INDONESIA
Re-vaccinations begin
The government yesterday began re-vaccinating nearly 200 children who received fake versions of imported inoculations from a drug-counterfeiting ring broken up last month after operating for more than a decade. President Joko Widodo urged calm as public uproar intensified over revelations that health officials knew about the syndicate producing the fake vaccines for several years, but did little to stop it. “I want to ask people to stay calm because this incident happened over such a long time,” Widodo told reporters at a Jakarta clinic offering re-vaccinations. “We need more time to investigate so we can get the real data of people who suffered from these fake vaccines.” The ring used stolen vials and forged labels to make the fake medicine look like imported vaccines produced by GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi. Many more children are expected to need re-vacinnations.
IRAQ
Al-Sadr targets US troops
Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says the additional 560 US troops to be sent to the country to upgrade an air base recently retaken from the Islamic State group would be a “target” for his supporters. His threat came in response to a question from a supporter about the deployment, announced last week by US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Al-Sadr wrote on his official Web site late on Sunday that “they are a target for us,” without elaborating.
SOUTH KOREA
Senior prosecutor arrested
A senior prosecutor has been arrested for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars following shady stock transaction deals with a leading online game maker, officials said yesterday. Jin Kyung-joon, a vice ministerial-level official, was arrested and put to a detention facility on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Justice. Jin faces allegations that he borrowed 400 million won (US$352,000) from Kim Jung-ju, the founder of Nexon (Korea), to buy unlisted company shares in 2005 before selling them back to the company for 1 billion won the following year. He then allegedly bought shares of Nexon Japan, worth 1 billion won, before selling them for 12.6 billion won last year.
CHINA
Tax evader extradited
Beijing has extradited its first criminal suspect from Latin America following eight years of negotiations, repatriating an alleged crude soybean oil smuggler from Peru who has been on the run for 18 years, the General Administration of Customs said on Sunday on its Web site. The agency said Huang Haiyong evaded more than 700 million yuan (US$104.69 million) in taxes between 1996 to 1998 by selling 107,000 tonnes of smuggled soybean oil. Huang and his two associates fled to the US in 1998. He was caught in Peru in 2008.
AUSTRALIA
Rudd wants top UN job
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has officially requested the support of the government to back a bid for the top job at the UN, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday. Rudd has been rumored to be garnering support to replace UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when he steps down at the end of the year. Bishop said the question of backing Rudd would be put to the Cabinet.
KAZAKHSTAN
Four killed in attacks
Suspected Islamist militants yesterday killed three police officers and a civilian in armed attacks on a police station and a security service office in Almaty, the Ministry of the Interior said.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Speedcubing champ crowned
Germany’s Phillip Weyer became the European champion in speedcubing, or solving a Rubik’s Cube puzzle, in Prague on Sunday, reaching an average time of 7.88 seconds. Weyer clocked the second-fastest time, behind Australian world champion Feliks Zemdegs, but won the European title because it goes to the best-placed European contender. Zemdegs, a world record holder, averaged 7.07 seconds at the Prague event, which attracted more than 500 participants. Weyer said it took years of hard work to get to the top. “Practice, practice, practice,” he said. “You do not get fast very fast so you have to practice a lot to [get] serious results. That is the only advice I can give.”
IRAN
S-300 delivery made
Moscow has delivered the missile part of a S-300 surface-to-air defense system to Tehran, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported yesterday, moving to finish the delivery of all divisions of the system to Tehran by the end of this year. “The first shipment of missiles of the S-300 missile system has recently entered Iran that shows Iran’s determination to equip its air defense circle with this system,” reported Tasnim, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards. The agreement to provide Iran with the S-300 has sparked concern in Israel. Russia delivered the first parts of the S-300, the missile tubes and radar equipment, to Iran in April.
UNITED STATES
Nude women protest Trump
More than 100 women stripped and posed naked with mirrors in Cleveland, answering a photographer’s call to blend art with politics and portray Donald Trump as unfit for the White House. They gathered on the eve of the Republican National Convention. “He is a loser,” photographer Spencer Tunick said after the sunrise shoot in which 130 women took part. One hundred of them are to be featured in the picture, which is to be unveiled shortly before the Nov. 8 presidential election. The installation took place on private property in sight of the arena where the convention is to be held.
UNITED STATES
Police set Pokemon trap
Police in New Hampshire’s largest city have gotten the Pokemon Go bug, trying to lure fugitives with the popular app. A post on the Manchester Police Department Facebook page announces that police recently detected one of the more rare Pokemon characters — a Charizard — in the booking area. The post invites those whose names appear on a list linked to the post to be “one of the lucky ones” to come capture the Charizard. The list includes the names of the more than 500 fugitives on the department’s wanted persons roundup. Sergeant Eric Knight on Sunday said the post has yet to net an arrest, but it has been popular with its Facebook followers.
UNITED STATES
Alan Vega dies, aged 78
Punk pioneer Alan Vega, whose band Suicide brought a confrontational edge to rock with its jarring electronics, nihilistic lyricism and physically violent shows, has died. He was 78. The New York artist, who once said he expected to be killed in concert, died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, his family said. Born in Brooklyn as Alan Bermowitz, Vega first pursued a career as a sculptor, but took to music when he met future Suicide bandmate Martin Rev.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
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