VIETNAM
Typhoon kills 27
Extreme weather caused by Typhoon Rammasun has killed 27 people, with the storm unleashing flash floods, landslides and lightning strikes, officials said yesterday. Heavy rain flooded 7,200 houses and 4,200 hectares of cropland, with the north of the country worst hit, the national flood and storm control committee said. The cost of the damage was estimated at about US$6 million.
INDIA
Medical kickbacks probed
The government has ordered an investigation into doctors and laboratories suspected of offering kickbacks for referring patients for medical tests, following a sting operation by Hindi news channel News Nation TV. The channel showed laboratories in New Delhi offering commissions as high as 50 percent to doctors who referred patients to their diagnostic centers. Officials at one laboratory visited by News Nation’s undercover reporters said they had kickback arrangements with 10,000 doctors, with monthly payments running into tens of thousands of rupees for some neurosurgeons who prescribe expensive tests.
TURKEY
Police officers arrested
Authorities yesterday arrested 55 senior police officers in a criminal probe over alleged corruption and abuse of office, the latest apparent crackdown on opponents of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of presidential polls. Forty serving and former top police officers were arrested in Istanbul, including the former head of the anti-terrorism unit of Istanbul police, television reports said. Fifteen others were arrested elsewhere. The suspects are accused of espionage, illegal wire-tapping, forgery in official documents, violation of privacy, fabricating evidence, and violation of secrecy of investigation.
PHILIPPINES
Bishops caution president
Catholic bishops yesterday warned President Benigno Aquino III to resist temptations to bully the Supreme Court to reverse a decision that an economic stimulus fund was illegal, asking him to uphold the constitution. Aquino has warned the court of a possible constitutional crisis if it does not reverse its decision that the Disbursement Acceleration Program was illegal. “There is a very important distinction between what is popular — or appears to be so — and what is right,” said Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
AUSTRALIA
Senator sorry about joke
A federal senator who told breakfast radio she would only date men who were rich and “well-hung” apologized yesterday, saying she had tried to hide her embarrassment with a joke. Jacqui Lambie told Tasmania’s Heart 107.3 that she had not been in a relationship for more than a decade. When the hosts offered to help her find love, she replied: “Now they must have heaps of cash and they’ve got to have a package between their legs, let’s be honest. And I don’t need them to speak, they don’t even need to speak.” A young male listener rang the show to say he met her criteria. “I’m just a bit concerned because you’re so young, I’m not sure you’d be able to handle Jacqui Lambie,” the politician said. “Are you well-hung?” “Like a donkey,” he replied. Lambie later apologized. “When Kim and Dave on Hobart’s Heart FM 107.3 this morning asked me about my love life in a light-hearted segment — I tried to cover up my embarrassment by making a joke,” she said. “A lot of people laughed, some people may have got offended.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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