IRAQ
Al-Sadr calls for unity
Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr yesterday called on the public to unite instead of burning ballot boxes and seeking to repeat an election on May 12 that his bloc won. “Stop fighting for seats, posts, gains, influence, power and rulership,” he wrote in an article published by his office, a day after a storage site housing half of Baghdad’s ballot boxes from the election caught fire. “Is it not time to stand as one for building and reconstruction instead of burning ballet boxes or repeating elections just for one seat or two.” Parliament had mandated a full manual recount of the ballots. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday said the fire was a “plot” aimed at the nation’s democracy: “We will take all necessary measures and strike with an iron fist all who undermine the security of the nation and its citizens.”
IRAN
Khamenei clarifies remark
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sought to clarify his position on Israel after being accused of threatening its destruction. He was quoted late on Sunday by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying the Middle East conflict should be resolved through a popular referendum among “`all real Palestinians, including Muslims, Jews and Christians” who trace their roots back to before the creation of Israel. That would seem to include the Palestinians as well as the small community of Jews who lived in the Holy Land before the mass immigration of Jews in the 20th century and the creation of Israel, but not the vast majority of Jewish Israelis.
UNITED NATIONS
Probe of airstrikes urged
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called for an investigation of air strikes believed to have been carried out by Russian jets in Syria, killing dozens including children. The air attack on the night of June 7 to June 8 targeted the village of Zardana in Idlib Province and left 44 dead including six children, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In a statement, Guterres expressed “deep concern” about the strikes and called for a “full investigation into the attacks, especially allegations that there was also a second strike targeting first responders, to establish accountability.” Idlib is part of the de-escalation agreement for Syria reached between Turkey, Russia and Iran and urged those guarantors to uphold their commitment.
UNITED KINGDOM
Fellowships for Hawking
Exceptional students in mathematics and physics can compete for research fellowships in honor of physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in March, the government announced yesterday. Up to 10 fellowships are to be awarded each year for the next five years to candidates completing doctoral studies in mathematics, physics and computer sciences, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said. Hawking’s children — Robert, Lucy and Tim Hawking — said they were “thrilled” by the move.
INDIA
Fugitive jeweler in UK
Billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi, wanted over an alleged massive bank fraud, has fled to Britain, where he is seeking asylum, according to a newspaper report yesterday. Modi, 47, is accused of involvement in a US$1.8 billion scam against Punjab National Bank, the nation’s second-largest state-run lender. The Financial Times cited local and British officials as saying that Modi had sought asylum for what he called “political persecution.”
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
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