INDONESIA
Sea patrols increased
The country is stepping up sea and aerial patrols of islands near the disputed South China Sea, an official said yesterday, following a diplomatic spat over “trespassing” Chinese vessels. Military aircraft and three warships with about 600 navy, army and air force personnel have been deployed to waters around the Natuna Islands, which border the South China Sea. “Territorial violations by foreign vessels in Indonesian exclusive economic zone ... is a threat to Indonesian sovereignty,” defense commander Vice Admiral Yudo Margono said in a statement. The move came after the country summoned the Chinese ambassador this week and lodged a “strong protest” over a Chinese coast guard vessel escorting Chinese fishing boats around the islands last month.
CAMBODIA
Collapse kills at least seven
Hundreds of soldiers and rescuers yesterday frantically picked through the rubble of a collapsed building in the country’s south looking for bodies as the death toll from the disaster rose to seven. They used excavators, drills and power saws to clear concrete the morning after the seven-story hotel under construction in seaside Kep province crumbled to the ground with an estimated 30 workers inside, prompting an all-night rescue. Eighteen survivors were pulled out of the debris, the Kep provincial administration said.
UNITED STATES
Driver jumps off bridge
A driver who mistakenly thought Atlanta police were chasing him as they pursued a different speeding motorist crashed his car and jumped 12m off a highway bridge to escape. The driver survived the jump early on Thursday and ran into a wooded area. On Friday, Davaughn Clarke, 25, turned himself in to police. He was taken to a hospital detention center and eventually would be transported to the Fulton County Jail, police spokeswoman Tasheena Brown said. Clarke would face several charges, including speeding, reckless driving, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm during or in attempt to commit certain felonies, Brown said.
INDONESIA
Flood death toll reaches 53
Nearly 175,000 people remain displaced in the capital, Jakarta, and nearby towns, after flash floods and landslides killed at least 53 people, amid some of the heaviest rain since records began, authorities said yesterday. “The death toll has risen to 53 people, with one person missing,” National Board for Disaster Management spokesman Agus Wibowo said. Agency data showed that 173,064 residents remain evacuated from their homes, after the deadliest flooding in years caused chaos in parts of Southeast Asia’s biggest city, with train lines blocked and power outages in some areas.
LATVIA
Baltic pipeline opens
Stored natural gas has begun flowing from the country to Finland through the new Balticconnector pipeline in a bid to ease the region’s dependence on Russian gas. “The first quantities of natural gas on the common gas market between Estonia, Latvia and Finland flowed from Latvia to Finland via Estonia on January first,” Estonia’s electricity and gas system operator Elering said in a statement on Friday. Thanks to imports from Latvia’s underground storage facility in the central village of Incukalns, Russian gas giant Gazprom would no longer be Finland’s sole supplier.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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