JAPAN
Eighty hurt in ferry accident
A ferry collided with what apparently was a marine animal off an island, injuring more than 80 people, local media reported. The accident happened just after noon on Saturday off Sado Island, Kyodo news agency reported, citing Japan’s coast guard. Five of the injuries were serious and a 15-centimeter crack was found at the ferry’s stern. Ferry operator Sado Steam Ship Co said the jetfoil ferry still reached its destination on the island, located off the west coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu. Coast guard officials said the ferry might have struck a whale or some other sea animal.
NIGER
Forty-five dead in attack
Seven soldiers and 38 militants died in an assault by the militant group Boko Haram in the southeast of the nation, the Ministry of Defence ministry said on Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks that have shattered months of relative calm near the Lake Chad basin. “Armed forces ... strongly repelled an attack by the terrorist group Boko Haram on the outskirts of Gueskerou,” the ministry said in a statement read on state television.
PAKISTAN
Climbers found dead
Two European mountain climbers who went missing on the Pakistani mountain Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth-tallest, were confirmed dead on Saturday by Italian Ambassador to Pakistan Stefano Pontecorvo. Pontecorvo tweeted that the search for Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard ended after a team confirmed that telescopic pictures of two silhouettes spotted at a height of about 5,900m were the bodies of the two climbers missing since Feb. 24. Ballard’s disappearance hit his homeland particularly hard because he is the son of Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to scale Mount Everest alone. She died at age 33 descending the summit of K2.
UNITED STATES
Thirty injured in turbulence
A Turkish Airlines passenger jet traveling from Istanbul to New York hit severe turbulence on Saturday as it approached its destination, with 30 people suffering injuries before it landed safely, officials said. The injured were taken from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to local hospitals, mainly for treatment of bumps, cuts and bruises. One flight attendant had a broken leg, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Steve Coleman said. The Boeing 777 was over the Atlantic Ocean, about 45 minutes from landing, when it struck the turbulence, Coleman said.
UNITED STATES
R. Kelly released from jail
R. Kelly on Saturday walked out of a Chicago jail after someone, who officials say did not want to be publicly identified, paid US$161,633 that the R&B singer owed in child support. Kelly, who was on Wednesday taken into custody after he said he did not have the entire amount he owed, briefly spoke with reporters, telling them: “I promise you, we’re going to straighten all this stuff out.’”
UNITED STATES
J-Lo engaged to A-Rod
Jennifer Lopez has said yes to Alex Rodriguez’s proposal. The couple late on Saturday posted an Instagram photograph of their hands with a massive engagement ring on Lopez’s ring finger. The former Yankees shortstop captioned his photo with “she said yes” and a heart emoji. The couple has been dating since early 2017. It will be Lopez’s fourth marriage and Rodriguez’s second.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other