake and able to laugh about his ordeal, his roommate, Beth Goodwin, told Fairfax Media.
AUSTRALIA
Scammers rake in millions
Australians were fleeced out of more than A$93 million (US$90 million) last year by scammers, and officials yesterday said they believe it was just the tip of the iceberg. The money lost on scams was up 9 percent from the previous year with a big jump in online shopping scams, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a new report. The biggest fraud was people being asked to pay to access a share in a sum of money they are told they are owed, with gullible Australians handing over more than A$30 million. This was followed by A$23.3 million being sent to someone they think they are in an online relationship with, but is in fact a con. Online shopping fraud, using increasingly sophisticated fake logos, e-mails or Web sites, raked in more than A$4 million.
EGYPT
Morsi makes allies governors
President Mohamed Morsi put Islamist allies in key positions across the country as he braces for protests on the first anniversary of his inauguration at the end of the month. Seven of the new governors listed by the state news agency are members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. The newly appointed Luxor Governor Adel Mohamed al-Khayat is a member of the Building and Development Party, established by Al Gamaa al-Islamiya, an Islamist group that was involved in attacks in Luxor that killed about 60 tourists in the late 1990s, but later renounced violence.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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