BRAZIL
Temer undergoes surgery
President Michel Temer was spending the weekend recuperating in the hospital after undergoing angioplasty in three blocked coronary arteries, doctors said on Saturday. Temer, 77, late on Friday had the procedure to widen obstructed arteries and have at least one stent implanted at the heart unit of the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo. “The procedure was a success and the president is recuperating,” doctor Fernando Ganem, the medical supervisor, said in a statement. Temer is to be released today and therefore had to put off a planned visit that day by Bolivian President Evo Morales, the presidency said.
HONDURAS
President seeks re-election
The nation’s 6 million voters yesterday were to cast ballots in a controversial election in which President Juan Orlando Hernandez is seeking a second mandate despite a constitutional one-term limit. His conservative National Party — which controls the executive, legislative and judicial branches — contends that a 2015 Supreme Court ruling allows Hernandez’s re-election. However, the opposition has denounced his bid, saying the court does not have the power to overrule the 1982 constitution. The nation has one of the highest murder rates in the world, although that metric has fallen under Hernandez’s last four years in office.
NIGERIA
Militants seize Borno town
Suspected members of the Islamic militant group Boko Haram on Saturday took over a town in the state of Borno, residents said. “We hurriedly took our families to the bushes before they could get us. Almost every resident is hiding here,” said Wakil Bulama, one of two residents who spoke to reporters by telephone. Residents said attackers entered Magumeri, around 50km from Borno state capital Maiduguri, at around 7pm. They said the insurgents shot sporadically and threw explosive devices, prompting locals to flee to a forest. A military source who did not want to be identified said that Magumeri had been attacked, but could not confirm whether it had been seized.
IRAN
Longer missile range warned
The deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards told Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the guards would increase the range of missiles to more than 2,000km, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday. France has called for an “uncompromising” dialogue with Iran about its ballistic missile program and a possible negotiation over the issue separate from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. “If we have kept the range of our missiles to 2,000km, it’s not due to lack of technology... We are following a strategic doctrine,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami said, according to Fars. “So far we have felt that Europe is not a threat, so we did not increase the range of our missiles, but if Europe wants to turn into a threat, we will increase the range of our missiles.”
YEMEN
Drone strike kills seven
A drone strike has killed seven suspected members of al-Qaeda in southern Yemen, a security official said yesterday. The US is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen. “A drone likely to be American” killed all seven overnight as they were aboard three vehicles on the road from the southern province of Shabwa to the central province of Bayda, the official said. Washington considers the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group’s most dangerous branch.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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