HONG KONG
Police make ‘mega bust’
Authorities yesterday said that they have made their largest smuggling bust, seizing goods, including endangered species, worth an estimated US$26.9 million. The smuggling ring operated using speedboats, the government said, adding that four trucks were also impounded in a raid. A 34-year-old man was arrested in the operation that began in June and more details are to be released, it said. Law enforcement descended on the smugglers, who were operating in the New Territories, close to China, on Sept. 23. “In terms of the seizure value, this is the largest smuggling case — whether by air, sea or land — on record for customs officers,” the government said.
INDIA
Swerving bus kills riders
Twelve people were killed in the north yesterday after the bus they were on swerved off the road and hit a truck, police said. The bus driver veered off track to avoid hitting stray cattle on the road, authorities said. The accident occurred in Barabanki District, 40km southwest of Lucknow. Another 32 were injured out of the 60 passengers onboard. There are fears that the number of dead could increase as several passengers sustained critical injuries, Senior Police Officer Yamuna Prasad said.
TURKEY
Paris climate deal ratified
The country’s parliament on Wednesday ratified the Paris climate accord, making it the last G20 country to do so, after holding off for years due to what it saw as injustices in its responsibilities under the pact. The country has been a signatory to the deal since April 2016, but on Wednesday, parliament’s 353 members unanimously voted in favor of ratifying it.
GERMANY
IS women, children return
The country has repatriated eight women who joined the Islamic State (IS) group and 23 children from northern Syria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said overnight from Wednesday to yesterday — it is the biggest such transfer since 2019. “The children are not responsible for their situation... The mothers will have to answer for their acts,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas said in a statement. “Many of them were held in custody on arrival in Germany,” she added.
LIBYA
More bodies wash ashore
At least 17 bodies, likely of Europe-bound migrants, have washed ashore in the west, the Red Crescent said. The bodies were found on Tuesday near the western town of Zawiya, the Red Crescent’s branch in the town said, and were handed over to authorities for burial. The migrants likely drowned. The UN International Organization for Migration has said that more than 1,100 migrants have been reported dead or presumed dead in numerous boat mishaps and shipwrecks off the country’s coast so far this year.
UNITED STATES
Texas abortion ban blocked
A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a near-total ban on abortion in Texas in a challenge brought by President Joe Biden’s administration after the Supreme Court had allowed it to go into effect. The action by District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin prevents the state from enforcing the law that prohibits women from obtaining an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, while litigation over its legality continues. The case is part of a fierce legal battle over abortion access in the country, with numerous states pursuing restrictions.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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