SRI LANKA
Pageant mixes up winner
The Mrs Sri Lanka beauty pageant descended into chaos on Sunday when a former title holder declared that the winner was ineligible and forcibly removed her crown. A video of the event in Colombo showed 2019 winner Caroline Jurie pulling out hairpins from Pushpika De Silva’s hair, removing the crown and placing it on the runner-up’s head, after informing the audience that the competition did not allow divorcees to enter. However, the prize was returned to De Silva at a news conference on Tuesday, after organizers confirmed that she was not divorced. They have also apologized to her.
SOUTH KOREA
Moon’s party defeated
President Moon Jae-in’s ruling Democratic party experienced a devastating defeat in a special election for key mayoral posts, vote counts showed yesterday. In Seoul, conservative People Power contender Oh Se-hoon secured 57.5 percent of the votes, the National Election Commission said, for a landslide victory. In Busan, People Power candidate Park Hyung-joon received 62.7 percent of the votes, soundly beating the Democratic contender. Voter turnout was 58.2 percent in Seoul and 52.7 percent in Busan, for the first time exceeding 50 percent in a snap election for local offices, the commission said.
INDONESIA
Aid flows into flood-hit areas
Two navy ships packed with aid yesterday arrived in a cyclone-ravaged section of the archipelago. The vessels docked at Lembata and Adonara islands, with hospital ships also en route to islands in the east. The vessels are packed with food, including rice and noodles, as well as blankets and other materials for some of the region’s more than 20,000 evacuees. “Another ship will arrive later today carrying military personnel who will be deployed to help people in the aftermath of the disaster,” said Kompiang Aribawa, head of a regional naval base.
PHILIPPINES
US pushes back at China
The US on Wednesday warned China against what Manila sees as increasingly aggressive moves, reminding Beijing of Washington’s obligations to its partners. “An armed attack against the Philippines’ armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, will trigger our obligations under the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price told reporters. “We share the concerns of our Philippine allies regarding the continued reported massing of PRC [People’s Republic of China] maritime militia near the Whitsun Reef,” Price added.
UNITED STATES
NYC renters scoop up units
Even Manhattan’s longest-lingering apartment units are finding takers amid landlord discounts that sent new leases surging. Apartment contracts in Manhattan jumped 89 percent last month from a year earlier to 4,986, a report released yesterday by appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate showed. At the end of last month, there were 19,633 empty units seeking tenants, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman said, adding that there were nearly 24,000 at the end of February. Median rent, after factoring in concessions, was US$2,975, but that was still 14 percent less than the median rent in March last year. “With inventory still being so elevated, I don’t see rents posting noticeable gains in the near future,” Miller said. “There’s still too much out there.”
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
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
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