AUSTRALIA
Couple charged over plot
A self-described “Islamic Bonnie and Clyde” couple were yesterday charged with planning a terrorist act, which reportedly involved a Sydney stabbing attack. The pair, Sameh Bayda and Alo-Bridget Namoa, both 19, were already in custody accused of collecting documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts. The Sydney-based couple, reportedly husband and wife, were arrested about one year ago. Both were denied bail with the case due back in court on March 15, a Central Local Court official said.
AUSTRALIA
Sinkhole opens after flood
A sinkhole opened up less than 1km from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s home in Point Piper, Sydney, media said yesterday, after a night of heavy rain and flash flooding. There were no reports of injuries or damage to private property from the sinkhole that opened up on a sidewalk, but police have cordoned off the street. “We will make the site safe,” municipal council technical services director Tom O’Hanlon said.
ANGOLA
Rebels call for boycott
Separatist rebels have called on Angola’s oil region to boycott parliamentary elections in August that are likely to be the most closely watched in decades as President Jose Eduardo dos Santos ends 38 years in power. The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), which fought a low-level insurgency for four decades in the thin enclave sandwiched between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, said it would not participate in a “foreign” election. FLEC’s planned boycott of the vote comes after a flare-up in violence in August and September last year in which FLEC said it had killed more than 50 soldiers. The government denies there have been clashes.
TURKEY
Thousands more sacked
The government has dismissed more than 4,400 civil servants, including teachers, police officers and academics, over their suspected links with terrorist organizations, a decree showed late on Tuesday, in the latest purge since a failed coup in July last year. Ibrahim Kaboglu, a prominent constitution professor who has expressed opposition to planned constitutional changes giving President Tayyip Erdogan greater executive powers, was among those ousted under the decree published in the Official Gazette. Court clerks, computer experts and librarians were also among the 4,464 sacked, part of a crackdown since the coup attempt which Ankara says was carried out by US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. The government has already removed or suspended more than 125,000 people and formally arrested 40,000 since the attempted coup.
SWEDEN
Data guru Rosling dies
Data guru Hans Rosling, a public health expert famous for combating scientific ignorance with catchy YouTube videos in his mission to promote a “fact-based world,” has died at the age of 68, his foundation announced. Rosling, who described himself as an “edutainer,” was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a year ago and passed away on Tuesday surrounded by his family in Uppsala, Sweden, the Gapminder foundation said. A professor of international health at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institutet, Rosling dropped out in 2007 to devote his time to promoting “a fact-based world view by converting international statistics into moving, interactive, understandable and enjoyable graphics.” Challenging misconceptions about “developing” countries and finding ways to make data interesting, Rosling came to international notice with a 2006 TED talk on “The best stats you’ve ever seen,” which has been viewed more than 11 million times online. Microsoft founder Bill Gates tweeted on his sadness at the death of Rosling, “a great friend, educator and true inspiration for our work.”
MALAYSIA
Pig-hair brushes seized
Authorities have seized more than 2,000 paint brushes suspected to be made from pig bristles and sold without labels, in a crackdown following complaints from Muslim consumers. Pigs and dogs are considered unclean by Muslims, who make up about 60 percent of the nation’s 30 million people. It is illegal to sell products made from any part of a pig or a dog, unless the goods are labeled and kept separately. Domestic trade enforcement official Zarif Anwar yesterday said that officials were inspecting shops selling paint brushes for art and commercial use. He said brushes seized would be examined to determine whether they were made from pig bristles. Traders who flout the rule could face up to three years in jail, a fine of 100,000 ringgit (US$22,522) or both, he said.
PHILIPPINES
Fire razes 1,000 homes
About 15,000 residents of a shantytown beside Manila’s port have lost their homes in a fire that raged overnight before being put out yesterday morning. Fire department officials said 1,000 homes were gutted in Tondo’s sprawling Parola Compound, where several families often share tiny houses running along narrow alleyways. Fire officer Edilberto Cruz said seven people suffered minor injuries in the fire that broke out on Tuesday night then quickly spread. No fatalities were reported. Three evacuation centers were opened, and food and water are being provided to the 3,000 families who lost their homes, welfare officer Regina Jane Mata said.
AGENCIES
UNITED STATES
Syrian leads pledge
Rohi Atassi was among 117 immigrants to become the newest citizens during a Chicago naturalization ceremony on Tuesday, but the Syrian dentist stood out among his peers. The 29-year-old was unexpectedly asked to lead immigrants from 37 countries in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Federal Judge Sara Ellis, who oversaw the ceremony, asked for a Syrian volunteer after delivering an impassioned speech about the difficulties immigrants face. Atassi said her words resonated with him. “I’m very happy that a Syrian who just became an American had a chance to lead the pledge,” he said. He said his first orders of business were to register to vote and apply for a passport.
COLOMBIA
Santos linked to scandal
Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, President Juan Manuel Santos, is being embroiled in a widening corruption scandal rocking politicians across Latin America. Chief prosecutor Nestor Martinez on Tuesday said that Santos’ 2014 re-election campaign might have received a US$1 million contribution from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. He said the donations were allegedly channeled through a lobbyist working on behalf of Odebrecht who has been jailed as part of the investigation into the firm’s activities. However, Martinez did not say whether the alleged donations even constituted a crime.
ARGENTINA
Women protest topless ban
Scores of women took to the streets on Tuesday in a bare-breasted demonstration of solidarity with women recently confronted by police for going topless on a South Atlantic beach. The demonstrations in Buenos Aires, in Mar del Plata and Rosario, were prompted by an incident two weeks ago in Necochea, 500km south of Buenos Aires, when three women in bikini bottoms were ordered by 20 police officers to put on their tops or leave. “There is this macho way of thinking that just has to end,” said a protestor named Noelia, 28, who did not want to give her family name. “We are the owners of our bodies and we can show our bodies if we like. We are not consumer goods.”
UNITED STATES
Lawsuit claims clinic lied
Dozens of patients from a now-closed clinic in Ohio say its director lied and tricked them into thinking they had Alzheimer’s disease when they did not. More than 50 people are suing the clinic’s former director and its owner. Some say they spent nearly a year undergoing treatment while believing they had the mind-robbing illness. The former patients and their families say the diagnoses left them devastated. One man killed himself. Other patients say they thought about taking their own lives before the center in Toledo shut down last year. Records show clinic director Sherry-Ann Jenkins did not have a license to practice medicine.
UNITED STATES
Harambe Cheeto sells
A Cheeto that bears a resemblance to slain gorilla Harambe has sold for nearly US$100,000 on eBay. The seller said he found the unusually shaped Cheeto in a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The listing showed a picture of the Cheeto side-by-side with a gorilla climbing a tree. Bidding began on Jan. 28 at US$11.99 and ended early on Tuesday with a winning bid of US$99,900. Harambe last year was shot dead at Cincinnati Zoo after dragging a small boy who had gotten into his enclosure.
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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