NEW ZEALAND
Toddler found in suitcase
A woman was arrested on a child neglect charge on Sunday after a bus driver found a two-year-old girl alive in a suitcase that was stowed in the vehicle’s luggage compartment, authorities said. The bus driver noticed movement inside the bag during a planned stop at the settlement of Kaiwaka, north of Auckland, after a passenger asked for access to the luggage compartment, Detective Inspector Simon Harrison said in a statement. When the driver opened the suitcase they discovered the two-year-old girl, who was very hot, but otherwise appeared physically unharmed, Harrison said. Authorities did not disclose the length of time the toddler was in the baggage compartment or which cities the bus was traveling between. The child was taken to a hospital, where she remained on Sunday night. The arrested woman was charged with ill-treatment or neglect of a child, and was due to appear in court yesterday. She was not named by law enforcement. Bus company InterCity confirmed that the episode involved one of its vehicles. The company does not charge fares for children younger than three years, who can travel for free on an adult’s lap.
SINGAPORE
Billionaire pleads guilty
A billionaire best known for bringing Formula One night racing to Singapore has pleaded guilty in relation to a scandal to supply one of the city-state’s most senior politicians with luxury gifts. Yesterday, 79-year-old Ong Beng Seng (王明星) conceded that he abetted the former lawmaker in obstructing the course of justice, while another charge was taken into consideration. Both charges related to offering S. Iswaran in 2022 a trip on his private jet to Doha, a stay at the Four Seasons and a return business-class ticket worth S$5,700 (US$4,426). The former transport minister was then the chairman of a steering committee for the Formula One night race. The judge extended Ong’s bail and said that the sentence would be handed down on Friday next week. The defense said Ong is battling several medical conditions, including multiple myeloma cancer diagnosed in 2020 which has made him immunocompromised, a non-healing wound on his foot and relentless diarrhea episodes. “Ong’s home environment will be more pristine than prison,” lawyer Cavinder Bull said. “Ong is living within a narrow margin where there is no room for error.” Both the prosecution and defense suggested that the judge could exercise “judicial mercy” and impose a fine rather than a jail sentence. Prosecutors had originally sought eight weeks in jail for Ong after the guilty plea.
YEMEN
Boat capsizes, killing 68
A boat capsized on Sunday in waters off the coast, leaving 68 African migrants dead and 74 others missing, the UN migration agency said. The tragedy was the latest in a series of shipwrecks off the nation that have killed hundreds of African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in hopes of reaching the wealthy Gulf Arab nations. The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank in the Gulf of Aden off southern Abyan Province early on Sunday, said Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration in Yemen. He said the bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in Khanfar District, and 14 others were found dead and taken to a hospital morgue in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan. Only 12 migrants survived the shipwreck, and the rest were missing and presumed dead, Esoev said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
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