INDONESIA
Flood death toll reaches 21
The death toll from flash flooding and landslides on Sumatra has risen to 21, an official said yesterday, with six people still missing. Torrential rains on Thursday triggered the disaster in Pesisir Selatan Regency in West Sumatra province, with more than 75,000 people forced to evacuate. “As of Sunday, 21 people were found dead and six people remained missing,” said Fajar Sukma, an official from West Sumatra disaster mitigation agency. A village on a hillside in the Sutera subdistrict was struck hard, with about 200 families in the area left isolated after a landslide followed by flash flooding, Fajar said.
NIGERIA
More kids kidnapped
Gunmen on Saturday kidnapped 15 students from their Islamic seminary in northwestern Sokoto State, local sources said, days after the mass abduction of more than 280 schoolchildren in nearby Kaduna State. Seminary staff said the gunmen stormed Gidan Bakuso village in Gada District at about 1am on Saturday, rounding up the pupils as they slept outdoors. “The gunmen were passing by the school with a woman they kidnapped from another part of town and the pupils were awoken by her cries,” said Liman Abubakar, the head of the seminary. “The bandits seized 15 of the pupils, aged between eight and 14, and took them away along with the woman,” he added.
PAKISTAN
Zardari elected president
Lawmakers on Saturday elected Asif Ali Zardari as the country’s president for the second time. He is the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the father of former minister of foreign affairs Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Zardari secured 411 votes from national and provincial lawmakers. His opponent, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who is backed by the party of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, received 181 votes. The presidency is a largely ceremonial role that Zardari previously held from 2008 to 2013.
TANZANIA
Nine die from turtle meat
Eight children and an adult died after eating sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar Archipelago, while 78 other people were hospitalized, authorities said on Saturday. Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy in Zanzibar, even though it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning. The adult who died late on Friday was the mother of one of the children who succumbed earlier, Mkoani District Medical Officer Haji Bakari said. The turtle meat was consumed on Tuesday, he said. Laboratory tests had confirmed that all the victims had eaten sea turtle meat, he said.
INDONESIA
Pilots probed for napping
The Ministry of Transportation on Saturday said it would investigate local airline Batik Air after two of its pilots were found to have fallen asleep during a recent flight. A pilot and copilot were simultaneously asleep for approximately 28 minutes during a flight from South East Sulawesi to the capital, Jakarta, on Jan. 25, a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Committee said. The incident resulted in a series of navigation errors, but the Airbus A320’s 153 passengers and four flight attendants were unharmed during the two-hour-and-35-minute flight. A committee report said that the captain, who obtained permission to rest, awoke 28 minutes later to find that the copilot was asleep and the plane was not on the correct path.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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