SINGAPORE
Waste reduction urged
Citizens and businesses are being called on to reduce domestic and industrial waste as the nation’s recycling rate has stalled and its sole landfill could run out of space by 2035. The government is to publish a master plan in the second half, with grants to support projects, Minister of the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said in a speech yesterday. “We need a paradigm shift,” Masagos said. “We need to adopt a circular economy approach” where trash can be reused and recycled endlessly, and resources are consumed in a sustainable manner.” The nation’s population of 5.6 million generated 7.7 million tonnes of waste in 2017, according to government figures. While the amount of waste fell 1.4 percent, the overall recycling rate was unchanged at 61 percent.
DIPLOMACY
Ministerial meeting delayed
Singapore and Malaysia agreed to postpone a ministerial meeting amid a dispute on territorial waters. Singapore proposed delaying the Jan. 14 meeting after what it called an “intrusion” into its waters by Osman Sapian, chief minister of Johor, the Malaysian state closest to Singapore, it said in a statement. Osman said on Facebook that the area he visited was not in Singaporean waters. Malaysia yesterday confirmed the postponement in a statement, saying that the state chief minister’s Jan. 9 port visit was within its own waters. The governments are in communication and agreed that both sides should remain calm and not sensationalize matters, while both parties would continue to meet to discuss “other bilateral issues,” the statement said.
FRANCE
Gas blast kills three
A powerful gas explosion that tore through a building in central Paris on Saturday killed a Spanish woman and two firefighters hailed as heroes by President Emmanuel Macron. Dozens more were injured in the blast, which also badly damaged nearby apartments, officials said. About 200 firefighters were mobilized to battle the fire, which broke out after the explosion, and evacuate people, Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner told reporters at the scene. As well as the three dead, 47 people were injured in the blast, 10 of them seriously, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. A source in the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that a woman who was holidaying with her husband in Paris died in hospital after the blast, while another Spanish national was also injured.
FRANCE
Protest numbers rise
The number of protesters in the latest “yellow vest” rallies surged on Saturday, with hundreds of arrests and clashes with police in Paris and other cities. More than 84,000 people turned out for the ninth round of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron since November last year, the Ministry of the Interior said, up from 50,000 the previous Saturday.
DR CONGO
Election result challenged
The runner-up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s presidential election, Martin Fayulu, has appealed to the Constitutional Court to annul the provisional result that awarded victory to Felix Tshisekedi, Fayulu’s lawyer said on Saturday. The request was filed on Friday ahead of a 48-hour deadline for any appeals against the result to replace President Joseph Kabila. “The request seeks the annulment of the result declaring Felix Tshisekedi president,” Toussaint Ekombe told reporters outside the court.
AFGHANISTAN
At least 10 dead in attacks
At least five Afghan security forces were killed after their checkpoint came under attack by insurgents in the southern province of Kandahar, said Aziz Ahmad Azizi, the provincial governor’s spokesman. Two other police were wounded in Saturday’s attack, which took place in the Spin Bolduk district, he said, adding that seven Taliban insurgents were killed and six others were wounded in the fighting. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusouf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack. In another report from the western Herat Province, a number of gunmen attacked a city police station on Saturday evening, killing two policemen and three civilians, said Gelani Farhad, the spokesman for the provincial governor. Four others were wounded during the battle, he said. So far, there has been no claim of responsibility for attack in Herat.
GREECE
Macedonia claims probed
A Greek prosecutor on Saturday ordered an investigation into allegations of threats against lawmakers over an upcoming parliamentary vote to end a 27-year dispute with Macedonia, a judicial source said. Macedonian lawmakers voted to rename their country the Republic of North Macedonia on Friday and the agreement now needs backing from the Greek parliament to come into effect. Ahead of the vote in Athens, two news Web sites alleged that a prominent member of Greece’s main opposition New Democracy party — which rejects the name deal — called on its members to phone legislators of the nationalist Independent Greeks party and urge them to vote against the agreement. The investigation, according to judicial sources, is looking into whether personal data was breached.
UNITED STATES
Storm pummels Midwest
A winter storm that dumped heavy snow on the US Midwest, causing at least five deaths, stranding some motorists in Missouri and canceling dozens of flights, marched east toward Washington on Saturday. The weather system, which started as rain from Mexico, but has since turned into snow, is forecast to affect an 2,900km swath of the US from Colorado to the Mid-Atlantic. The storm pummeled Kansas and Missouri on Saturday as it extended into parts of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, said US.Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Andrew Orrison. At least five people died in weather-related crashes on roads in Missouri and Kansas, according to the highway patrolmen in both states. Dozens of flights were canceled at St Louis Lambert International Airport, which described the onslaught of snow on Twitter as one of its biggest single-day winter storms in years.
UNITED STATES
Wall campaign goes private
The organizers of a GoFundMe campaign to fund the construction of a wall along the southern US border have scrapped plans to hand US$20m over to the federal government and plan to build the wall privately instead. “The federal government won’t be able to accept our donations anytime soon,” organizers said in a Friday update for the campaign, which by Saturday afternoon had raised more than US$20.3 million from nearly 340,000 donors. “We are better equipped than our own government to use the donated funds to build an actual wall on the southern border,” the organizers said. Because organizers changed the nature of their campaign, GoFundMe said donors would have to opt-in in order to reroute their contribution to the new venture.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
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