UNITED STATES
Quake triggers mini-tsunami
A magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck deep under the ocean floor near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, triggering shaking felt over vast distances and setting off a small tsunami, the National Tsunami Warning Center said. A tsunami warning prompted the evacuation of about 200 residents in Adak to higher ground, city manager Layton Lockett said. The warning was later downgraded to an advisory. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the quake, which was initially measured at a magnitude of 8, but later revised down. The quake was so large and deep that it triggered dozens of aftershocks in an hour and prompted enough shaking to be picked up by seismometers around the world over the next 24 hours, Alaska Earthquake Center director Mike West said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Girl mutilation ‘un-Islamic’
The Muslim Council of Britain has condemned female genital mutilation (FGM) as “un-Islamic” and told its members that FGM risks bringing the religion into disrepute. The influential council has for the first time issued explicit guidance on the controversial practice, which criticizes it and says it is “no longer linked to the teaching of Islam.” It added that one of the “basic principles” of Islam was that believers should not harm themselves or others. The organization is to send flyers to each of the 500 mosques that form its membership. They will also be distributed in community centers in a drive to eradicate a practice that affects 125 million women and girls worldwide.
SUDAN
Christian convert freed
A 27-year-old woman who was sentenced to death last month for converting to Christianity from Islam was freed on Monday after what the government said was “unprecedented” international pressure. Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, who is married to a Christian American, was ordered by a court last month to return to Islam and sentenced to 100 lashes and to death. Ibrahim was sent to a secret location for her protection, her lawyer said. Ibrahim gave birth in prison to a daughter, her second child by husband Daniel Wani, whom she married in 2011.
UNITED STATES
Mormons oust female leader
The Mormon church has excommunicated the founder of a prominent women’s group for “conduct contrary” to its laws and order, according to an e-mail cited on Monday by the woman involved. Kate Kelly, a founder of Ordain Women, said in a blog that she had been informed of her ouster after an all-male panel held a disciplinary trial over her case on Sunday. Kelly said the panel convicted her of the charge of apostasy and has decided to excommunicate her, the most serious punishment that can be levied by a ecclesiastical court. “The decision to force me outside my congregation and community is exceptionally painful,” Kelly said.
MEXICO
Skulls found in teddy bears
Inspectors found two skulls and other human remains hidden inside teddy bears at a Mexico City airport shipping company. Employees made the find when they ran the plush bears through an X-ray machine during a routine inspection, the Mexico City Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Sunday. The human remains “appear to have been recently exhumed,” the office said. Authorities arrested the man mailing the package, who said he bought the skulls at a market. The man said the skulls “are in demand abroad by people who practice Santeria,” an Afro-Caribbean syncretic religion.
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