VIETNAM
Nine sentenced to death
A court in Nghe An province yesterday sentenced nine people to death for their involvement in a cross-border drug trafficking ring, state media reported. At the end of a three-day trial, the court sentenced ringleader Tran Thi Mau, 56, and eight accomplices to death. Two others were given life sentences, online news site VNExpress reported. Mau and her ring members bought the drugs from Laos, hiring locals to illegally transport the goods to Vietnam through the jungle, reports said. The gang successfully trafficked 105kg of meth, heroin and synthetic drugs between late 2021 and their arrests in May 2022. The drugs were transported at night to avoid police detection, reports said.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Fergie’ has skin cancer
Sarah Ferguson (Fergie), the former wife of Prince Andrew, has been diagnosed with skin cancer, just months after undergoing an operation for a breast tumor, her spokesman said in a statement on Sunday. “Following her diagnosis with an early form of breast cancer this summer, Sarah, Duchess of York has now been diagnosed with malignant melanoma,” the spokesman said in a statement. Fergie, who thanked the medical team supporting her, had several moles removed and analyzed, one of which was cancerous, the spokesman said. “She is undergoing further investigations to ensure that this has been caught in the early stages,” he added.
CANADA
PM to address auto theft
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is holding a summit next month to coordinate a national response to a massive spike in auto thefts across the nation in recent years. Toronto has borne the brunt of the crime wave, data from the Canadian Finance and Leasing Association showed. The Toronto region saw 9,600 vehicles stolen in 2022, up 300 percent from 2015, while carjackings doubled in 2022 from 2021, police statistics showed. Overall, the year-on-year rate of vehicle theft spiked in 2022 by 50 percent in Quebec, 48.3 percent in Ontario and 34.5 percent in Atlantic Canada, a government news release said. “The scale of the issue around auto theft requires coordination between all governments, federal, provincial and municipal police forces, border services officers and auto manufacturers,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in Montreal, where Trudeau’s Cabinet has gathered for winter meetings. The federal government is also working on the issue with “port authorities, rail and shipping companies, as well as manufacturer associations and the insurance industry,” the release said.
INDIA
Modi inaugurates temple
Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday fulfilled his party’s decades-long promise by consecrating a major Hindu temple in the north, marking a new milestone in his project to reshape the country into a more avowedly Hindu nation. Modi was the central focus of a ceremony at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, which started at about 12pm and was televised live across the nation. He strode into the inner sanctuary and performed a series of rituals before a newly minted 1.2m statue of Ram covered in gold and flowers, and flanked by priests in traditional saffron robes. The ceremony took place as Modi campaigns for a third term in elections in coming months. More than 7,000 guests were in attendance, including business leaders like Mukesh Ambani and Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan. Devotees believe the site to be the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
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