JAPAN
Luxurious pileup ends race
An outing of luxury sportscar enthusiasts ended in an expensive freeway pileup — smashing a stunning eight Ferraris, a Lamborghini and two Mercedes. Police said they believe the accident on Sunday was touched off when the driver of one of the Ferraris tried to change lanes and hit the median barrier. He spun across the freeway and the other cars collided while trying to avoid hitting his car. Video of the crash aired by NTV, a major national network, showed several smashed, bright red Ferraris cluttering the freeway. No one was seriously injured, but police in Yamaguchi Prefecture said 10 people were treated for bruises and cuts. Police said 14 cars were involved altogether.
Photo: Reuters/Kyodo
THAILAND
King calls for unity
King Bhumibol Adulyadej called for his countrymen to unite against the worst floods in half a century. The monarch spoke to mark his 84th birthday and amid deep political divisions plaguing the country. Bhumibol spoke yesterday at the ceremonial Grand Palace for about five minutes after being driven from a nearby hospital where he has been staying for more than two years. More than one-fifth of the nation’s 64 million people have been affected by the ongoing flood crisis, which began in late July. The king was originally hospitalized in September 2009 with a lung inflammation. Official statements said he remained at the hospital for physical therapy and nourishment to recover his strength.
CHINA
Smog cancels Beijing flights
Beijing authorities cancelled hundreds of flights and shut highways as thick smog descended on the nation’s capital on Sunday and yesterday, reducing visibility at one of the world’s busiest airports. Air quality in Beijing reached “hazardous” levels yesterday, according to the US embassy, which conducts its own measurements, while Xinhua news agency said pollution was likely to reach “dangerous” levels. Nearly 400 flights were canceled on Sunday, state television network CCTV reported. By midday yesterday, Beijing’s main airport — the second busiest in the world — had canceled 132 domestic and five international flights, according to its Web site.
PHILIPPINES
Alleged poachers charged
Six Chinese fishermen accused of poaching endangered sea turtles were charged in a court yesterday, part of efforts to protect threatened wildlife along the country’s coastline. Authorities discovered a batch of giant green turtles after intercepting the fishermen’s speedboat in waters off the western province of Palawan on Friday, military spokesman Major Niel Estrella said. A joint team from the navy, coast guard and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources made the seizure. Nine of the turtles were already dead, but three were released alive back into the waters after being tagged, said Glenda Cadigal, a wildlife specialist at the Palawan Council. Authorities filed criminal charges under the Wildlife Act and Fisheries Code at the Palawan Regional Trial Court in Puerto Princessa, said Adelina Villena, chief lawyer for the government’s Palawan Council for Sustainable Development. If found guilty on all charges, the fishermen would face up to 24 years in prison.
SYRIA
Free press blogger arrested
Authorities arrested a blogger on Sunday who was traveling to Jordan to attend a conference on freedom of the press in the region, her friends said. Razan Ghazzawi, 30, is the latest among scores of bloggers and journalists arrested since the break out of street protests against President Bashar al-Assad. “She was arrested as she presented her passport to immigration at the Syrian border post of Nassib to cross to Jordan,” one of her friends said. Ghazzawi’s last posting on www.razanghazzwi.com reported the release of fellow blogger Hussein Ghreir, freed last week after 37 days in jail. Ghazzawi said Ghreir was lucky because he had spent most of his incarceration in a regular jail, compared with detention at secret police dungeons, home to “the worst kinds of torture.”
CROATIA
Center-left bloc wins poll
The center-left opposition bloc won Sunday’s general elections by a wide margin, according to partial official results based on more than 50 percent of votes counted nationwide. The four-party coalition led by the Social Democrats will hold 76 seats in the 151-member parliament against 47 seats for the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the results showed. The electoral commission released percentages for each constituency, while national TV translated them into seats.
SLOVENIA
Center-left wins election
A new center-left party headed by Ljubljana’s popular millionaire mayor won a surprise victory in Slovenian elections, the electoral commission announced yesterday, with 99.8 percent of votes counted. Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic’s Positive Slovenia, created two months ago specially for Sunday’s elections, won 28.53 percent of the vote, against 26.26 percent for the center-right favorites, the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) of former prime minister Janez Jansa. Crashing to third place in the struggling eurozone member state were the governing Social Democrats of Prime Minister Borut Pahor, with just 10.48 percent, compared with 30.5 percent during the last election in 2008.
NIGERIA
Muslim extremists raid town
Gunmen from a radical Muslim sect raided a town in the north of the country early on Sunday morning, bombing police stations and robbing banks in an attack that killed at least six people, authorities said. The attack in Azare in Bauchi State mirrored other recent attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram, showing their ability to strike at will in the Muslim north. The attack also shows the group remains focused on raising cash for future attacks in the oil-rich nation. Sect members bombed two police stations in the city and robbed local branches for bank chains Guaranty Trust Bank PLC and Intercontinental Bank PLC, Bauchi police commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba said. One police officer, one soldier and four civilians were killed during the five-hour attack, he said.
IRAN
US spy drone shot down
The country’s armed forces have shot down an unmanned US spy plane that violated the nation’s airspace along the eastern border, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday. An unidentified military official quoted in the report warned of a strong and crushing response to any violations of the country’s airspace by US drone aircraft.
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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