MYANMAR
Suu Kyi charged with fraud
The junta has charged deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi with “election fraud and lawless actions” during last year’s polls that her party won in a landslide, state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar reported yesterday, without giving details on when court proceedings would begin. Fifteen other officials — including former president Win Myint and the election commission chairman — face the same charge, the report added. Detained since the putsch, Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, faces a raft of charges. including illegally importing walkie talkies, sedition and corruption, and faces decades in jail if convicted.
TURKEY
Moise’s death suspect held
Turkish authorities have arrested a man considered a suspect of “great interest” in the July assassination of then-Haitian president Jovenel Moise, Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Claude Joseph said late on Monday. Moise, who took office in 2017, was shot dead at his home and his wife was wounded in the attack. A group of Colombian mercenaries emerged as the main suspects, but nobody has been charged or convicted in connection with the case. “I just had a phone conversation with the Turkish minister, my friend Mevlut Cavusoglu, to thank Turkey for the arrest of Samir Handal, one of the persons of great interest in the investigation into the assassination of the president,” Joseph wrote on Twitter.
AUSTRALIA
Vaccine compensation filed
The government might face a more than A$50 million (US$36.7 million) bill related to its COVID-19 vaccination program, as thousands of people register for compensation for health issues related to their inoculations, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. More than 10,000 people have registered for a government program to be compensated for lost income after being hospitalized for rare, but significant side effects from the jab, it reported, citing official data. Compensation starts from A$5,000, meaning the program would cost at least A$50 million should each claim be approved. The most frequent reported side effects include a sore arm, headache, fever and chills.
PHILIPPINES
Face shield use eased
President Rodrigo Duterte said face shields would no longer be required in many areas of the country, easing the mandate more than a year after becoming one of the few nations to require the plastic barriers against COVID-19. Face shields would only be mandatory in areas where there is a strict lockdown, a memorandum from Duterte’s office said. Wearing them has been “cumbersome,” Duterte said at a briefing aired late on Monday.
UNITED STATES
Deer runs into hospital
A deer on Monday ran through the front door of a Louisiana hospital and climbed up an escalator before it was captured and later euthanized because of injuries. News outlets reported that surveillance video showed the animal bounding into Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge through an open door and stumbling on the slippery floor. It regained its footing and climbed up the down escalator to the second floor, where it was finally corralled and held down by several people. The animal had to be euthanized because of injuries, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department said, adding that there were indications it might have been struck by a vehicle before entering the building.
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
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
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