SPAIN
Bodies recovered in collapse
Emergency services have recovered the bodies of four people from beneath the rubble of a six-story building that collapsed in central Madrid while being refurbished into a hotel, local authorities said yesterday. The victims have been identified as three men aged 30 to 50 from Ecuador, Mali and Guinea-Conakry, and employed at the site as construction workers, as well as a 30-year-old woman, the renovation project’s architect. Their remains were found early yesterday, nearly 15 hours after the collapse of the building’s interior structure that left its facade intact. Three other construction workers were injured.
Photo: Reuters
SINGAPORE
Drug trafficker executed
The government yesterday hanged a Malaysian drug trafficker, marking the second execution in two weeks and raising the number of executions in the city-state to 12 this year despite pressure to abolish the death penalty. Anti-death penalty activist Kirsten Han (韓俐穎) confirmed that 38-year-old Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was executed at Changi Prison. Han, who is accompanying his family, said they have collected Pannir’s belongings from the prison. Pannir was arrested in 2014 for possession of 52g of heroin and sentenced to death in 2017.
CHINA
Everest hikers rescued
About 900 hikers, guides and other staff who were stranded by a weekend snowstorm on the Chinese side of Mount Everest have reached safety, state media said late on Tuesday. A severe storm struck the area on Saturday night, cutting off access to where the hikers were staying in tents at an altitude of more than 4,900m. In all, 580 hikers and more than 300 guides, yak herders and other workers were stranded. About 350 hikers were able to descend by noon on Monday and the rest had arrived by Tuesday, state media said.
JAPAN
Bear injures two in market
An agitated bear on Tuesday night roamed the aisles of a supermarket in Numata, injuring two men and frightening shoppers; separately a man was found dead in a suspected mauling, officials and reports said yesterday. The man was found dead on a mountain yesterday in northern Iwate Prefecture, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing police. The 1.4m adult bear that entered the supermarket lightly injured a man in his 70s and another in his 60s, regional police and fire officials said. The store is close to mountainous areas, but has never had bears come near before, said Hiroshi Horikawa, a management planning official at the grocery store chain.
AUSTRALIA
Study links DNA to depression
Women are genetically at higher risk of clinical depression than men, researchers found in a study published yesterday. Billed as one of the largest-ever studies of its kind, scientists poured through the DNA of almost 200,000 people with depression to pinpoint shared genetic “flags.” Women had almost twice as many of the genetic markers linked to depression than men, according to the project led by the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. “The genetic component to depression is larger in females compared to males,” researcher Jodi Thomas said. “Unpacking the shared and unique genetic factors in males and females gives us a clearer picture of what causes depression — and opens the door to more personalized treatments.” About 13,000 genetic markers were linked with depression in women, compared with 7,000 markers in men, the researchers found.
READINESS: According to a survey of 2,000 people, 86 percent of Swedes believe the country is worth defending in the event of a military attack Swedes are stocking up on food items in case of war, as more conflict in Europe no longer feels like a distant possibility, and authorities encourage measures to boost readiness. At a civil preparedness fair in southwest Stockholm, 71-year-old Sirkka Petrykowska said that she is taking the prospect of hostilities seriously and preparing as much as she can. “I have bought a camping stove. I have taken a course on preservation in an old-fashioned way, where you can preserve vegetables, meat and fruit that lasts for 30 years without a refrigerator,” Petrykowska said. “I’ve set aside blankets for warmth, I
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
‘ARMED CONFLICT’: At least 21 people have died in such US attacks, while experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers US forces on Friday carried out a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing four people, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. The latest strike, which Hegseth announced in a post on X, brings the number of such US attacks to at least four, leaving at least 21 people dead. An accompanying video shared by Hegseth showed a boat speeding across the waves before being engulfed in smoke and flames. “Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” the Pentagon chief wrote. He said the strike “was conducted in international waters just off the
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