AUSTRALIA
Furor over cabbage switch
Fried chicken chain KFC yesterday said that high lettuce prices have forced it to switch to a cabbage mix in burgers and other products, prompting customers to complain the result is less than “finger lickin’ good.” The local price of lettuce has soared by as much as 300 percent, forcing the fast-food chain to tweak the Colonel’s recipe in some stores. “We’re currently experiencing a lettuce shortage. So, we’re using a lettuce and cabbage blend on all products containing lettuce until further notice,” the company said. The company blamed widespread flooding for the problem. The company told customers: “If that’s not your bag, simply click ‘customise’ on your chosen product and remove lettuce from the recipe :)” The change was certainly not the “bag” of some social media users. “The fact that you are replacing lettuce with cabbage makes me rethink my whole meal at KFC. There’s 4 or 5 other things I would eat before cabbage. Its such a weird choice,” one disgruntled customer wrote on Twitter. “Feels like a sign of the apocalypse,” wrote another.
SOUTH AFRICA
Gupta brothers arrested
Two wealthy India-born brothers who were allegedly at the center of a massive web of state corruption in South Africa have been arrested in Dubai, Pretoria announced on Monday. The arrests came as a probe was concluded into massive plundering of state institutions during former president Jacob Zuma’s era. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development “confirms that it has received information from law enforcement authorities in the United Arab Emirates that fugitives of justice, namely, Rajesh and Atul Gupta, have been arrested,” it said in a statement. The brothers have been accused of paying bribes in exchange for massive and lucrative state contracts, and influence over ministerial appointments.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Minister killed in office
The minister of the environment and natural resources — the son of a former president — was shot to death in his office by a close friend on Monday, the office of the president said in a statement. Authorities said Orlando Jorge Mera was shot by Fausto Miguel de Jesus Cruz de la Mota, who was later arrested at a church after telling a priest he committed a crime and handing him a gun. Officials gave no motive for the shooting. As shots rang out late on Monday morning, people on the street yelled and took cover as those fleeing the building climbed over a tall fence after first throwing over purses, backpacks and even a pair of shoes because the building’s main gates were locked. Authorities said that in a telephone conversation with Cruz while he was at the church, he promised to turn himself in if they guaranteed he would not be killed.
UNITED STATES
‘Top Gun’ lawsuit filed
The family of the author whose article inspired the 1986 Tom Cruise movie Top Gun on Monday sued Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement over this year’s blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick. According to a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court, Paramount Global failed to reacquire the rights to Ehud Yonay’s 1983 article “Top Guns” from the family before releasing the “derivative” sequel. The lawsuit by Shosh Yonay and Yuval Yonay, who live in Israel and are respectively Ehud’s widow and son, seeks unspecified damages, including profits from Top Gun: Maverick, and to block distribution of the movie or further sequels.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
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