BHUTAN
Election results announced
The center-left Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa party has won the most seats in parliamentary elections. The Election Commission said the party had won 30 National Assembly seats and the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa party had secured 17 seats in Oct. 18 elections. Turnout was about 71 percent, with about 313,000 eligible voters casting a ballot, it said.
JAPAN
Nobel laureate dies at 90
Marine biologist Osamu Shimomura, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, died on Friday at the age of 90, his alma mater, Nagasaki University, said yesterday. Shimomura and US scientists Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien shared the 2008 prize for the discovery and development of a jellyfish protein that later contributed to cancer studies. Shimomura was based in the US, mostly at Princeton University, for decades, but had moved back to Nagasaki to be close to his relatives, Nagasaki University officials said.
SOUTH KOREA
Fighter deal on track
A project to develop a fighter jet with Indonesia was on track, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said yesterday, and it would negotiate a way for Jakarta to pay its contribution, of which about US$200 million is unpaid. The “KF-X” fighter jet project is estimated to be worth about US$7.9 billion, and a senior Indonesian official on Friday said Jakarta it was seeking “lighter” financial terms for its 20 percent contribution.
AFGHANISTAN
Top US general wounded
A spokeswoman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission yesterday confirmed that US Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley was one of two Americans wounded in an attack on Thursday that killed the police chief of Kandahar Province. Smiley was shot when a member of the provincial governor’s bodyguard opened fire on a group of officials leaving a meeting with the top NATO commander in the country, General Scott Miller. The attack was claimed by the Taliban.
ZAMBIA
Hippo cull plan back on
The government has revived plans it suspended two years ago after protests by animal rights activists for the controlled slaughter of up to 2,000 hippos over the next five years, Minister of Tourism and Arts Charles Banda said yesterday. The hippo population could not be supported by the water levels in the Luangwa River, where most of the animals are located, while moving them elsewhere in the nation would be too costly, he said. “The South Luangwa National Park has a population of more than 13,000 hippos, but the area is only ideal for 5,000 hippos,” Banda said. British wildlife charity Born Free, which led the 2016 campaign against the culling, yesterday said the government had failed to provide robust, scientific evidence demonstrating that there is an overpopulation of hippos in the river.
ETHIOPIA
Peace deal inked with ONLF
The government on Sunday signed a peace deal with Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels from its Somali Region, whom it had outlawed as a “terrorist group.” The agreement stipulates that both sides would end hostilities and that the ONLF would “pursue its political obligations through peaceful means.” The two sides will now form a joint committee to discuss the root causes of the conflict, the agreement said.
CANADA
Quakes shake west coast
Four earthquakes — measuring from magnitude 4.9 to 6.8 — struck in quick succession off the west coast late on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said. The epicenter of the first 6.6 tremor, at 10:39pm, was 218km southwest of Port Hardy. The second quake, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, occurred 196km southwest of the town at 11:16pm. Six minutes later, a magnitude 6.5 tremor was registered 222km southwest of Port Hardy — before a weaker 4.9 quake was recorded in the same place 14 minutes after that. There were no initial reports of damage or injuries and no tsunami warnings were issued.
FRANCE
Teen charged over ‘threat’
A teenager who was filmed threatening his teacher with a fake gun in a Paris suburb was on Sunday charged with aggravated violence, prosecutors said. The incident, which was filmed and uploaded onto social media by one of the 15-year-old’s classmates, took place on Thursday last week at a high school in the suburb of Creteil. The daily Le Parisien reported that the student admitted to pointing the imitation gun at the teacher, but said it was meant “as a joke.” The video shows the boy standing over the seated teacher, brandishing what turned out to be an air gun. “You’ve marked me absent. Mark me as present,” he shouts as another student tries to plead his case with the teacher, who appears more weary than panicked and continues working on her laptop while exchanging a few inaudible remarks with the class.
EGYPT
Authorities deny organ theft
Authorities on Sunday denied allegations of organ theft after the body of a British tourist who died suddenly while on holiday was returned home without some organs. David Humphries, 62, died in the seaside resort of Hurghada on Sept. 18. His body was returned to the UK, where a second post-mortem ordered by a coroner discovered that his heart and some other organs had been removed, media reports said. The state information service said allegations of “organ theft are unfounded.” The statement said that samples were taken and the heart, parts of the liver, kidneys and other organs had been removed to establish the cause of death. It did not give an explanation as to why they had not been replaced.
UNITED STATES
Shelter dogs injured
An eastern Arkansas animal shelter said that people have broken in to use dogs there for dogfighting for the second time in two weeks, leaving five animals injured. The Humane Society of the Delta said on Facebook that a worker discovered the injured dogs on Sunday morning at the shelter in Helena-West Helena. Four dogs had been injured, one seriously. The shelter said it was not clear whether those breaking in were bringing their own dogs and using the shelter dogs for practice or were just having the shelter dogs fight each other.
UNITED STATES
Lioness kills mate
A lioness last week killed the father of her three offspring, suffocating her mate by locking her jaws onto his neck at the Indianapolis Zoo. The lions had been held together at the zoo for eight years, producing three cubs in 2015, and zookeepers had never before noticed any aggression between the two, the zoo said in a statement on Friday. The death devastated zookeepers and the cause might never be understood, curator David Hagan said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of