BANGLADESH
Train crash kills at least 17
The bodies of at least 17 people were recovered from a train crash outside Dhaka that might have occurred after one of the trains disregarded a red signal, officials said yesterday. The rescue operation was halted early in the morning a day after rescuers and residents together extracted passengers from the wreckage, said fire official Mosharraf Hossain at Bhairab, in the central district of Kishoreganj. He said 26 others were injured. “Our fire service teams returned early Tuesday from the scene as there is no chance of having more bodies from the wreckage. The train service has also been restored,” he said by telephone. The crash occurred when two rear coaches of the Dhaka-bound Egarosindur Godhuli Express passenger train were hit by a cargo train heading to Chattogram, senior fire official Azizul Haque Rajon said on Monday.
SPAIN
Stolen jewelry seized
Police on Monday said that they had confiscated 11 pieces of ancient gold jewelry that were taken out of Ukraine illegally in 2016. A police statement said that five people — two Ukrainians, one of them an Orthodox Church priest, and three Spaniards — who were attempting to sell the pieces in Spain have been arrested in recent weeks. The jewelry was estimated to be worth 60 million euros (US$64 million) and dated from between the 8th and 4th centuries BC. Police said the items were part of Ukraine’s national heritage. They went missing after being put on display between 2009 and 2013 in a museum in Kyiv. The pieces are being studied by the National Archeological Museum and the Cultural Heritage Institute.
KOREAS
‘Defectors’ arrive in boat
A small wooden boat carrying a group of North Koreans has crossed into South Korean waters, Seoul’s military said yesterday, in what appeared to be a rare defection across the maritime border. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the boat and its crew were “presumed to have defected” from the North. The vessel was intercepted in waters off the eastern port city of Sokcho and those aboard brought to safety, it added. The boat was carrying four North Koreans who “expressed their intent to defect,” Yonhap News Agency reported, citing an unnamed government source. More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to the South over the decades since the 1950-1953 conflict to escape repression and poverty.
ICELAND
PM, women stage strike
Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir and women across the volcanic island nation yesterday went on strike to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence. Jakobsdottir said she would stay home as part of the “women’s day off,” and expected other women in her Cabinet would do the same. “We have not yet reached our goals of full gender equality and we are still tackling the gender-based wage gap, which is unacceptable in 2023,” she told news Web site mbl.is. “We are still tackling gender-based violence, which has been a priority for my government to tackle.” Organizers called on women and nonbinary people to refuse both paid and unpaid work, including household chores, during the one-day strike. Schools and the health system, which have female-dominated workforces, said they would be heavily affected by the walkout. National broadcaster RUV said it was reducing television and radio broadcasts for the day.
‘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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