CHINA
At least 18 die in coal mine
Eighteen people have died after being trapped in a mine in the southwestern city of Chongqing, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday, the region’s second such accident in just more than two months. The dead were among 24 people trapped underground by excessive levels of carbon monoxide gas at the Diaoshuidong coal mine, the agency said, adding that one survivor had been rescued, while search efforts continue. Friday’s incident, which occurred at about 5pm in a mine shut for more than two months as the company dismantled underground equipment, is being investigated, it added.
BRAZIL
Wildlife trafficker nabbed
Police on Friday arrested one of the country’s top wildlife traffickers and rescued about 200 animals set for illegal sale, officials said. The Federal Police at a news conference announced that 14 arrest warrants had been issued and that 11 people had been arrested by midday. The suspects are accused of illegally selling the animals through social media. Some of the animals are endangered species captured in the Amazon rainforest, including macaws, toucans, monkeys and reptiles such as caimans. Among the arrested is Roberto Augusto Martinez Filho, described by investigators as “one of the country’s leading animal traffickers.”
GREECE
PM’s trip sparks outrage
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday faced a backlash over a bike trip deemed to have violated the government’s lockdown measures. Video and photographs emerged last weekend showing Mitsotakis and his wife in the company of motocross riders on Mount Parnitha, 45km from Athens. He caused further outrage by posing with five of the men — not one wearing a mask. Under lockdown rules that came into force on Nov. 7 people face fines of at least 300 euros (US$364) for venturing out without a clear reason. The wearing of masks is also compulsory outdoors under regulations Mitsotakis announced. In response to his actions, nearly 4,000 people have pledged to cycle at Parnitha yesterday in a Facebook group created for the purpose.
IRAN
Protesters to be retried
The Supreme Court yesterday said it would review the cases of three young men sentenced to death over links to deadly protests in November last year after a request from their lawyers. Numerous calls had spread online after the verdict was announced, calling for a halt for executions in the country, with the UN and European countries reaffirming their opposition to the death sentence. “A request to retry the three sentenced to death over the incidents was accepted,” the court said on its official Web site.
CUBA
Ministry reneges on promise
The government on Friday reneged on its promise to engage in dialogue with artists calling for greater freedom of expression, saying it disagreed with their conditions for the meeting. The government had on Friday last week agreed to holding the talks when hundreds of Cubans staged a rare sit-in outside the Ministry of Culture to protest a raid on the headquarters of dissident artist collective the San Isidro Movement. However, the ministry on Friday said that it would “not meet with people who have direct contact and receive financing, logistical support and propagandistic backing from the US government.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
Tanzanian politicians are in shock over the massacre of hundreds of young protesters during its recent election, insiders told Agence France-Presse, but are too afraid to speak out as a tiny cabal around the president takes control. Gruesome images of dead Tanzanians have flooded the Internet in the wake of the Oct. 29 elections that triggered widespread protests over government repression. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan officially won with 98 percent of the vote, but key opposition leaders were jailed or disqualified. The opposition said that more than 1,000 people were killed as security forces crushed the protests under cover of a five-day
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