NEW ZEALAND
Death linked to ‘suicide kit’
Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame has linked a fifth death to a “suicide kit” allegedly sold online by a former Canadian chef, findings released yesterday showed. Cunninghame found that a 25-year-old killed herself in an Auckland hotel in April 2022 after receiving an item ordered from an online business linked to Canadian Kenneth Law. The coroner was unable to confirm whether the package actually contained the substance used in her suicide, but said that the “drug is heavily restricted, and therefore not easily obtainable, in New Zealand.” Cunninghame has previously connected the deaths of three students and a personal trainer who took their own lives in 2022 and last year to purchases from a Web site associated with Law. Police in Canada say that the former chef sent as many as 1,200 “suicide kits” to people in more than 40 countries between 2020 and his arrest last year.
Photo: Reuters
SOUTH KOREA
Medalist to make movie
Olympic pistol shooter Kim Ye-ji, whose skill and nonchalance won the Internet at the Paris Games, has landed her first acting role — as an assassin. The 32-year-old took silver in the women’s 10m air pistol in July and her ultra-calm demeanor, combined with her wire-rimmed shooting glasses and baseball cap, turned her into a worldwide online sensation. “She should be cast in an action movie. No acting required!” X owner Elon Musk wrote on the social media platform at the time. Now she is to play an assassin in Crush, a spinoff short-form series of the global film project Asia, a spokesperson for Seoul-based entertainment firm Asia Lab said yesterday.
KENYA
Three abducted men freed
Three people at the heart of an abduction case have been freed, rights groups said yesterday, accusing security forces of keeping Bob Njagi, Aslam Longton and his brother Jamil Longton captive for weeks after they took part in protests against the government. The three were allegedly abducted by men identifying themselves as police on Aug. 19 in Kitengela. “Our partners have confirmed their release,” Cornelius Oduor of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission said. “We strongly believe that they were taken by security agents of Kenya.” A court in Nairobi had held the acting police chief, Gilbert Masengeli, in contempt for failing to appear to answer questions about the disappearance of the three men. He was given until yesterday to appear in court to avoid a prison sentence. “We believe [the men’s release] was intended to provide immediate grounds for [Masengeli] to challenge his conviction,” Oduor said.
BRAZIL
Daylight saving may return
Energy authorities have approved bringing back daylight saving time, a senior official said on Thursday. Before it goes into effect, reinstating daylight savings time would need to be backed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A drought in Brazil has affected some of the country’s largest hydroelectric plants, forcing a shift to more fuel imports and driving up power bills. By moving clocks forward an hour from November to February, daylight saving time would make use of more daylight hours and ease pressure on peak power consumption in the late afternoon. Then-president Jair Bolsonaro abolished daylight savings in 2019, saying that it was no longer benefiting the power sector.
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
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
‘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
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