BANGLADESH
Zia to serve extra two years
A court yesterday sentenced former prime minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia to seven years in prison for corruption, lawyers said, after she was jailed for five years in a separate case in February. The terms are to run concurrently, meaning she will spend an extra two years in jail. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has been in disarray ahead of general elections set for December after Khaleda was jailed in February for stealing funds for an orphanage. Khaleda, 72, and three aides were yesterday convicted of misappropriation of 31.5 million takas (US$371,550) for a trust when she was last prime minister, from 2001 to 2006, state prosecutors said. Her party says the charges are part of a plot to keep her and her family out of politics.
GABON
Bongo in hospital for fatigue
President Ali Bongo Ondimba has been hospitalized in Saudi Arabia because of “severe fatigue” caused by a hectic work schedule, a spokesman said. Bongo, 59, has ruled OPEC’s second-smallest oil producer since winning disputed elections in 2009 that were held months after his father, Omar Bongo, died in office. Omar Bongo was the world’s longest-serving president at the time of his death. Ali Bongo fell ill last week during a visit to Riyadh, where he was attending the Future Investment Initiative Forum and was sent to the hospital on Wednesday last week, presidential spokesman Ike Ngouoni Aila Oyouomi said on Sunday. “Doctors have ordered the president to rest,” Ngouoni said in a video sent to reporters in the capital, Libreville. “He’s feeling better.” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman visited Bongo in the hospital on Thursday to inquire about his health. The Gabonese presidency first declined to comment when Bongo failed to attend the forum, which led to rumors about his condition and whereabouts.
CHINA
Mining accident kills 21
Twenty-one miners have been confirmed dead in east China following a mining accident earlier this month that trapped 22 people, state media reported yesterday. The tunnel where the miners were working was blocked at both ends by coal after pressure caused rocks to fracture and break on Oct. 20, Xinhua news agency said. Only one miner has been rescued. Rescuers working to clear the tunnel recovered six bodies on Sunday and another two yesterday. The accident took place at a mine owned by Longyun Coal Mining Co in Yuncheng County, Shandong Province.
ALBANIA
Animals saved from ‘hell’
Police on Sunday broke open cages at a private zoo and removed 11 animals, including three lions and a bear, being kept in “hellish” conditions, animal welfare workers said. After the owner of the zoo at Fier, about 100km south of the capital, Tirana, allegedly refused to cooperate, officers forcibly entered areas where the animals were kept to allow vets access, an Agence France-Presse correspondent at the scene reported. The animals were then tranquillized to allow them to be safely transferred to Tirana zoo. “Living conditions for the animals in this zoo are absolutely horrible, it’s a hellish way of keeping animals,” Ioana Gabriela Dungler of Four Paws said. Owner Petrit Osmani, who has been running the zoo for about 15 years, strongly opposed the raid. “You don’t have the right! These animals are my children, you are taking away my children,” he protested, adding that he would lodge a complaint for violation of private property.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
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
Three sisters from Ohio who inherited a dime kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value, but they had no idea just how much until just a few years ago. The extraordinarily rare coin, struck by the US Mint in San Francisco in 1975, could bring more than US$500,000, said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which specializes in currency and is handling an online auction that ends next month. What makes the dime depicting former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt so valuable is a missing “S” mint mark for San Francisco, one of just two
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