NEW ZEALAND
Man rescued from base
An Australian who fell ill at a remote antarctic base is returning home on an icebreaker following a daunting mission to rescue him, authorities said yesterday. The man was working at the Casey research station when he suffered from what authorities described as a developing medical condition that needed specialist assessment and care. The icebreaker RSV Nuyina left Australia last week and traveled south more than 3,000km, breaking through sea ice to reach a location 144km from the base, the Australian Antarctic Division said in a statement. From there, two helicopters on Sunday were deployed from the deck and arrived at the base after nearly an hour to rescue the man. The ship is now on the return voyage to Hobart. “Getting this expeditioner back to Tasmania for the specialist medical care required is our priority,” said Robb Clifton, the division’s acting general manager of operations and logistics. The man is expected to arrive in Australia next week.
FRANCE
Girls sent home over ‘abaya’
French schools sent dozens of girls home for refusing to remove their abaya on the first day of the school year, Minister of National Education and Youth Gabriel Attal told the BFM broadcaster yesterday. Defying a ban on the Muslim dress, nearly 300 girls showed up on Monday morning wearing an abaya, Attal said Most agreed to change out of the dress, but 67 refused and were sent home, he said. The government last month announced it was banning the abaya in schools, saying it broke the rules on secularism in education that have already seen Muslim headscarves banned on the grounds they constitute a display of religious affiliation. Attal said the girls refused entry were given a letter addressed to their families saying that “secularism is not a constraint, it is a liberty.”
SINGAPORE
Rapper jailed over criticism
A rapper who has accused authorities of racism was yesterday sentenced to six weeks in jail over his social media posts, including a video criticizing an actor in brownface and comments alleging unequal treatment of the city-state’s races. Subhas Nair, a musician of Indian descent, was earlier this year found guilty of attempting to promote ill will between different ethnic and religious groups. The government has sought to promote racial harmony among its diverse population of 5.6 million, but some still complain that the ethnic Chinese majority enjoy greater privileges. One of the charges related to a 2019 rap video that criticized an ad featuring a local Chinese actor who darkened his skin to portray an Indian. “Subhas has filed an appeal against both his guilty verdict, as well as his sentence,” his lawyer Suang Wijaya said, adding that Nair has been granted bail pending appeal.
CHINA
Two damaged Great Wall
Two people have been detained after using an excavator to dig a hole in the Great Wall, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Monday. Police in Shanxi Province followed tracks made by machinery used to dig a shortcut through a segment of the wall. The suspects said under questioning that they had used a digger to create a shortcut in the wall in a bid to reduce local travel time, state media said. The section of the Great Wall affected, situated about a six-hour drive west of Beijing, dates back to the Ming Dynasty. CCTV said the suspects had caused “irreversible damage” to the wall, which was described as a “relatively intact” section of significant research value.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
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