INDIA
Bureaucrat couple split
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday ordered the transfer of a bureaucrat couple to opposite ends of the country, following public outcry over a media report alleging they forced a sports stadium in Delhi to shut early to walk their dog. The ministry transferred Indian Administrative Service officers Sanjeev Khirwar to Arunachal Pradesh state in the distant northeast and Rinku Dugga, his wife, to Ladakh in the far north, an official order said. At the eastern and western ends of the Himalayan mountain range, their new postings are about 3,200km apart. A report by the Indian Express, published with a photograph of Khirwar and Dugga walking their dog on the stadium track, said athletes had alleged that they had been forced to wrap up training early to make way for the couple’s evening stroll.
INDONESIA
Elephant death investigated
A pregnant Sumatran elephant was found dead of suspected poisoning near a palm plantation in Riau province on Sumatra, officials said yesterday. Sumatran elephants are a critically endangered species and fewer than 700 remain on the island. Local authorities are investigating the cause of death of the elephant, which was discovered in a joint patrol by local conservation groups on Wednesday, but they strongly suspect it was poisoned. “From the sign of changes in the shape of its internal organs, such as the lung, it looks like it is burning, black and oozing from the blood,” said Zulhusni Syukri, program director of Rimba Satwa Foundation, one of the groups that found the elephant. The authorities also found pineapple in the elephant’s stomach, even though the fruit is not grown in that area, further leading them to suspect poisoning, Syukri said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Depeche Mode member dies
Andrew Fletcher, a founding member of the British electronic band Depeche Mode, has died aged 60, the band announced on Thursday. “We are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member, and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher,” they wrote on Twitter. “Fletch had a true heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh, or a cold pint.” Born in 1961 in Nottingham, Fletcher was a keyboardist and one of the founders of electronic pioneers Depeche Mode. The band have sold more than 100 million albums since they started in 1980, winning over a global audience with hits like Personal Jesus or Just Can’t Get Enough.
IRAQ
Israeli ties criminalized
Lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill criminalizing normalization of ties and any relations, including business ties, with Israel. The legislation says that contravention of the law is punishable with the death sentence or life imprisonment. The law was approved with 275 lawmakers voting in favor of it in the 329-seat assembly. A parliament statement said the legislation is “a true reflection of the will of the people.” Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party won the largest number of seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections last year, called for Iraqis to take to the streets to celebrate this “”great achievement.” Hundreds later gathered in central Baghdad, chanting anti-Israel slogans. It was unclear how the law will be implemented, as Iraq has not recognized Israel since the country’s formation in 1948; the two nations have no diplomatic relations.
An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported yesterday. The Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February last year on the country’s inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space. Among the images taken from space were China’s first photographs of the Martian south pole, where almost all of the planet’s water resources are locked. In 2018, an orbiting probe operated by the European
TRADE TALK: Xiao Qian said that Australia had fired the ‘first shot’ in deteriorating trade relations with China, but improvements were possible if Canberra takes action China’s new ambassador to Australia chided protesters who heckled him yesterday during a speech about the future of relations between the two countries. Xiao Qian (肖千), who has only been in the role since January, had just begun his speech at the University of Technology Sydney when the first protesters interjected, calling for freedom for Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. The ambassador was repeatedly interrupted by sign-wielding protesters, some criticizing China’s treatment of the Uighur people as well as the university for inviting Xiao to speak. “People who are coming again and again to interrupt the process, that’s not expression of freedom of
QUARANTINE SHORTENED: A new protocol detailing risk levels and local policy responses would be ‘more scientific and accurate,’ a health agency spokesman said China’s revised COVID-19 guidelines, which cut a quarantine requirement in half for inbound travelers, also create a standardized policy for mass testing and lockdowns when cases of the disease flare, showing that the country still has a zero-tolerance approach to the virus. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) solidified the position during a trip to Wuhan, where the pathogen first emerged in 2019, saying that China is capable of achieving a “final victory” over the virus. The “zero COVID-19” policy is the most effective and economic approach for the country, Xi said during the trip on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported. The first
A former South Korean Navy SEAL turned YouTuber who risked jail time to leave Seoul and fight for Ukraine said it would have been a “crime” not to use his skills to help. Ken Rhee, a former special warfare officer, signed up at the Ukrainian embassy in Seoul the moment Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked for global volunteers and was fighting on the front lines near Kyiv by early March. To get there, he had to break South Korean law — Seoul banned its citizens from traveling to Ukraine, and Rhee, who was injured in a fall while leading a special operations
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