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.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
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