CHINA
Virus found on ice cream
The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was found on ice cream produced in the country’s east, prompting a recall of cartons from the same batch, the government has said. Daqiaodao Food Co in Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, was sealed and its employees were being tested for the coronavirus, the city government said in a statement. There was no indication anyone had contracted the virus from the ice cream. Most of the 29,000 cartons in the batch had yet to be sold, the government said. It said 390 sold in Tianjin were being tracked down and authorities elsewhere were notified of sales to their areas. The ingredients included New Zealand milk powder and whey powder from Ukraine, the government said.
PHILIPPINES
China to donate vaccines
China is to donate 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to the country and vowed to accelerate infrastructure investment in the Southeast Asian nation. The pledge was made by Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on Saturday during meetings with Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin and President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila, according to statements from Duterte’s office and the Department of Foreign Affairs. “The recovery of nations sits on the back of stronger economies,” Duterte said. “China plays a very key role in reviving our region’s economy. Let us do all we can to revive economic activities between the Philippines and China.”
AFGHANISTAN
Two judges assassinated
Gunmen yesterday shot dead two female judges working for the Supreme Court during an early morning ambush in the country’s capital, Kabul, officials said, as a wave of assassinations continues to rattle the nation. The attack on the judges happened as they were driving to their office in a court vehicle, Supreme Court spokesman Ahmad Fahim Qaweem said. “Unfortunately, we have lost two women judges in today’s attack. Their driver is wounded,” Qaweem told reporters. There are more than 200 female judges working for the country’s top court, the spokesman added. Kabul police confirmed the attack.
MEXICO
Ex-cardinal’s post flagged
Facebook has placed a warning screen over a rambling chat by retired Mexican cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez in which he claims that COVID-19 vaccines contain a satanic microchip. The screen warns viewers: “This post repeats information about COVID-19 that independent fact checkers say is false.” In the video, Sandoval Iniguez refers to “the chip that they are planning to put in the vaccine to control you, it is the mark of the beast.” The video is titled: “The plot to impose a new world order without Christ.”
UNITED STATES
‘Halloween House’ torched
Members of the Church of Satan are grieving the destruction of a historic “Halloween House” north of New York City that authorities have said was set ablaze last week by an unidentified arsonist. The historic home, built in 1900, served as an Addams Family-style hub for local adherents of the religion, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported. One member of the church likened the arson to a terrorist attack. “Everybody’s in shock and everyone in the neighborhood is worried,” the member, who goes by the name Isis Vermouth, told the newspaper. “Whoever did this is going to be hexed by all of us.”
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
RSS