INDONESIA
Bus crash leaves 25 dead
Twenty-five people were killed when a passenger bus plunged into a ravine on Sumatra Island after its brakes apparently malfunctioned, police said yesterday. At least 14 other people were hospitalized with injuries following the crash, including one in a critical condition with bone fractures, local police Chief Dolly Gumara said. The crash occurred just before midnight on Monday on a winding slope in South Sumatra province’s Pagaralam district. The bus plunged into an 80m ravine and crashed into a fast-flowing river after the driver lost control of the vehicle in an area with a number of sharp inclines, Gumara said. Rescuers were still searching for other passengers who might have been dragged by river currents, Gumara said. The driver and two crew members were among those killed.
JAPAN
Births fall 5.9% to 864,000
The number of babies born in the country this year fell an estimated 5.9 percent to fewer than 900,000 for the first time since the government started compiling data in 1899, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said yesterday. The dwindling number of births would put more strain on welfare finances to support snowballing costs of supporting an aging population, which would undermine economic growth, analysts have said. There were 512,000 more deaths than births this year, the first time the figure has surpassed 500,000, with 864,000 babies born. Last year, 918,400 babies were born. This was the biggest decline in births since 1975, driven by a fewer women aged 25 to 39, a ministry official in charge of compiling the data said. The government is hoping for a birthrate of 1.8 percent — which would appear a tall order given that the rate was 1.42 percent last year.
AUSTRALIA
Cotton On probes supplier
Clothing retailer Cotton On Group yesterday said it is investigating a Chinese supplier after British supermarket operator Tesco suspended ties with the same supplier due to fears of the use of forced prison labor. Tesco launched an investigation into ties with Zhejiang Yunguang after media reports of a customer finding a message inside a Christmas card produced by Zhejiang and bought from one of Tesco’s stores saying the product had been packed by foreign prisoners. Cotton On communications general manager Greer McCracken said the firm takes a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. ABC News on Monday reported that Zhejiang Yunguang also lists US firms Walt Disney Co and Big Lots Inc among its international partners.
NEPAL
Over 120 Chinese detained
Police have detained 122 Chinese nationals in its biggest crackdown on crime by foreigners entering the country on tourist visas, officials said yesterday. The Chinese men and women were rounded up in raids on Monday following information that they were engaged in suspicious activities, Kathmandu police chief Uttam Subedi said. They are suspected of carrying out cybercrime and hacking into bank cash machines, Subedi said, adding that they were being held in different police stations and their passports, and laptop computers had been seized. Chinese embassy officials were not immediately available for comment, but another senior police officer, Hobindra Bogati, said the embassy knew of the raids and had supported the detention of the suspects.
BOSNIA
Central government formed
Lawmakers on Monday approved a central government after more than a year of arguments, boosting hopes that the nation’s bid for EU membership could get back on track. The bloc said the move “opens the way for renewed commitment of the political parties to allow for progress on the EU path of the country.” Zoran Tegeltija, a 58-year-old Bosnian Serb economist, was chosen as prime minister and, along with his Cabinet, received the backing of 29 lawmakers in the 42-seat assembly.
AUSTRALIA
Five hurt in mall stampede
Five people were hospitalized after Christmas shoppers were crushed in a midnight balloon drop of gift vouchers at a Sydney suburban shopping center. Footage showed people at the Westfield Parramatta shopping center jostling for the gold, silver and white balloons containing the gift cards. As the crowd surged, shoppers were sent sprawling. Paramedics called to the scene treated 12 people. Four men and one woman were taken to hospital. “Three of the transported patients had more serious issues, including traumatic chest injuries, neck and back pain, as well as nausea and dizziness,” New South Wales Ambulance Inspector Phil Templeman said in a statement. Scentre Group, which owns the Westfield chain in Australia, said it was investigating the incident.
VIETNAM
Ivory, pangolin scales seized
Authorities have seized more than 2 tonnes of pangolin scales and ivory from Nigeria, state media reported yesterday. Customs authorities in the northern port city of Haiphong found 330kg of ivory and 1.7 tonnes of pangolin scales hidden in three containers of wood this month, the Customs Department’s Hai Quan newspaper reported.
BRAZIL
Fall hospitalizes Bolsonaro
President Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized on Monday after an accident at his home in Brasilia, the latest health scare for the 64-year-old, his office said. “President Jair Bolsonaro fell at the Alvorada Palace. He was treated by the medical team of the Presidency of the Republic and taken to the Armed Forces Hospital,” a presidential spokesman said in a statement. Bolsonaro was given a cranial computed tomography scan, “which did not detect any changes,” it said. Minister of Institutional Security General Augusto Heleno arrived at the hospital shortly after the presidential convoy and said that Bolsonaro “is fine,” but must remain under observation.
BOLIVIA
Agents surround embassy
The Mexican government on Monday said 150 Bolivian intelligence agents have surrounded its ambassador’s residence in La Paz and tried to search the ambassador’s vehicle. The Mexican Foreign Relations Department said the ring of agents in military dress started over the weekend. The presence of the guards and the attempted search of a diplomatic vehicle contravened diplomatic protections and guarantees, the department added. The government briefly gave asylum to ousted Bolivian president Evo Morales and has given refuge to about 30 of his supporters at its embassy facilities in La Paz.
ZAMBIA
US pulls envoy after criticism
The US has recalled its envoy after President Edgar Lungu demanded his removal for criticizing the jailing of two gay men, a US embassy source said on Monday. US Ambassador Daniel Foote came under fire after he expressed dismay at two men charged with homosexuality being jailed last month for 15 years and urged the government to review discriminatory laws. Lungu made an official complaint against Foote, saying that he did not “want such people” in his country. “Remember that there are issues of security... We do not expect a replacement soon,” the embassy source said.
UNITED STATES
Rockette makes history
A dancer born with one hand is the first person with a visible disability ever hired by New York City’s famed Radio City Rockettes. “I don’t want to be known as the dancer who has one hand, and not because that’s a bad thing,” Sydney Mesher, who joined the Rockettes this season, told Newsday. “But because I’ve worked very hard to be where I am.” Mesher, 22, is missing a left hand due to symbrachydactyly, a rare congenital condition. She said she has been “mesmerized” by the troupe ever since first seeing them on TV.
UNITED STATES
Racist hit-and-runs admitted
An Iowa woman who told police that she intentionally ran over a teenager because she believed the girl was Mexican has been charged with another hit-and-run crash that hurt a 12-year-old boy. Nicole Franklin was charged on Monday by Des Moines police with attempted murder in connection with a Dec. 9 crash that occurred less than an hour before another crash in suburban Clive. In the latest charge, Franklin was accused of leaving a roadway and hitting a 12-year-old boy, who suffered minor injuries. Franklin was also charged on Sunday with assault in violation of individual rights and with operating under the influence, second offense, after allegedly entering a convenience store where she threw items at a clerk, and directed racial epithets at him and customers.
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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