INDIA
Bus fire kills 25
At least 25 people were killed and eight injured after a bus caught fire overnight on an expressway yesterday, police said. The bus was traveling to Pune when it hit a pole and overturned after midnight, causing its diesel tank to catch fire, senior police officer Baburao Mahamuni said. “There were about 30-35 people in the bus. Twenty-five people have died and eight others are injured,” he said. Three children were among the dead, a police officer told reporters.
MOLDOVA
Man kills two at airport
A Tajikistan national who was denied entry at Chisinau International Airport grabbed a guard’s weapon and fatally shot two security officers on Friday, officials said. One traveler was also wounded. The man was being escorted by officials when he “took the gun of a border guard” and opened fire, authorities said. Special forces then intervened, subdued the suspect and handcuffed him, leaving him seriously injured. Tajik authorities said he was wanted in relation to the kidnapping of a local bank official.
NAMIBIA
Fur seal hunting begins
An annual sea hunt that started yesterday is expected to cull 86,000 brown fur seals despite a decrease in demand for pups and mounting opposition from conservationists. The seals are hunted for their prized fur for a once thriving global trade. Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Derek Klazen on Friday said that fewer pups had been harvested in the past few years due to a drop in demand. Previously sold to the fur trade in Europe, market demand has drastically decreased following a 2009 EU ban on seal imports. China is now the main market for the cull.
SINGAPORE
Suicides up 26%: report
Suicides rose nearly 26 percent last year to their highest level in more than two decades, reflecting the “unseen mental distress” in the city-state, Samaritans of Singapore said in an annual report. The suicide rates among young people aged 10 to 29 and elderly people aged 70 to 79 were particularly concerning, it said in a news release. A total of 476 people killed themselves last year, “the highest recorded suicide deaths since 2000,” up from 378 the year before, it said.
UNITED NATIONS
Peacekeepers to leave Mali
The UN Security Council on Friday voted unanimously to immediately end its peacekeeping mission in Mali as demanded by the country’s military junta, which has brought in mercenaries from Wagner Group to help fight an Islamic insurgency. Mali, which has grappled with the insurgency for more than a decade, has seen its relations with the international community become strained in part because the ruling junta brought in the Russian mercenaries. The French-drafted resolution required the mission yesterday to start the withdrawal of more than 15,000 personnel.
UNITED NATIONS
NASA reconnects with craft
Long time, no speak: NASA has re-established contact with the intrepid Ingenuity Mars helicopter after more than two months of radio silence, the space agency said on Friday. The mini rotorcraft, which hitched a ride to the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover in early 2021, has already survived well beyond its initial 30-day mission to prove the feasibility of its technology in five test flights. Data so far indicate that it is in good shape, NASA said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
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