The governing council that aims to oversee a political transition in Haiti on Wednesday vowed to restore “public and democratic order” in its first statement to the Caribbean nation wracked by a security crisis.Haiti, which has long grappled with spiraling violence, has been rocked by an uptick in c
ARMED FORCES DAY: It is disheartening to see young people ‘becoming scapegoats of insurgents and misled by propaganda through media sabotage,’ a general said
The head of Myanmar’s ruling military council marked Armed Forces Day on Wednesday with a speech saying that the nation’s youth were being tricked into supporting the resistance against army rule, and that ethnic armed groups allied with the resistance engage in drug trafficking, natural resources s
Japan’s moon lander woke up after unexpectedly surviving a second frigid, two-week lunar night and transmitted new images back to Earth, the country’s space agency said yesterday.The uncrewed Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe touched down in January, making Japan only the fifth nation
More than 130 Nigerian schoolchildren freed following a mass kidnapping have been reunited with their families and were expected to return home yesterday, a state governor’s spokesman told reporters.Gunmen abducted the children from their school in northwestern Kuriga village on March 7, prompting a
A robotic dog is being thanked by state police in Massachusetts for helping avert a tragedy involving a person barricaded in a home.The robotic dog, named Roscoe, is part of the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad. It was deployed on March 6 in a Barnstable house after police were fired upon.Polic
NEW ZEALANDWhale rights proposedThe Maori king yesterday said that whales should be granted the same legal rights as people in a bid to protect them. Kiingi Tuheitia Potatau te Wherowhero VII said that marine mammals should be given inherent human rights, such as having a healthy environment, to all
Waves crash against a lighthouse during Storm Nelson in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, yesterday.
LONG TIME COMING: Advocates have struggled for years to pass a marriage equality law, which if passed in the Senate would make the kingdom the third in Asia to do so
Lawmakers in the Thai House of Representatives yesterday overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill that would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender.The bill passed its final reading with the approval of 400 of the 415 members
Former US president Donald Trump was on Tuesday issued a judge’s gag order barring him from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff ahead of his April 15 criminal trial involving hush money paid to a porn star.New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan granted a request by the office of
INTERNET AGE: While the number of those who said they engaged in physical fighting remained stable, those who said they participated in cyberbullying increased
About 16 percent of children aged 11 to 15 were cyberbullied in 2022, up from 13 percent four years ago, a WHO Europe report covering 44 countries said yesterday.“This report is a wake-up call for all of us to address bullying and violence, whenever and wherever it happens,” WHO Regional Director fo
Kenyan authorities on Tuesday began releasing the bodies of victims of a doomsday starvation cult to distraught relatives, almost a year since the discovery of mass graves in a grisly case that shocked the world.One tearful family received four bodies that were loaded into a hearse from a morgue in
Japan’s plummeting birthrate has led a diaper manufacturer to stop making them for babies at home and instead ramp up production for adults, the company said on Tuesday.Oji Holdings is to wrap up domestic output of infant diapers in September, after production dropped from a 2001 peak of about 700 m
Australia’s carbon credit scheme was undermined by damning new research yesterday, which found a world-leading reforestation project had been an underperforming “catastrophe.”Vast swathes of land across Australia’s desert outback have been earmarked for native forest regeneration, which is meant to
AUSTRALIALandmark treaty signedCanberra and Funafuti are pressing ahead with a landmark treaty offering the Pacific Island’s citizens a climate refuge, quieting speculation about the fate of the pact. The 11-page treaty was presented to the Australian Parliament late on Tuesday — offering Tuvalu res
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals
Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles.The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected
NO EARLY RELEASE: The territory has scrapped a possible one-third prison sentence reduction for those who contravened the national security law
Hong Kong’s leader yesterday said that people convicted on national security charges would no longer be eligible for early release for good behavior under a new law enacted by the territory’s authorities at the weekend.His comments came after local media reported that democracy advocate Ma Chun-man
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said for the first time that “radical Islamists” were behind last week’s attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, but suggested they were linked to Ukraine somehow.Eleven people have been detained in connection with the attack, which saw camouflaged gunmen
A Malaysian court yesterday charged five executives from a mini-mart chain and its supplier with hurting religious feelings after several pairs of socks emblazoned with the word “Allah” were put on sale in one of its stores.The case had drawn a rare royal rebuke from Malaysia’s king, who called for
She has crisscrossed the US saying she is an Irish heiress, a psychic and good friends with a movie star so as to run scores of scams, her victims say, but now Marianne Smyth is in a Maine jail awaiting a hearing next month that would decide whether she can be extradited to the UK over a scam dating
Australian emergency workers yesterday said that they rescued a man who was stuck in a Brisbane storm drain for 36 hours after apparently trying to retrieve a dropped mobile phone.The man, in his 30s, reportedly entered the tropical city’s grimy underworld at the weekend.After refusing a passerby’s