NORTH KOREA
Floods leave 400 missing
Pyongyang said 400 people were missing and about 212,000 were left homeless following heavy rains and floods that lasted through last month. The floods killed 169 people and injured 144, while destroying more than 8,600 houses and submerging 43,770 residential buildings, the official Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) said on Saturday. At least 65,280 hectares of farmland was damaged, KCNA said. Premier Choe Yong-rim toured Anju, where almost all public buildings and industrial facilities were flooded or destroyed, with water and power supplies cut off, KNCA said. Choe was briefed on the damages in the city and held a meeting, the agency said.
CHINA
Fake medicines seized
Police have detained almost 2,000 people in a nationwide sweep on fake drugs, seizing more than US$180 million worth of counterfeit products and destroying about 1,100 production facilities, the public security ministry said yesterday. The operation, involving about 18,000 police officers, discovered fake or adulterated drugs purporting to deal with illnesses ranging from diabetes to high blood pressure and rabies, the ministry said. The suspects even advertised their drugs online, in newspapers and on TV and the drugs caused problems ranging from liver and kidney damage to heart failure, the ministry said.
VIETNAM
Gay pride parade held
Dozens of cyclists decorated with balloons and rainbow flags streamed through Hanoi yesterday for the first-ever gay pride parade in the country. The event, organized by the city’s small, but growing Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community, went ahead peacefully with no attempt by police to stop the colorful convoy of about 100 activists. Activists said they had modified the parade route after coming under pressure from police to avoid sensitive areas where anti-China demonstrations were taking place.
JAPAN
Truman grandson visits
A grandson of former US president Harry Truman, who ordered the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II, is in Hiroshima to attend a memorial service for the victims. Clifton Truman Daniel visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Saturday and laid a wreath for the 140,000 people killed by the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing authorized by his grandfather. Daniel, 55, will attend ceremonies next week in Hiroshima and Nagasaki marking the 67th anniversary of the bombings. His visit, the first by a member of the Truman family, is sponsored by the peace group Sadako Legacy, named after Sadako Sasaki, an A-bomb victim who died of leukemia at age 12.
PAKISTAN
NATO supply route reopened
The government on Saturday allowed 14 NATO containers to cross into Afghanistan from the northwestern border checkpoint at Torkham, officials said. Islamabad had temporarily stopped NATO supplies on July 24 because of security concerns after gunmen attacked a convoy of NATO trucks, killing a driver, in the town of Jamrud. A local intelligence official also confirmed resumption of supplies and the departure of 14 NATO containers to Afghanistan. However, a senior local customs official, Ubaidullah Khan, put the figure of containers at seven, adding that they carried foodstuff and clothes.
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
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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