AUSTRALIA
Winds, fires hit Victoria
Powerful winds killed a man and brought widespread destruction across Victoria state, leaving 530,000 homes and businesses without power and fanning fires that razed homes, officials said yesterday. Winds of up to 157kph toppled six electricity transmission towers on Tuesday and caused one of the highest number of power outages the state had ever experienced, Emergency Management Commissioner Rick Nugent said. “The storms were the most destructive in years and years, and unfortunately from time to time this can occur,” Nugent told reporters, referring to the widespread power outages. A 50-year-old dairy farmer was killed by flying debris while driving a tractor near Mirboo North in southeast Victoria on Tuesday, Nugent said. Storms also brought lightning strikes that sparked several forest fires in the west of the state, damaging homes in the township of Pomonal. Nugent confirmed houses had been lost, but declined to provide an estimate of how many.
NORTH KOREA
Cruise missiles launched
Pyongyang yesterday fired multiple cruise missiles, Seoul’s military said, part of a string of weapons tests this year that have accompanied increasingly aggressive rhetoric from leader Kim Jong-un. “Our military detected several unknown cruise missiles over the waters northeast of Wonsan around 09:00 today and South Korea-US intelligence authorities are conducting a detailed analysis,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It added that the military was “strengthening surveillance and vigilance, and closely watching for any additional signs and activities from North Korea.” The cruise missile launches have prompted speculation from experts that it is testing the weapons before shipping them to Moscow for use in Ukraine.
PHILIPPINES
Balcony falls, killing one
A Catholic church balcony collapsed, killing an elderly woman and injuring 53 people during a packed mass in the Philippines on Ash Wednesday, when millions of Filipinos flock to services, local disaster officials said. One of the busiest dates on the church calendar, the day marks the beginning of Lent in Asia’s Catholic outpost. An 80-year-old woman expired from her chest injuries at a local hospital, said Gina Ayson, civil defense chief of San Jose del Monte, near Manila. The 30-year-old wooden gallery of the Saint Peter the Apostle church had been weakened by termites, she said. It gave way during mass, apparently due to the added weight, plunging churchgoers to the aisle on the ground floor below, Ayson said. The other victims sustained slight injuries, she said, adding about 400 people were attending mass at the time.
UNITED STATES
Man dies of Alaskapox
An elderly man has died from Alaskapox, the first known fatality from the recently discovered virus, Alaska state health officials said. The man, who lived in the remote Kenai Peninsula, was hospitalized in November last year and died late last month, according to a bulletin last week from Alaska public health officials. The man was undergoing cancer treatment and had a suppressed immune system, which may have contributed to the severity of his illness, it said. Alaskapox is related to smallpox, cowpox and mpox, health officials said. Only six other cases of the virus have been reported to Alaska health officials since the first one in 2015. All had mild cases and recovered without being hospitalized. Researchers say Alaskapox might be zoonotic, meaning it can jump from animals to humans.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
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