CHINA
New missile type tested
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it had carried out a ground-based mid-course missile interception test in an apparent sign of progress in its ability to bring down weapons incoming from space. The test was carried out late Friday night within Chinese territory and achieved “the desired test objective,” it said, adding that the test was “defensive in nature and not targeted against any country.” Such systems, which consist of ground-based interceptor missiles and a huge array of radars and control systems, aim to bring down missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads, while they are flying far from their target.
NEPAL
Everest deaths confirmed
Rescuers have called off the search for three local climbers missing on Mount Everest, officials said yesterday, acknowledging the first fatalities on the world’s highest mountain this climbing season. The trio were crossing the Khumbu Icefall on Wednesday as part of a supply mission when a block of ice fell and swept them into a crevasse. “After several search-and-rescue attempts, the operation has been called off. They are buried too deep and it does not seem possible to retrieve the bodies,” Department of Tourism spokesman Bigyan Koirala said. The Khumbu Icefall is an ever-shifting expanse of glacial ice that requires climbers to navigate crevasses over rickety ladders on the route to Everest’s 8,849m peak.
GERMANY
Last nuclear plants go offline
Authorities were yesterday to switch off the last three nuclear reactors, as the country is exiting atomic power even as it seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels. While many Western countries are upping their investments in atomic energy to reduce their emissions, Europe’s largest economy has been looking to leave behind nuclear power since 2002, but the phase-out was accelerated by former chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
FRANCE
Pension bill becomes law
President Emmanuel Macron yesterday signed a controversial pension reform into law, defying three months of protests and pleas from unions not to implement it. The bill became law after the text was published overnight in the government’s official journal. This followed Friday’s approval by the Constitutional Council of the essence of the legislation, including raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. Unions said they were calling for mass Labor Day protests on May 1, and sometimes violent demonstrations erupted in several cities overnight. Macron has faced widespread popular opposition to the changes, as well as sliding personal popularity.
NICARAGUA
Chinese official arrives
Chinese International Development Cooperation Agency Director Luo Zhaohui (羅照輝) arrived in Managua on Friday to launch a subsidized housing project, Vice President Rosario Murillo said. Murillo did not give details of what would be built, but China in April last year committed US$60 million to finance subsidized housing. “Comrade Luo Zhaohui ... is visiting us and will be here to inaugurate on Sunday ... the National Program of New Victories Housing, which we are implementing with the support of the [Chinese] government and people,” said Murillo, wife of President Daniel Ortega. Managua and Beijing established diplomatic ties in 2021 after the Ortega administration severed ties with Taiwan.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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