NEW CALEDONIA
Mapou wins presidency
Louis Mapou, a supporter of independence, yesterday was voted in as president of the French Pacific territory, just months ahead of a third and final referendum on a breakaway. Mapou said that it was “an honor and a privilege” to take up the position. It is the first time a supporter of independence has held the role since the “Noumea Accord,” a decolonization plan signed in 1998 that granted the archipelago autonomy. That agreement ended a deadly conflict between the mostly pro-independence indigenous Kanak population and the descendants of European settlers. It also allowed for up to three independence votes by next year if requested by at least one-third of the local legislature, the third of which is to be held in December. The first, in 2018, saw 57 percent vote to remain part of France, while a second in October last year saw that share decrease to 53 percent.
CHINA
One elephant returned
A male Asian elephant that had separated from a herd wandering in southwest China for more than a year on Wednesday was anesthetized and returned to its nature reserve. The lone elephant was captured in Yuxi city and sent back to the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, about 280km away, the Yunnan Provincial Command Center for the Safety and Monitoring of North Migrating Asian Elephants said. It appeared healthy and did not have any injuries, the Yunnan provincial government wrote on social media. The remaining 14 elephants have been moving southward, but are still far from the reserve, the center said. The animal had relied heavily on food that the center provided or that it found in homes, and had stayed in a rural neighborhood close to a highway and a major railroad since Monday, it said.
NORTH KOREA
Kim’s health assessed
Leader Kim Jong-un has lost more than 10kg, but has no major health issues affecting his rule, South Korean Legislator Kim Byung-kee said yesterday. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) estimated that Kim Jong-un lost 10kg to 20kg recently, Kim Byung-kee said. The comments came after video broadcast by North Korean state media showed a dramatically thinner Kim Jong-un. “It appears to be there’s no health problem,” Kim Byung-kee said, adding that Kim Jong-un still attends major political events. South Korean Legislator Ha Tae-keung said that the NIS disclosed that South Korea’s Atomic Energy Research Institute and National Fusion Research Institute have been hacked by the North.
UNITED STATES
Iowa man bailed, proposes
An Iowa man who was in custody in Chicago after police found a rifle in a hotel room over the weekend made bond and then proposed to his girlfriend upon his release. Authorities said a member of the cleaning staff at the W Hotel on Sunday told police that they observed the rifle, a handgun and ammunition in the room held by Keegan Casteel, 32. Casteel of Ankeny, Iowa, was arrested at the hotel and faces two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. A Cook County judge on Tuesday ordered him held in lieu of US$10,000 bond. Casteel was released on Wednesday and proposed to his girlfriend outside the 18th District headquarters, WLS-TV reported. She appeared to accept. “I understand through the state’s proffer and your attorney that you have permission to possess the firearms in the state of Iowa,” Judge David Navarro said during a Tuesday hearing. “However, clearly, we’re not in Iowa.”
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
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