ISRAEL
One dead, 14 hurt in blasts
Two blasts yesterday went off near bus stops in Jerusalem, killing one person and injuring at least 14, in what police said were suspected attacks by Palestinians. The first explosion occurred near a bus stop on the edge of the city, where commuters usually crowd. The second went off in Ramot, a neighborhood in the city’s north. Police said one person died from their injuries and rescue service Magen David Adom said four people were seriously wounded. Police said their initial findings showed that explosive devices were placed at the two sites. The twin blasts occurred amid the buzz of rush-hour traffic and police closed part of a main highway leading out of the city where the fist explosion went off. Video footage from shortly after the first blast showed debris strewn along the sidewalk as the wail of ambulance sirens blared. “It was a crazy explosion. There is damage everywhere here,” Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the scene when the first blast went off, told Israeli Army Radio. “I saw people with wounds bleeding all over the place.” Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, praised the perpetrators, calling it a heroic operation, but stopped short of claiming responsibility. “The occupation is reaping the price of its crimes and aggression against our people,” Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanua said.
TURKEY
Earthquake sparks panic
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit a town in the northwest of the country early yesterday, causing damage to some buildings and widespread panic. About 35 people were injured, mostly while trying to flee homes. The earthquake was centered in the town of Golkaya in Duzce Province, about 200km east of Istanbul, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said. It struck at 04:08am and was felt in Istanbul, in the capital, Ankara, and other parts of the region. Dozens of aftershocks were reported, including one magnitude 4.3 aftershock. The quake woke people from their sleep and many rushed out of buildings in panic. At least 35 people were treated in hospitals for injuries, mostly sustained during the panic, including from jumping from balconies or windows. One of them was in a serious condition, Minister of the Interior Suleyman Soylu told NTV television. Power was cut in the region as a safety measure, the minister said. The quake demolished the exterior cladding and parts of the roof of a courthouse in Duzce, HaberTurk television reported. Among other damage, a two-story shop collapsed on a narrow street, it said.
CHINA
‘Avatar’ release allowed
The long-awaited sequel to director James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar is to be released in Chinese cinemas on Dec. 16, 20th Century Studios said yesterday. Avatar: The Way of Water would be released on the same day as its global release, the studio wrote on social media. It is one of the few foreign films to gain access to the market in the past few months, with others including the latest film in the Minions franchise and Sony Pictures’ Where the Crawdads Sing. Foreign movies have long struggled to gain release dates in the country due to strict quotas on the number of international films allowed to show, while many are blocked due to content regulators deem unseemly. Hollywood blockbusters have recently had a particularly hard time getting clearance. The six latest Marvel movies did not make an appearance earlier this year, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was also denied a release.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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