INDIA
Cyclone hits Lakshadweep
Cyclone Ockhi yesterday barreled into the southwestern Lakshadweep Islands after drenching the neighboring states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, claiming at least 14 lives with many fishermen still feared trapped at sea. Authorities including the National Disaster Management Authority, the coast guard and navy have rescued about 223 fishermen and evacuated thousands of people from cyclone-hit areas, officials said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, assuring him of support operations, including emergency funds, local media reported. Ockhi was forecast to travel north toward Mumbai and Gujarat in the next 48 hours, India Meteorological Department Director S. Sudevan said, but added that it is likely to lose intensity.
UNITED KINGDOM
NCSC warns over Kaspersky
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on Friday warned government agencies to avoid using anti-virus software from Russian companies, the latest in a series of moves targeting Moscow-based security software maker Kaspersky Lab. In a letter to departmental permanent secretaries, NCSC CEO Ciaran Martin said Russian-made anti-virus software should not be used in systems containing information that would harm national security if it was accessed by the Russian government. He said the agency is in talks with Kaspersky Lab to develop a system to review its products for use in the nation. Kaspersky’s anti-virus software was banned from US government networks earlier this year over concerns the company has close ties to intelligence agencies in Moscow and that its software could be used to enable Russian spying. Kaspersky Lab said in a statement that it looked forward to working with the agency on the issue.
UNITED STATES
Do-gooders stop erratic car
Police said two Good Samaritans used their cars to stop a suspected drunken driver swerving all over a Pennsylvania highway. State police said the driver was traveling west on Interstate 76 in Butler County, north of Pittsburgh, at about 10pm on Thursday, when two people in separate vehicles saw him seemingly unable to keep his car in the lane and nearly hit a concrete barrier. Police said they managed to use their vehicles to box in the driver and bring him safely to a stop on the shoulder in North Sewickley Township. Frank Ray Blackmon, 53, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, police said. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the charge is pending lab results. Police said his license has been suspended.
UNITED STATES
Mom jailed for fastening son
A woman accused of taping her two-year-old son to a wall so she could get housework done and streaming it live on social media has been sentenced to nine months in prison. Prosecutors said 19-year-old Shayla Rudolph was on Friday sentenced for attempted child endangerment. She was indicted in January on charges of child endangerment and abduction, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in October. Her attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Prosecutors said the video streamed live on Jan. 1 showed the crying boy with his arms, head and ankles taped to the wall of their Reynoldsburg home in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Prosecutors said the boy’s mouth was covered by tape. Authorities said a TV station contacted police after receiving a copy of the video from an anonymous tipster.
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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