PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Province asks for outside aid
Enga Governor Peter Ipatas yesterday called for help from foreign police forces, including neighboring Australia, after more than 50 people were killed in a clash in the highlands. “We are so close to Australia, our security is important to Australia,” he told parliament, calling for a deployment to Enga. “They can give us the manpower and the number of manpower we want, to finally get the culture of policing right.” The brutal killing of as many as 64 tribal fighters along a remote stretch of road in the nation’s highlands on Sunday has fueled fears that violence is spiraling out of control. Prime Minister James Marape has labeled the attack “domestic terrorism.” He is facing a vote of no confidence following deadly riots in major cities last month.
AUSTRALIA
Taekwondo coach kills family
A taekwondo instructor killed a seven-year-old student at his academy and the boy’s parents before going to a Sydney hospital with stab and slash wounds on his body, police said yesterday. Kwang Kyung Yoo, owner of the Lion’s Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy, is to be charged with three counts of murder, Homicide Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty said. The bodies were discovered on Tuesday after the instructor admitted himself to a hospital on Monday night with “stab wounds or slash wounds” to his chest, stomach and arms, Doherty said. Police allege that Yoo killed Min Cho, 41, and her son at his academy after a class on Monday before driving to their home, where he killed Cho’s husband and the boy’s father, Steven Cho, 39. All four were born in South Korea and the slain boy had been a regular taekwondo student. “We’re still establishing what other connections or ... what other relationships may have been or may not have been,” Doherty said.
SOUTH AFRICA
‘Death ship’ heads for Iraq
A “death ship” carrying thousands of cattle whose foul smell caused a stink in top tourist city Cape Town was on Tuesday to continue its voyage to Iraq, port officials said. The ship, en route from Brazil and carrying an estimated 19,000 cattle, docked in Cape Town on Sunday, bringing with it a nauseating odor that permeated the city center. A city councilor on Monday confirmed that the smell was from the Al Kuwait vessel, which was immediately boarded by inspectors from the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on Sunday evening. It dubbed the vessel a “Kuwaiti death ship” and attributed the smell to the awful conditions animals endured, having spent two-and-a-half weeks on board, with a buildup of feces and ammonia. “The feces that the cattle were standing is already basically up to the top of their hooves in some pens,” said Grace le Grange, a senior inspector who boarded the vessel. Several animals had to be euthanized due to injuries, she said.
TURKEY
Six arrested for spying
Authorities have detained six people suspected of spying on Uighurs in Turkey for China’s intelligence service, and another suspect was being sought by police, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday. Prosecutors in Istanbul identified seven people believed to be gathering information on notable individuals from the Uighur community and some associations tied to them in Turkey, Anadolu said, without providing further details. About 50,000 Uighurs are estimated to live in Turkey, the largest Uighur diaspora outside Central Asia.
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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