GERMANY
Knifed official elected mayor
A Cologne city official who was stabbed in the neck in an attack, apparently over her work with refugees, was on Sunday elected the first female mayor of the city. Henriette Reker is in stable condition in hospital after being seriously injured in Saturday’s assault. Standing as an independent, though close to the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel, the 58-year-old had been the frontrunner to enter the town hall and final results gave her a clear win with 52.6 percent of the vote.
EGYPT
Polls see weak turnout
Authorities granted government workers a half-day off yesterday in an attempt to bolster low turnout in the country’s election for the first legislature since the last one was dissolved in 2012, according to the state-owned daily Al-Ahram. Yesterday was the second day of voting in 14 provinces, including Cairo’s twin city of Giza and the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Voting in the nation’s other 13 provinces, including the capital, Cairo, are to take place next month. Final results are expected in December and the 596-seat chamber is expected to hold its inaugural session later in the month. The government has not released turnout figures for voting on Sunday. The decision to give government workers a half-day off yesterday reflected deep concern over the turnout, which analysts and observers have said would not exceed 10 percent.
SPAIN
Nuke cleanup deal reached
Washington and Madrid have reached a new agreement in principle for the US to clean up land contaminated by radiation from undetonated nuclear bombs that accidentally fell on Palomares in 1966, a joint statement said yesterday. The two sides “intend to negotiate a binding agreement for a cooperative effort to conduct further remediation of the Palomares site and arrange for disposal of the contaminated soil at an appropriate site in the United States,” the statement said. On Jan. 17, 1966, a US B-52 bomber carrying four nuclear bombs collided with a tanker plane during mid-air refueling, and two thermonuclear bombs fell near Palomares. Although they did not detonate, they broke up, spreading 3.2kg of plutonium over a 200 hectare area.
UNITED STATES
Homeless have wedding feast
After a would-be groom called off his wedding in Sacramento, California, the bride-to-be’s family decided to turn the US$35,000 extravagant event into a feast for the homeless. The bride’s mother, Kari Duane, on Sunday said that rather than cancel the reception, they invited Sacramento’s homeless for a once in a lifetime meal on Saturday at the Citizen Hotel, one of the city’s finest venues. KCRA-TV reports that single people, grandparents and whole families with newborns enjoyed a meal that included appetizers, salad, gnocchi, salmon and even tri-tip sirloin. Some even dressed up for the occasion.
ITALY
Baguette measures 122m
A judge from Guinness World Records has certified a 122m baguette baked at the Milan Expo 2015 World’s Fair as the longest in the world. About 60 French and Italian bakers on Sunday worked nearly seven hours to bake the bread, methodically moving a specially designed portable oven along the length of the doughy preparation. The bakers worked at a rate of 20m an hour, their progress complicated by working outdoors and the biggest challenge: to avoid any breakage.
INDONESIA
No end in sight to fires
Forest fires that have caused choking smoke to drift across Southeast Asia are spreading to new areas and are unlikely to be put out until next year, experts said yesterday. Jakarta has come under increased pressure from its neighbors to contain the annual crisis. “Maybe it will last until December and January,” said Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research, adding that hot spots had reached Papua Province, a region that usually avoids widespread fires. “It is because people are opening new agriculture areas, like palm oil.”
HONG KONG
Police charged over beating
Seven police officers yesterday appeared in court, charged with assaulting Civic Party activist Ken Tsang Kin-chiu (曾健超) in a beating captured on a video recording and beamed around the world. Some of them wore dark glasses and surgical masks as they entered the court, while about 50 supporters gathered outside waving Chinese flags and shouting: “Support police” and “Democrats will be doomed.” The seven are charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent. One also faces an allegation of common assault on Tsang. which officials said happened in an interview room after his arrest. All were released on bail and are due to appear again on Nov. 17. Tsang also appeared in court yesterday lon assault charges, with officials saying that he splashed liquid” on police officers — not those accused of attacking him — and resisted arrest. He was also released on bail, with his case adjourned to Dec. 9.
AUSTRALIA
Surfer’s family complains
Surfing champion Mick Fanning’s battle with a huge great white shark has been spoofed by Kentucky Fried Chicken for a new advertisement in South Africa, sparking stinging criticism from his family yesterday. The 34-year-old three-time world champion made global headlines when he dramatically escaped the shark during an event at Jeffreys Bay off South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province in of July. The fast-food chain’s decision to show a lookalike reenacting the scene — then spinning a computer-generated shark above his head as he rides the perfect wave — to market a new product, has not gone down well with Fanning’s family. “I think it is very disrespectful,” said his mother, Elizabeth Osborne.
IRELAND
Man dies on plane
Police say a 24-year-old Brazilian man has collapsed and died on board an Aer Lingus flight after becoming frenetic and attacking a fellow passenger. The Sunday night flight from Lisbon to Dublin was diverted to Cork, where paramedics pronounced the man dead on arrival. Passengers said he had bitten a man sitting near him and crew members sought to handcuff him before he lost consciousness. A doctor and nurse on board failed to revive him. Cork police arrested a 44-year-old Portuguese woman traveling with the man after discovering 2kg of suspected amphetamine powder in her suitcase. The bitten passenger was admitted to a Cork hospital.
NIGERIA
Female bombers hit village
Two female suicide bombers killed at least 11 people in the northeast after hiding among residents fleeing a suspected Boko Haram attack on a remote village on Saturday night, police said on Sunday. “Residents fled to the bush ... two women who [were] disguised as fleeing locals blew themselves up ... while a gunmen shot at survivors,” an official said.
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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