SOUTH KOREA
Generals probed for golfing
The government is probing reports that top military officials played golf last weekend instead of tending to surging tensions with North Korea, a presidential spokesman said yesterday. Various newspapers reported that a military golf course in Seoul was crowded with senior army officers, including ranking generals, on Saturday and Sunday. The nation is currently bracing for a possible military provocation from North Korea, which has announced it is scrapping the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, as well as peace pacts signed with Seoul. “The office of the senior civil affairs secretary has immediately launched an inquiry to determine what has exactly happened regarding the reports about military golf,” presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung told reporters. The Ministry of Defense said some generals had played golf, but stressed they did not include anyone in sensitive positions.
BULGARIA
Rolex fails to pay church bill
A top cleric on Sunday failed to sell his gold Rolex watch to pay the electricity bill of his cash-strapped church as there were no takers for the watch in the EU’s poorest country. Metropolitan Nikolay of the southern city of Plovdiv decided to sell the watch last month to pay the almost 3,000 leva (US$2,000) power bill of the Saint Marina Church. “I’d rather go to heaven without a watch than to hell with one,” the BTA news agency quoted him as then saying. However, a public tender for the Rolex failed to attract any bidders on Sunday due to its high asking price of 11,600 leva. The nation’s Orthodox Church is the largest property owner in the country after the state, but is short of funds to cover utility bills and its clergy receive a pittance in salary.
KENYA
Obama’s brother loses poll
His half-brother may be the most powerful man in the world, but that stardust did not seem to rub off on Malik Obama as he failed miserably to win a Siaya County gubernatorial seat in recently concluded polls. Obama, 54, who shares a father with US President Barack Obama, won just 2,792 votes — about 140,000 behind the final winner — in his bid to claim the seat for his home area. Standing well above 1.8m, Malik Obama, who describes himself as an economist and financial analyst, told reporters on the campaign trail that he would use his contacts with Washington to bring development to the rural backwater he hoped to govern. “Why would my people settle for a local connection when they have a direct line to the White House?” he asked. Campaigning under the slogan “Obama here, Obama there,” he said he dreamed of bringing chains like McDonald’s to the area and launching a bid for the presidency.
UNITED KINGDOM
Tube reunites widow, spouse
A widow’s wish to hear her late husband’s voice again has prompted the London Underground to restore a 40-year-old recording of the subway’s famous “mind the gap” announcement. The subway system said it tracked down the voice recording by Oswald Lawrence after his widow, Margaret McCollum, wrote to ask for a copy of it when she noticed it was not broadcast in the system anymore. McCollum said she used to frequently visit Embankment Station to hear her husband’s voice, but was disappointed when it was not there last year. London Underground director Nigel Holness said staff were so moved by McCollum’s story that they dug up the recording and gave the widow a copy of it on a CD. Staff are also working on restoring the announcement, he added.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
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
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS