JAPAN
Mongooses eradicated
The nation has wiped out all mongooses on a subtropical island, officials said, after the animals ignored the venomous snakes they were brought in to hunt and preyed on endangered local rabbits instead. About 30 of the venom-resistant predators were released on Amami Oshima, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in the late 1970s to keep down the population of habu, a pit viper whose bite can be deadly to humans. However, the snakes are mostly active at night when mongooses prefer to sleep and the toothy mammals turned their ravenous appetites to local Amami rabbits, drastically reducing their numbers. The rabbits only live on Amami Oshima and one other island and are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list. The mongoose population had exploded to about 10,000 by 2000 and authorities began a program of eradication. The government declared the island mongoose-free on Tuesday, almost 25 years after the start of that program and nearly 50 since the ill-fated initiative began.
Photo: EPA-EFE
SOUTH KOREA
Leaders slam N Korea
The leaders of South Korea and New Zealand during a summit in Seoul yesterday condemned North Korea’s weapons program and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. President Yoon Suk-yeol and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also agreed to work toward elevating bilateral ties, the presidential office said. “It is more important than ever for countries that share values, including South Korea and New Zealand, to form solidarity at this critical juncture, where challenges from authoritarian forces continue, with the war in Ukraine and military cooperation between Russia and North Korea,” Yoon said in his opening remarks.
Photo: Reuters
BANGLADESH
Thousands of Rohingya flee
About 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from across the border with Myanmar in the past few months, escaping escalating violence in Rakhine State, an official said yesterday. The violence has intensified as fighting between Myanmar’s ruling junta and the Arakan Army continues to worsen. “We have information that around 8,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh recently, mostly over the last two months,” said Mohammad Shamsud Douza, a senior official in charge of refugees for the government. “Bangladesh is already overburdened and unable to accommodate any more Rohingya.”
Photo:AFP
UKRAINE
Foreign minister resigns
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba has submitted his resignation, the speaker of parliament said yesterday, as part of a major government reshuffle. The announcement came a day after several other ministers resigned in a significant government reset. Kuleba is the most senior of the ministers to offer to step down.
ECUADOR
Prison director killed
The director of a prison was killed in an armed attack on Tuesday and two officers were wounded, the Latin American country’s prison management service said. “Three administrative officials of the Center for Deprivation of Liberty ... were victims of an armed attack” on the road to Coca city, the SNAI prisons agency said on WhatsApp. Alex Guevara, director of the prison in Sucumbios Province, “unfortunately died due to the attack,” it said. Two other workers who were with him were wounded. SNAI said that police are investigating the incident.
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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