INDONESIA
New executions looming
More drug convicts could imminently face the firing squad, after authorities yesterday said they were ready to carry out a new round of executions after a hiatus. A Pakistani death row convict was yesterday sent to Nusakambangan prison island, where Jakarta conducts executions, and an Indonesian woman sentenced to death for narcotics offenses was transferred to the island over the weekend. The Pakistani embassy in Jakarta was notified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday that the Pakistani man, Zulfiqar Ali, would be executed in the near future, Pakistani Deputy Ambassador Syed Zahid Raza said. Such notifications are typically sent out to foreign embassies in the days before inmates are put to death. It was not immediately clear whether more had been issued. Rights groups have claimed Ali, sentenced to death in 2005 for heroin possession, was beaten into confessing. The attorney-general’s office previously said executions would resume after the Eid holiday at the start of this month, and that Indonesians and foreigners would be included, but no Europeans or Australians.
INDIA
Israeli allegedly gang-raped
A 25-year-old Israeli woman has allegedly been raped by two men in the popular northern Himalayan resort town of Manali, senior local police officers said yesterday. The woman has told police she was attacked early on Sunday morning after flagging down what she thought was a taxi and asking for a lift to a nearby town, superintendent Padam Chand said. “There were six people in the car and two of the occupants raped her, she alleged,” Chand said, and then they fled. The woman had been trying to reunite with friends who had already left for the nearby town of Keylong after they all arrived in Manali a few days earlier. Police were examining CCTV footage from cameras installed on the streets on Manali, popular with holidaying foreigners and Indians, in the hope of identifying the suspects. The woman was being treated in hospital after she reported the attack, which took place at about 3am, at the Manali police station later on Sunday.
IRAN
Satellite dishes destroyed
Authorities destroyed 100,000 satellite dishes and receivers on Sunday as part of a widespread crackdown against the illegal devices that authorities say are morally damaging, a news Web site reported. The destruction ceremony took place in Tehran in the presence of General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of the Basij militia, who warned of the impact that satellite television was having in the conservative country. “The truth is that most satellite channels ... deviate the society’s morality and culture,” he said at the event according to Basij News. “What these televisions really achieve is increased divorce, addiction and insecurity in society.” Naghdi added that a total of 1 million Iranians had already voluntarily handed over their satellite apparatuses to authorities.
COSTA RICA
Crocodile injures US surfer
A US surfer was being treated in hospital on Sunday after being attacked by a crocodile so severely half a leg had to be amputated, local media reported. The man, identified as Jonathan Becker, 59 and from Arizona, was set upon by the crocodile on Friday while crossing a river between beaches in Tamarindo, in northwestern Costa Rica. He managed to fight the reptile off and make it to shore, where local surfers helped him before he was taken to hospital. The crocodile ripped flesh from the calf of his right leg, resulting in wounds so serious it had to be partially amputated, media reported.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
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