AUSTRALIA
Cockatoo dancing studied
Cockatoos, renowned for their raucous singing, also boast an impressive array of dance moves, researchers said yesterday. Many cockatoo species seemed to enjoy shaking their tail feathers, a new study said. Charles Sturt University researcher Natasha Lubke documented 30 dance moves while studying cockatoo species — from headbanging to body rolls. “I showed that dancing behavior is more common in cockatoos than previously thought and was seen in 10 of the 21 cockatoo species,” said Lubke, who watched YouTube videos to document the dancing behaviors of pet cockatoos around the world, as well as observing the birds at Australia’s Wagga Wagga Zoo.
Photo: AP
JAPAN
Population fall a record
The population fell by a record amount — more than 900,000 people — last year, official data showed. Last year, the number of Japanese fell by 908,574, or 0.75 percent, to 120.65 million. The decline — for a 16th straight year — was the largest drop since the survey began in 1968, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Wednesday. Foreign resident totals were at their highest since records began in 2013, with 3.67 million foreigners as of Jan. 1, or nearly 3 percent of the national population, the data showed.
SOUTH KOREA
Warrant sought for Kim
Prosecutors yesterday requested an arrest warrant for former first lady Kim Keon-hee, the wife of former president Yoon Suk-yeol, a day after questioning her over allegations including bribery and stock manipulation. “We requested an arrest warrant for Kim at 1:21pm,” special prosecutor Oh Jung-hee told a news conference. The charges include violations of capital market and financial investment laws, as well as political funds laws, Oh added.
GHANA
Crash kills ministers
A military helicopter crashed on Wednesday, killing all eight people on board, including the west African country’s defense and environment ministers, and two other top officials, the government said. The military said that the helicopter took off in the morning from the capital, Accra, and was heading northwest toward the gold-mining area of Obuasi in the Ashanti region when it went off the radar. The wreckage was later found in the Adansi area of Ashanti. Minister of Defense Edward Omane Boamah and Minister of the Environment Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were killed, as well as Samuel Sarpong, vice chair of the National Democratic Congress ruling party, Muniru Mohammed, a top national security adviser, and the four crew members.
UNITED STATES
Eddie Palmieri dies
Eddie Palmieri, who revolutionized Latin music and played a major role in the salsa explosion in New York City, passed away on Wednesday, the artist’s official social media account said. He was 88. The “legendary pianist, composer, bandleader and one of the most influential figures in Latin music history, passed away in his New Jersey residence on Aug. 6,” read a post on Palmieri’s Instagram handle, alongside a photograph of the artist. Fania Records, the salsa label, called him “one of the most innovative and unique artists in music history.” In 1975, he became the first Latin artist to win a Grammy, for his album The Sun of Latin Music.
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
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
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
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