AUSTRALIA
General denies reports
Defense Force chief Lieutenant General David Hurley yesterday denied reports that bodies of soldiers killed in Afghanistan were mishandled during repatriation, or that the corpse of an Afghan insurgent was mistreated. Hurley’s comments came after the Sydney Daily Telegraph said soldiers’ bodies were wrongly placed in coffin lids, with the main section of the casket set on top upside-down. The paper also highlighted an incident in which an insurgent’s corpse was put in a taxi with its legs hanging out of the window, which had become known to troops as the Weekend at Bernie’s episode.
AUSTRALIA
WWII wreck opens to divers
The wreck of a Japanese mini submarine that famously attacked Sydney Harbor during World War II will be opened to divers, authorities said yesterday, after getting approval from Tokyo To mark the 70th anniversary of the event, New South Wales Environment Minister Robyn Parker said controlled diving would be allowed. The assault came in 1942 after Japanese pilots reported Allied warships in Sydney Harbor. The commanding officer of a flotilla of five large submarines attacked the harbor with three midget submarines. One of the submarines sank the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 sailors. The submarine’s fate was unknown until 2006 when scuba divers discovered it off Sydney’s northern beaches.
AUSTRALIA
PM promotes female politics
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her Thai counterpart have announced that lawmakers will begin an exchange program between the two countries to promote women in politics. Gillard told a Parliament House lunch in honor of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday that: “As the first, we want many other women to feel the same sense of possibility that we have felt.” Three young women from Thailand will travel to Canberra next month to start a young leaders political exchange program. The Global Ambassador for Women and Girls, Penny Williams, will visit Thailand within a year to promote political and economic empowerment of women and girls.
JAPAN
Fugitive penguin treated
A plucky penguin that was recaptured last week after nearly three months at large in the polluted waters of Tokyo Bay has conjunctivitis, an aquarium official said yesterday. The Humboldt penguin was taken back into captivity after 82 days of freedom following a breakout that made global headlines. “I don’t know the exact reason for its eye disease, but in this aquarium the sea water pumped up for penguins is filtered and disinfected,” aquarium official Takashi Sugino said. A government official said water quality in Tokyo Bay has improved in recent years, but pollution by organic substances sometimes breaches national environmental standards.
INDONESIA
Briton caught with drugs
A British woman was arrested for allegedly smuggling cocaine into Bali, an official said yesterday, and may face the death penalty. Customs officials detained the woman, identified as Lindsay June Sandiford, 56, on May 19 with almost 5kg of cocaine after arriving at the airport in Denpasar from Bangkok. “We arrested the suspect after we found 4,791 grams of cocaine in her suitcase,” Denpasar airport customs chief I Made Wijaya said. The cocaine has a street value of more than 23 billion rupiah (US$2.5 million).
CANADA
Student talks to restart
Quebec students and the provincial government returned to the bargaining table yesterday in a high-stakes attempt to put an end to a months-long dispute over tuition increases that has led to clashes with police and mass arrests. The latest round of talks comes at a crucial time for the Quebec government, with thousands taking to the streets nightly in protest and Montreal’s peak tourism season fast approaching. Representatives from the province’s four largest student associations were scheduled to meet with the provincial education minister in Quebec City.
UNITED STATES
Beryl makes landfall
Tropical Storm Beryl made landfall early yesterday in northeast Florida, bringing drenching rains and driving winds to coastal areas, forecasters said. The National Hurricane Center in Miami reported that Beryl made landfall over Duval and northern St John’s counties, with near-hurricane-strength winds of 113kph. The weather system was expected to continue dumping rain over parts of Florida and Georgia yesterday, but was expected to weaken as it moved inland and become a tropical depression last night.
BRAZIL
Rio holds run for peace
Nearly 1,500 people on Sunday competed in a “Challenge for Peace” run through Rio de Janeiro’s Alemao Complex, a cluster of hilltop slums that were a drug trafficker bastion until the military wrested control 18 months ago. Residents, soldiers, Rio de Janeiro State Secretary of Security Jose Mariano Beltrame and even “ex--narcotraffickers” took part in the 5km race, up the Villa Cruzeiro hills to Morro do Alemao, according to AfroReggae, the cultural group that organized the event. The runners retraced the escape route used by narco-traffickers during the army assault in November 2010.
SOMALIA
Aid corridor secured
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali forces seized the town of Afgoye from al-Shabaab insurgents on Friday, wresting control of a strip of land between Mogadishu and a former rebel stronghold close to the capital believed to hold about 400,000 people displaced by conflict. The operation then took control of Elasha Biyaha, the last remaining al-Shabaab stronghold in the 30km corridor, making the area safe for aid groups to operate, AMISOM said late on Sunday. The rebels had used Afgoye as a strategic base to stage sporadic attacks on the Somali capital. “The week-long operation ... has enabled a free flow of civilian traffic between Afgoye and Mogadishu, and provided the opportunity for humanitarian agencies to access the area,” AMISOM said.
IRAN
Conservative made speaker
Tehran’s newly elected parliament voted yesterday to reinstate a conservative critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as temporary speaker. In the vote, 173 legislators supported Parliamentary Chairman Ali Larijani, defeating Gholam Ali Hadad Adel who gained 100 votes. Both candidates are close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but Hadad Adel supported a less confrontational approach to Ahmadinejad’s administration. Conservatives turned against the president after he was perceived to challenge Khamenei’s authority last year. Traditionally, the temporary speaker has gone on to become the permanent one. Conservative opponents of Ahmadinejad won a majority of the seats in parliament in elections this month.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
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
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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