■ TURKEY
Nuclear talks slow going
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana ruled out yesterday any "great breakthrough" in his talks with Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani on Tehran's controversial nuclear program. "We had a constructive meeting [but] we will not be in a position to make a great breakthrough during this visit," he told reporters. Solana and Larijani arrived on Wednesday and had a five-hour meeting about ending the stand-off resulting from Iran's defiance of UN Security Council demands for it to stop enriching uranium. Speaking to reporters late on Wednesday, Larijani reported some progress, telling reporters: "There are ideas on the table ... In about two weeks time again we would be having some more talks."
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Blaze halts trains
Trains stopped running and more than 200 people evacuated yesterday because of a large fire near railway tracks in south London, the fire brigade and Southeastern trains said. "A range of buildings of one or two floors in an area of 150 by 50m, 60 percent of buildings are alight," a fire brigade spokeswoman said. The fire took place in Lewisham. The spokeswoman said a 200m exclusion zone had been thrown up around the area and about 200 people evacuated by police. No one was hurt and about 40 firefighting trucks were on the scene.
■ UNITED STATES
Calls for Wolfowitz to quit
Calls for the resignation of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz grew on Wednesday as the European Parliament voiced its displeasure over allegations that Wolfowitz showed favoritism in arranging a promotion and pay package for his girlfriend. The demand by the EU's legislature that the development chief step down comes as a special panel at the bank is investigating whether Wolfowitz violated any bank rules in his handling of the promotion of bank employee Shaha Riza to a high-paying job at the State Department in 2005. The World Bank's 24-member board will ultimately decide what action, if any, to take.
■ UNITED STATES
Cops nab Captain America
A man dressed as the comic book hero Captain America was arrested after allegedly grabbing a woman inappropriately at a Florida bar and fighting with her boyfriend. Raymond Adamcik, 54, was arrested on Saturday night. He later tried to flush marijuana he had likely hidden in his costume down a toilet at a police station, police spokeswoman Jill Frederiksen said. She said a number of patrons at the bar were dressed in costumes as part of a bar crawl. A handful of people dressed as Captain America were asked to step outside so the woman could identify the individual, Frederiksen said.
■ GAMBIA
AIDS expert speaks out
One of Africa's leading AIDS specialists, Souleymane Mboup, has accused the Gambian government of covertly obtaining blood tests from his laboratory to try to convince the world of the efficacy of the Gambian president's herbal remedy for the disease. President Yahya Jammeh has been treating people with HIV in the compound of the presidential palace with herbal rubs and drinks, which he claims are a cure. To the alarm of the International Aids Society (IAS) his patients have stopped taking antiretroviral drugs.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
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