AFGHANISTAN
Governor killed in attack
Badakhshan Acting Provincial Governor Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi was yesterday killed by a suicide bomber, officials said, months after the region’s police chief was killed in a similar attack claimed by the Islamic State group. Security has improved dramatically since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government and ending their two-decade insurgency, but the Islamic State group remains a threat. The bomber drove a car filled with explosives into the vehicle carrying Ahmadi in the provincial capital, Faizabad. “The target of this attack was the vehicle carrying Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi,” said Muazuddin Ahmadi, the head of culture and information in the province. The driver was also killed and six others wounded in the attack, which has so far not been claimed by anyone.
AUSTRALIA
Hanoi pardons Australians
Two Australians sentenced to death in Vietnam have been granted clemency thanks to improving diplomatic relations, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday, after an official visit to the Southeast Asian country. “We make representations on behalf of Australian citizens. And we are very pleased that Vietnam has agreed to the request, and we thank them for it,” Albanese told ABC television. He said he would not reveal the names of the people who were granted clemency as they had requested privacy. Their families have been informed about the decision. Albanese had traveled to Vietnam over the weekend, where he met his counterpart, Pham Minh Chinh, and said the visit provided “an impetus for this outcome.”
VANUATU
Security deal under review
The government yesterday said that a security treaty with Australia would be put to parliament before the end of this year, as concerns over China in the region saw neighboring Papua New Guinea delay signing another such treaty. Prime Ishmael Kalsakau said, during a visit by Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles, that a security treaty signed with Australia in December last year is still being examined. Some Vanuatu politicians who favor ties with China have expressed concern over the deal. The National Security Council was “going through the text” and it will next be considered by his government’s Council of Ministers, Kalsakau said in the capital, Port Vila. “It will be presented for ratification before the end of this year in Parliament,” he said.
CHINA
Tuition rises up to 54%
Chinese universities are drastically increasing tuition fees this year, with some making their first increases in two decades, hurt by a reduced national budget for tertiary education and tight local government finances. The higher fees come amid a financial crunch among local governments after three years of disruptive COVID-19 policies, a property crisis and a sluggish economy. Chinese universities, almost all public, rely heavily on state funding. Shanghai-based East China University of Science and Technology raised tuition fees by 54 percent to 7,700 yuan (US$1,082) annually for some first-year students majoring in science, engineering and physical education, and by 30 percent in the liberal arts, statements issued on Sunday said. Sichuan and Jilin provinces also raised tuition for different majors, with the maximum increase as much as 41 percent in Sichuan, local government statements said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home