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.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS