PHILIPPINES
Peace talks canceled
President Rodrigo Duterte has scrapped peace talks with communist insurgents after both the government and the rebels last week called off unilateral ceasefires aimed at ending a decades-long conflict. Duterte angrily condemned the insurgents for resuming hostilities, saying he was ready for a prolonged conflict. “I told the soldiers to prepare for a long war. I said [peace] will not come during our generation,” he said late on Saturday. “I am not interested in talking to them [the rebel leaders]. I will refuse to talk about it anymore.”
SOUTH KOREA
Mall fire kills four
A fire in shopping mall in Dongtan killed four people and injured 47, authorities said yesterday. Police suspect that sparks from a welding torch might have started the fire on Saturday in a kids’ play area in the mall in the commuter town south of Seoul. Two of the four who died were builders and the others were a mall worker and a shopper. Most of the 47 injured complained of smoke inhalation. The play area was closed at the time of the fire.
CHINA
Girl thrown from ride dies
A 13-year-old girl has died after being flung out of a fast-turning ride at an amusement park in Fengdu County in Chongqing on Friday. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement late on Saturday that an initial investigation showed her seatbelt had broken and a passenger safety bar did not fit tightly enough at the “Travel Through Space” ride at Chaohua Park. Cellphone footage carried by state media showed the girl flying out of the ride on Friday afternoon as seats repeatedly spun around. A local newspaper yesterday reported that the girl’s family had reached a compensation agreement with the park for their only child’s death of 870,000 yuan (US$127,000).
AUSTRALIA
Shark nets left with holes
The New South Wales (NSW) government has been accused of failing beachgoers after it was revealed that contractors failed to maintain shark nets at central coast beaches. The NSW opposition has obtained documents from the Department of Primary Industries showing contractors were penalized for multiple breaches in 2014 and 2015, including leaving large holes in shark nets and leaving one beach without a net for more than a week. An opposition spokesman said the government should have told the community and called for an urgent review of the performance of shark meshing contractors.
PAKISTAN
Thanks given over boy
The government has sent a rare message of thanks to India after a five-year-old boy who was taken to India by his father nearly a year ago was reunited with his mother. Ifthikar Ahmed was handed over to Rohina Kiani by border officials in the town of Wagah in Punjab Province on Saturday evening following a long legal battle seeking his return from his father, Gulzar Ahmad Tantray. Kiani, a resident of the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, yesterday said she was overwhelmed with happiness and prepared to forgive her estranged husband, who is from Indian-controlled Kashmir. He wanted the family to return to his home village following the birth of their son, but when Kiani refused, Tantray absconded with the child in March last year, triggering a custody battle.
JORDAN
Air force hits IS in Syria
The nation said it has carried out airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in southern Syria, hitting an arms depot, a warehouse for making car bombs and barracks used by the extremist group. State-run news agency Petra on Saturday quoted the military as saying drones and precision-guided munitions killed and wounded an unspecified number of IS militants. It said Friday’s strikes also targeted an IS-held former Syrian army post. The latest attacks came after King Abdullah II held high-level meetings in Washington about a possible US shift in Syria policy. US President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of safe zones in Syria, an idea critics say could escalate US military engagement.
LIBYA
Coast guard finds refugees
The coast guard intercepted at least 1,131 refugees and migrants near the city of Sabratha over the course of one week, a spokesman said on Saturday. Ayoub Qassem said 431 refugees had been intercepted on four inflatable boats off Sabratha’s coast on Thursday and about 700 had been picked up on Jan. 27 from three wooden vessels in the same area. “The illegal migrants are from various sub-Saharan countries and include a big number of women and children,” Qassem said of those intercepted on Thursday. “Smugglers had tried to foil the process of arrest by opening fire on our coast guards but the coast guards fired back and that forced the smugglers to withdraw.”
Chile
Wildfires said under control
President Michelle Bachelet said the worst wildfires that Chile has suffered in its history are now mostly under control. Bachelet on Saturday said that for the moment there are no new blazes reported “and the rest are mostly controlled.” However, in her daily briefing on the wildfires she said: “That doesn’t mean, however, that we are letting down our guard.” The arrival of rains and dropping of temperatures in recent hours have helped stop the fires from spreading.
BRITAIN
Black Sabbath plays last gig
Black Sabbath, the pioneers of heavy metal, ended their last-ever tour with a final concert in Birmingham, their hometown where it all began nearly 50 years ago. The godfathers of the genre bowed out on Saturday with a farewell show at the 16,000 capacity National Exhibition Centre Arena. Guitarist Tony Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne, bass guitarist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward got together in 1968 and created a sound filled with the brooding menace of horror films. Sabbath began their farewell run of 81 concerts, entitled The End Tour, in January last year in the US.
UNITED STATES
The art of the heroin deal
It might be called the art of the drug deal: Florida authorities seized scores of individually wrapped heroin packets stamped with the image of President Donald Trump. The Tampa Bay Times reported (http://bit.ly/2l5n4wW) law enforcement officers seized the heroin on Jan. 27 in Hernando County. Some of the packets bore the names or likenesses of other notorious figures, such as Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and late Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. Authorities could not explain the markings’ purpose. Dealers often stamp heroin bags with street “brand names.” The bust netted about 5,550 heroin doses altogether. Police arrested 46-year-old Kelvin Scott Johnson on suspicion of heroin trafficking and other charges. His bail is set at US$75,000.
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
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
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