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.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
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