INDIA
Street mutt becomes top dog
Eighteen months after being rescued from stone-throwing children, a street mutt has emerged top dog in an elite bomb and drug-sniffing squad. Asha — “hope” in Hindi — was rescued by West Bengal police when they found her being mistreated outside their training facility. “The dog was bleeding when she was taken inside the campus,” West Bengal Police Training Academy official Dipankar Bhattacharya said. Officers originally intended keeping the mixed-breed stray as a pet, but Asha turned out to have a nose every bit as good as the German Shepherds and Labradors usually trained to sniff out explosives and drugs. Sajal Mondal, the head of the academy, said she passed the grueling training with flying colors. “She performed better than her pedigree peers... She is also our fastest runner,” Mondal said.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Lion mauls, kills owner
A lion that mauled and killed its owner in a cage at his property has been shot dead by police. Local media reported that the male lion attacked Michal Prasek when he entered the cage he had built for the animal in his garden, about 350km southeast of Prague. A lioness was also shot by police. “A 33-year old man died after his lion attacked him,” police spokeswoman Lenka Javorkova said on Tuesday. “The police had to shoot two lions in order to get to the man who was with the animals.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Hundreds play royal match
Hundreds of people on Tuesday descended on the town of Ashbourne in central England to play a traditional soccer game in which the rules are hazy and the goals 5km apart. The Royal Shrovetide Football Match involves teams called the Up’ards and the Down’ards, who battle to try and tap the ball three times on stone plinths that act as goals. Well aware of the passions involved, local shops close early and board up as if preparing for a riot. Due to the large numbers taking part, there is little kicking of the ball, with players instead tending to carry the ball across the pitch. The match is played from 2pm to 10pm on both Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, but goals are rare because of the size of the pitch, with last year’s match finishing 1-1. The centuries-old event gained its “royal” title when the future Edward VIII started a 1928 game by throwing up the ball, an act repeated by present heir to the throne Prince Charles in 2003.
UNITED STATES
Jackson backlash begins
Michael Jackson fans have bombarded Oprah Winfrey with hateful messages after the broadcast of a documentary about alleged child abuse by the late singer. Leaving Neverland, and her follow-up interview with the two men at the center of the film, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who said they were befriended by Jackson and were abused by him from the ages of seven and 10 in the early 1990s. The film has been met with a mixture of horror and disbelief after a two-part airing on HBO on Sunday and Monday. Winfrey, herself a sexual assault survivor, conducted the follow-up interview in a special in front of an audience of assault victims. Winfrey was aware of the attacks they might face. “All the anger — you guys are going to get it,” she said. “You’re going to get it. I’m going to get it. We’re all going to get it.” Robson said that he had already received death threats. Jackson’s family has called the documentary a “public lynching” and said he was “100 percent innocent.” Some radio stations in Canada and the Netherlands have stopped playing Jackson’s music
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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