SAMOA
UN warns on climate
Some Pacific territories face “annihilation” from climate-induced cyclones, ocean heat waves and rising sea levels, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in Apia yesterday. The fate of Pacific islands depends on limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, he said. “High and rising sea levels pose an enormous threat to Samoa, to the Pacific and to other small island developing states, and these challenges demand resolute international action,” Guterres said.
AUSTRALIA
Passenger walks on wing
A passenger was arrested at an airport yesterday after he left a stationary airliner through an emergency exit, walked along a wing and then climbed down a jet engine to the tarmac, officials said. Jetstar Flight JQ507 had arrived at Melbourne Airport from Sydney and had parked at a terminal gate when the man left the plane by the right-side exit, officials said. Opening the exit automatically deployed a slide from the back of the wing at the fuselage to the ground, a Jetstar statement said. However, the man instead walked along the wing and climbed down one of the Airbus A320’s two engines, an official said.
RUSSIA
Putin meet’s China’s Li
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Moscow. “Our trade relations are developing, developing successfully... The attention that the governments of the two countries on both sides are paying to trade and economic ties is yielding results,” Putin said at the meeting in the Kremlin. Moscow and Beijing have developed “large-scale plans” for economic and other projects, he said.
BOTSWANA
Large diamond found
One of the world’s largest diamonds ever unearthed — a rough 2,492-carat stone — has been found by a Canadian mining company. The diamond was found in the Karowe Diamond Mine, about 430km from the capital, Gaborone, Lucara Diamond Corp said in a statement yesterday. It did not give a value for the find or mention its quality. In terms of carats, the stone appears to be not far behind the largest gem-quality diamond ever mined, the 3,016.75-carat Cullinan Diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905. The find was “one of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed” and detected using the company’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology, the firm said.
UNITED STATES
Lionsgate recalls trailer
Lionsgate on Wednesday recalled its new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis as critics’ quotes in it were fabricated. “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.” The trailer, released earlier on Wednesday, included quotes from critics such as Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert of other Coppola films that did not actually appear in their reviews. The intent was apparently to highlight the critical divisiveness of now-classics such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, leaning into some of the more negative reactions to Megalopolis, a self-financed US$120 million epic that is to open next month.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
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