TURKEY
Police raid jihadist houses
Police yesterday detained about 30 Islamic State suspects in a dawn raid, a day after a deadly shootout with a group of the jihadists, local media reported. Simultaneous operations were launched against Islamic State group cell houses in the conservative central Anatolian city of Konya, the Dogan news agency reported. On Monday, two policemen and seven Islamic State suspects were killed in a gunbattle in the Kurdish majority city of Diyarbakir. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday vowed to press ahead with operations against all “terrorists,” including the Islamic State and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
IRAN
‘Advisors’ sent to Syria
A top official yesterday said the Revolutionary Guard has sent more military advisers to Syria to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the fight against insurgents. General Hossein Salami, the Guard’s deputy leader, said on state television that the deployment has led to more advisors’ deaths in the conflict, although he did not give any specifics for the death toll or for the number of troops dispatched. He said Tehran’s forces are also trying to mobilize volunteers in Syria to help al-Assad push back rebels, though he did not say if those included Western-backed rebel groups fighting in Syria.
REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Referendum backs change
More than 92 percent of voters approved a change to the constitution that will allow President Denis Sassou Nguesso to run for a third consecutive term in next year’s elections, results of a referendum showed yesterday. Turnout in Sunday’s referendum was 72 percent, according to figures read by the electoral commission on radio. The opposition boycotted the poll and a senior opposition leader said it should be annulled due to low turnout.
RUSSIA
Caviar hidden in hearse
Police in the Khabarovsk region stopped a hearse speeding on a highway — only to find half a tonne of caviar stashed inside. The Ministry of the Interior’s department in the region yesterday said the hearse was caught speeding on the road connecting Khabarovsk to a city further north. When police officers asked the driver to open the car they saw plastic containers with caviar hidden under the wreaths lying next to a casket. More caviar was found inside the casket, which did not contain a body. The driver and his partner, who both work for a funeral director, told the police they had been hired by a man in a village outside Khabarovsk who asked them to take the casket with the body of a female relative to a city morgue. The men insisted that they had no idea what was inside the casket. The government strictly regulates caviar production and limited to about 50 sturgeon farms.
CHINA
Record fried rice bid fails
Guinness World Records has denied Yangzhou’s attempt at a new mark for the biggest serving of fried rice ever cooked, saying the city violated rules by wasting 150kg of the feast. Organizers said 4 tonnes of cooked fried rice was distributed to five different outlets, but one portion had been handled inappropriately, violating the organization’s rules requiring that the food be edible and not be wasted. Media reports said the record attempt on Thursday last week involved 300 cooks frying up the dish in individual woks before ladling it into one giant bowl for presentation.
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”
RSS