HONG KONG
Dead babies found in bottles
A cleaning person found two dead baby boys in glass bottles in the living room of a vacated apartment, police said yesterday. A 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman, believed to be the parents, have been detained on suspicion of illegal disposal of bodies. The bottles were 30cm tall and the bodies had no obvious signs of injury, New Territories North Chief Inspector Au Yeung Tak (歐陽德) told reporters. He said an autopsy would be conducted to try to determine the age of the babies and whether they were dead at birth. The landlord sent the cleaning person to the apartment on Friday after the tenants moved out. Hong Kong broadcaster RTHK reported that the bodies were “soaked in liquid and kept in bottles.”
IRAN
Women arrested for dancing
Two young women were arrested in Tehran after the publication of a video in which they danced to celebrate the coming of the Persian New Year, local media reported yesterday. The clip of the two women near Tajrish square, a popular gathering spot for young people in the north of the capital, went viral on social media. “The Tehran prosecutor ordered the arrest of two women who broke social norms by dancing in Tajrish,” the Tasnim News Agency reported. The women were dressed up as Hadji Farouz, a red-clad folklore character whose dancing and songs announce the coming of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which is to begin on March 20.
UNITED STATES
Three die in helicopter crash
Two soldiers and a border agent died in a helicopter crash on Friday near the US-Mexico border, the military said. “A UH-72 Lakota helicopter assigned to the federal Southwest border support mission crashed ... while conducting aviation operations near Rio Grande City, Texas,” Joint Task Force North said in a statement. “Two soldiers and one US Border Patrol agent were killed,” it said, adding that a third soldier was injured. “The cause of the accident is under investigation.”
JAPAN
Boat delays space launch
The planned launch of what would have been the country’s first private spacecraft to take off from a commercial launchpad was called off yesterday due to a ship that entered a hazard area downrange. Space One Co, a start-up backed by Canon Inc, plans to try hold the launch on Wednesday or later, board of directors member Kozo Abe told a news conference near the coastal launch site in Wakayama Prefecture. Abe did not offer details on the ship. “It is very reassuring to me that the postponement was not due to a rocket malfunction,” Wakayama Governor Shuhei Kishimoto told reporters.
UNITED STATES
No proof of aliens: Pentagon
A Pentagon study released on Friday that examined reported sightings of UFOs over nearly the past century found no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence, a conclusion consistent with past government efforts to assess the accuracy of claims that have captivated public attention for decades. The study from the Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office analyzed government investigations since 1945 of reported sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena, more popularly known as UFOs. It found no evidence that any of them involved signs of alien life, or that the government and private companies had reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology and had conspired to hide it from the public.
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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