AUSTRALIA
Sydney warns of ‘slime’
Booming growth of moss and algae, falling autumn leaves and persistent wet weather have created a slippery threat to Sydney’s safety that has sparked increased footpath cleaning and a warning for people to be careful. The City of Sydney said the issue of slippery paths around the central business district had become so serious that it had changed its seasonal routines. The Royal Botanic Gardens’ chief scientist, Brett Summerall, said he had never seen growth like it. “There’s a lot of slimy stuff everywhere,” he said. “Mosses are really, really loving the conditions at the moment.”
NEPAL
Plane goes missing
A passenger plane with 22 people on board went missing yesterday. The Twin Otter aircraft operated by Tara Air took off from the western town of Pokhara bound for Jomsom at 9:55am, but air traffic control lost contact after 15 minutes. “We are trying to locate the possible area where the aircraft might be,” said Sudarshan Bartaula, spokesman for Tara Air. “Search and rescue teams from both the police and the army are heading toward that direction.” He said there were 19 passengers on board and three crew members. The passengers included two Germans and four Indians, with the remainder Nepali. Ministry of Home Affairs spokesman Phanindra Mani Pokharel said two helicopters had been deployed for a search operation, but “the bad weather is likely to hamper the search operation. The visibility is so poor that nothing can be seen.”
DR CONGO
Rebels kill 27 civillians
At least 27 civilians were killed by members of the notorious Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group in the east of the country on Saturday, the army and Red Cross said. The Kivu Security Tracker, which monitors violence in the region via a team of experts on the ground, posted on Twitter to say that at least 27 civilians had been killed in the attack. “We heard bullets at dawn in the village of Beu Manyama,” army spokesman Anthony Mualushayi said earlier on Saturday. “When we arrived, it was already too late, because the enemy ADF had already killed more than a dozen of our fellow citizens with machetes.”
NIGERIA
Thirty die in stampede
Thirty-one people were on Saturday killed in the south of the country after a stampede erupted during a crowded church charity event where food was being distributed. Shoes and slippers lay scattered on the ground after the disaster in Port Harcourt city in southern Rivers State when people tried to force their way into the event, police and witnesses said. A local Kings Assembly church organization was offering food and gifts for the impoverished at the Port Harcourt Polo Club when a “mammoth” crowd got out of control, Rivers State police said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Imperial system to return
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly to announce the return of imperial measurements to mark the queen’s platinum jubilee. Britain currently uses a mix of imperial and metric measurements, with speed limits in miles per hour and milk and beer bought in pints. Johnson is expected to announce next week that British shops would be allowed to sell products in pounds and ounces. While it is currenlty legal to price goods in pounds and ounces, these have to be displayed alongside the price in grams and kilograms.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
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