JAPAN
Quake missing triples
The number of people unaccounted for after the New Year’s Day earthquake more than tripled yesterday to 323, while the death toll rose to 168, local authorities said. A heavy dumping of snow meanwhile complicated relief efforts a week after the magnitude 7.5 quake, with more than 2,000 people still cut off and many others lacking power or forced to take shelter in crowded emergency sites. A new list published by Ishikawa Prefecture showed the number of missing people soaring from 31 to 281 in Wajima, one of the worst-hit places where the quake flatted dozens of houses and a major fire devastated a large area. Meanwhile, Tokyo’s Haneda airport yesterday reopened the runway a week after a fatal collision between a Japan Airlines airliner and a coast guard aircraft.
BANGLADESH
Hasina re-elected
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has swept to power for a fourth consecutive term in Bangladesh, following an election on Sunday that was boycotted by opposition parties and roiled by violent protests and international scrutiny. Her Awami League party won 224 seats out of 299, local media reported, cementing a majority in parliament and extending her 15-year-long rule that has already made her one of the most defining and divisive leaders in the nation’s history. Official results from the Election Commission were expected later yesterday.
INDIA
Rape convicts re-jailed
The Supreme Court yesterday said that 11 men convicted of a gang rape that drew global outrage, but who were released early, must return to jail. Bilkis Bano and two of her children were the only survivors among a group of Muslims attacked by a Hindu mob in Gujarat in 2002 during one of the country’s worst religious riots. Bilkis was pregnant at the time and seven of the 14 people murdered were relatives, including her three-year-old daughter. The convicts were freed in August 2022 following a recommendation by a state government panel, but must now return to jail within two weeks, the court ruled. “To keep them out would not be in consonance of the rule of law,” it said, adding that “arguments with emotional appeal become hollow when placed in juxtaposition with the facts of the case.”
AUSTRALIA
Nazi salute banned
Laws banning the Nazi salute and the display or sale of symbols associated with terror groups came into effect yesterday as the government responds to a rise in anti-Semitic incidents amid the Israel-Gaza war. The law makes it an offense punishable by up to 12 months in prison to publicly perform the Nazi salute, or display the Nazi swastika or the double-sig rune associated with the Schutzstaffel paramilitary group.
ECUADOR
Top criminal disappears
The country’s “most-wanted prisoner,” the leader of the Los Choneros criminal group, disappeared from the jail where he was being held, authorities said on Sunday. National Police Commander General Cesar Zapata told a news conference that the armed forces had determined that one of the inmates in the Guayaquil prison was missing. While Zapata did not mention the inmate by name, the prosecutor’s office said it would investigate “the alleged escape” of Jose Adolfo Macias, the leader of Los Choneros. Macias, whose alias is “Fito,” was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for crimes including drug trafficking and murder.
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
‘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,”
‘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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