SAUDI ARABIA
S Khashoggi defends Riyadh
The son of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has denied a financial settlement with the government, yesterday spoke out in defense of the kingdom ahead of the first anniversary of the killing at the nation’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Salah Khashoggi said he had “full confidence” in the nation’s judicial system and hit out at opponents he said were seeking to exploit the case. “A year has gone by since the passing of my beloved father. During this time, opponents and enemies in the East and West sought to exploit his case ... to undermine my country and leadership,” he said in a tweet. “I will not accept that his memory and case be taken advantage of to achieve that after his passing.”
NEPAL
Speaker quits over ‘rape’
Parliamentary Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, one of the nation’s leading Communist Party leaders, yesterday resigned amid allegations that he raped a government worker at her home while he was intoxicated. His office has denied the allegation, saying it is a politically motivated character assassination attempt. News reports said the woman claimed Mahara entered her house on Sunday night while her husband was away and assaulted her. His office said he was at his official residence on Sunday evening.
RUSSIA
Alcohol use down 40%
A WHO report published yesterday showed alcohol consumption has dropped by 43 percent since 2003, which it attributed to measures brought in under President Vladimir Putin, including restrictions on alcohol sales and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. “The Russian Federation has long been considered one of the heaviest-drinking countries in the world. However, in recent years these trends have been reversed,” it said. The authors said this trend was a factor in increased life expectancies, which last year reached historic peaks of 78 years for women and 68 years for men.
NEW ZEALAND
Sick mothers miscarry
Two fetuses have died after their mothers contracted measles amid the worst outbreak of the illness in the nation in two decades. The deaths were announced yesterday by the Auckland regional public health service, which said that five pregnant women in the region had contracted the illness, and two had lost their unborn babies. Karen Bartholomew, director of health outcomes for the Waitemata and Auckland district health boards, told a news conference although it could not be certain the fetuses died due to the illness, their mothers were undergoing treatment after contracting measles.
AUSTRALIA
Boomerangs, pies on coins
The Royal Australian Mint and Australia Post have released an unusual commemorative set of 26 A$1 (US$0.67) coins featuring an A-Z of imagery — including a boomerang, a didgeridoo, a meat pie, the popular television soap opera Neighbours, the word “G’day” and a quokka, a diminutive marsupial native to Rottnest Island, the image of a yowie (a mythical creature said to inhabit the Outback), a lamington (a square sponge cake coated in chocolate and desiccated coconut) and a pair of thongs, or flip-flops. The coins are to be rolled out in batches throughout this month, but will only be available to customers who make a purchase using cash at a post office and receive A$1 coins in their change.
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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