RUSSIA
Allies worried about Navalny
Opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s location inside the prison system remains unknown and he again did not show up at a court hearing by video link, Kira Yarmysh, his spokesperson, said yesterday. His allies on Monday said that Navalny had been removed from the penal colony where he had been imprisoned since the middle of last year and that his current whereabouts were unknown. They had been preparing for his expected transfer to a “special regime” colony, the harshest grade in the nation’s prison system, after he was sentenced in August to an additional 19 years in prison on top of 11-and-a-half years he was already serving. The process of moving prisoners by rail across the nation’s vast territory can take weeks, with lawyers and family unable to obtain information about their location and well-being until they reach their destination. Yarmysh on Monday said that staff at the IK-6 facility in Melekhovo had told his lawyer waiting outside that Navalny was no longer among its inmates.
SOUTH AFRICA
Court rejects Zulu ruling
The Pretoria High Court has overturned President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to recognize Misuzulu kaZwelithini as the king of the 15 million-strong Zulu nation in what might spark a lengthy battle for the throne. It ordered Ramaphosa to launch an investigation into objections by some members of the Zulu royal house that the correct processes were not followed in selecting kaZwelithini as the rightful heir to the throne. KaZwelithini was chosen as the new king last year after the death of his father, King Goodwill Zwelithini. He was recognized by Ramaphosa as the new king and handed a recognition certificate, but some of his siblings said that he is not the rightful heir to the throne and that due processes were not followed in choosing him.
JAPAN
Oldest person dies at 116
The nation’s oldest person passed away yesterday at the age of 116, officials said, offering their condolences for Fusa Tatsumi who lived through two world wars and multiple pandemics. Born in 1907, Tatsumi raised three children with her husband, a farmer, in Osaka, broadcaster MBS reported. “Tatsumi died aged 116 at a care facility in Osaka on Tuesday,” an official in Osaka’s Kashiwara City said. Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura offered condolences on the social media site X, recalling a party he attended to celebrate Tatsumi’s longevity in September. “I still remember how healthy Ms Fusa Tatsumi was,” Yoshimura said. “I sincerely pray for her soul.” In footage aired by MBS and other local media outlets she was seen in a wheelchair, mostly sleeping, at her 116th birthday celebration in April.
JAPAN
Zoo probes squirrel deaths
The Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo has launched a probe after apparently massacring 31 of its 40 squirrels by mistake with treatments meant to kill parasites, officials said. Zookeepers on Monday last week injected the animals with anti-parasitic medicine as part of a sanitary precaution, while also spraying insecticide over their nest boxes. One of the squirrels died soon afterwards and more perished over subsequent days, with 31 fatalities recorded by Monday morning. “The possibility of drug-induced poisoning cannot be denied,” the zoo said in a statement on Monday. “We’re currently investigating the cause of their deaths and observing the conditions of surviving individuals,” it said, adding that a pathological examination of the corpses was under way. “We offer our deepest apologies,” it said.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS