SUDAN
Thirty killed in airstrikes
At least 30 people were killed in airstrikes on a neighborhood in the south of the capital, Khartoum, yesterday, a local group said. “At about 7:15am, military aircraft bombarded the Qouro market area,” said the local resistance committee, one of the groups that used to organize pro-democracy protests and now provides assistance during the war. It initially said that 11 were killed, but later said revised that tally to 30. Meanwhile, Bashair Teaching Hospital issued an “urgent appeal” for all medical professionals in the area to come and help treat the “increasing number of injured people arriving.”
TURKEY
Cave-stuck researcher moved
An injured US explorer trapped more than 1,000m deep in a cave for eight days has been transported 300m toward the surface, rescuers said yesterday. Mark Dickey, 40, reported falling sick on Sept. 2 while exploring Morca Cave in the Taurus Mountains with an international team. Dickey fell ill at a depth of 1,120m and has been resting at a base camp 1,040m underground. He was moved by rescuers on a stretcher, beginning just before 3:30pm on Saturday over 10 hours. He is now at a depth of 700m and “has a horizontal, but narrow passage between him and the campsite,” where he can rest before continuing the journey up, the Turkish Caving Federation wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
POLAND
Vatican beatifies family
In an unprecedented move, the Vatican yesterday beatified a Polish family of nine — a married couple and their small children — who were executed by the Nazis during World War II for sheltering Jews. During a ceremonious Mass, papal envoy Cardinal Marcello Semeraro read out the Latin formula of the beatification of the Ulma family signed last month by Pope Francis. A contemporary painting representing Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma with their children was uncovered near the altar. It is the first time that an entire family has been beatified.
UNITED KINGDOM
Man arrested for spying
Police on Saturday said that they had arrested a man in his twenties for spying, with the Sunday Times reporting that he was a researcher in the parliament suspected of working for China. “Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service arrested two men on 13 March on suspicion of offences under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act, 1911,” the police said. “A man in his 30s was arrested at an address in Oxfordshire and a man in his 20s was arrested at an address in Edinburgh.” The Sunday Times said the suspect in his 20s had contacts with lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party while working as a parliamentary researcher. If proven, it would represent one of the most serious breaches of security involving a hostile state at the parliament.
UNITED STATES
Two Sept. 11 victims ID’d
Twenty-two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the remains of a man and a woman who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center have been identified through DNA analysis, authorities said ahead of the latest commemoration of the 2001 disaster. The identities of the two are being withheld at the request of their families. They bring to 1,649 the number of victims whose remains have been identified, of the total 2,753 who died when al-Qaeda operatives hijacked civilian airliners and crashed them into New York’s twin towers, the city’s mayor and Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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