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.
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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