AFGHANISTAN
Explosion kills three
The Islamic State group yesterday claimed responsibility for a blast on Tuesday that targeted a vehicle in eastern Kabul, killing at least three people. Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran yesterday said that three people were killed and four wounded by a bomb hidden in a cart near a minivan in the east of the capital. Police had detained a suspect who had confessed his involvement, Zadran said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on its Telegram channel, saying it had “detonated an explosive device on a vehicle transporting employees of the Pul-e-Charki prison,” killing nearly 10 people.
GERMANY
Rail strike begins
Commuters faced train cancelations across the country from yesterday as a three-day nationwide rail strike adds to travel chaos in Europe’s largest economy, where ongoing farmers’ protests have also snarled road traffic. The GDL train drivers’ union began its main strike in the early hours of yesterday, following one by cargo train drivers who walked out on Tuesday evening. The strikes are to continue until tomorrow evening, forcing national rail operator Deutsche Bahn to run only stripped-back emergency timetables. The company said the strike action would affect the travel plans of millions and encouraged people to cancel or postpone travel that is not essential. The long-running row over pay and working hours has flared up again following a truce over Christmas, with the GDL seeking a 35-hour week on current wages. Deutsche Bahn has offered flexibility on working hours, but refused to reduce them without a pay cut.
SLOVENIA
Five cavers rescued
Rescue personnel on Monday successfully extracted five people who had been trapped in a cave for more than two days because of high water levels. “It is a day of happiness, it’s a day of life,” said Sandi Curk with the Slovenian civil protection service after water levels receded inside the Krizna Jama cave, making the rescue possible. Those rescued are in good spirits, said Igor Benko, head of the Speleological Association of Slovenia. None needed medical help and all have taken the ordeal well, a doctor said. “I think we were lucky it all ended like this,” the doctor said. The family of three adults and their two guides, all from Slovenia, did not attend the news conference. They got stuck in the cave on Saturday because of heavy rainfall. The 8km cave system with a string of emerald-colored underground lakes is accessible only by boat and raft and with a guide. The five were in a dry area about 2km inside the cave. A team of six divers carried out the hours-long rescue operation, bringing them out in a small boat.
CHINA
Lunar mission advances
The National Space Administration yesterday said that its latest lunar explorer had arrived at the launch site in preparation for a mission to the moon in the first half of this year. State broadcaster China Central Television posted photographs on its Web site of the unit under wraps as it was unloaded from a large cargo airplane earlier this week and then transported by flatbed truck to the Wenchang launch site on Hainan Island. The agency said that pre-launch tests would be carried out on its Chang’e-6 probe. The mission’s goals include bringing back samples from the far side of the moon.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN