INDONESIA
AirAsia search resumes
Rescuers yesterday resumed their search for 86 victims still missing from the AirAsia airplane that crashed on Dec. 28 last year with 162 people on board, an official said. National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo last week said search and rescue teams were being given a two-day break after weeks of searching in inhospitable conditions. Sixty-eight divers from the national search and rescue agency, as well as others from companies and clubs, would focus on scouring the fuselage of Flight QZ8501 and the seabed for remaining bodies, he said.
JAPAN
JAXA launches new satellite
Japan yesterday successfully launched a backup spy satellite, its aerospace agency said, after canceling an earlier lift-off due to bad weather. Tokyo put spy satellites into operation in the early 2000s after erratic neighbor North Korea fired a mid-range ballistic missile over the home islands and into the western Pacific in 1998. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries delayed the planned launch on Thursday last week of the H-2A rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center, due to the possibility of lightning during lift-off. The launch at 10:21am yesterday was successful, JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy said, adding: “We confirmed the rocket launched normally.”
BANGLADESH
Zia gets power back
Bangladesh restored power to the office of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, an official said yesterday, nearly a day after it was cut in an apparent bid to force her to call off crippling protests. A spokesman for Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said power was restored about 20 hours after a technician of the state-run power agency cut the lines, sparking a hail of criticism. Internet, satellite TV and the mobile phone network at the office, where Zia has been holed up since she launched a nationwide transport blockade early last month, remained severed. “We got back power late Saturday night. But other lines including broadband Internet, fax, cable TV and mobile phone remained snapped,” BNP spokesman Shamsuddin Dider told reporters. The power line was cut after a government minister reportedly threatened to sever the office’s electrical supply and force Zia to starve to death if she did not call off the nationwide transport blockade.
AUSTRALIA
Obituary foments criticism
Australia’s main national newspaper was facing sharp criticism over its obituary of the nation’s most famous author, whom it described as plain and overweight. The Australian newspaper’s obituary of Colleen McCullough, whose novel The Thorn Birds sold 30 million copies worldwide and who died on Thursday last week at age 77 after a long illness, opened not with a list of her myriad accomplishments, but with a description of her appearance. “Colleen McCullough, Australia’s best-selling author, was a charmer,” the obituary began. “Plain of feature, and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth. In one interview, she said: ‘I’ve never been into clothes or figure and the interesting thing is I never had any trouble attracting men.’” Soon, the hashtag #myozobituary was trending on Twitter, as people across the world mocked the publication for what many viewed as a blatantly sexist treatment of a lauded literary figure. The Australian’s editor, Clive Mathieson, declined to comment on Saturday when contacted by reporters.
NIGERIA
Boko Haram raids Maiduguri
Boko Haram fighters yesterday stormed the northeastern city of Maiduguri, sparking a battle with troops for control of the strategically crucial capital of Borno state, witnesses said. Four residents told reporters by telephone that the Muslim extremists’ assault began at about 3am and that fierce fighting was ongoing at the southern edge of the city between the insurgents and troops backed by vigilantes. “The whole city is in fear,” resident Adam Krenuwa said. “People are afraid of what will happen if Boko Haram defeats the security forces.” Boko Haram’s previous attempt to take over Maiduguri just seven days ago was repelled by the military. Resident Fannami Dalwaye said the fighting at about 9am was concentrated in Mulai, about 3km south of the city, and more vigilantes were seen deploying to the area as reinforcements. “People are fleeing into the city,” Dalwaye said.
VATICAN CITY
Two probed for child porn
The Vatican investigated two cases of child pornography possession in the past year, officials said on Saturday. The chief prosecutor of the Vatican City criminal tribunal, Gian Piero Milano, cited the two cases in a speech summarizing the tribunal’s work in 2014. The Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi, said one of the cases concerned the Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic Jozef Wesolowski. The Polish-born Wesolowski was recalled from his post in 2013 following accusations that he had sexually abused young boys. Wesolowski has been defrocked and placed under modified house arrest inside Vatican City pending a decision by the Vatican court on whether to indict him. Neither Lombardi nor Milano identified the second child pornography possession suspect.
ETHIOPIA
Leaders blast UN court
African leaders have called for the suspension or termination of charges at the International Criminal Court against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto. In a statement on Saturday, the leaders urged The Hague-based court to halt until African concerns about it and proposals to change the law that formed the international court are considered. The African Union has accused the court of disproportionately targeting Africans. The court has indicted only Africans so far. The court has issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, who has been charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It has charged Ruto with crimes against humanity.
SAUDI ARABIA
US contractors shot
Two US citizens who came under fire in Saudi Arabia this weekend are employees of a US defense contractor, the firm said yesterday, confirming the second attack in recent months against Vinnell Arabia. “We can confirm that two Vinnell Arabia employees were involved in an incident on Friday, in which they were shot at by assailants in the al-Ahsa province of Saudi Arabia,” the company said in a statement issued through a public relations firm. “Both employees were injured, but are in stable condition at a local hospital,” it added. Saudi Arabian police said earlier that one US citizen had been wounded in a shooting. “A car carrying two American nationals ... came under fire from an unknown source,” on Friday afternoon in al-Ahsa, in Eastern Province, source of most of the kingdom’s oil wealth, police said. Vinnell Arabia provides training for the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a parallel army.
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
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
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
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
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