INDONESIA
Bus crash kills 16
A passenger bus crash killed at least 16 people on the main island of Java just after midnight yesterday, officials said. The bus carrying 34 people lost control on a toll road traveling from Jakarta to Yogyakarta and struck a concrete barrier before rolling onto its side, said Budiono, a search and rescue agency head who goes by a single name. “The forceful impact threw several passengers and left them trapped against the bus body,” Budiono said. Police and rescue teams arrived about 40 minutes after the crash and recovered the bodies of six passengers who died at the scene. Ten more people died on the way to hospital or while being treated, Budiono said.
Photo: EPA / Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency
MALAYSIA
Ex-PM denied house arrest
The Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday denied a bid by jailed former prime minister Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his sentence at home, in the first of two key rulings the former leader faces this week over his role in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal. Najib, who has been imprisoned since 2022, had his 12-year jail sentence halved last year by a pardons board chaired by the country’s former king. However, he insisted that the monarch also issued an “addendum order” that converts his sentence to house arrest. The court said the existence of the document was not in dispute, but the order was not legally enforceable as it was not made with the consultation of the country’s pardons board, as required under the constitution.
UNITED STATES
Pulled Trump photo restored
A photo of President Donald Trump that had been removed from the cache of Jeffrey Epstein files released by the Department of Justice was restored on Sunday after officials determined none of Epstein’s victims were in the image, the department said. The photo showing a desk with an open drawer containing a photo of Trump with various women was flagged by the Southern District of New York for review to protect potential victims. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier on Sunday that his office removed the photo because of concerns about women in the image. “It has nothing to do with President Trump,” Blanche said during a Sunday morning appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.
NEW ZEALAND
Signs bring confusion, joy
Outside an abandoned building in Christchurch, a sign reads “slightly haunted but manageable.” In the middle of a busy shopping strip, pedestrians are warned to keep to a 2.83kph walking speed. In another part of Christchurch, one piece of signage declares simply “don’t.” The baffling boards are not an overzealous new council initiative, but a piece of art designed to “play with the way we take authority and signage so seriously.” Despite resembling official Christchurch City Council signs, the “Christchurch city confusion” warnings are the work of artist Cameron Hunt. “The idea was to make signs that look official, but with completely absurd messages, therefore creating moments of confusion, followed by little bursts of joy,” Hunt said. Hunt erected six signs around the city center, as part of the Little Street art festival early this month. “Watching people interact with the signs has been awesome,” Hunt said. “There have also been a few grumpy people who’ve joked about writing to the council about these ‘ridiculous signs.’”
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘EAST SHIELD’: State-run Belma said it would produce up to 6 million mines to lay along Poland’s 800km eastern border, and sell excess to nations bordering Russia and Belarus Poland has decided to start producing anti-personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War, and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and might export them to Ukraine, the deputy defense minister said. Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia. “We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible,” Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Zalewski said. The mines would be part
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