UNITED STATES
State to trap big bear
Authorities in South Lake Tahoe, California, have launched a special effort to trap a 227kg black bear known as “Hank the Tank.” Hank is “readily identifiable due to [his] exceptionally large size and dark coat with a lighter muzzle,” authorities said. Since July last year, Hank has broken into at least 28 homes in and around the Tahoe Keys area. Described as “extremely food-habituated,” Hank has been the subject of at least 102 police reports. “It’s easier to find leftover pizza than to go in the forest,” the New York Times quoted Peter Tira, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, as saying.
ITALY
Etna spews smoke and ash
Mount Etna on Monday belched smoke and ashes in a new eruption, briefly forcing the closure of the Vincenzo Bellini Airport in Catania, Sicily. The ash cloud rose 10km into the air above a crater on the southeast of the volcano, the INGV National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology said on Twitter. The Catania airport closed at lunchtime on Monday. Although it reopened after about two hours, it warned of delays. Ash covered roads, balconies and the roofs of towns nearby, the Civil Protection Department said. The INGV said it had recorded a gradual rise in volcanic-seismic tremor, which could be a sign Etna is heading toward another spectacular burst of fiery lava fountaining, known as paroxysmal activity.
UNITED STATES
Trump’s app has rocky start
Former president Donald Trump’s new social media app has started its gradual rollout, but thousands of would-be users encountered glitches or found themselves placed on a waitlist due to what the app called “massive demand.” On Monday morning, Truth Social topped the chart of the most downloaded apps in Apple’s US App Store, but attempts to download it were met with frustration. Some received the message: “Something went wrong. Please try again.” One journalist made it further, receiving a thank you for joining, but an added message that “due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist ... #170,174.”
HONDURAS
Ex-leader wants home arrest
Lawyers for former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, 53, wanted on drug trafficking charges in the US, on Monday asked that he be granted house arrest while the extradition case against him proceeds, Supreme Court spokesman Melvin Duarte said. A judge ruled that Hernandez would stay in preventive detention until a second hearing next month. The court said on Twitter a judge had agreed to hear an appeal from the defense team to revoke Hernandez’s preventive detention.
GERMANY
Synthetic fuels mulled
The government is opposed to a ban on internal combustion engines from 2035 provided they work on synthetic fuels, Minister for Transport Volker Wissing said on Monday. The European Commission last year proposed a ban on the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines from the middle of next decade, but the debate is far from over. “We want to allow combustion engines after 2035 only if they can be refueled exclusively by synthetic fuels,” Wissing said on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU transport ministers outside of Paris. “We can’t only bank on electric mobility or hydrogen for the future,” he said. “We need to remain technology-agnostic.”
AUSTRALIA
Hitman nabbed 12 years on
The police have arrested a suspected hitman after a 12-year nationwide hunt, during which he used disguises and even a “fat suit” to evade capture after skipping bail. The search ended on Monday when officers found Graham Potter hiding out in a derelict house in the small town of Ravenshoe, Queensland, after a tip-off from the public. In 2010, Potter fled before his court date, while facing serious charges, including the allegation he was involved in a planned hit at an underworld wedding. Potter was listed as one of the country’s 10 most wanted fugitives. Potter had already served 15 years in jail for the 1981 murder of a 19-year-old shop assistant.
AUSTRALIA
‘Eyes on Antarctica’ funded
The government yesterday announced plans to boost its presence and surveillance operations on Antarctica, unveiling a US$575 million package designed to match China’s growing interest in the pole. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the 10-year funding plan would give the country “eyes on Antarctica” — by increasing the country’s ability to survey and monitor the frozen tundra and surrounding waters using drones, helicopters and autonomous vehicles. The country has territorial claims on 42 percent of Antarctica, the largest of any nation, but has lacked the capability to reach far-flung corners of the continent.
NORTH KOREA
Kim congratulates China
Leader Kim Jong-un vowed to strengthen cooperation with China and together “frustrate” threats and hostile policies from the US and its allies, the Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. Kim made the remarks in a verbal message to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), congratulating him on the successful completion of the Beijing Olympics, it said. The two countries are defending and advancing socialism, while “frustrating the undisguised hostile policy and military threat of the US and its satellite forces” by strengthening strategic cooperation and unity, he said. Kim said that under Xi’s leadership, China had persevered in the face of an “unprecedentedly severe health crisis and the hostile forces’ maneuvers.”
ISRAEL
Kyiv embassy moved to Lviv
The government is moving its embassy in Kyiv to Lviv in western Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. Several Western countries have also transferred envoys from Kiev to Lviv, located near the border with Poland, in anticipation of Russian military action. Earlier in February, the government said that it would evacuate the families of its diplomats and other embassy personnel from Ukraine due to the escalating tensions.
SOUTH AFRICA
Shoot-out kills 10 robbers
Ten robbers were killed during a foiled cash heist, Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) spokeswoman Grace Langa said on Monday. Police acted on a tip-off and deployed a helicopter to fend off a planned cash-in-transit robbery in Johannesburg’s suburb of Rosettenville. The suspects fired at the helicopter and wounded one of the pilots, prompting police to shoot back. “They shot the helicopter before anybody did anything to them,” Minister of Police Bheki Cele told reporters at the scene. “They shot the pilot,” Cele said, adding that a gang of about 25 gunmen from the southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province, as well as from Zimbabwe and Botswana, were involved in the attempted robbery.
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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