GERMANY
Stuck fat rat rescued
A nine-person rescue operation was organized in the town of Bensheim after a fat rat became stuck trying to squeeze through a small gap in a manhole cover on Sunday afternoon. The Auerbach volunteer fire brigade was called in to help a man from the Rhein Neckar animal rescue team, and together they were able to raise the cover and pull the rat free. Two young girls later rewarded the animal rescue team with a drawing of a rat surrounded by hearts, and Danke (thanks) written on it.
Photo: Reuters / Berufstierrettung Rhein Neckar
IRELAND
Crusader’s head stolen
Vandals have stolen the head of an 800-year-old mummified body known as the “Crusader” from a crypt in St Michan’s Church in Dublin, police and Church of Ireland officials said on Tuesday. Several other mummies in the crypt, including the 400-year-old remains of a nun, were also desecrated in the incident, while the chamber itself was badly damaged, the church said. “I would appeal to those responsible to examine their consciences and return the head of the crusader to its rightful place,” Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson said.
IRAN
Zarif resignation rejected
President Hassan Rouhani yesterday rejected Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation, which he submitted on Monday. “I believe your resignation is against the country’s interests and do not approve it,” Rouhani wrote in a letter to Zarif posted on the government’s official Web site. “I consider you ... to be ‘trustworthy, brave and pious’ and in the forefront of resistance against America’s all-out pressure.”
UNITED STATES
Rain prompts evacuation
Torrential rain from a winter storm that has also dumped heavy snow in mountainous areas prompted California authorities to order mandatory evacuations for two dozen small communities north of San Francisco. The town of Guerneville, population 4,500, was the largest ordered to evacuate. The river was expected to crest last night at 14m. “We’re definitely in high concern mode,” Sonoma County Sheriff’s Sergeant Spencer Crum said.
VENEZUELA
Guaido vows to return soon
National Assembly President and self-declared interim president Juan Guaido said he would return home from Colombia soon to mobilize new protests against President Nicholas Maduro. Guaido spoke on Tuesday after meeting officials from the Lima Group and US Vice President Mike Pence in Bogota.
ANTARCTICA
Iceberg set to calve
An iceberg about twice the size of New York City is set to calve, or break away, from the Brunt ice shelf as a result of a rapidly spreading rift, known as a Halloween crack, that is being monitored by NASA. A crack along part of the ice shelf is spreading east and set to intersect with another fissure that was apparently stable for the past 35 years, but is now accelerating north at a rate of about 4km a year. Once the two rifts meet, which could happen within weeks, an iceberg of at least 1,709km2 is likely to calve.
AUSTRALIA
Refugee children leave Nauru
The remaining refugee children detained on the Pacific island of Nauru departed yesterday on a flight bound for the US, asylum-seeker advocates said. The Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) said that 19 refugees, including four children, were aboard the flight. The camps have come under fierce criticism, with reports of abuse, suicide and despondency. “Despite claims by [Prime Minister] Scott Morrison... that all refugee children were off Nauru, it is only after the flight to the US today that the claim can be truthfully made,” RAC spokesman Ian Rintoul said.
AUSTRALIA
Meth chemical haul seized
Authorities say they have seized chemicals that could have been used to make 1.27 tonnes of methamphetamine and arrested four men in a joint operation with China. The Federal Police said they seized enough of the precursor ephedrine to make methamphetamine with a street value of nearly A$700 million (US$502 million). Border authorities intercepted a container arriving from China labeled as ceramic tiles and glue, but which police say contained 260 bags of ephedrine. Police say they switched the ephedrine with an inert substance and delivered the consignment. Two of those arrested are from Melbourne and two are Chinese nationals.
INDONESIA
Mine collapse buries dozens
One person was killed and dozens more were buried in the collapse of an illegal gold mine on Sulawesi, the Disaster Management Agency said yesterday. Rescuers scrambled to find survivors in the rubble after the collapse triggered a landslide on Tuesday evening, the agency said. At least one person was found dead and 15 others were injured, a statement said. “When dozens of people were mining for gold at this location, suddenly beams and supporting boards broke due to unstable soil conditions,” agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. “It is estimated that as many as 60 people are buried under the landslide.”
THAILAND
Two police seized, shot dead
Two policemen were executed after being abducted from a tea shop in the southern borderlands, police said yesterday, as bloodshed again spikes in a 15-year insurgency. Tit-for-tat violence has spiraled in the past few weeks leaving imams and Buddhist monks dead, and hitting security forces protecting schools. About eight suspected militants on Tuesday stormed a tea shop in Narathiwat Province, Lieutenant Sarayuth Khotchawong said, adding: “The kidnappers abducted the two policemen, took their guns and forced them to get into a pick-up truck.” The bodies were found later a few hundred meters away.
NIGERIA
President gets second term
President Muhammadu Buhari early yesterday was declared the clear winner of Saturday last week’s election, after a campaign in which he urged voters to give him another chance to tackle corruption, widespread insecurity and an economy limping back from recession. While frustrated voters had said they wanted to give someone new a try, Buhari profited from his upright reputation in an oil-rich nation weary of politicians enriching themselves instead of the people. The electoral commission said in its official declaration before dawn that Buhari received 15.1 million votes, or 55 percent. Challenger Atiku Abubakar received 11.2 million, or 41 percent. The average national turnout was 35.6 percent, continuing a downward trend.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
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