AUSTRALIA
Dolphin rescue abandoned
Marine experts have given up hope of rescuing more than 150 false killer whales that stranded on a remote beach in Tasmania state, officials said yesterday. Experts were at the scene near Arthur River on Tasmania’s northwestern coast where 157 of the dolphins were discovered on an exposed surf beach on Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said. Unfavorable ocean and weather conditions, which prevented the animals from being rescued yesterday, were forecast to persist for days, incident controller Shelley Graham said. “We have been out in the water this morning and have relocated and attempted to refloat two whales, but didn’t have success as the ocean conditions weren’t allowing the animals to get past the break. The animals are continuously restranding,” she said.
Photo: AFP / Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania
JAPAN
Kishida attacker sentenced
A court yesterday convicted a man who threw a homemade pipe bomb at former prime minister Fumio Kishida at a 2023 campaign event, sentencing him to 10 years in prison, court officials said. Ryuji Kimura, 25, was found guilty of attempted murder in the April 15, 2023, attack on Kishida at a small fishing port in Wakayama, and other crimes.
Photo: AFP
SRI LANKA
‘Drug dealer’ killed
A man accused of being a top drug dealer was shot dead inside a courthouse yesterday by a gunman disguised as a lawyer, police said. Ganemulle Sanjeeva was shot at close range as he entered the dock in a bail hearing at the Colombo Magistrates Court, police said in a statement. Sanjeeva was brought to court under a heavy armed escort by commandos from the elite Special Task Force, who handed him over to prison guards at the entrance. The gunman escaped as Sanjeeva was rushed to hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Photo: AFP
VATICAN CITY
Francis has ‘peaceful night’
Pope Francis, who has been diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs, passed a “peaceful night,” the Vatican said yesterday. “The pope spent a peaceful night, woke up and had breakfast,” the Vatican said after Francis’ fifth night at the Gemelli hospital in Rome. Francis was admitted with bronchitis last week after experiencing breathing difficulties, but has since developed pneumonia in both of his lungs.
Photo: AFP
PERU
Cusco stone vandalized
An allegedly intoxicated man vandalized a 500-year-old archeological artifact known as the 12-Angle Stone in Cusco, authorities said on Tuesday. Police said that the 30-year-old man was suspected of attacking the stone with a hammer. He was arrested after the incident, which was recorded on a nearby surveillance camera, police said. Police believe the man, identified as Gabriel Roysi, was under the influence of alcohol or drugs when he took a hammer to the stone, Henry Valdez, the head of Cusco police station, told state news agency Andina. The Ministry of Culture said in a statement that multiple fragments broke off “the emblematic stone structure.” The stone, a popular tourist attraction and landmark of Incan cultural heritage, is part of a wall that made up the Inca Roca palace. Its 12-angled border is described as symbolic of the advanced stonework of the Inca civilization.
Photo: AFP / Peru’s Ministry of Culture
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
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
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
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