UNITED STATES
Saudis to be expelled
The country is to expel at least a dozen Saudi Arabian military students accused of extremist links and child pornography, after an investigation into a shooting rampage by a Saudi officer in Florida, local media reported on Saturday. Last month, Mohammed Alshamrani, who was in the country as part of a Saudi military training program, opened fire in a classroom at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, killing three sailors and wounding eight other people before being shot dead by police. While the dozen or more trainees are not accused of aiding Alshamrani, some were found to have connections to extremist movements or be in possession of child pornography, CNN reported.
SAUDI ARABIA
Abe arrives for Gulf visit
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday arrived in the kingdom to start a Persian Gulf tour during which he hopes to ease tensions after the US killed a top Iranian general. Abe and his delegation were welcomed by senior officials, including Minister of Economy Mohammed al-Tuwaijri, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. During his five-day tour, Abe would also visit the United Arab Emirates and Oman. “To avoid further escalation of the tense situation in the Middle East, [Abe] will exchange opinions with the three countries” he is visiting, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said ahead of the visit. “In each of the countries, we plan to ask for cooperation in ensuring a stable energy supply and the safety of vessels,” he added.
ECUADOR
‘Busy’ tortoise to be freed
Job done, prolific Galapagos giant tortoise Diego is being released back into the wild after being credited by authorities with almost single-handedly saving his species from extinction. The 100-year-old tortoise, who was recruited along with 14 other adults for a captive breeding program, would be returned to his native island of Espanola in March, the Galapagos National Parks service said on Friday. Diego’s contribution to the program on Santa Cruz Island was particularly noteworthy, with park rangers believing him responsible for being the patriarch of at least 40 percent of the 2,000-strong tortoise population.
PUERTO RICO
Earthquake rocks south
A magnitude 5.9 quake shook the US territory on Saturday, causing damage along the southern coast, where recent quakes have toppled homes and schools. The US Geological Survey said the 8:54am earthquake hit 13km southeast of Guanica at a depth of 5km. It was followed by several aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.2 earthquake less than two minutes later. No injuries or deaths were reported, officials said. Governor Wanda Vazquez estimated damage from Tuesday’s earthquake at US$110 million.
MALTA
New prime minister named
Political newcomer Robert Abela was set to become the country’s new prime minister having been elected leader of the ruling Labor Party following a vote on Saturday. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is stepping down as leader and prime minister amid claims that he protected associates who had links to people allegedly involved in the 2017 murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The election result became known early yesterday, with Abela winning 58 percent of the votes of about 17,500 members of the party.
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
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
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