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.
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
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
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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