HAITI
New poll to cost US$55m
The government on Wednesday said that it would spend US$55 million on a new election after the results of the last vote were scrapped, with most of the money to be drawn from the nation’s own coffers as foreign donors are reluctant to pay again. The US, which contributed US$33 million to the last election, strongly opposed aborting the results and last month said that no aid would be forthcoming for the repeat. Washington also asked the government to return nearly US$2 million. The electoral council said the new budget would cover a period from June this year to March next year, by which time both rounds of the presidential vote are due to be completed.
GERMANY
Merkel defends refugees
Chancellor Angela Merkel has dismissed suggestions that the influx of refugees over the past year has brought Islamic extremism to the nation. The Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Wednesday quoted Merkel saying that “Islamist terrorism by IS [the Islamic State group] is not a phenomenon that came to us with the refugees, it is one that we had before too.” Meanwhile, a man arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of storing materials that could be used as explosives had items in his apartment glorifying the IS group, Brandenburg state police president Hans-Juergen Moerke told Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting. He said that no attack plans had been found, but a search of the apartment had uncovered pyrotechnics, a gas mask, a replica Kalashnikov, camouflage suits and “many other … things that glorify IS.”
BOLIVA
Military academy opened
President Evo Morales has opened a new “anti-imperialist” military academy to counter US policies and military influence in Latin America. “If the empire teaches domination of the world from its military schools, we will learn from this school to free ourselves from imperial oppression,” he said on Wednesday at the inauguration ceremony. “We want to build anti-colonial and anti-capitalist thinking with this school that binds the armed forces to social movements and counteracts the influence of the School of the Americas that always saw the indigenous as internal enemies.”
FRANCE
Train hits fallen tree
Eight people were seriously hurt in the south of the country on Wednesday when an express train crashed into a fallen tree uprooted by a massive hailstorm, rescue workers said. The impact sparked panic, as some passengers feared a militant attack was underway, according to one witness. The regional express was carrying 219 passengers on a service between Nimes and Montpellier when it hit the tree at 140kph, the state rail operator SNCF said. The accident occurred near the town of Lunel, about 28km southwest of Nimes.
MOLDOVA
Diplomats summoned
The foreign ministry has summoned Russian diplomats to protest recent military exercises involving Russian troops in a separatist region of the country. The ministry called the exercises illegal in a statement released yesterday, adding that they were “provocative and inadmissible ... and undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the nation. Diplomats were called to the ministry late on Wednesday after Moldovan separatists and Russian troops staged joint military exercises this week in the breakaway republic of Trans-Dniester.
VIETNAM
Party officials murdered
Two senior Communist Party officials were shot dead by a colleague at their offices in Yen Bai Province, state media reported yesterday, a rare high profile gun homicide in the country. The province’s most senior official, party chief Pham Duy Cuong and head of the provincial people’s council, Ngo Ngoc Tuan, were gunned down by a senior forest ranger, Do Cuong Minh, Tuoi Tre newspaper said. They were shot multiple times and were pronounced dead after they reached hospital, the paper said. The official Vietnam News Agency said the shooter committed suicide with his own gun. No reason has yet been given for the slayings.
VIETNAM
Commemoration ban lifted
Under pressure from top Australian officials, the government yesterday lifted its sudden ban on Australian veterans who had traveled to the country to mark the 50th anniversary of their nation’s most costly battle of the Vietnam War, with Hanoi allowing low-key commemorations. More than 1,000 Australian veterans and their families had come to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan at a cross marking the site where 18 Australian soldiers and hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops died in a rubber plantation on Aug. 18, 1966. Hanoi, late on Tuesday, told Australia the event was canceled. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday said in a statement that small groups of people would be allowed into the site, but visitors were banned from wearing medals or uniforms and from carrying banners or flags. The Long Tan anniversary is Australia’s official Vietnam Veterans Day and has been commemorated by Australians at the battle scene since 1989.
PHILIPPINES
Second hostage escapes
A second Indonesian sailor escaped from Abu Sayyaf militants in the south on the same day his colleague swam to freedom after almost two months in captivity, officials said yesterday. Ismail, the chief officer of a tugboat whose seven crewmen were abducted near Philippine waters in June, was found by troops on Wednesday along a road in southern Jolo Island’s Luuk town, said Major Filemon Tan, a regional military spokesman. “Troops were scouring the area looking for other Indonesian hostages when they found Ismail, who identified himself to the military as a kidnap victim,” Tan said. Tan said Ismail and the sailor who swam to freedom on Wednesday had escaped together, but fled in separate ways as their captors chased them.
NEW ZEALAND
Water probe launched
The government yesterday launched an inquiry into the contamination of a regional water supply that has left thousands of people sick with vomiting and diarrhea. The outbreak of Campylobacter bacteria, a form of gastroenteritis, has affected about 3,000 people, about half of who are in the town of Havelock North on North Island, officials said.
CHINA
Admiral visits Damascus
A top military officer visited Syria this week in a show of support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Rear Admiral Guan Youfei (關友飛) met on Monday with Syrian Minister of Defense Fahd Jassem al-Freij in Damascus, Xinhua news agency said. He also met with a Russian general who is coordinating Moscow’s military assistance to al-Assad’s fight against armed opposition groups. Xinhua said Guan expressed China’s willingness to boost military cooperation.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
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