PERU
Bus accident kills 48
A bus plunged over a seaside cliff on Tuesday, killing at least 48 people after a collision with a truck on a precarious stretch known as the “devil’s curve,” officials said. The bus was traveling from Huacho to Lima with 55 passengers and two crew when it went off the road at about midday. It plunged 100m and landed upside-down on rocks at the edge of the sea. A police helicopter had winched some rescue workers to the wreck of the bus while others made the precarious journey down on foot with the assistance of ropes. The navy sent a patrol boat to assist the rescuers trying to get everyone out before the tide came in. There were several survivors, although most on board the bus perished.
UNITED STATES
Six nations join UN council
Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Peru, Poland and the Netherlands on Tuesday formally joined the ranks of the non-permanent members of the UN Security Council “to make a difference,” the body’s president said. Three women and 12 men are among the 15 ambassadors. The six nations that left the council on Sunday are Egypt, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay.
CANADA
Ex-Taliban captive arrested
A man who was held captive by a faction of the Afghan Taliban for five years has been arrested on 15 charges, according to reports on Tuesday. Joshua Boyle was freed in October last year along with his wife, Caitlan Coleman, and their three children born in captivity. Boyle’s lawyer, Eric Granger, said his client was “presumed innocent” and had never been in any form of legal trouble before. According to news channel CTV, Boyle is facing eight counts of assault, two counts of sexual assault and two counts of unlawful confinement, as well as one each of misleading police to “divert suspicion from himself,” uttering a death threat and administering a noxious substance, Trazodone.
ECUADOR
VP fired after imprisonment
Vice President Jorge Glas on Tuesday lost his title, because he has been absent for more than three months, locked up in prison on a six-year sentence for corruption. Glas is the highest-ranking Latin American politician to be convicted and imprisoned for his role in a continent-wide scandal involving Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, which gave bribes to secure public works contracts. Taking into account his detention since Oct. 2, he has not been able to carry out his duties, meaning that at midnight on Tuesday, Glas had failed to execute his functions as vice president for the three months allowed under the constitution. Two people are seen as best-placed to succeed Glas: acting vice president Maria Vicuna and Minister of Industry and Productivity Eva Garcia.
UNITED KINGDOM
Storm wreaks havoc
A severe storm packing winds of up to 161kph has battered Britain and Ireland overnight. The storm, which included heavy rain, hail and lightning, left tens of thousands of households without power and led to some bridge and road closures. Extremely high tides also caused the partial collapse of a harbor wall in Cornwall. Overturned vehicles forced officials to close portions of three major highways in England. The nation’s main weather forecaster, the Met Office, said gusts reached 161kph in Cumbria 450km northwest of London early yesterday morning when the storm reached its peak. Forecasters said gusts of up to 129kph were possible yesterday.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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