UKRAINE
Russia drone hits China ship
A Russian drone hit a Chinese cargo ship in the Black Sea overnight, Ukraine said yesterday, a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “Drones struck Odesa ... and one of the UAVs [uncrewed aerial vehicles] hit a vessel owned by China,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post. “The Russians could not have been unaware of what vessel was at sea,” he added. Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said that none of the crew — all Chinese citizens — were wounded and that the KSL Deyang continued on its journey. “The ship was entering for loading. After it was hit at night by a Shahed, the crew coped with the consequences on their own. Fortunately, no one was injured, and the vessel continued on its way to its port of destination,” he said.
Photo: AFP
HONG KONG
LGBTQ carnival axed again
One of the territory’s largest LGBTQ events, Pink Dot, has been canceled for the second consecutive year after organizers said their chosen venue had pulled out in the final stages of preparation. Pink Dot Hong Kong used to be held annually from 2014, and features a mixture of music performances, art and workshops promoting diversity and LGBTQ rights. Two years ago it drew nearly 7,000 participants, but last year’s event was canceled because the festival was denied a venue “without explanation,” organizers said. This year, Pink Dot said its venue manager, real-estate investor Link REIT, had told them that “due to licensing issues, the venue cannot be rented,” even as the carnival reached the final course of preparation. The news is another setback to the LGBTQ community, after the legislature in September last year overwhelmingly voted down a bill that would have granted limited rights to same-sex couples.
China
Quake kills two people
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake yesterday struck the southern Guangxi region, killing two people and causing 13 buildings to collapse, Xinhua news agency reported. The quake hit Liuzhou City at 12:21am, it said. The US Geological Survey recorded a lower magnitude of 5.0. State broadcaster CCTV identified the deceased as a couple — a 63-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman. A 91-year-old man who was missing earlier was found after search-and-rescue efforts and sent to the hospital for treatment, CCTV added. A video published by the broadcaster showed a team of rescue workers carrying the injured man on a stretcher. Authorities had evacuated more than 7,000 people from the area, it said.
JAPAN
Americans arrested at zoo
Two US citizens were arrested after a stunt in which one entered the monkey enclosure at a zoo where a baby macaque named Punch became a global Internet sensation, police said yesterday. One of the men, who identified himself as a 24-year-old college student, was arrested on Sunday after climbing over a fence and dropping into a dry moat surrounding the monkey exhibit at Ichikawa City Zoo outside Tokyo. The other man, who was filming the act, identified himself as a 27-year-old singer. Images on social media showed a person scaling the fence in a costume that included a smiley face head with sunglasses, prompting the monkeys to scatter. The men did not come close to the animals, and were quickly apprehended by zoo officials, an official at Ichikawa Police said on condition of anonymity. The two men face charges of forcible obstruction of business, which they deny, the police official said.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Nauru said it would hold a referendum to change its official name, described as a colonial relic from a time when “foreign tongues” mangled the native language. Nauru would change its name to Naoero to “more faithfully honor our nation’s heritage, our language and our identity,” Nauruan President David Adeang said in a statement on Tuesday. The Pacific island nation’s native language is Dorerin Naoero, which is spoken by the vast majority of its approximately 10,000 inhabitants. “Nauru emerged because Naoero could not be properly pronounced by foreign tongues, and was changed not by our choice, but for convenience,” the government said in
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