SOUTH AFRICA
Zulu king dies
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini died yesterday aged 72, after weeks in hospital, his palace announced. The king wielded great influence among millions of Zulus through his largely ceremonial and spiritual role, despite having no official power. “It is with the utmost grief that I inform the nation of the passing of His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini ... King of the Zulu nation,” the palace said in a statement signed by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a powerful veteran politician who is also a Zulu prince. The king was hospitalized last month for diabetes. “Tragically, while still in hospital, His Majesty’s health took a turn for the worse and he subsequently passed away in the early hours of this morning,” the statement said. Born in Nongoma, a small town in the southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province, Zwelithini ascended the throne in 1971 during the apartheid era at the age of 23, three years after the death of his father.
JAPAN
Suga to visit with Biden
The government yesterday announced that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is to travel to Washington next month for his first face-to-face summit with US President Joe Biden, after he and his entourage complete their COVID-19 vaccinations. Suga is expected to be the first foreign leader that Biden meets since he took office in January, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said. The trip is expected to take place in the first half of next month. The two leaders are expected to discuss pandemic measures, climate change and other regional concerns including North Korea, Kato said. The meeting is also likely to touch on China’s escalating assertiveness in the East and South China seas, which have become a growing concern for Tokyo and Washington.
UNITED STATES
Man roams base freely
A homeless man last month spent five hours freely roaming the military base where the US president’s plane is kept, after easily passing through several layers of security, the air force said on Thursday. The air force inspector general said in a report on the Feb. 4 incident that the unauthorized intruder at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland made his way onto a C-40 transport plane on the tarmac, but did not travel close to Air Force One or the secretary of defense’s dedicated Boeing 747s. The unidentified man was able to drive onto the base and spend five hours there at a food court, in the VIP terminal, and elsewhere, before he drew attention. That was despite signs he did not know where he was, and his unique appearance: “On his head, he had a bright red or pink cap that partially covered his ears and had distinctive balls on top that looked a little like mouse ears,” according to the otherwise heavily redacted report.
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS