COLOMBIA
Three bodies found in river
Three bodies were recovered on Wednesday after a ship that set out from Venezuela went down in the Orinoco River, authorities said, with seven people still missing. A navy unit located the bodies of two Venezuelan men and a woman whose identity was still being confirmed. The boat capsized with 18 people onboard due to rapidly rising water caused by heavy rains, and just as another boat came to the rescue, a civil defense spokesman said. Eight people were rescued on Tuesday. Seasonal variations in river levels often are significant and it is not unusual for swells to tip over small boats.
INDONESIA
Man kills snake on train
A man who used his bare hands to kill a snake that was discovered slithering on a busy commuter train has become an Internet hero. The train made an emergency stop after the reptile was spotted lurking on a baggage rack in a carriage headed to Jakarta from Bogor, south of the capital. Smartphone footage, which quickly went viral, showed the bespectacled man casually snatch the snake’s tail and then smash its head on the floor in a violent whipping motion. The creature was apparently killed instantly as shocked spectators — including a baton-wielding security officer — kept their distance. The unidentified man, wearing a backpack, then tossed the limp body of the snake, which appeared to be about 1m long, out the door to waiting security staff. It is not clear what kind of serpent it was, nor whether it was venomous. No injuries to passengers were reported. Train operator KCI said the reptile is thought to have slithered out from a passenger’s bag. “We regret the incident and apologize to train travelers who were disturbed by it,” spokeswoman Eva Chairunnisa said.
JAPAN
Capsized ship’s crew found
The crew of a trawler found capsized in remote Pacific waters have been located safe and well in the Philippines, the US Coast Guard said yesterday. The abandoned Gyotoku Maru No. 1 was found drifting 350km southwest of Palau on Monday after it send an emergency signal. With no word on the fate of the seven-man crew — five Indonesians and two Japanese — a major international search effort was launched. The coast guard said the trawler had collided with another fishing vessel, which then rescued the stricken sailors and took them to the Philippines. “We’re incredibly relieved these men are safe and back on dry land,” search coordinator Lieutenant Commander Josh Empen said. Empen thanked those involved in the search, which included vessels from Japan and Palau, as well as US ships and airplanes based in Guam.
UNITED STATES
Celebrity mementos on sale
Handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson, and rapper Tupac Shakur’s original death certificate are just some of more than 1,100 celebrity memorabilia items being sold in an online auction. Several dozen letters Shakur wrote while in prison to a friend are also up for sale. The handwritten lyrics being sold are for Like A Rolling Stone first released by Dylan in 1965, and for Jackson’s 1982 Billie Jean. Other top lots include a human skull signed by surrealist artist Salvador Dali. The estimated prices of the lots vary from several hundred to tens of thousands of US dollars. The auction is being held until Friday next week.
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
‘VERY DIRE’: This year’s drought, exacerbated by El Nino, is affecting 44 percent of Malawi’s crop area and up to 40 percent of its population of 20.4 million In the worst drought in southern Africa in a century, villagers in Malawi are digging for potentially poisonous wild yams to eat as their crops lie scorched in the fields. “Our situation is very dire, we are starving,” 76-year-old grandmother Manesi Levison said as she watched over a pot of bitter, orange wild yams that she says must cook for eight hours to remove the toxins. “Sometimes the kids go for two days without any food,” she said. Levison has 30 grandchildren under her care. Ten are huddled under the thatched roof of her home at Salima, near Lake Malawi, while she boils
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