ZAMBIA
Trapped miner rescued
Rescue workers have pulled out the first survivor of a landslide on Friday last week that inundated an open-pit copper mine and trapped at least 25 people who were working there without a permit, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit said yesterday. The rescue team also retrieved one body, which had yet to be identified, it said in a statement posted on Facebook. “A 49-year-old man has been rescued from the collapsed mine slug dump site in Chingola after being trapped with several other miners,” it said, adding that he was being treated in a hospital. President Hakainde Hichilema on Tuesday said that he was still hopeful that the trapped miners were alive, as rescue efforts continued.
THAILAND
Officials fired over wealth
Four officials have been dismissed after authorities found more than 2 billion baht (US$57 million) in their bank accounts, with investigators calling the group “unusually wealthy.” While officials are often accused of accepting small bribes and payoffs, sums of this magnitude are rare. The money was discovered in multiple accounts held by three women and a man who work in the Revenue Department in Samut Prakhan province. The National Anti-Corruption Commission has referred the case to the attorney general’s office and requested that the Criminal Court for Corruption also investigate. The four were “unusually wealthy,” and their listed assets did not match their government incomes, commission assistant secretary-general and deputy spokesman Sornchai Chuwichian said in a statement on Monday. The man, Danai Damrongchaiyothin, had 1.1 billion baht in seven accounts, while one of the women held more than 500 million baht in five accounts.
NEPAL
Russian army scam busted
Police have detained 10 people they say charged unemployed youths huge amounts of money for travel visas, then sent them for illegal recruitment into the Russian army, an official said yesterday. Kathmandu asked Moscow this week not to recruit its citizens into the Russian army, and to send any Nepalese soldier in its armed forces back to the Himalayan nation after six of its citizens serving in Russia’s military were killed. Kathmandu District Police Chief Bhupendra Khatri said that 10 people were in police custody after being detained over the past few days following tip-offs. Khatri said the detainees illegally charged each person up to US$9,000 and sent them to Russia on tourist visas, mainly through the United Arab Emirates. They were then recruited into the Russian army. “It is a case of human smuggling ... organized crime,” he said.
PERU
Fujimori to be released
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ordered the release of former president Alberto Fujimori, 85, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity committed on his watch. A court ruling ordered the “immediate” release under supervision of Fujimori, who was president from 1990 to 2000. The ruling reinstates an earlier pardon. Fujimori has been jailed since 2009 over massacres committed by army death squads in 1991 and 1992 in which 25 people, including a child, were killed in supposed anti-terrorist operations. In February, Fujimori was admitted to a hospital due to an irregular heartbeat. He has recurrent respiratory, neurological and hypertension problems and has had tongue cancer.
‘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
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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