FIJI
Cyclone warning issued
The government yesterday warned residents to brace for destructive winds as Tropical Cyclone Ula bore down on the nation. Meteorologists reported the category three storm had maintained its intensity after forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes on Saturday in Tonga. It was tracking southwest toward eastern Lau Island packing winds of 150kph at its center, the Fiji Meteorological Centre said. “Initially it showed that it was going to weaken, however, it has slowed down and maintained its intensity over the last 12 to 24 hours,” Fiji director of meteorology Ravind Kumar told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The cyclone was expected to pass within 65km of the island of Ono-i-Lau late yesterday.
THAILAND
Two tourists drown
A Chinese and an Australian tourist on Saturday died in separate swimming accidents off Koh Samui. Police Lieutenant Colonel Apichart Jansamret said the drownings occured off Chaweng Beach during high tide. Two other people were injured. He said there were “no swimming” signs and red flags in place. Apichart said that the sea at the beach looks misleadingly calm as a pond, but that it is easy to fall into deep water. “The tourists must have thought they could manage it and that it’s similar to their country, but that’s the problem,” he said.
HONG KONG
Tax increase likely: Chan
The territory is likely to need to raise taxes and introduce new levies, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury K. C. Chan (陳家強) said yesterday. “Facing a fiscal gap brought by an aging population, raising taxes is inevitable,” he said in his blog. The government last month started a public consultation period to identify ways to enhance retirement protection.
UNITED STATES
‘Winter’ not coming yet
Game of Thrones fans were let down on Saturday, when author George R.R. Martin admitted he had missed Thursday’s deadline to complete the latest installment in the fantasy series. “The Winds of Winter is not finished,” Martin announced in a lengthy blog post shortly after midnight. “You’re disappointed, and you’re not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed ... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me.” Martin had hoped to submit the manuscript to his publishers by late last year so The Winds of Winter, the sixth volume of the series A Song of Ice and Fire, could be published early this year. The author also missed a previous deadline, at Halloween, on the last day of October. With the latest delay, Martin warned, The Winds of Winter would “most certainly” not be published before the sixth season of Games of Thrones begins to air on HBO in April.
UNITED STATES
Lover becomes organ donor
A New Hampshire man found his perfect match in more ways than one when he first met his girlfriend on a golf course last summer. Forty-nine-year-old Jack Simard of Manchester is slated for his second kidney transplant around Valentine’s Day and the donor is his girlfriend, Michelle LaBranche. WMUR-TV reported that the two avid golfers met at Stonebridge Country Club in Goffstown and fell in love. When LaBranche found out Simard was seeking a kidney donor, she tested to see if she was eligible without telling him. Doctors were surprised that her kidneys turned out to be compatible. Simard’s first kidney transplant was 19 years ago. His sister was the donor.
UNITED STATES
Twins born in different years
Twins in San Diego, California, are getting some attention because, though born just minutes apart, one has a birthday last year and one this year. Jaelyn Valenica was born on New Year’s Eve at 11:59pm Her twin brother, Luis Valencia Jr, arrived at 12:01am on New Year’s Day. KGTV-TV reported that the babies were due at the end of this month, but doctors at San Diego Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center called the mother in, because one was in a breech position.
PANAMA
Consortium urged to hurry
President Juan Carlos Varela on Saturday urged the Spanish-led consortium expanding the Panama Canal to leave legal disputes to the “competent authorities” and focus instead on completing its work on the waterway. The appeal came after the Dispute Adjudication Board hearing a budget overrun dispute for the project ordered the Panama Canal Authority to pay the consortium US$17 million for extra labor costs and for a strike called by workers. “With respect, I am calling on the contractors for the expansion project to hold dialogue with the Panama Canal Authority, to allow work to be completed, to leave legal disputes in the hands of the competent authorities and to avoid mediatized differences that in no way help the image of the contractors, the Canal Authority and the Republic of Panama,” Varela said. The appeal was made as part of Varela’s address to the Central American country as the congress began its legislative sessions for this year. Grupo Unidos por el Canal de Panama consortium’s expansion work on the canal, started in 2007, is running well behind schedule.
FIJI
Cyclone warning issued
The government yesterday warned residents to brace for destructive winds as Tropical Cyclone Ula bore down on the nation. Meteorologists reported the category three storm had maintained its intensity after forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes on Saturday in Tonga. It was tracking southwest toward eastern Lau Island packing winds of 150kph at its center, the Fiji Meteorological Centre said. “Initially it showed that it was going to weaken, however, it has slowed down and maintained its intensity over the last 12 to 24 hours,” Fiji director of meteorology Ravind Kumar told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The cyclone was expected to pass within 65km of the island of Ono-i-Lau late yesterday.
THAILAND
Two tourists drown
A Chinese and an Australian tourist on Saturday died in separate swimming accidents off Koh Samui. Police Lieutenant Colonel Apichart Jansamret said the drownings occured off Chaweng Beach during high tide. Two other people were injured. He said there were “no swimming” signs and red flags in place. Apichart said that the sea at the beach looks misleadingly calm as a pond, but that it is easy to fall into deep water. “The tourists must have thought they could manage it and that it’s similar to their country, but that’s the problem,” he said.
HONG KONG
Tax increase likely: Chan
The territory is likely to need to raise taxes and introduce new levies, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury K. C. Chan (陳家強) said yesterday. “Facing a fiscal gap brought by an aging population, raising taxes is inevitable,” he said in his blog. The government last month started a public consultation period to identify ways to enhance retirement protection.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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