Soldier wins Victoria Cross
A commando who stormed two Taliban machine gun positions and killed their gunners has become the second Australian to be awarded the British Commonwealth’s highest military honor for his service in Afghanistan. Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross yesterday at a ceremony at his Special Air Service Regiment barracks in Perth. His citation says he demonstrated conspicuous gallantry and daring during a battle last June in Kandahar against a Taliban force three times larger than his patrol.
JAPAN
GPS may track sex offenders
A regional governor is looking into plans that could see sex offenders carry a GPS-equipped mobile phone so that police can keep them under a closer watch, reports said yesterday. If the ordinance is enacted, it would be the first such legislation in the nation, Kyodo News and Jiji Press said. “It would be more desirable if such measures are uniformly adopted throughout the country, but the state is being slow to act,” said Miyagi Prefecture Governor Yoshihiro Murai, quoted by Kyodo. “So I would like to make the step in Miyagi to herald the shift,” he said at a prefectural panel meeting on Saturday. In a draft plan, the ordinance is also aimed to better monitor offenders of domestic violence while obliging sex offenders to submit their DNA data, the reports said. However, the plans will stoke public concerns because such measures could infringe on fundamental human rights.
PHILIPPINES
Missing Americans found
Rescuers say they have found five Americans aboard a sailboat that went missing en route from Guam. All those aboard are in good health. Coast guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo says a search ship guided by a spotter plane located and boarded the 11m catamaran The Pineapple after it was spotted off the southern island of Dinagat. The coast guard is escorting the vessel to its original destination on Cebu. The vessel was reported missing after apparently developing engine trouble. Tamayo says the four men and one woman on board are fine. Relatives of the Americans alerted the US Coast Guard that The Pineapple left Guam on Jan. 6, but had not reached Cebu.
MALAYSIA
Health checks mulled
Lawmakers may soon be required to undergo annual health checks after 11 elected politicians died of various illnesses in less than three years. The deaths have triggered a string of special elections to fill the vacancies and prompted the public to accuse politicians of neglecting their health. The Star newspaper quoted Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai as saying he would soon make a recommendation to the Cabinet for mandatory health examinations involving members of parliament and state legislatures. Ministry officials familiar with the plan could not immediately be reached yesterday. Two state lawmakers have died in the past month alone, one from diabetes complications and another from a heart attack.
MYANMAR
Snake smugglers arrested
Two men have been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle nearly 5,000 snakes to China. The local news journal Modern said on Saturday that the men would be charged under the Wildlife Conservation Act. China is a major market for the country’s still abundant wildlife, which is eaten or used for purported medicines and aphrodisiacs by the Chinese in vast quantities.
GAZA STRIP
Explosion kills one
A Palestinian was killed and two others were seriously wounded in an explosion on Saturday, the Hamas interior ministry said. Emergency services had said earlier the casualties were the result of Israeli artillery fire, a report denied by Israel’s military. The blast was caused by an unexploded shell left over from Israel’s assault in December 2008 and January 2009, according to the ministry. The three casualties, aged in their 20s, were taken to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after the incident, which took place to the east. An Israeli military spokesman earlier denied the army was involved in what he termed “an internal Palestinian affair,” meaning an accident while handling explosives.
PAKISTAN
Bus, tanker collision kills 32
A road accident early yesterday killed at least 32 people, including women and children, when a bus collided with an oil tanker, creating a blazing inferno, police said. The bus carrying 45 passengers hit the oil tanker on a superhighway near Jamshoro District in Sindh Province, according to police, resulting in a fire that burned most of the passengers to death. “The driver lost control of the bus and hit an oil tanker from the back side,” senior police official Mohammad Farooq told reporters at the scene. “There are women and children among the dead. Some dead bodies are beyond recognition.” Ten more people who were injured were taken to a local hospital, he added.
GERMANY
Withhold thiopental: Roesler
The health minister is urging the nation’s leading drug companies and distributors to ignore requests from the US for supplies of a key drug used in lethal injections. A spokesman for Federal Minister of Health Philipp Roesler confirmed on Saturday the minister had written a letter to the nation’s leading pharmaceutical companies “urgently” appealing to them not to respond to requests from the US for the drug, sodium thiopental. Supplies of the drug are growing short after the sole US manufacturer ceased production. It is still marketed in Germany as an anesthetic. Although the law does not prohibit sale of the drug abroad, Roesler urged drug companies to understand that its potential use in the US is not in keeping with German and European values.
SOUTH AFRICA
Torrential rain toll hits 70
The death toll from torrential rain has risen to 70, with another 8,000 people displaced, an official said on Saturday, as the government stepped up its emergency efforts. “The number of fatalities currently recorded nationally have sadly increased to 70 ... The number of displaced and affected households reported at 8,400,” cooperative governance department spokesman Vuyelwa Qinga said in a statement. She added that, after consultations with various experts, the government had decided to establish national disaster joint operations to “improve coordination of government interventions and streamline communication in relation to the disasters.” Displaced families are currently living in community halls or tents and are receiving food parcels. Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka said the flood damage was estimated at 356 million rand (US$51 million) so far with reports from some provinces yet to come in. In Mozambique, 10 people have died as a result of floods, with more than 10,000 others evacuated from their homes.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
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