THAILAND
Court clears way for vote
The Constitutional Court yesterday rejected a request from the election-winning Move Forward Party to review a parliamentary decision that blocked its prime ministerial candidate from being renominated. The move all but kills off any hope of the party leading the next government and paves the way for the legislature to hold another vote on a prime minister as soon as this week. The court in its decision said it declined to accept the case because it was lodged by a group of more than 20 individuals that did not include Pita Limjaroenrat, the prime ministerial candidate. “Their rights were not violated and they did not have the rights to file the complaint,” it said of the petitioners, in what was a unanimous decision.
PAKISTAN
Japanese mountaineer dies
A Japanese mountaineer died and another was injured when rocks apparently hit them while they were trying to climb the never-scaled 5,800m Virgin Peak, a mountaineering official and the injured climber said on Tuesday. The climbers were on an expedition organized by a local tour operator in the Andaq Valley, Alpine Club of Pakistan secretary Karrar Haidri said. Shinji Tamura on Friday slipped and fell at an altitude of 5,380m, Haidri said. Semba Takayasu, the other climber, said their rappelling point was broken and they fell together, holding a double rope about 60m long. “Shinji was heavily hit” and had a big injury from what Takayasu said he thought was a rock. Takayasu managed to reach base camp to seek help, and Haidri said a search team was quickly sent to the area where Tamura slipped. A search for his body was called off on Monday and local authorities in the region confirmed Tamura’s death.
INDIA
Tomatoes on ‘vacation’
Burger King has scrapped tomatoes from its wraps and burgers in many Indian outlets after prices more than quadrupled, the latest symptom of surging food inflation that is hitting consumers hard across world’s most populous nation. “Even tomatoes need a vacation ... we are unable to add tomatoes to our food,” read notices posted at two Burger King India outlets. The chain has cited quality issues in explaining the shortfall. The burger chain, one of the nation’s biggest with nearly 400 outlets, joins many McDonald’s and Subway stores that have removed tomatoes from menus as food inflation this week hit its highest since January 2020. Rival Domino’s has tried bringing down prices to appeal to struggling consumers with a US$0.60 pizza — its cheapest in the world.
UNITED STATES
Musk’s X delays links
Social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, delayed access to links to content on the Reuters and New York Times Web sites, as well as rivals such as Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram, a Washington Post report said on Tuesday. Clicking a link on X to one of the affected Web sites resulted in a delay of about five seconds before the site loaded, the Post reported. By late Tuesday afternoon, X appeared to have eliminated the delay. When contacted for comment, X confirmed the delay was removed, but did not elaborate. Billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in October last year has previously lashed out at news organizations and journalists who have reported critically on his companies, which include Tesla and SpaceX.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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