POLAND
Director Wajda dies at 90
One of the nation’s most famous film directors, Andrzej Wajda, has died at the age of 90. Fans, filmmakers and political leaders went online to pay tribute to the man whose work focused on the nation’s culture and history. One of his best-known releases, 1957’s Canal, showed the struggle of the underground army in the Warsaw uprising. Wajda, who died on Sunday night, received an Academy Honorary Award in 2000 in recognition of five decades of work. His films won a Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival, a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and four nominations for Academy Awards.
FRANCE
UK urged to accept kids
The government yesterday said Britain had a “moral duty” to take in hundreds of migrant children from the Jungle camp in Calais desperately seeking to cross the English Channel. “I am solemnly asking Britain to assume its moral duty,” French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve told RTL radio ahead of a trip to London to meet his British counterpart, Home Secretary Amber Rudd. “There are several hundred unaccompanied minors in Calais who have family in Britain. We are in the process of drawing up a precise list and the British need to live up to their responsibilities. We have lived up to ours,” Cazeneuve said.
GEORGIA
Ruling party wins election
The ruling party decisively won parliamentary elections, firming its grip on power in the former Soviet nation, near-complete results showed on Sunday. With 99.41 percent of the votes counted, data from the Central Election Commission gave the ruling Georgian Dream party 48.61 percent of the vote and the opposition United National Movement 27.04 percent. Georgian Dream, which is pro-Western, but also favors closer ties with Russia, declared victory shortly after polls closed on Saturday.
UNITED STATES
Five killed in car crash
Five Vermont high-school students were killed when the car they were riding in was hit by a truck driving in the opposite direction on an interstate. Authorities said the driver then stole a police cruiser and crashed into seven more cars before the cruiser burst into flames. State police said they believe Steven Bourgoin, 36, was behind the wheel of a pickup truck traveling the wrong way on an interstate in Williston on Saturday night when he crashed into a car, which then caught fire. A Williston police officer was the first to arrive on the scene. As he tried to extinguish the fire, a man, later identified as Bourgoin, jumped into the officer’s cruiser and took off.
MEXICO
Bone fragments discovered
More than 4,000 bone fragments have been found in a field in a violence-plagued northern region since last year, but most of the remains are linked to just three bodies. An association of families of missing people, Grupo Vida, has been combing the area of Patrocinio, on the slope of a mountain in Coahuila state, for remains of their loved ones. Group spokeswoman Silvia Ortiz said about 700 bone fragments were found in the past week alone in what she calls an area of “extermination due to the condition of the bones.” The local government acknowledged late on Saturday that 3,488 bone fragments, including a jawbone, teeth and finger bones, had been found. “It’s not 3,488 people,” the government said. “Through these fragments, we were able to determine they belong to three different people” via forensic tests.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban attack Lashkar Gah
Officials say Taliban insurgents have launched a large-scale attack on Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand Province. Ministry of the Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqqi yesterday said that the militants have attacked security checkpoints inside the city, but that security forces “will soon push them back.” A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, says the insurgents are advancing through the city. Helmand is strategically important for the Taliban as it is the source of opium worth an estimated US$4 billion a year, much of which funds the war.
CAMBODIA
Guards, protesters clash
Land rights protesters yesterday clashed with city security guards as demonstrators in Phnom Penh called on the government to end forced evictions. A video circulated on Facebook showed security guards punching and slapping protesters. The protesters, many holding models of homes over their heads, were marking World Habitat Day, which took place last week as a reminder of people’s right to shelter. Phnom Penh City Hall spokesman Mean Chanyada said that a journalist and a human rights worker were injured in the clash and that the use of violence was necessary to stop hundreds of demonstrators from marching forward. “There was a small clash because the protesters didn’t follow instructions of the authorities to gather only at one place,” Chanyada said.
CHINA
Beijing blames Bangkok
It was the Thai government that made a decision to block the entry of Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) last week, Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong (李保東) said yesterday. Wong, 19, was detained at Bangkok’s international airport, after he had been invited to speak at universities about Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Movement” protests and on setting up his political party. “As for Joshua Wong, him not being allowed into Thailand, this was the Thai government’s decision made in accordance with its relevant immigration rules and laws,” Li said. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has said Wong’s expulsion was a matter for Beijing, not Thailand.
MYANMAR
Trio on trial over cows
Three Muslim men yesterday went on trial for illegally importing nearly 100 cows that have spent the past month under police protection, in a case Muslim leaders say targets their religion. The cows were intended to be ritually slaughtered for the Eid al-Adha last month. Police took possession of cattle last month after a monk complained they had been brought into the country illegally. One of the men, Myo Myint, in his 60s, has heart disease and had to be supported by police as he entered the courtroom. His son, Ye Zarni Tun We, said he was “sure” the animals were bought in the country, adding: “We have documents for purchasing the cows.” The men were remanded in custody until their next hearing.
ETHOPIA
State of emergency declared
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on Sunday declared a six-month nationwide state of emergency, saying months of unrest threatened the nation’s stability. “A state of emergency has been declared because the situation posed a threat against the people of the country,” Hailemariam said on state-run television. “Vital infrastructure, businesses, health and education centers, as well as government offices, and courts have been destroyed.”
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