CHINA
One detained over fire
Police yesterday detained one person in connection with a fire at a foot massage parlor in Zhejiang Province that killed at least 18 people and injured 18, Xinhua news agency said. The fire broke out at about 5:26pm on Sunday. It was extinguished in less than two hours. Eight lost their lives in the fire, while another 10 died in hospital, Xinhua said. The cause of the fire is unclear, it said.
NEW ZEALAND
Longest flight arrives
The world’s longest commercial flight yesterday landed in Auckland, with the arrival of Qatar Airways’ 14,535km from Doha, the airline announced. “We’ve officially landed in Auckland,” the airline tweeted as Flight QR920 landed at 7:25am, five minutes ahead of schedule after a 16-hour, 23-minute flight. The long-range Boeing 777-200LR crossed 10 time zones on its marathon flight. There were four pilots on board as well as 15 cabin crew who served 1,100 cups of tea and coffee, 2,000 cold drinks and 1,036 meals during the flight.
AUSTRALIA
Record cocaine haul
Police have made their largest cocaine haul ever after seizing a yacht carrying 1.4 tonnes of the drug with an estimated street value of A$312 million (US$239 million). The boat was stopped off the New South Wales coast on Thursday and six men were arrested, police said yesterday, following a two-and-a-half-year joint investigation with New Zealand. “This is the largest cocaine haul ever seized in a single operation in Australia’s history,” Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said. A New Zealand man, 63, and a Swiss-Fijian dual national, 54, who were aboard the yacht were taken into custody, while four men aged between 32 and 66 were arrested in Sydney.
IRAN
Uranium shipment expected
Tehran is to receive the final part of a 149-tonne shipment of uranium from Russia as part of its nuclear deal with world powers, it was announced yesterday. “The first shipment arrived on Jan. 26 by plane and the last will arrive tomorrow [today], Tuesday,” Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi said, according to Fars news agency. Under the nuclear deal signed with world powers in July 2015, Tehran has the right to enrich uranium to a level of 3.5 percent and sell it abroad, as part of efforts to develop its civilian nuclear program. With the latest shipment, which was authorized by the US and the other five signatories to the deal, Salehi said Tehran has imported 359 tonnes of concentrated uranium, also known as yellow cake, since the nuclear deal came into effect in January last year.
FRANCE
Louvre suspect silent
The suspected Louvre Museum attacker refused to talk to police during two rounds of questioning on Sunday, a judicial source said. The man, believed to be an Egyptian national, was shot in the stomach and seriously wounded after lunging at soldiers with two machetes on Friday. Investigators questioned him twice at his Paris hospital bed where he is receiving treatment after his condition improved, but he “still refuses to speak,” the judicial source said.
SCOTLAND
Poll decision weeks away
A decision on calling a new independence referendum could be made within weeks, said a Scottish Greens lawmaker whose party is a key ally of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. The timing of a potential new referendum — which polls say most Scots do not want — would be determined by the process of Britain’s exit from the EU, said Ross Greer, a lawmaker and a key campaigner in the 2014 vote in which Scots rejected independence by a 10-percentage-point margin. “We are working on a timescale now where Article 50 [which triggers Britain leaving the EU] will be activated next month — that’s the timescale when it will almost certainly become clear whether there’s going to be a referendum or not.”
SPAIN
Catalan leader goes on trial
Catalonia’s former leader Artur Mas was yesterday to go on trial for civil disobedience over an independence referendum he organized in 2014. At least 40,000 supporters of independence for the region were expected to rally next to the Barcelona court where Mas and two former associates will be heard. They are accused of serious civil disobedience and misconduct for having organized a symbolic, non-binding referendum in November 2014, despite a ban by the Constitutional Court, which deemed it illegal.
VENEZUELA
Maduro seeks Vatican help
President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday said he was seeking more Vatican help to try to jump-start political talks with the opposition. “A meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican is being worked on. I hope it can be worked out,” the embattled president said during his Sunday program on state television. “I hope that it will take place soon and that at that gathering we and the delegation on the right ... can finish it with a hug.” He gave no time frame. The center-right-dominated coalition has declared Maduro unfit for office due to his handling of the crisis, but he has overruled all their efforts to hold a vote on removing him from office over the past year.
AFGHANISTAN
Avalanche toll top 100
Rescuers were yesterday battling to reach survivors of avalanches in the mountainous north, as the death toll topped 137 and fears are growing for dozens of people still believed trapped beneath the snow. Aid was being delivered by helicopter to worst-hit Nuristan Province, where at least 64 people have been killed — including 53 in one village, Nuristan Governor Hafiz Abdul Qayyom said. There has been no word yet from some villages in Nuristan that Qayyom said received nearly 3m of snow, with blocked roads slowing rescue efforts. Badakhshan Province was also hard hit.
INDONESIA
Asylum seekers protest
Asylum seekers who have been in the nation for years yesterday rallied in Jakarta to urge the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to speed up the process of resettling them in third countries. Dozens of people from war-torn nations called on the UNHCR to accelerate their resettlement, expressing concerns that they could no longer bear to live in limbo without jobs. They waved banners reading “Refugees are human” and “Save us” during the rally outside the agency’s office in Jakarta. UNHCR says about 14,000 men, women and children seeking resettlement in other countries are in the country.
NEPAL
Request for more time
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is investigating deaths and abuses during a decade-long communist insurgency, yesterday said that it has requested an extension because it has not completed the task of giving justice to thousands of victims and their families. Madhavi Bhatta said the commission has asked for one more year to work on the 58,052 complaints and claims it has received. It has collect the complaints, but has yet to investigate the claims.
NIGERIA
President extends leave
President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday asked parliament to extend his medical leave, his office said in a statement, deepening suspicions among that his health is worse than officials have publicly admitted. The statement did not say how much extra time Buhari was seeking off. He had been due to return to work yesterday after taking more than two weeks’ leave for medical checks in Britain. Some people have taken to social media demanding more details on the president’s health. “If Buhari isn’t healthy enough to be president, he should resign and go and rest with his family,” Twitter user @Flappizy said.
CHINA
Protest over sanctions list
The government yesterday said that it had “lodged representations” with the US over Washington’s new sanctions list targeting Iran, which includes two local companies and three Chinese. The sanctions on 25 people and entities imposed on Friday means they cannot access the US financial system or deal with US companies, and are subject to secondary sanctions. Executives of the two companies on Sunday said they had only exported “normal” goods to Iran.
KUWAIT
Fire in new opera house
Flames yesterday ripped through the nation’s new opera house, just three months after the futuristic US$770 million Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Centre opened. A thick plume of black smoke rose from the waterfront building, television footage showed. The musical Cats was due to open on Thursday.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
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
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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