AUSTRALIA
Croc takes night-swimmer
A woman is feared dead after being seized by a crocodile during a nighttime swim with a friend at a beach in the north of the nation. The women went for a stroll on Thornton Beach on Sunday evening in the far north of Queensland State before making a fateful decision to take a dip in an area known to be infested with the reptiles. “The woman was swimming with a female friend, also in her 40s, at 10:30pm when the incident occurred,” police said in a statement. Nine News cited witnesses as hearing the woman yell: “A croc’s got me, a croc’s got me.” Senior Constable Russell Parker said the women — Australians visiting the area — were in the water when one of them was grabbed, with her friend desperately trying to drag her to safety. “Her friend raised the alarm with a nearby business and they subsequently contacted the police,” Parker said. A rescue helicopter was sent up with thermal imaging equipment, but was unable to find the missing woman. Marine police also failed to do so when the search resumed yesterday. Parker added that the surviving woman was “very, very shaken and shocked” but appeared to have escaped with only grazes.
INDIA
Police arrest alleged rapists
Police have arrested two men over the gang rape of a teenage girl whose body was found hanging from a tree. The girl, reportedly 15 and from one of the low social castes, was strangled — allegedly by three men — on Friday night outside her village in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Her body was found the next morning hanging by her scarf from a tree about 1km from her home in Bahraich district, police Superintendent Salik Ram Verma said. Two men were arrested and “the third accused is on the run,” Verma told reporters. The girl had left her sleeping family to secretly meet one of the men, only to discover that he had brought along two of his friends, who attacked her. “When the girl resisted their bid, she was raped and later strangled. To make it look like a case of suicide, they hung her body from a tree and left the spot,” Verma told reporters. Four police constables have also been suspended after an initial lack of action over the incident sparked outrage.
SOUTH KOREA
Ban denies interest in top job
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday denied that his current visit to the nation is testing the waters for a presidential bid, saying his comments on the subject had been exaggerated. Ban arrived in his home country last week for a six-day visit that has been dominated by speculation over a possible run for the presidency next year, after he steps down from his UN post at the end of this year. An initial statement that he might seek “advice” on what to do when he returns home as an ordinary citizen, was jumped on by local media as the clearest indication yet that he is considering the role. However, Ban yesterday said he was “baffled” by the “exaggerated” spin put on his remarks.
UGANDA
N Korean ties cooled
The nation promised to halt military cooperation with old ally North Korea after a visit to Kampala by South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Sunday. North Korea has for many years sent military trainers to the nation, but Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa said the relationship would now end. “We are disengaging the cooperation we have with North Korea as a result of UN sanctions,” Kutesa said. “Our policy is that we do not support nuclear proliferation.”
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
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing